ARROW - Season 7.6

REVIEW:  ARROW - SEASON 7, EP. 6:  "Due Process"


To say that there wasn't A LOT to unpack for this episode of the Emerald Archer is an understatement.  There were a few balls being juggled in this installment, with more fun stuff on the way, no doubt.  We see the chess pieces move about as Diaz plans his destruction of Ollie, Felicity willing to risk it all to free him, Laurel doing her best...well....Laurel impression, Diggle trying to keep it all together, and be the voice of reason, Ollie himself trying to solve the riddle of Stanley's issue, while trying to survive prison, and William tracking down Felicity's clues...a rabbit hole with surprising results.

When we left off last episode, Diaz had Anatoly captive...not real keen on the fact that Anatoly betrayed him for Ollie.  Anatoly, who knows how to play both sides well enough, and knows when he feels his number is up, was ready to his death to happen....only Diaz wasn't done with him yet.  Using him to destroy Team Arrow and Ollie once and for all was where we kick things off.

We see Ollie has been moved up to Level One yet again, and reunited with Stanley (okay...am I the only one who gets the whole "Stan & Ollie" thing here?).  Apparently, there's been a changing of the prison guards since Ollie's trip down to Level Two.  Since the guards Block had working for him have been disposed, these guards aren't swayed....but that doesn't mean they're nicer.  Ollie gets a visitor:  Laurel.  She goes on to explain to him that she's going to try and get him out...taking pictures of him to show prison abuse.  Ollie isn't thrilled with her in ANY regard, and when he finds out Felicity's been working with her, he's even LESS thrilled.  He warns her to take a hike, and leave Felicity alone.  He makes sure to remind her that just because she looks like Laurel, and acts like Laurel...she'll NEVER be HIS Laurel.  And reading law books does NOT make her a lawyer.

We take a leap into the future, where Dinah & Zoe explain to Roy and William that Felicity is dead.  They look at the map of the city with a clue in it that William feels they need to follow.  Dinah explains to him that Felicity went underground, abandoned everybody, started calling herself The Calculator, and started running with the wrong crowd.  William isn't swayed, and they take the clue Felicity provided, and off they go to hunt down what it is.

Back in the present, Felicity & Laurel figure out where Diaz's next target is going to be---a weapons munitions warehouse.  As they go there to take him down, Rene shows up.  All three go inside to get the drop on Diaz, and it turns quickly into a battle.  Diaz has set a trap for Team Arrow, and just as Dinah and the cops arrive, so does Diggle and ARGUS.  They find out the bomb's about ready to go off and they bail, avoiding the explosion.  Back at ARGUS, Diggle is reading Felicity the riot act about using Laurel to get to Diaz, and interfering in ARGUS business.  Curtis brings up the fact that they all DO NOT communicate, thus this breakdown in trying to get Diaz---everyone has their own way of doing it.  The team agrees to work together, but they're not keen on Laurel being part of the plan.  Laurel takes the hint, and bails, but Felicity begs her to reconsider, and do what she can to help Ollie.

Back in Future Time, we see the group following the trail that Felicity had left.  Zoe and William apparently kept tabs on each other for awhile, but lost contact for some time.  Dinah and Roy talk, and she asked him why he came along with William, and Roy said he found something in Ollie's bow---The Sign of Four.  Not sure what THAT means, but it CAN'T be good going down the road in this era.  They come across Felicity's bunker, where, thanks to some fancy shooting by Roy, they knock out the security defense system.  What they discover, however....isn't good.  A virtual map showing Star City being destroyed.  The group wonders what exactly had Felicity gotten herself into.

Back to the present, The team, which had rescued Anatoly, planned to use him to get into a computer with a drive to extract info on what Diaz wanted weapons for.  Anatoly meets up with some old Russian "friends" of his, and manages to get the drive into the computer, and Felicity goes to work.  It's here, however, that Dig notices that there are several oncoming bodies looking to burst into this hideaway, and start shooting.  Felicity has Anatoly stall...eventually putting his life at extreme risk, to get the info.  Anatoly succeeds, only to be found out.  As he's about to be killed, Diggle bursts onto the scene, and starts laying bad guys to waste.  Dig, being an ARGUS agent, doesn't have to follow any moral protocall, so he's shooting the bad guys down, and they do managed to get the drive AND save Anatoly....barely.

In a little private chat, Diggle lectures Felicity about her actions, and the dark path she's going down in order to get Diaz.  She feels she's at the end of her rope, and will do what it takes...Diggle tells her to be the person she USED to be.

Back in prison, Stanley is taken away for the apparent murder of a prison guard.  He keeps insinuating he never saw the crime happen.  He says the murder weapon wasn't found, but that it was the weapon used by one of Block's men.  Ollie's on the search to clear Stanley's name.

Next, we see Laurel in court, pleading Ollie's case to the judge.  She presents evidence of guard abuse,and a picture of Ollie in his current situation.  While Dinah sneaks in to watch, we see the judge regard that there DOES need to be an investigation into Slabside, however, Laurel's request for Ollie's release is revoked.  Laurel isn't pleased, and she lays in wait later on for the judge to leave, so that she can blast her with a sonic cry, but Dinah stops her, and tells her that she showed growth in trying to do the right thing, and redeem herself...and not to blow it.

Anatoly and Felicity have a talk.  He sees the dark path she's going down, and says that he likes this new her.  That he understands what she's going through, and that he would've done the same thing.  He reminds her of the extreme measures Ollie took to get justice back then, and that Felicity reminds him of Ollie from back then.  He holds no grudge.  Later on, she's hacking away at the info Anatoly procured for her, and it turns out Diaz wants two missles that can be used to blow up the city...and they're small enough to be put into the gas lines.  

