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On the island, Yao Fei gives Oliver a short bow and arrow lesson, but when Oliver ventures into the woods to retrieve an arrow, he is captured. Edward Fyers, the leader of the group on the island, shows Oliver a picture of Yao Fei and asks if he knows him; Oliver denies it and Deathstroke tortures him. Yao Fei has a throwdown with Deathstroke and rescues Oliver, later leaving him blocked in his cave.
As Detective Lance questions Oliver, Moira and Walter interrupt and Oliver asks that Laurel represent him. At first, Laurel refuses, but she then struts into Oliver’s hearing to represent him against Kate Spencer. Oliver volunteers to take a polygraph and passes. To have witnesses of him being at home while Diggle is seen as Arrow tracking an arms dealer named Leo Mueller, Oliver throws a party. Laurel shows up to apologize and explain her father’s attitude. A hitman attacks Oliver at the party, but Detective Lance saves Oliver and drops all charges against him. Later on, Laurel gives Oliver the polygraph results, which she has suspicions about. Arrow takes down Mueller.
Walter secretly meets with the head of security and asks him to move the Queen’s Gambit. Soon after, Walter is informed that the head of security was killed in a mysterious car crash. He then summons Moira to his office to tell her that he found the yacht, and she urges him to stop digging because it is dangerous. Moira meets with the Well-Dressed Man, who sent the assassin after Oliver. Walter leaves for a “business trip” to Australia.
Tropes applying to this Episode:
- All According to Plan: Turns out Oliver knew the CCTV camera was there; he set the whole thing up because the coincidence of Oliver returning shortly before the Hood appeared would draw suspicion, so he had to discredit the idea early. Of course the plan wouldn't have worked if he didn't have someone to impersonate him, so Oliver was betting everything on his ability to convince Diggle to join his crusade before Diggle even knew he was the Hood.
- The Alibi: As well as wearing an ankle monitor, Oliver throws a party so he'll have plenty of witnesses to say he wasn't across town in a green hood beating up gangbangers.
- Arrow Catch: Yao Fei shoots an arrow to cut Oliver's bonds, then fires another arrow at the man in the Deathstroke mask, who catches it right in front of his eye, then contemptuously snaps the shaft in his hand.
- Artistic License – Law:
- Neither member of the Lance family should have anything to do with this case. Quentin has a personal vendetta against Oliver while Laurel is his ex-girlfriend. These issues are lampshaded and then brushed aside.
- When Laurel tells the judge that her client is willing to wear an ankle monitor, Oliver pretends to object but Laurel just talks over the top of him. The judge makes no comment on an attorney failing to act on her client's instructions.
- Oliver likely wouldn't have been released and had charges dropped just because Diggle showed up wearing The Hood. The possibility that The Hood could have an accomplice would have been brought up and Oliver's house arrest would have continued. Luckily, Lance grabbed the Idiot Ball.
- Assassin Outclassin': Oliver fights the hitman sent after him to a draw.
- Being Tortured Makes You Evil: Quentin Lance uses this trope to rationalize how and why Oliver became a vigilante. Of course, being tortured on the island did cause a significant change in Oliver, but not for the worse.
- Big Damn Kiss: Between Oliver and Laurel. Boy howdy!
- Big Damn Heroes: Twice.
- Flashback: Oliver spends some time being tortured by a masked commando for information on Yao Fei. Fyers concludes either he has Heroic Resolve or doesn't know anything and tells the commando to kill him. Just before he can, Yao Fei charges in and saves him.
- Present: Oliver has been accused by the police of being the Hood. The Well Dressed Man sends a hitter to kill him and, after a short fight, Det. Lance comes in and shoots the man in the back. He showed up because he was going to remove the ankle monitor, as the Hood was seen across town while Ollie was home at his party.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: By Fyers and his masked henchman of Ollie back on the island.
- Consummate Liar: Oliver can lie so well he fools a polygraph, and Walter confronts Moira about the fact that she's done the same to him for the past two to five years.
- Deducing the Secret Identity: Oliver planned on this happening. As he tells Diggle, him returning seemingly from the dead and then a masked vigilante stalking the city would have been far too easy for people to conclude it. But having Diggle act as the vigilante while he's under observation puts him in the clear.
- Did Not Think This Through: Diggle says that Oliver didn't anticipate that his family and friends would be as curious as they are, and what the effects would be of lying to them.
