Last week’s episode, “Streets of Fire,” saw Oliver and company frantically racing through Starling City to combat Slade’s army, while desperately waiting for a cure to the Mirakuru that had given super strength and invulnerability to their enemy. Things pick up right where they left off this week, jumping right into the action and hardly letting up until the final ten minutes.
Roy has been cured of the Mirakuru, giving the rest of the team hope that they can effectively stop the rest of Slade’s army. One quick fight and a missle from a helicopter takes our heroes from the clock tower to the foundry, where they regroup and formulate a plan. Oliver tasks Diggle and Lyla with confronting Amanda Waller, while Roy is finally given a domino mask and officially welcomed into the team.
Before long, the League of Assassins shows up, at the request of Sara. She’s offered to rejoin the League in exchange for their help. Oliver is concerned about having the assassins at their side, and remains adamant about his “No Kill” rule.
The writers really did a good job of having Oliver step up to the plate this week, and become the leader that his team has needed him to be. Until now, he’s often refused their help or chastised them at every turn. Accepting their help and quickly taking charge of the situation was just one of the many ways Oliver proved himself as a hero here.
Team Arrow and the League attempt to take down Slade and his men at Queen Consolidated, and though they manage to cure a few goons, they fail to hit Slade with their special cure arrows. Obviously Slade isn’t going down without a fight, and isn’t someone that you can just shoot with an arrow from afar. The fact that Oliver recognizes this, and quickly adapts his strategy, is another step towards his own personal and heroic growth.
A series of action scenes carry us from place to place in this episode, reuniting us with the show’s various characters who are all struggling to survive the attacks. Oliver and his men run into Detective Lance and Laruel at the precinct, only to be separated again when Slade’s men attack. Laurel is knocked out by Nyssa in an attempt to keep her out of harms way; though this only leads to Laurel getting kidnapped by one of Slade’s goons.
Learning of her kidnapping, Oliver takes Felicity to the Queen mansion, revealing to her that Slade took the wrong woman. Oliver tells Felicity he loves her, then leaves to rejoin the fight.
Elsewhere, Diggle and Lyla free a few of the Suicide Squad members, who are still locked up at the A.R.G.U.S. facility. They confront Amanda Waller, and demand that she call of the impending drone strike that threatens to wipe out the entire city. This drone idea is perhaps the weakest link of the episode, and the most superfluous. Why on Earth Amanda believes that taking out the city instead of targeting the Mirakuru soldiers is beyond me, and only serves as an attempt by the writers to raise the stakes. With several shots of the entire city on fire, and super-powered men on a rampage in the streets, I’d say the stakes are already high enough.
