Docket No 11-19-41-73 Arrow 621 Review

              What a turn-around from the  last two weeks!  The compelling story moved hearts  on so many different levels. I watched this episode twice.  Stephen Amell's acting in this episode was  Emmy  worthy, in my humble opinion.  So much happened where do  I begin?

      Oliver, Felicity, and  William: These  three are a family bound to one another in strong cords of love, unbreakable and strong.   I won't separate  the two people in this  review. I know that sometimes I do  this but they were one in this episode.  When the two of them enter the courtroom with cameras  flashing,  it  touched my heart seeing tiny Felicity trying to shield the Arrow.  He has always protected her and she has always protected him.  That scene of them walking into  court, symbolized for me the  devotion they have.   Felicity  wants so  badly  to protect Oliver and shield him from what he is  about to face.  She want to comfort him.

     Raisa brings William in, and he  goes to Mom.  I know he  hasn't called her Mom, and he may never be able to do that because of  his memory  of his mother.  That's totally understandable, but Felicity is  his mother now, and he wants to be with her.  Felicity reassures him that it will be fine. He's been through this before and of course her babbling a bit,  because that's who she is. She  takes his hand and they go to sit.  Having  William in the courtroom seems  important to me, because in the past Oliver would have wanted to shield him from this, but remember in the past, when Felicity told Oliver that William  was stronger than he thought?  Oliver listened. Felicity never liked being lied to as a child, and  she doesn't want to lie to William now.  Together Oliver and Felicity helped  William face the truth that his dad may go to prison.

   Jean Loring, Oliver's lawyer, asks Oliver if he is the Green Arrow, and when he admits he is, she wants Oliver to testify to that, and use  jury nullification as her strategy. Oliver won't  do that because as he says,  "It  puts a target on my wife's back  and on my son's  back."  He loves his  family more than life itself.  The important dialogue  in  this scene for me was when  he tells Jean that when he started this, he didn't plan  on doing  it for the rest of his life. He wanted to stop at some point so he could have a life.  Later, when he tells Felicity what Jean wanted to do, he tells Felicity that if  he goes to prison, he's arranged to have Felicity and William in an ARGUS safe house.  She doesn't want to even think about this. Oliver tells her, "I  can handle losing my freedom.  I can't handle losing you  and  William."  I am seeing foreshadowing  of  future events here, are you?

      Oliver tells Felicity she doesn't have to testify.  He's  worried  that she will perjure herself.  Oliver talks about their  vows, and Felicity says, "We  didn't exchange vows, remember, but exchange means back and forth. We fight for each other.We protect each other." "I'll take the chance if it keeps them from taking you  away from me and William."  Oliver trusts Felicity and will not stop her from testifying.  He backs her play, even though he thinks it's wrong. He knows what will go down, and he tells her she's doesn't have to testify, but he doesn't ask her not too.  To me this shows he backs her; he trusts her.

    When she's challenged by the prosecutor that she rushed into marriage just to protect Oliver, so she wouldn't have to testify, she says something  all  the viewers  have known  from the first time Felicity appeared on screen, "I've loved Oliver for six years, it didn't feel rushed to me."  When she was asked  about hacking she did perjure herself by saying no and also saying, "good luck proving that."  That scared me, because this is the second  time the writers have put this out there. Remember Cayden James said that Felicity's fingerprints were all over that thing she stopped at the beginning of the season.   Will this play into season seven?  Felicity has always been about truth.  She wants  truth  told to  her  and she tells the truth, but she knows Diaz has stacked the deck against her husband, her man, the one she loves more than her own life. So yes, she lied. We understand that. 

       When Christopher Chance, the Human Target, comes down from the ceiling as none other than Tommy Meryln dressed  as the Green Arrow.  Oliver knew Chance was coming but you can see by his facial expression that he wasn't prepared for Tommy, yet we know it had  to be Tommy for it to  work. I've said it before and will again  probably, but when an actor says more with his face than with words, we know that's great acting, and Stephen Amell  did  this  multiple times in this episode.  In this tense moment Felicity comes in with a pun about Chance, and Oliver said, "I don't do puns."  Ever serious Oliver, but we needed that little light moment that Felicity always brings.

