Arrow – Fallout

By: Stacy Miller

Who survived the season finale explosion on the island of Lian Yu?  We’ll have to wait a little longer to find out as the season premiere begins five months after the explosion. In Star City, we see Oliver, Rene and Curtis (Stephen Amell, Rick Gonzalez and Echo Kellum) fighting in a warehouse where a criminal named Alex is threatening to unleashed a missile onto Star City.  Curtis is able to use his T-sphere to stop the missile. Alex (Dominic Bogart) comments that the look on Oliver’s face is though seeing the missile has brought back unpleasant memories.

Five months earlier on Lian Yu, William’s mother Samantha (Anna Hopkins) refuses to leave the island until she finds her son and she urges Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) to get to the boat.  Felicity falls as she runs, but John (David Ramsey) helps her up. It appears that he is caught in the middle of the explosion as the charges go off.  Oliver has William somewhere safe while he goes to look for his mother.  William asks Oliver whether what that bad man said was true, is Oliver his father? Oliver doesn’t have time to answer as he needs to find Samantha and the others.  Oliver runs into Slade Wilson (Manu Bennett), who updates him on the fate of Queen’s friends. When Wilson mentions Thea (Willa Holland), Oliver asks to be taken to his sister. He finds Thea unconscious.

Back in the present, we see Raisa (Kathleen Gati), the Queen family housekeeper, telling Oliver that William living with him is a big adjustment for the boy.  William doesn’t appear to have developed a close relationship with Oliver in the months they have been together as it’s obvious that William blames him for his mother’s death.

At the Arrow cave, Rene shows Oliver his police academy grades.  Felicity tells Oliver that they will need to take things slowly around his son because seeing them together may be awkward for William.  Dinah (Juliana Harkavy), who is now a SCPD (Star City Police Department) detective, interrogates missile guy Alex. He refuses to talk to her. Besides, he thought Detective Lance (Paul Blackthorne) would be there.  Dinah knows actually where Quentin is and leaves the SCPD.  She finds Lance drowning his sorrows at a bar.  Quentin feels guilty for what he’s done, which is killing Black Siren in order to save Dinah while they were on the island.

At Star City PD, Alex had more deadly tricks up his sleeve.  Despite being arrested, he managed to smuggle in a bomb which he detonates. The small explosion allows Black Siren (Katie Cassidy) and her mercenaries the opportunity to shoot and kill a few police officers. Rene wonders if the graduation should be canceled, but Oliver reminds that they don’t bend to terrorists.  Dinah shows Oliver video footage of SCPD bombing that shows Black Siren. How can she be alive when Dinah and Quentin told him that they found her buried beneath rubble on Lian Yu?  Dinah insists that Black Siren was dead; she doesn’t know how she could have turned up alive in Star City.  Later that night, Dinah has a deadly fight with Black Siren, which leaves Rene seriously injured.  Team Arrow wonder why Black Siren seems to be targeting the police. They get information on where she could be holding up and Dinah and John go to investigate. They learn that Black Siren is targeting the new site of the police academy graduation ceremony.

When Oliver goes home, Raisa tells him about that William has been having nightmares about the bad man (Adrian Chase) who killed his mother. Oliver goes to his son when William has another nightmare, but the boy would rather have Raisa.  Oliver asks William where he thinks the bad man is and the boy points to Oliver himself. Upset that his son seems to hate him, Oliver goes back to the Arrow Cave.  Felicity tells him that she has information on the places Black Siren is targeting in her attempt to stop the police academy graduation.  Nine cops being dead isn’t enough for her? No, Quentin says, “Because she didn’t get the one she wanted.”  Lance comes clean with what he’s been keeping secret these past five months as his guilt has been unbearable.  He tells Team Arrow that Black Siren wasn’t dead when he and Dinah found her in the rubble on Lian Yu.

We flashback to five months earlier where Black Siren emerges from the debris and grabs Dinah by the neck. She tells Black Canary that she (Dinah) will be unable to do her canary scream because she’ll be too dead.  It is then that Quentin shot (and thought he killed) his daughter’s doppelganger. “I told Quentin to say she was dead when we found her,” Dinah says, explaining that she told Quentin to lie to them that Black Siren was dead when they found her. Even though he knows that she’s not Laurel, Quentin still felt as though he killed his daughter. But for Dinah, the truth is that Quentin saved her life.  Lance realizes that Black Siren wants revenge against him and won’t stop until she kills him, so he tells Oliver that they need to dangle him in front of her at the police academy graduation.  Quentin intends to be bait so no more innocent people die.

Five months prior, Oliver found a badly injured Samantha on Lian Yu. Samantha tells Oliver that she couldn’t leave the island until she knew William was safe. “Promise me that you will be his father,” Samantha asks Oliver. Once he has made the promise, Samantha died.

Back in the present at the police academy graduation, Oliver praises the future police officers for risking their lives by running into danger.  After his speech, Queen talks with Quentin.  Lance tells Oliver that he doesn’t know about this parallel universe thing; all he knows is that when he looks at Black Siren all he sees is his baby girl and he tried to kill her, what kind of father doesn’t that make him? First, Oliver reminds Quentin that he was trying to save a friend. Second, Oliver tells Quentin that he’s a better father than Oliver hopes to be. He then tells Quentin how William blames him (Oliver) for the death of his mother. Their conversation is interrupted by Felicity, who speaks on the com device to John about Black Siren.  There is a loud explosion in the Arrow Cave; Black Siren and her mercenaries enter.  She hears Felicity asking John whether he’s okay. “Don’t worry Felicity, John’s fine.  He’s just catching up with an old friend,” Black Siren sneers. Her plan is revealed; the police academy graduation wasn’t her target – the Arrow Cave was! “Shouldn’t you be protecting the graduation?” Black Siren taunts John, who is able to escape.  She orders her mercenaries to find Diggle, reminding “I’m not paying you to keep him alive.”  John fights off Black Siren’s mercenaries and when it looks like he is cornered; Team Arrow come to his rescue. Black Siren is annoyed when she again sees Black Canary (Dinah). “You are such a bitch,” Black Siren says. “Takes one to know one,” is Dinah’s retort.  Black Siren makes her getaway, but then faces Quentin holding his weapon. She makes a snide comment about this feeling familiar. Quentin pleads with her not to make him do this (meaning, he doesn’t want to have to shoot her again). Black Siren tells Quentin that he shouldn’t feel guilty; if their positions were reversed, she’d kill him. As he can’t shoot her, Black Siren escapes.

Oliver goes to see Rene in the hospital. He is checking out and will be okay. Oliver tells Rene that he (Oliver) and the new D.A. arranged for Rene to have another hearing so he can get the chance to be a father to his daughter Zoe. Next, Oliver goes to visit Thea.  She has been in a coma these last five months. Oliver is surprised when Slade Wilson enters.  Wilson tells Oliver that he’s going to Calgary because the lead Oliver gave him panned out.  Slade tells Oliver that he (Queen) may have to choose between being the man everyone needs him to be or the father Oliver’s son needs him to be. Slade reminds that they are men who walk between two different worlds and can only do that for so long.

At the Arrow Cave, Curtis tells John and Dinah that Black Siren took one of his non-weaponized T-spheres.  The question is, what does she plan to do with it?

Oliver returns home and tells William that his mother wanted him (Oliver) to take care of him so that’s what he plans to do. Felicity calls Oliver and tells him to turn on the television. There is a news report on Channel 52 that shows a photo of Oliver in his Green Arrow costume…Green Arrow has been unmasked! “Oliver, what are we going to do?” Felicity asks.  “I don’t know,” Oliver answers.