Arrow – Next of Kin

By: Stacy Miller

There’s a new Green Arrow in town and his name is John Diggle (David Ramsey). And as the episode opens, Team Arrow is in pursuit of bombing criminal Alex Faust (Dominic Bogart). They capture Faust. “Go Green Arrow, that sounds kind of weird,” Curtis (Echo Kellum) says.  John agrees it is, but they will all have to get used to it…Oliver is gone and he is now the Green Arrow. When Team Arrow returns to the Arrow Cave, John tells Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) that sooner or later someone will realize that the Green Arrow is not shooting any arrows. Felicity assures that she and Curtis will come up with a solution to that. Dinah (Juliana Harkavy) repeats this, but adds that it’s not about the arrows as she knows he’s not an archer. It’s more about his injury.  John assures that his tremors are gone.

William (Jack Clayton) tells Oliver that he has a math test and is worried that he’ll get a ‘C,’ but to former ‘D’ student Oliver a ‘C’ isn’t that bad. Not the best way to encourage your son to work hard and study Oliver!

At the mayor’s office, Oliver isn’t pleased to find that FBI Agent Samida Watson (Sydelle Noel) is waiting to meet with him. She tells him that only an idiot was fooled by the new guy in the green hood, especially since the Green Arrow’s “understudy” didn’t shoot any arrows. Agent Watson also thinks it looks poorly on the city if the mayor is consulting with vigilantes even if he (Oliver) is not the Green Arrow. She comments that she’s glad that she doesn’t work for him before she leaves the office.

There is a break in at Kord Industries. Dinah questions Officer Lopez (Alison Araya) who tells her that the people who committed the crime used one of the employee’s fingerprints to access the company servers. What do these criminals want?

Oliver goes to see Felicity, who is trying to figure out a name for hers and Curtis’ new company. Oliver thinks calling it “Bit by Bit” sounds like an old sitcom from the eighties.  He tells her how he wants to help William adjust, but it’s been hard.  Oliver misses having Thea (Willa Holland) around as she would have been great.  Felicity agrees that Thea would be a kick ass aunt if she weren’t in a coma. She’s not a substitute for Oliver’s sister, but Felicity offers her help with William.  Oliver tells Felicity that William has a math test coming up that he’s stressing over. Their conversation is interrupted by a phone call from Curtis who tells Felicity that Kord Industries manufactures nerve gas and whoever broke into Kord stole information regarding the transport of the gas. Team Arrow is assembled to intercept the delivery truck and keep it into getting into the wrong hands.  Unfortunately, the same woman who broke into Kord Industries also manages to defeat Team Arrow and make off with the truck. Rene (Rick Gonzalez) wants John to give the order, but John freezes. The truck explodes.

Back at the Arrow Cave, Rene is still angry that John messed things up by freezing.  John assures that this has never happened, not in the military or with this team.  Dinah reminds that when a mission fails, the best thing is to move on.  Felicity tells Team Arrow that they may have another opportunity. Facial recognition software identifies the woman as Onyx Adams (Chastity Dotson), a leader of a Black Ops that made off with a large sum of cash before disappearing in 2012.  Now, Onyx is back but what does she want with nerve gas?  John again apologizes.  “I said move on.  That means you too,” Dinah reminds.

At city hall, Quentin (Paul Blackthorne) tells Oliver that Agent Watson is planning to use what happened to introduce anti vigilante legislation.

John finds Dinah working out and tells her how much he appreciates her backing him.  Dinah tells John that she didn’t do it for him, she did it because the team needs a leader. John has never been in a position where he has to make the hard plays, he’s always been the member who took orders. Dinah says that John better get used to his new role and fast because their lives depend on it and he can’t afford to make mistakes.  Felicity does more research on Onyx and tells the team that the motive for the poison gas could be revenge.

Rene goes to see Oliver at home and tells him that John is in way over his head leading the team as Green Arrow.  They were lucky that no one died in that poison gas incident. “But luck runs out.  We need you to come back,” Rene tells Oliver.

Oliver comes to the Arrow Cave to ask Felicity to help tutor William in Math so his son will be prepared for his test. After Felicity leaves, Oliver has a talk with John.  Diggle tells Oliver that he made a mistake by asking him to take over as Green Arrow. Oliver thinks that he wasn’t fair to ask John to take over the Green Arrow mantle because John has a family like him (Oliver). John comments that he doesn’t know how Oliver made the hard calls without hesitation. Oliver says that he hesitated plenty of times.  But then he developed confidence in what he was doing and that is because of John.  Oliver reminds that Diggle is the reason the Green Arrow exists. John taught him to look past his father’s list of the people who failed the city to find the real criminals. Oliver adds that because of John, he (Oliver) and Green Arrow became a hero.  All it took was Oliver to believe in himself, and if John does the same, he’ll be an even better hero than Oliver ever was.

Felicity comes to Oliver’s and helps William get a better understanding for Math.  William asks his father whether it’s okay if Felicity helps him again. Oliver doesn’t have a problem with it as long as Felicity is okay with it.  Felicity doesn’t have a problem tutoring William.  And with Ms. Smoak as his tutor, it’s only a matter of time before William is pulling A’s in math.

Onyx motivates her team to complete their mission.  And from the way he performed in the field, there’s no way that Green Arrow will be a threat!

Team Arrow springs into action when Onyx drops the nerve gas bomb into the trash at a hotel. Green Arrow gives the order to his team to protect the people from the gas while he goes after Onyx and her target Rob Reynolds (Donald Sales).  John has gained his confidence as the Green Arrow and is able to stop Onyx. And all the civilians escape the explosion and the nerve gas at the hotel. All in all, a good day for Team Arrow.

Back at the Arrow Cave, Team Arrow celebrates their victory.  Rene admits to John that he went to Oliver about him (John). But Diggle isn’t surprised because he knows this team. John tells Rene that he’s not angry as he is actually he’s glad that Rene cared enough about him and the team to go over his head to make sure he (John) could handle his new role to keep everybody safe. Curtis and Felicity show John the new weapon they came up with to help him with his arrow shooting problem.  They call it “The Green Monster.” It is a crossbow that John can operate like an automatic weapon. John tries it out and is an expert shot.  It looks like John Diggle is back!

Oliver address the Parlimentarian (Tosca Baggoo) on the Anti Vigilante Bill.  He explains that the SCPD (Star City Police Department) can’t protect the city if they are spending all their time hunting vigilantes.  “So, that’s why I’m invoking Chapter Nine of the city charter,” Oliver says.  This means that the bill will be converted into a citywide referendum, which basically means that the entire city/the public will have to decide whether to use city resources for the police to stop vigilantes. Oliver’s maneuver gives Team Arrow a Stay of Execution so to speak.  FBI Agent Watson watches the announcement on the news and asks herself “Who are you protecting?” as she posts a photo of John Diggle on her board.  Does she suspect Diggle of being the new Green Arrow?

As the episode closes, Oliver comes to Felicity’s apartment and tells her that William got an “A” on his test. Oliver gives Felicity a gift: A key to his apartment. Oliver tells Felicity that after seeing her with William, he realized that “his life will be better with you in it, as will mine.” If that’s what Felicity wants.  If Oliver is sure, so is Felicity.

The final scene of the episode shows John meeting with a man on the street to get a chemical, which he shoots into his arm.  Is this how John is controlling his tremors?