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Oliver connects the robbing of several armored cars to Diggle’s former commanding officer, Ted Gaynor, now a bodyguard at Blackhawk Squad Protection Group. Although Diggle presumes Gaynor is innocent, his name appears on the list and Oliver insists on investigating. Oliver breaks into Blackhawk and steals a flash drive. Felicity Smoak cracks it and says it contains detailed information on how to rob an armored vehicle.
During dinner with Tommy and Laurel, Malcolm reveals that Mrs. Merlyn was shot to death when Tommy was eight years old and that he would now like Tommy’s signature to shut down her free clinic. Malcolm asks Moira to stop a man trying to gentrify the Glades, but she won’t until Malcolm gives her proof that Walter is alive; he soon does.
In the process of swabbing the blood in the getaway car from the man the Hood killed while stopping a heist in progress, Paul Knox, another man with whom Diggle served but never liked, tells Diggle he has taken Carly hostage to force him into helping with the final score. Diggle hinders their efforts and paves the way for Carly to run, but it is the Hood who finishes them and shoots Gaynor, who was in charge the whole time.
At Thea’s 18th birthday party, she receives a car from Oliver and a drug called vertigo from her friends. After concluding that her mother is having an affair with Malcolm Merlyn, Thea crashes her car during a late night angry drive and is taken to the hospital, where she is arrested for driving under the influence of narcotics.
On the island, Oliver infiltrates Fyers’ camp and goes off in search of Yao Fei with Fyers and one other. At the cage where Yao Fei is supposedly being held, Oliver is knocked out, locked up, and shown that Yao Fei was not actually a prisoner.
Tropes applying to this Episode:
- 24-Hour Armor: With the exception of Fyers, the mercenaries wear balaclavas even off duty to hide their identities. Oliver finds this handy for Dressing as the Enemy.
- Accidental Truth: Thea is wrong that Moira is having an affair with Malcolm now, but it's revealed in Season 2 that Moira did cheat on Robert with him, explaining his overly-familiar body language with her.
- Bluff the Impostor: Subverted. During a flashback to his time on the island, Oliver, impersonating one of Fyer's soldiers, is subjected to this with Fyers asking what submarine he came in on, knowing that every soldier who comes to the island does so by airplane. Oliver spots the trap and doesn't fall for it, but Fyers was already aware of who he was anyway.
- Broken Pedestal: Moira would rather Thea hate her rather than know the truth about Robert, who was repeatedly cheating on her.
- Central Theme: The themes of trust and betrayal are explored with several characters.
- Diggle calls out Oliver for blindly trusting the List, while refusing to believe that his former mentor and CO is a criminal.
- Oliver talks of how he has lied to his loved ones to carry out his mission.
- Moira refuses to trust Malcolm, demanding proof that Walter is still alive.
- Thea calls her mother out for her supposed infidelity to Walter.
- Island!Oliver risks his life and freedom to rescue Yao Fei, only to find himself betrayed.
- Chekhov's Gun
- The introduction of the drug Vertigo for the next episode.
- The reveal that Malcolm's wife was murdered and that he vanished from Tommy's life for two years afterwards.
- Along with the inexplicable skills he's demonstrated, we get another hint that Oliver did not spend the entire five years marooned on Lian Yu when he mentions finding a message from his father explaining the List several years ago.
- The issue of whether Moira had an affair with Malcolm Merlyn becomes important in Season 2. Likewise Robert Queen having his own affairs will have consequences for Oliver as well.
- Cliffhanger: Thea is arrested for driving under the influence of narcotics, while in the Island flashback Oliver has been captured and Yao Fei has changed sides to work with Fyers.
- Didn't Think This Through: Knox and Gaynor give Diggle a grenade launcher as part of the heist, but never stopped to think of the possibility of him using it against them.
- Dressing as the Enemy: Oliver puts on the uniform and balaclava of the man he killed and tries to infiltrate the mercenary camp so he can rescue Yao Fei.
- Dramatic Unmask: After Oliver is captured and thrown into a tiger cage, the Chinese mercenary that Oliver encountered earlier removes his balaclava at Fyers' behest to reveal himself as Yao Fei.
- Drowning My Sorrows: Thea gets high on Vertigo after seeing her mother with Malcolm at her birthday party.
- Eyes Never Lie: Lampshaded by Fyers when he points out to Oliver that a balaclava can't hide his identity, either because Yao Fei recognised him or because Oliver didn't have the eyes of a hardened killer.
- Food as Bribe: Oliver offers Felicity a bottle of wine if she can crack the encryption on the Black Hawk flash drive. Given the looks she's giving him during their conversation, it's hardly necessary. It's implied she doesn't get it however, when the scavenger hunt Oliver claims is on the drive turns out to be the plans for the next armored car robbery.
- From Camouflage to Criminal: Oliver's first clue is when he notices the robbers taking down the armored car use the same swarming technique that Marines used to take down a Taliban vehicle.
- I Have Your Wife: Carly is kidnapped to force Diggle to cooperate.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: The Hood shoots a robber while doing a Slow Motion leap off the top of a truck.
- Improvised Armor: The Hood blocks a grenade with a trashcan lid.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Malcolm appears willing to reconcile with Tommy and meet his new girlfriend, only to ask him to sign papers to shut down the free medical clinic that his mother worked at. Tommy refuses and walks out on him.
- Let's You and Him Fight: The Hood goes to confront Gaynor about being on the List only to find Diggle holding him at gunpoint. Fortunately Diggle 'saving' Gaynor from the Hood gets him a job at Black Hawk, and after the mutual What the Hell, Hero? argument Oliver agrees to let Diggle investigate matters from the inside.
- Mythology Gag:
- Black Hawk Squad Protection Group is reference to the Blackhawks; Ted Gaynor is in reference to Lt. Theodore Gaynor, a short-term member of the team introduced in the 1980s series.
- Diggle refers to Oliver's hideout as "Arrow cave". The Green Arrow really did use a cave for his secret lair, one of several Batman influences.
- There's another reference to a comics creator, this time the Chaykin Art Gallery (after writer/artist Howard Chaykin).
- Not What It Looks Like: Thea thinks her mother is cheating on Walter, when she's actually meeting with Malcolm to get proof that her husband is still alive.
- Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: "I'm the one with the Grenade Launcher."
- Properly Paranoid: Oliver slips a bug into Diggle's coat. Diggle knows what he did but doesn't throw it away, which comes in handy when he's forced to go along with Gaynor's plan.
- Red Herring: Diggle is suspicious of Knox as the man responsible for the robberies, but he's just a goon for Gaynor.
- Title Drop: After Moira asks for proof that Walter's alive. "What's that saying? Trust, but verify."
- The Unreveal: Oliver talks of finding a message from his father a few years ago explaining the List. When Diggle demands to know how he could have done so when he was marooned on the island all that time, Oliver says he didn't find it on the island but refuses to explain further. It's not until Season 3's "The Return" that we get the full story.
- Victoria's Secret Compartment: Where Thea hides the Vertigo her friends give her.
- You Should Have Died Instead: Thea tells Moira that she should have died on the yacht instead of her father.
- You Wouldn't Shoot Me: Gaynor says this about Diggle and he's right. Unfortunately for him the Hood has no such qualms and puts an arrow through his chest.
