Arrow – All for Nothing

By: Stacy Miller

Dinah (Juliana Harkavy), Oliver (Stephen Amell) and Quentin (Paul Blackthorne) meet with Captain Hill (Tina Huang) at Star City’s waterfront as they feel that it is the most vulnerable spot for Cayden James (Michael Emerson) to launch his bomb. Agents from A.R.G.U.S. are in the water. But Cayden James anticipated their move and all the divers are electrocuted through their earpieces.

At the mayor’s office, Oliver wires the latest payoff to Cayden’s offshore account. The total is now at seventy million and at this rate, the city won’t have the funds to continue in order to keep James from making good on his threat. Thea (Willa Holland) asks Oliver whether he wants her to go ahead and get the emergency bomb shelters ready.  “We need a contingency. It won’t save everyone but it’s a start,” Oliver tells Thea. “Don’t worry okay, Cayden James isn’t the first guy to try to take our city hostage, we will figure something out,” Thea assures her big brother.

A news report asks the question that is on everyone in Star City’s minds: How long will the city last before it implodes?

Dinah meets with Vince (Johann Urb) who insists that he didn’t know what Cayden James was planning for the A.R.G.U.S drivers. Vince asks Dinah whether she believes him. She confirms this with a kiss.

Five years ago, Vince Sobel first met Dinah Drake, whose undercover name was Tina Boland. They were working on a case trying to catch a criminal named Sean Sonus (Steve Bacic).

Vince later meets with Cayden James and his associates. “I don’t like surprises and I don’t like the feeling that I can’t trust my comrades,” Cayden James says, suspicious how Oliver Queen got information about their operation that he was able to give to A.R.G.U.S and that one of their operatives was killed. Cayden tells Vince that if he (Cayden) didn’t trust him, he’d already be dead.

With everything that is going on in Star City, it looks like Oliver and Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) aren’t getting a honeymoon. Later when John (David Ramsey) and Oliver discover the location of one of Cayden James’ hideouts, they suit up but find Vince instead. Sobel is seconds away from Oliver shooting him with one of his arrows, when Rene (Rick Gonzalez) and Curtis (Echo Kellum) run up.  They tell John and Oliver that Vince is there for a meeting with them and is working undercover to stop Cayden James. Oliver asks the other Team Arrow how they know that they can trust Vince. Team Arrow explains that Vince is working on locating the thermobaric bomb; once they take that out of the picture, they take away Cayden James’ leverage.  Felicity suggests they used the same stiffer they used to get the information from Prometheus’ mother.  The only problem is the stiffer must be manually inserted in Cayden James’ server and the files downloaded. And if he gets caught, Vince is a dead man. Rene explains that Vince Sobel took out one of Cayden James’ men last week to save Rene’s life. Plus, he’s in love with Dinah adds Curtis.  Oliver asks to speak with Vincent alone.

Meanwhile, Thea is trying to get additional funds from government officials in order to hold of Cayden James from making good on his threats. Quentin tells Thea that Laurel (Katie Cassidy) has been following him; he believes that she is reaching out because they made a connection.

Oliver doesn’t believe that Vince isn’t playing them the way he wants them to believe that he is playing Cayden James; Vince has taken a shot at almost every member of Team Arrow, why should they trust him now? Vince knows that Oliver neither likes nor trusts him, but he will use him if it means saving the city. The entire Team Arrow has reunited temporary because Team A (John, Felicity and Oliver) have the tech and Team B (Rene, Curtis and Dinah) have the inside man, Vince. Dinah tells Vince to be careful and to abort if he gets a bad feeling.  Vince arrives in Cayden James’ server room and Felicity manages to gets the security code (Cayden James’ son’s birthday). But then Cayden James appears. “Mr. Sobel, we need to talk.” Cayden James reminds Vince that all his people have designated position, so he wonders what he’s doing there. Felicity uses a communications link and tells Vince to repeat exactly what she says. Vince manages to convince Cayden James that he is not just a gun for hire and knows about computer systems. Cayden comments that he under estimated him and could use a man with his skills in other capacities. Felicity urges Vince to keep Cayden talking while the stiffer downloads the information off the server. It works and Vince is able to grab the stiffer without Cayden seeing.

In the flashback, Dinah and Vince have grown closer while they work to bring Sean Sonus down.

Unfortunately, Cayden James wasn’t fooled by Vince’s act and Anatoly (David Nykl) tasers Sobel.

Alena (Kacey Rohl) arrives at the Arrow Cave to help go through the information recovered from Cayden James’ server.

Cayden tells Vince that he never brought that he was the vigilante willing to take down other vigilantes. “I’d be fool not to,” Cayden says. Vince assures that he has no love lost for Oliver Queen and would do nothing to help the mayor.  Cayden has Vince tortured.  But as a man who can’t be killed, Vince can with stand a lot of pain. He keeps insisting that Cayden James is wrong about him being a traitor.

Quentin shows Laurel photographs of his Laurel. He tells her that she was a hero and knows that she (Black Siren) has goodness in her too.  “This isn’t me,” Laurel/Black Siren shouts, letting out her canary scream.

When she overhears Vince’s cries of pain through his com link, Dinah demands that they go rescue him. She reminds that they got him into this and have to get him out. And if it were Lila or Felicity, there’d be no discussion. “He is my family,” Dinah says. Rene and Curtis decide to go with Dinah to save Vince, which leaves half the needed man power to find the bomb. Dinah knocks out all of Cayden James’ goons in an attempt to get to Vince while John and Oliver go after the bomb. Oliver comments that the place is too big…it’s no way they’ll have enough time to search it. Dinah gets to Vince and as she goes to untie him, one of the smaller explosive devices goes off. “Your ability to withstand extreme punishment is impressive, but we all have our limits,” Cayden James says, “Let’s see Mr. Sobel’s” Laurel hesitates briefly until Cayden James says “Don’t let me doubt your loyalty too Ms. Lance.” Laurel as Black Siren lets out her canary scream into Vince’s ear, killing him.

And in the past, Dinah and Vince’s covers are blown. As Sean Sonus is about to blow Vince’s brains out, the particle accelerator goes off and Vince got his powers.

Rene and Curtis are worried about Dinah because she has been sitting still without saying a word.  Will she ever be able to get over the death of the man she loved?

Team Arrow has undercover information off Cayden James’ server that James got video evidence that the death of Cayden’s son at the hands of the Green Arrow was doctored. Team Arrow realizes that Cayden James may have a traitor in his mist.  And that traitor is near him.

Thea tells Quentin that Laurel killed Vince.

Oliver comes to see Dinah, who blames him for allowing Vince to go off alone which got him killed. She realizes that Vince was right; the only way to stop the bad guys is with bullets. “I’m going to kill every last one of them…starting with Laurel,” Dinah vows.