Arrow: The Dragon

April 21, 2018 9:29 PM - Season 6, Episode 19

Diaz picks a fight with with a powerful crime syndicate and drags Laurel along for back-up. Felicity and Curtis get back to work on Helix. Oliver continues to prove he's being a clueless idiot.
posted by sardonyx (6 comments total)

Okay, this episode which focuses mainly on Diaz and Laurel, and barely gives Oliver time to make an appearance, while strong and a big departure from what normally happens on this show, is too little too late. If we were to care about Diaz and take his threat as the big bad of the season seriously, this episode needed to have happened much, much earlier in the run. Yes, it helps now, but it still not enough. Fine, so he's a thoughtful, brutal thug who can plan his crimes. Okay, but it still doesn't sell me on the fact he's been so effective against Star City and Oliver. A big portion of what he is able to accomplish is because he's got Laurel as his secret weapon, so it forces me to ask, what if she weren't around? How would he have approached his negotiations with the Quadrant?

As for Felicity, she needs to DTMF now. Seriously, Oliver keeps thinking that just because he says he'll come home that somehow binds the universe to guarantee that fate. Sorry dude, it just doesn't work that way. Plus, after all Felicity has done for him over the years--to help him crack cases and keep him safe--he's perfectly okay with just dismissing her efforts and pooh-poohing her concerns. What a complete and total ass! I swear the writers have no idea what to do with adult characters in general and Oliver in particular if they thought this was the approach the show needed.

On the plus side, it seems that Katie Cassidy looks fabulous with dark hair. That wig was a great look for her, and most shockingly for a DCCW show, a pretty decent wig. That really should be her go-to style and colour.

She also did some of her strongest work in this episode. As an actress, she really must appreciate playing a stronger character.

We also learned that Bludhaven (yes, I know I've dropped the umlauts) is a three-hours' drive from Star City. I know it's never been confirmed that Star is on the west coast, but we've always sort of assumed that, right? Normally, Blud is considered a relatively short drive from Gotham, which has always been on the east coast. Now, I'm getting curious where they're setting the Titans show that's in production. San Francisco? New York? Jump City? Bludhaven?

Also, since they mentioned Bludhaven, I really have to ask why Diaz thinks the Quadrant would need Star (assuming they're so close together). Bludhaven has always been depicted as the most corrupt city in the DC Universe, or if not the worst, than in the running with Hub City (which has also been seen on this show). If the Quadrant has its fingers into Blud's corruption, Star really has nothing else to offer, not even geography unless, that is, Blud doesn't have port or water access. (Okay, I'm sorry for going off an a fictional universe geography tangent, and that apology extends double for MeFites who only follow the shows and not the comics. For those not familiar with the city, it was where Richard Grayson (ex-Robin) took up residence as Nightwing, and where he first became a cop, working to weed out corrupt police officers from the inside of the force.)

I don't want to come down too harshly on the episode, because in a lot of ways it was really strong, and as I said earlier, I do admire the risk taken to focus an episode on a villain we don't really know (or like) and to essentially cut Oliver out of the picture. I just wish we were given this earlier so the season had time to build on it. I also wish Oliver's behaviour made even a tiny amount of sense.
posted by sardonyx at 9:59 PM on April 21, 2018 [2 favorites]

Agreed that this was a good episode but should have appeared weeks earlier. It's really too late to start caring about Diaz. On the bright side at least they beat The Flash in fleshing out the villain.

Behind the scenes news: Guggenheim and Mericle are out as Arrow showrunners. Mericle is gone and Guggenheim, who is also leaving as co-showrunner of Legends of Tomorrow, will be an "executive consultant" to both shows.
posted by plastic_animals at 7:22 AM on April 22, 2018

I got confused by Laurel's wig and was wondering if maybe this episode was shot a few weeks earlier when she had different hair. It would have made so, so much more sense right after Caden James was offed, set Diaz up. He's interesting! It was a decent story (by Arrow standards)! Odd they held this so long.

Oliver really is the worst. Felicity needs a girl friend, someone to take her out for a spa day and get her to realize what a loser she's hanging out with. Diggle and Not-Team-Arrow are all free of Oliver, maybe Mr. Terrific can do an intervention and help Felicity escape too.
posted by Nelson at 3:28 PM on April 22, 2018

I don't pay enough attention to the show's credits to know if the newly promoted show runners have been involved in the better episodes or not. I just know that I wasn't impressed by Guggenheim's explanation for the current story line mess, so his departure gives me a bit of hope.

I think the wig was meant to be a disguise. At one point she told Diaz something to the effect of "It wouldn't do to have the world think/the world see Laurel Lance running around/working with a crook/gangster/thug."

Felicity definitely needs a friend. I think Sara Lance should swing by and give her the "I (barely) survived Oliver Queen, I know what a jackass he is, get out while the getting's good" speech. She can even bring along some of the Legends for moral support.
posted by sardonyx at 5:05 PM on April 22, 2018 [1 favorite]

I liked this episode, it was a good break from the current browbeat of disappointment, and gave us some very strong performances. I don't really care so much about the overall plot at this point so I'm just enjoying all the character stuff.
posted by numaner at 7:42 PM on April 22, 2018

nthing sardonyx. Man, I don't care.
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:55 AM on April 24, 2018