The Dragon Arrow 619 Review

        Arrow certainly  took a departure in this episode, but they forewarned  us in the opening title by  showing a dragon  instead of the typical arrowhead.  This, my readers, was a clue we would not see  much  of  the Green Arrow, or Oliver Queen. I have mixed feelings about this episode.  At first I found myself bored, but upon re-watching and rethinking, I found this episode to set  up the villain, and Earth two Laurel Lance, however, it  came too late in  the season to be effective for most of Arrow's viewers.

         Darkness embodies  the scenes  with Diaz and BS, even  when they  happen in the daytime.  Both  are dressed in  black, Laurel wears a black wig; all this symbolizes the darkness that resides in Diaz.  Ricardo Diaz, well acted by Kirk  Acevedo, is cool, calculated, with a bit of psychotic mixed  in.  This episode explored Diaz's  past in  an  orphanage  where  he was tormented by Jesse.  This abuse as a child built up fear in Diaz, as he explains to Laurel, "I named  the fear  the Dragon." Laurel then explains that the Metapocalypse,  who brought her to this earth, also had fear and it conquered him, but Diaz said, "I control the Dragon, it  does not control me."  You can physically see the Dragon  vying for control of Diaz when his veins  become prominent on his forehead.  It's a bit eerie.  

         This villain has many  similarities to Sebastian Blood from season 2. Both men were tormented. Both men  had fear. Blood wore a mask to overcome  his fear of  his father, Diaz calls  his  the Dragon.  Both men murder. However  they differ  on some points.  Blood  worked for Deathstroke, and  therefore  needed to find the  Green  Arrow for him to help destroy him.  Diaz works alone, he merely used Cayden  James.  As he said, "Cayden  James gave me the city.  The Quadrant give him an  empire."  So Diaz needs  the Arrow out of the way.  If he has to destroy  him to keep out of the way he will, but his purpose, unlike  Deathstroke was not to kill him.  Diaz, unlike the villains  of  the past, doesn't want Star City destroyed.  Blood didn't want Star City destroyed, he just wanted to rebuild it his way, even blind, twisted enough to think Oliver would help him.  Diaz wants Star City, under  his  thumb so he can rule his empire.  He is a formidable foe, but I think  the  writers waited too long to present a backstory for our villain.  It's episode 19, and we only  have 4 more episodes to go, so  why wait so long?  One possible reason is that we might only be half way through  this villain's story.  What if this carries over to season 7, say into the first 4 or 5 episodes?   I hope this is  not the case, but it seems strange that loose ends are not starting to be tied up.  We still have a fractured teams, Oliver has basically fired Overwatch: John  has walked  away, and Oliver's  on  his own.  Nothing seems to be coming to a head yet, and for me, this episode, though good, if it had come earlier, seems to only have muddied the story even further. What do you think?

The Quadrant: The Quadrant is a Crime Syndicate that apparently has been underground and is nation wide.  BS thought it was an urban legend. Apparently Diaz has been working towards this for the last five years. Will this play into Season Seven?

Just  as a point of reference this is how episode 19 looked in past seasons:

• Season 1  Unfinished  Business- Lance uncovers evidence that makes it look  like Tommy sold drugs at Verdant, which leads Tommy to quit and sends him on the trajectory for his death
• Season 2 The Man under the Hood- Lance discovers  that Arrow is important and Laurel discovers that her sister is the Black Canary and Oliver is the Arrow, and they find  Roy and Oliver admits he had a chance to save Slade and he chose to kill him.
• Season 3  Broken Arrow, Roy protects Oliver by saying he is the Green Arrow and Ray realizes that Felicity loves Oliver
• Season 4  Canary  Cry gives us Laurel's funeral, and at the end sets up the separation of Oliver and Felicity.
• Season 5: Dangerous Liaisons Felicity goes against Oliver and  releases Cayden James. She had asked him for help and he said, "no" It's sets up the Underneath episode that will bring a new understanding between Oliver and Felicity.  Felicity says, "You don't trust me."

For me the 19th episode always makes a major transition point for the end of the season.  This episode didn't appear on the surface to do that, unless...

They could be using this to set up Black Siren's redemption if they are going that way.  In each scene where Diaz uses torture on  Cartier's son, what does Black Siren do?  She winces and turns away.  They could be trying to show her humanity, by saying to us see she still has decency.  I'm not sure I buy that, but they could be laying the ground work for her to  turn  to Oliver in order to get Diaz.

I'm not sure the writers have played that well, if that's the case, but this is what I'm wondering they are doing.  What say you?

             Felicity and Curtis:  Curtis absolutely annoys me. I cringe when Felicity apologizes to him.  Remember when Curtis planted a bug in her food  to track her,  and I don't recall that he ever  asked her permission to do  that.  I keep  asking myself, couldn't Felicity run the Helix Foundation without Curtis?  I  guess she needs him, but still, I find him annoying.  Am I the only one?  The one good thing he did was get her to recognize openly that she's very worried about Oliver.

          Olicity: We had to wait until the last part of the episode to get our 3 minutes of Olicity, but it was well worth it.  Felicity runs in  worried about Oliver, because he had been there  when the fighting with Diaz and Cartier's men took place.  She runs home to their apartment, and frantically tries to locate him, and when he comes in she rushes to his arms; they  hugs and Oliver hugs her tightly lightly swaying back and forth as if to comfort her.  He came home safely.  Felicity feels if she' in the bunker she can help, and now she feels helpless.  Then Oliver tells her, "Felicity, you're not helpless anywhere, ever."  He tells her that he's not helpless either.  I'm not sure she believes that.  They kiss.  I loved the kiss minus one thing.  I know he hugged her tightly, but did you noticed that when they kissed, he didn't appear to put his arms around her?  I've noticed this before, have any of you?

My guess Oliver trys to keep a certain emotional distance for his own sake.

Final Thoughts:

• Is anyone  else ready for season six  to end, or is just me?
• Why do the writers keep  trying to have the villain take Oliver and torture him?  Doesn't it look like that's what's going to happen in the next episode?
• The next episode is called Shifting Allegiances, so what are thought on that?  I have a couple it could be that some of the team  come back to help Oliver.  Another thought is on the Black Siren, perhaps Lance finds out she's been working with Diaz, but she tells him that it's only get information so they can capture him.
•  It would have been a better episode if aired earlier in the season.
• Did Oliver ever know about the Quadrant?
• Oliver looked older and more tired. What did you think?

Looking ahead: Episode 622 written by Ben Sokolowski and Oscar Balderrama, has the title: Ties that Bind, has the synopsis  that the Diaz now goes  after Team  Arrow and their  loved  ones. Oliver struggles with Felicity putting herself in danger when she gets the chance to stop Diaz once and for all.  Mr. Sokolowski  gave us the the wonderful line, "I'm glue, baby." So I am hopeful that good things wait for us ahead.  Knowing this seems to put this episode in a little bit of perspective.