Arrow: Shifting Allegiances
April 27, 2018 6:11 AM - Season 6, Episode 20 - Subscribe

 
I have so missed the Bratva Boys Chat Hour with Oliver and Anatoly. It's nice that it is back on the air.

On the other hand, I'm so, so tired of all of Team Arrow issuing apologies to the newbies. First it was Felicity apologizing to Curtis last episode, now it is John offering mea culpas to everybody but especially Rene. Speaking of disappointments, Rene is back. As bad as past episodes have been, at least we've been spared him and his hossing. I was really disappointed that they didn't show some character growth for him and allow him to grow up and retire from the vigilante business to be a good father, now that he's finally got his daughter back, but nope, they couldn't allow that to happen. They had to bring in a spunky kid to give him the don't back down pep talk. Damn.
posted by sardonyx at 3:35 PM on April 27, 2018


Also, I'm still not buying killer Black Siren's "I'm so afraid of the bad man" crap. As Quentin has said, she's way more powerful than he is, and could dispose of him without lifting a pinky. And it's not as if we haven't seen her horribly kill other people in the most brutal ways before, so this characterization doesn't make any sense, even if she is getting softer and becoming more like Quentin's Laurel.
posted by sardonyx at 3:56 PM on April 27, 2018


Perhaps I missed it but were they trying to say Diaz is a bad guy who doesn't play by the rules?
posted by plastic_animals at 6:07 AM on April 28, 2018 [1 favorite]


I just keep waiting for this season to end already. About the only bits I enjoyed were Slightly More Friendly Anatoly and Zoe being all "yeah, I figured it out and I'm cool with it."
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:12 PM on April 29, 2018


Rene never really had convincing characterization for the emotional stuff, because he's written as a poster boy for the macho bad-ass thug hero type, so while it was nice to see some emotions out of him struggling with PTSD, I still find it hard to care for the character. But he and his daughter do have a strange-but-working chemistry on screen, so I can buy it for now. Not that there's any room left in this show for more remote characters to get screen time, but I'd like to see his daughter around more, as a good parallel to Oliver and William.

I'm not sure which side of Black Siren to believe at this point, but yes, she is too powerful to be scared of Diaz. However, her fear of what he is capable of is apparent in his "life is unfair" bs that he pulled on that fight with Oliver. At least the show is consistent in his characterization. They're telegraphing a bit that Diaz' downfall will result from his ruthlessness toward his allies, and I'm interested to see who will end up killing him. I can see that being his end, or at least I hope it is, because keeping him around for future seasons as a possible come back after this chaos of a season feels lazy for the future.

Overall though I liked this episode. Everything feels like they're clicking into place, and I wasn't left disappointingly sighing "why...?" at the end of the episode like I've done so frequently this season.
posted by numaner at 1:08 PM on April 30, 2018


I've been very clear about my absolute dislike of Rene but I'll admit you're correct, numaner that there is a very palpable chemistry been Rene and his daughter. I have no idea how they accomplished that magic on this show with Rene as one of the pairing. I can only suspect that the young actress who plays the daughter is extremely talented.
posted by sardonyx at 2:06 PM on April 30, 2018


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