Arrow – The Ties That Bind

By: Stacy Miller

At casa Queen, Oliver (Stephen Amell), Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) and William (Jack Moore) are doing breakfast for dinner by making eggs and bacon. When William leaves the room, Felicity comments how Oliver was almost put in prison and the man who tried to put him there is still out there and he’s busy scrambling eggs. Oliver says that after all they’ve been through he just wants to take a moment to enjoy life and being together.

Meanwhile, Dr. Schwartz (Venus Terzo) exams John (David Ramsey) and tells he and Lyla (Audrey Marie Anderson) that all signs that he ever had nerve damage are gone.  Dr. Schwartz asks John how he did it, but John says he can’t give away trade secrets. He and Lyla are having a date night after his appointment.

Also having a date night is Curtis (Echo Kellum) and Nick (Evan Roderick) which include Curtis giving his new boyfriend a tour of the Helix headquarters.

And Rene (Rick Gonzalez) and Zoe (Eliza Faria) are enjoying watching a game.

But the rare idyllic normalcy Team Arrow experiences is soon interrupted when Oliver receives a text from Anatoly (David Nykl) that reads GET OUT. Soon Ricardo Diaz’s (Kirk Acevedo) men burst through the window shooting a hail of bullets in Oliver’s apartment. Felicity and William take cover. Oliver fights off the men.  He sends texts to John, Curtis and Rene with the message 911 DIAZ IS COMING FOR US. John and Lyla fight Diaz’s men off at the hospital, Nick is wounded taking bullets for Curtis and Rene has Zoe hide under an overturned table while he exchange shots with gunmen.

In the aftermath, Raisa (Kathleen Gati) arrives at Oliver’s to pick up William.  Oliver tells his son that he’s arranged for William, Raisa and Felicia to go into A.R.G.U.S protective custody. But Felicity refuses to go into hiding. Oliver assures William that he loves being his dad and is not going to let Diaz take that always from him.

Dinah (Juliana Harkavy) uses the bouncing sound waves of his canary cry to throw Diaz’s men to the ground.

The newly reunited both Team Arrows converge at Helix headquarters and watch on the monitor as Ricardo Diaz orders his men to torch the Arrow Cave. “Equipment and hideouts can be replaced,” Oliver tells his team. Oliver asks everyone to put their differences and the past aside to get the job done which means putting a stop to Diaz once and for all.

Oliver later secretly meets with Anatoly and thanks him for the warning. They plot how they can draw Diaz out in the open. Meanwhile, Lydia Cassamento (Gina Ravera) is angry with Diaz for shooting up three places and tipping their hand. Diaz doesn’t like her non subtle hint that he can be replaced at The Quadrant.

Anatoly follows the plan and gets Diaz to go out in the open. Team Arrow intercepts Diaz on the road. Unfortunately, Curtis goes off half-cocked as he’s furious because Diaz’s snipers but his (Curtis) boyfriend Nick in the hospital. Curtis grabs Diaz, gets him on the ground and begins to punch him in the face. But Ricardo turns the tables on Curtis and returns the punches before pulling out a knife and stabbing him! Oliver comes to help his friend and Diaz beats an exit. Oliver has to retreat as well when SCPD along with Lydia Cassamento arrive.

Back at Helix headquarters, Dinah tells the team that Curtis is resting along with Nick but one inch either way, he would have bled out. Ricardo could have killed Curtis but chose to go after a piece of jewelry instead. Felicity tells the team that the jewelry contains an encrypted piece of tech.

At SCPD, Diaz announces “The next time I see Oliver Queen I want his head on a pike.” He tells a computer geek to find out what’s on the tech without looking at it adding that the life of the computer geek’s grandmother depends on it. He takes Anatoly into an office and closes the door to talk in private. Diaz grabs Anatoly by the neck and slams him against a wall. “They knew that I was moving!” Ricardo Diaz shouts. He accuses Anatoly of tipping off Oliver but the Russian gives him another candidate: Lydia Cassamento.  After all, she was the one who showed up with the police. Anatoly tells Diaz that Cassamento probably wanted to throw him (Diaz) under the bus so he’d appear weak.

