ARROW - Season 7.11

REVIEW:  ARROW – SEASON 7, EP. 11:  “Past Sins”

Things get more interesting in the life of the Emerald Archer and those around him, as he now deals with the fact that his half-sister is the new Arrow, and she isn’t the real family type…considering she’s looking for revenge for her Mother, and feels that their Father AND Oliver have ruined so many things.  We also see what Curtis thinks as he finds out that Diggle and Lyla are starting up the Ghost Initiative (that’s “Suicide Squad” for all you newbies out there…CW, because of Warner Bros., and their stupidity, won’t let them be CALLED that), with Diaz. 

We start off this edition with a TV talk show that Ollie and Laurel are talking about their lives behind the mask.  Laurel says she wanted to honor her “father”.  The host of the show talks to Ollie about his father, and his father’s legacy.  We see his conversation with Emiko, as he tries to reach out to her, but she wants nothing to do with him.  She says she has no family.  Ollie promises the public to earn their trust through transparency, and that he’ll be hiding in the shadows no more.  Felicity tries to assure Ollie that Emiko will come around.  Ollie hopes so.

We switch to ARGUS, where Diggle and Lyla are recruiting for their Ghost Initiative.  They interview 3 villains:  China White, Kane Wolfman, and Carrie Cutter.  Just as Dig and Lyla are interviewing Cutter, Curtis walks in, clearly upset at what they’re doing.  They talk to him about needing them to stop Dante, which Curtis realizes that there WAS a hidden meaning behind the painting.  Curtis is NOT on board with this…especially when he finds out that Diaz is also a part of the team.  He asks if Ollie and Felicity know, and Dig says no, and it needs to stay that way.  He basically tells Curtis that this is happening, and it’s not a request for him to do his job…but an order.

Felicity and Laurel are in a bar having a drink, and talking about Laurel’s turn for the better.  A news segment comes on talking about her and her job thus far as DA.  She’s apparently popular with the public.  She seems pleased with the story, but there’s a guy in the bar who spots Laurel and says he knows who she REALLY is.  He tries to accost her in the bar, but he’s removed.  Laurel recognizes him as someone from Earth 2 whom she attacked.  She’s shaken up by his appearance.  The show host ends up getting kidnapped when a mysterious man knocks the lights out outside near his car.

Curtis is running the algorithim to ensure the bombs in the heads of the new “Ghost Initiative” don’t get blown off.  Curtis is really not happy about it.  Diggle explains that he doesn’t like it as well.

Laurel shows up at Ollie’s, and asks Felicity to look up the man who accosted her from Earth 2.  His name is Brett Collins.  Laurel wants this on the downlow and she doesn’t say anything else.

Ollie, Dinah, and one of the other officers are looking for the kidnapped show host.  They get a video from the kidnapper, where the show host has been forced to say things about Ollie from unredacted sessions from Dr. Parker that are unfavorable.  Ollie, Dinah, and one of the other cops managed to find the show host in a warehouse.  They get there, and the mystery kidnapper reveals that if they come any closer, the show host dies.  Ollie manages to rescue him, but not before the kidnapper gets away, saying that everyone NOT named Queen is human too.

Ollie and Felicity are talking about the events at the warehouse, and they talk about the redacted sessions from Dr. Parker.  Felicity and Ollie realize that the kidnapper has the original sessions.  So they do a search, and figure out that the man in the boat who was shot by Ollie’s dad way back in Season 1, man named Hackett, had a son, Sam, who’s wanted to know about his Dad.  He’s seeking revenge and closure.  They go to work trying to find him.  They come across his apartment, and find out all the info he got on Ollie.  But Dinah also finds a weapon Hackett has been working on.

Laurel meets up with Collins in an alleyway, and he says that she is no hero, and she needs to be taken down.  He goes to attack her, but Laurel fights back, and is about ready to kill him, but Felicity stops her.  They walk away before Laurel can do any damage to Collins.

While at ARGUS, Curtis is working with the new Suicide Squad (hell yeah, I’m calling them that!) team, and says he’s got to turn the bombs off to set everything right, and Diaz says that it’s a bad idea for Curtis to do that.  Curtis has drugged the other members, but drugging Diaz fails, and he takes down Curtis, frees the other other convicts, and they battle ARGUS agents to escape.  Diaz is about to make his escape in a vehicle, when Curtis catches him, they battle, and Diaz snaps his neck.  He takes off and gets ahold of Dante, letting him know that ARGUS will be after him.  Suddenly, everything goes digital, and Diaz wakes up back at ARGUS, wondering what happened.  Turns out, Curtis had him in a simulation while he made the bomb adjustments.  And Curtis reminds him that he gave them all the info they needed about Dante.  He thanks Diaz for his cooperation.

Laurel and Felicity talk about why Laurel wants Collins dead.  Laurel admits that Collins was the man who killed her father when she was 13.  She talks about how it was her birthday, he forgot her cake, and went back out for it.  He was killed by Collins, a drunk driver.  But Laurel carries the guilt that it was HER that killed him…because she threw a tantrum, and wanted him to go out to get her cake.  Felicity tells her that if she had admitted that, she wouldn’t have had to gone to such extremes.  Felicity reminds her that it’s NOT her fault.