They get to the gas plant where the bombs are located, and once again, Diaz is juuuust a tiny step ahead of them.  They are armed and ready.  Felicity and Curtis are doing what they can to disarm them, but as they do, Silencer puts everything on mute, and the battle begins.  Diggle and Diaz go back and forth at it, as Rene and Dinah go toe to toe with the other Longbow hunters to try and give Felicity and Curtis time to disarm the bombs.  There's a backup detonator that Diaz can activate from his phone, and they have to stop that as well.  They managed to succeed, and suddenly, the new Green Arrow shows up with a team in tow, quelling the tide of the battle in the good guys' favor, and Diaz is stopped.  This new Team Arrow blinds everyone long enough to escape.

Back in prison, Ollie gets another visit from Laurel.  She shows him the results of her appeal for him, and says that they're going to investigate about the prison abuse.  Ollie thanks her, and says that will help some of the prisoners in here, but she flat out says that she did it for herself...to prove that she CAN come back from the darkness.  

As per her agreement with Anatoly for his help, Felicity manages to get him a passport to Corto Maltese, so that he can get off the grid---and stay there.  He is grateful.  He gives her a gun and tells her to "end it".

Back in Future Time, with the revelation revealed about Felicity's so-called "dark plan" to destroy Star City...William suggests they go down the rabbit hole to see what happened to her.  Dinah, Zoe, and Roy all asks if he's willing to take on what comes, he said he's willing.

Diggle and Felicity are still NOT on the same page, and that becomes more apparent when she shows up at the precinct, gun in tow, to take out Diaz.  He goads her into shooting, and while he spooks her, she's still ready to blow him away.  He says she's not ready to play in the big time.  Just as she cocks the gun, however, Laurel shows up,and stops her.  Laurel lets her know that this is NOT what Ollie wants.  That they'll continue to fight for him, and with the prison guards being investigated, it's only a matter of time before Ollie is free.  There is hope yet.  Especially, when she said that she made a deal...Diaz for Ollie.

We finally see Stanley released after Ollie had found the weapon hidden behind the tiles in the shower room.  Stanley's innocence is proven----but Ollie asks him HOW he knew who's weapon it was?  Ollie now suspects Stanley of lying to him.

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This episode was really good!  It moved A LOT more of the story along, we got more of the plotline moving from the Future Time, and we saw some of the characters grow in some ways...not grow for others.

Laurel's story took one of the main stages tonight, as we see her slowly working on her redemption.  It's been a long road, and she still trips at times, but she's making the effort.  She made a strong effort here, trying to do what she can to get Ollie free.  Though ,she's got A LONG way to go to prove she's a lawyer.  As Ollie said...she's only PRETENDING to be one...she isn't SCHOOLED like one, thus, it's understandable why the judge denied Ollie's release, but she DID help move the red tape along.  That's a win in her book.  Also, when she was denied, and she planned on showing the judge what for, leave it to Dinah to talk her down, and tell her that she made strides to be the hero that day.  Don't blow it.  What's amazing enough is that she apparently listened to Dinah's words, because she saved Felicity from herself tonight from killing Diaz.  

The team dynamic is still a mess, because no one wants to get on the same page.  Dinah's trying to abide by the law as a cop, Diggle and Curtis are doing the James Bond thing, and Felicity has gone rogue, with Rene and, occasionally, Laurel's help.  They all want the same thing, but are going about it in all different ways.  The team dynamic is there, but it's shattered, and there's no telling if it can EVER be fixed.

Felicity's descent into darkness has gotten more intense as the season has gone on thus far.  It's refreshing to see the lengths she'll go through to protect her family---even go so far as to become the very thing she hates in the process...something that apparently comes true years from now, when she claims her father's Calculator identity, and shuts herself off from the world.  It seemingly ends with her tragic death in the end.  I've been pondering how the future sequences on this show were going to fit into what's going on with what's happening NOW---and a friend of mine actually figured it out, I believe.  We've seen this new Green Arrow...and NOW his buddies, going all over Star City, saving lives and busting up crime.  All these clues that Felicity left----let's say, that she left them for William because she wanted him to PREVENT this future scenario from ever happening.  Now hear me out:  Suppose this new Green Arrow running around, and now his sidekicks, are infact WILLIAM and the gang back from the future to prevent that scenario from happening....and Felicity left clues from the PAST to prevent that harsh FUTURE.  Now I DO know it involves time travel....but think about it...who would be running around in THAT time period capable of time travel?  A certain young woman currently racing around the streets of Central City with her Dad...who, in said future scenario...is LOST?  This IS the Arrowverse, and since ALL things are connected...why not this?  I mean, think about it:  who the hell IS this new Arrow?  Never saw his face, do NOT know who his buddies are, and it makes sense.  I guess we'll see if my friend's theory pans out.  But I'm not going to think he...or any of us...will be far off if that's true in SOME aspect.  

Now...Diaz in jail.  Yeah...seems like it's too easy for him to get captured.  But PERHAPS...it's by design?  He goes into The Slab...Ollie's there, and he can finally get his final revenge.  I'm sure he can grease just enough palms behind the walls to help him in his master plan.  

As for Stanley...well...I said this weeks ago---he's not someone to be trusted.  I have ALWAYS felt he's been playing Ollie---and I think Ollie caught on tonight.  Stanley's slip up about how he knew about the knife was his dead giveaway.  I feel he maybe the Dragon running the show around there...and he's played Ollie like a violin.  Will be interesting to see where he fits into all of this, but I've no doubt he's probably a stooge of Diaz, or someone much bigger.  But hopefully, Ollie catches onto him sooner before it's too late.

All around, it was a great show with A LOT of heavy exposition, and plot devices to keep your brain working overtime for a week.  

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Until next week, fellow Archers:  keep your sights on the bullseye!