      When he hugged Felicity, rocking her when Lance left them alone, his face spoke of all the pain of possibly losing the one he loves so much; the one he wants to have a rich  life with; the one he wants to have a family with.  That scene broke my heart.  I asked myself, and perhaps you  asked this too,"Can't they let Oliver have some  moments of  happiness?  Can't he ever find some peace?

Diggle: John knew he needed to help Oliver, even if he's upset with him, which still doesn't seem logical to me.  John rescues Christopher Chance the Human Target.  John still views Oliver as his brother, and this is important. I cheered when he went  after Diaz, and you could  see the total anger in his face.

       Rene:  Where you as surprised as I was that it was Rene's idea to have Chance become the judge while the jury was in deliberation?  Rene  had some good lines in this episode.  Rene admits that this is all because of him and he says, "I'm not screwing Oliver over again."  I think much of  Rene's struggle has been that he turned on the very man who helped  him so much.  In this episode the writers did something they should have done earlier on in my humble opinion, they showed us instead of telling us.  Rene planned to not turn on Oliver again, but in walked Zoe, his daughter, with Diaz's hands on her.  The warped  and mentally twisted Diaz had his hands on Zoe's shoulders, what could he do?  You could see the pain on Rene's face.  He looked towards Oliver. He looked toward Zoe.  The man clearly torn and then our hero, Oliver, said simply, "Rene".  In that one moment, in that one word, he told Rene to choose his daughter. This was powerful scene.  Rene worked with John  to get Chance out of the courtroom.  This was the Rene that I had truly come to like.  Oliver thinks of course that John brought Chance in, but when he finds out it is Rene, he goes to him, to thank him.  Rene apologizes for not thinking of Oliver's son, but Oliver forgives him and offers him a hand, and Rene takes it.  Oliver wishes that Rene had just come to him in the beginning and he was sorry that Rene didn't think he could do that.  This I understood too.  I can understand why he didn't, Oliver sometimes seems unapproachable, but I also know that Oliver would have told him to do  what Rene ultimately did.  I could understand both sides.

      Curtis and Dinah:  I've had it with Curtis, and in this episode he came off smug.  Why was he never subpoenaed?  I think Dinah asked that question and it was a good one.  I had more sympathy  for Dinah, for at least she helped Diggle when he went after Diaz.  I could understand why  she took the fifth.

Black Siren/Laurel Lance:  So, we find out that watching Diaz torching Federico, caused BS to turn on Diaz.  Couldn't she have stopped him with her cry?  But's its Lance that encouraged  her to be like his Laurel. I think we see here that Black Siren has been redeemed.  For me it wasn't believable.  Maybe it's because I just don't like the character, and the writers took too long to bring out anything about her that seemed redeemable.  So my guess is that since the media has spoiled it already that Lance will die,  this will affect Black Siren and turn her completely around, we will have Laurel Lance back.  She won't be able to stay in Star City, if Diaz and his troop are not gone, so I'm hoping she'll leave town with Sara.  How do you feel about this?

Final Thoughts:

• Raisa knows Oliver is the Green Arrow.  How long has she known?  From the beginning? I read one report that Lydia Cassamento, a member of the Quadrant might end up being Raisa's daughter. How would  you feel about that?
• Has anyone else wondered if Lydia Cassamento could be Raisa's daughter
• Oliver said several times he wanted at some point to stop being the Arrow and live his life. Will this be a part of season 7?
• The team rebuilding seems to be starting, what did you think?
• If Curtis is not a part of the team, I  won't be sorry
• When Rene and Oliver shook hands, I thought this is good, both men are heroes.  
• I think Felicity's lie under oath, will come back to haunt her and Oliver.Was this a  set up  for season 7?
• I thought the writing in this episode good, the characters acted logically, we could understand Rene finally, because they showed us his reaction instead to telling us; the characters minus Curtis were useful; they made the characters believable.
• Did you notice that during the trial Felicity had one hand on William and the other on the railing by Oliver?  She needed to touch  her family!
• Some purist comic book folks hope LL comes back as BC. I don't see this happening.  For those who may be interested. I wrote a blog post about Olicity.  If you search my blog for "Why Olicity Works" you should  be able to find it. 
• Can't wait for the Tie that Binds: keep my Olicity Safe, please, writers