Ollie sees a news story that says 75% of the public wants him to quit.  Ollie says that Dinah would be good to fire him, spare her reputation and the departments.  They also continue to work on locating Hackett, whom they find out is an electrician.  They end up locating him outside the station.  He’s hacked the electrical system, and turned the entire building into a weapon, and feeding the power to his vest, that he uses to shock people. He invades the station, shocking everyone in the station unless he gets Oliver Queen.  Ollie tells Dinah to find the fuse box and shut it down, while he distracts Hackett.  Hackett gets to a few more cops, and says that anyone who doesn’t give him Oliver Queen will die.  Ollie finally confronts him, and apologizes and admits that his father killed Sam Hackett’s father.  Sam is happy that he admitted it, but feels the only way things can be set right is if someone shoots and kills Ollie.  Meanwhile, Dinah manages to find the fuse box, and take it out, and the backup systems come back on.  Just before that, one of the cops aims at Ollie, and Ollie says that if he does it, he won’t blame him.  The cop decides against shooting him.  Hackett decides that everyone must die then, and Ollie says that no one is dying tonight.  The lights kick on, and the power in Hackett’s vest goes off, thus taking away his power.  Ollie ends up taking him down, and repeats that no one has to die…not even Hackett.

Curtis and Diggle talk, and Diggle is impressed with Curtis’ program, and they got a TON of information from Diaz about Dante.  Curtis hopes that now they can shut down the Suicide Squad program, but Dig says they still need it.  He says that once Dante is taken down, they’ll kill the program.  But Curtis says that there will ALWAYS be another Dante…and another.  He says that he isn’t going to be taking orders directly anymore, and that he’ll be keeping an eye on them.

At the station, Dinah informs Laurel that Collins from Earth 1 was taken into custody.  He had a history of stalking and drunken in public arrests…and a serious anti-vigilante agenda.  Also turns out that Cisco had did some digging for Felicity, and it also turns out the Collins from Earth 2 died on his porch a few years ago.  Laurel feels a great weight off her shoulders, thanks them.  Felicity reminds her that it helps to have friends whom you can trust.

Ollie is on TV, setting the record straight about what happened on the raft when his father killed both Hackett’s father and himself.  The host asks why he wanted to come clean now, and Ollie says transparency isn’t about him hiding behind a mask, but letting the public know that he and his family are not perfect.  After the interview, he meets up with Felicity at the station.  They talk about the interview and how it went…hoping that public opinion will be better in time.  They then see Emiko there, and Ollie goes to talk to her.  She said she saw the interview, and felt it took a little courage to come clean.  Ollie says it was necessary.  She says she’ll always harbor a grudge against their father for abandoning her.  Ollie asks her if that means she’s ready to talk.  She says she’s ready to think.  Ollie will take that, as she walks off.

The episode ends as Dinah leaves the station, and gets in her car, clutching a note that was left on her desk.  We see someone stalking her….is it Collins?  Or someone else?

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Okay...this episode carried a bit of emotional weight to it, shed some light on Laurel's background, and we see just how far ARGUS will go to catch the bad guys...even if it means crossing every single line possible to do it.

Ollie is still dealing with the fallout of finding out about Emiko as his sister, and more lies his father kept from him.  But also dealing with the guilt of the fact that his father also shot his bodyguard so that Ollie could survive.  A bodyguard who had a son.  A son who had NO closure, and something Ollie had kept out of the public eye...but secrets have a way of coming back to haunt you.  And Ollie's haunted him tonight in the form of Sam Hackett.  Ollie had to come clean in order to live up to his word of transparency---even if it means painting his father---and himself and the Queen name---in a negative light.  But Ollie is strong enough to shoulder the burden...and we'll see how well this goes with the public moving forward.  Ollie still has a ways to go to earn the public's good graces again.

Laurel's story finally gets some further background, as a man named Collins was stalking her, calling her an evil person.  Turns out, the same man on Earth 2 where she came from had been a drunk driver and killed her Quentin Lance when she was 13.  She felt that because she had an argument with him and told him she hated him, as any typical teenager would do when they don't get their way, she feels the weight of THAT burden, even though she had NO control over whether or not Quentin would die at the hands of a drunk driver.  Earth 1's version just happened to be a creepy, vigilante hating drunk...but nonetheless, it was a weight and guilt that Laurel had carried for so long, and we see that was part of the fuel for her anger later on in life.  But the relief that at least the ONE version of Collins...the one that killed her Quentin Lance...had passed away.  Whether or not Laurel can let go, and continue to work on redeeming herself, it's a step in the right direction.  

Kudos to Felicity once again for being the voice of reason through all the craziness of the last couple of episodes.  Her calm demeanor and unrelenting support of her friends as well as Ollie has gotten them through these brief rough patches.  There will be many more, but she has been the calm in the storm.  It's good to see, instead of her freaking out, or panicking, or even arguing with Ollie.  It looks like their marriage is back on track.  

Curtis also gets some props for being a moral center in a place that seems to lack it---ARGUS.  A government agency that deals in shadowy places, and does very under the radar things.  Much how it mirrors real life, ARGUS goes about justice in very questionable and amoral means.  The Suicide Squad (yeah, I'm calling it that---considering they practically name dropped it a couple times this episode), Initiative is one of those highly questionable tactics they're using to capture an even MORE evil person--Dante.  Last week, Lyla accused Dig of being more like her predecessor, Amanda Waller, but yet, she goes right along with the program anyway.  Curtis doesn't like this tactic, and he will question it every step of the way.  And what happens when Ollie and Felicity find out that they're using Diaz as a means to an end?  We KNOW it will come out eventually, and Ollie's new mantra of transparency will play heavily in that scenario if and when it happens.  

And just who in the hell is the person stalking Dinah?  Someone's keeping tabs on people, and I guess next episode, we will find out.

Some action tonight, but more about moving the plot forward, and seeing just who in the hell this Dante is, as well as the identity of whomever it is stalking Dinah---and probably everyone else.  And it was good to see Ollie and Emiko continue to talk...that relationship is going to have A LOT of rougher roads to travel before ANY understanding will be met.  All in all, not a bad episode.  What did you think?

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Until next week....keep your sights on the bullseye!