Felicity assures Oliver that she’ll hack at a safe distance while Lyla infiltrates SCPD. Later in the car, Felicity praises how well John and Lyla work together in the field. “You’re asking for marital advice now?” Lyla says surprised. She tells Felicity that she (Lyla) and John always knew their jobs would be high risk so instead of obsessing and worrying about it, they decided to enjoy the moments they had to spend together.

Lydia goes inside the police station and tells one of Diaz’s dirty cops that she’s from A.R.G.U.S and she’s investigating Ricardo Diaz. Outside in the car, Felicity is copying the data on the tech. She calls to John and Oliver on her comp link and tells them that she thinks the encrypted files may contain the names of everyone on Diaz’s payroll. If Felicity is right, the information will help them take their city back. The computer geek alerts Diaz that the data is being copied from close proximity. That’s when the dirty cops tells Diaz that “some bitch from A.R.G.U.S” is there to look at his files. Diaz realizes what Lyla is doing so she’s compromised. “Director Michaels, I hear you’re interested in me,” Ricardo Diaz says as he comes out of the office and confronts Lyla. “Honey, you better get in here,” Lyla says to John in her communications link. Hearing gunshots, Felicity runs inside the SCPD to grab the data copying stifler as Lyla was interrupted before she could do it. While John and Lyla are exchanging gunfire and Oliver is fighting with arrows, Felicity makes her way to the data copying stifler. Diaz spots her and comes close to shooting her in the head as Felicity is running away, but Oliver shots the gun out of Ricardo’s hand.  Helping his wife to her feet, Oliver and Felicity rush out of the police station.

Back at Helix, Oliver asks to speak Felicity alone.  He reminds her that she promised not to take any risks but ended up taking a calculated risk by charging into a gunfire filled police station. “Do you realize how close Diaz came to shooting you in the back of the head?” Oliver scolds. Felicity reminds her husband that they are married now and supposed to be each other strength.

Curtis wakes up from his nap determined to help Felicity crack the encrypted code that will reveal the names on Diaz’s payroll. Dinah reminds her friend that he can’t let his emotions over Diaz hurting Nick cause him (Curtis) to take unnecessary risks. She remembers how he tried to talk her down when she did the same thing with Vince.

Lydia Cassamento can’t believe that Diaz thinks she tipped off the Green Arrow. When she accuses him of being out of control, Diaz stabs her in her neck. “I’m sorry I can’t hear you, you have something in your throat,” he says as Lydia falls to the floor, dead. He orders a lackey to clean that up.

John tells Oliver that he’s noticed the tension between Oliver and Felicity. Oliver explains how Felicity broke her promise not to go into the field; everything has changed now because of William so he needs to protect Felicity and keep her safe. John says that when he told Oliver that his focus was split, he didn’t mean for Oliver to block everyone that mattered out of his life. Felicity has always been there for him as Overwatch and continues to be there for him in the field.

Diaz arrives with his army and sets Helix headquarters on fire.  Felicity refuses to leave until the encryption is completed. Everyone else in Team Arrow leave the building.  Team Arrow make it safely outside, but Diaz confronts Oliver and Felicity in the stairwell. “I was just coming to kill, it looks like you met me half way. What’s worse, me killing you in front of her or me killing her in front of you?” But Oliver is able to set off the explosive device that Rene gave him.  The building explodes seconds after Oliver and Felicity make it out. But it looks like Ricardo Diaz didn’t survive.

Oliver apologizes to his wife and tells Felicity that he should have trusted that she had the ability to keep herself safe.

Like a very evil cat, Ricardo Diaz has nine lives and intends to use every one of them to make Oliver’s one life miserable. Otherwise, how can it be explained that he (Diaz) survived the explosion?

Oliver goes to see FBI Agent Samanda Watson (Sydelle Noel) and tells her that he’s going to need her help to take down Ricardo Diaz. “Are you asking as the former mayor or as someone else?” Agent Watson asks. She tells Oliver she’s going to need two things from him. “I’m going to need you to say the words.” “I am the Green Arrow,” Oliver admits and then asks “What’s the second thing?”