- Dramatic Irony: When Island!Oliver pretends not to recognise Yao Fei's photograph, Fyers says he's a poor liar. Present day Oliver proves such a Consummate Liar he can fool a Lie Detector.
- Drowning My Sorrows: During the final montage, Laurel is shown helping her father out of a bar.
- Everyone Has Standards: Despite his hatred of Oliver, Quentin's visibly disturbed at the possibility of Oliver's wounds being self-inflicted.
- Evil Wears Black: Fyers and his mercenaries.
- Exact Words: When Quentin asks Oliver if he's ever killed anyone, Oliver replies that he has—Quentin's daughter Sara, when he invited her onto his yacht.
- Faux Affably Evil: Edward Fyers greets Oliver politely and asks him to take a seat. When he refuses to answer his questions however, he has him handed over to his torturer.
- A Fool for a Client: Oliver refuses to have a lawyer unless it's Laurel.
- Foreshadowing: There's a Reaction Shot of Laurel looking at Oliver when he answers "No" to the polygraph question: "Have you ever been to Iron Heights Prison?"
- Hidden Depths: Despite being more the pre-island rich playboy than the badass he would become five years later, Oliver doesn't give away Yao Fei even under torture.
- Identity Impersonator: While Oliver is wearing an electronic monitor and throwing a rave at his house in front of a hundred witnesses, he sends Diggle dressed as the Hood to interrupt Mueller's arms deal. Diggle can't shoot a bow but he has no problem with hand-to-hand, taking down several gangbangers while Mueller speeds off in his car.
- Interrogation Montage: The polygraph test is intercut with flashbacks of Oliver being interrogated and tortured.Quentin: Are you the man in this picture? (shows Oliver a police sketch of the Hood)Ironic Echo Cut to flashback of the island.Fyers: Where can I find the man in this picture? (shows photo of Yao Fei)
- I Was Never Here: Walter calls in his Head of Security for a non-existent meeting, and tells him to make sure no-one else knows about his investigation, but someone does and has him killed.
- Lie Detector: Oliver volunteers to take a lie detector test to prove his innocence. Laurel points out that such tests are inadmissible in court, but Oliver says it's for Quentin, the one who is suspicious of Oliver. Oliver passes, but Laurel notes a discrepancy: Oliver said he had never been to Iron Heights Prison, but Laurel knows he went there on a school trip as a kid. Normally that wouldn't be worth noting, he could have just forgotten, but there was a small blip on the lie detector, just not big enough to be registered as a lie. Laurel realizes that means he did lie intentionally, but kept his biometrics under control, meaning he could have been lying on any of the questions.
- Malevolent Masked Men: Oliver is tortured by a man wearing a black and orange mask.
- Mama Bear: Moira threatens to burn down the Well-Dressed Man's operation if he goes after her family again.
- Manipulative Bastard:
- While Oliver is traumatized by Sara's death and what he endured on the island, he doesn't hesitate to use them to obfuscate his readings and gain Laurel's sympathy during the polygraph scene.
- It's only after he's been arrested that Oliver explains he was planning this and that he wants Diggle to impersonate him, forcing Diggle to play along or see him go to jail. Diggle does not appreciate Oliver doing this.
- Money Is Not Power: Oliver tells Fyers that his family will compensate him handsomely for rescuing Oliver from the island, but Fyers isn't interested as he has his own mission to accomplish.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Laurel breaks off her Big Damn Kiss with Oliver and flees the room.
- Mythology Gag:
- The episode introduces a masked figure very similar to Deathstroke, and he stops an arrow from being shot into his eye (in the comics, Deathstroke lost an eye to the Green Arrow). We're also introduced to Edward Fyers, who in the comics is an ally of Green Arrow but is an enemy on the show.
- The mention of fishnets references Black Canary’s costume (Dinah Lance’s alter-ego).
- While only referred to in the episode as “Spencer”, Kate Spencer is a DC Comics character also known as Manhunter.
- Ollie's mugshot number is 73 1941. Green Arrow debuted in More Fun Comics #73 in 1941.
- "Well you know us billionaire vigilantes...we do love our toys."
- Never Trust a Trailer: The promo added a muzzle flash to the hitman's gun to make it look like he shot Oliver—actually Quentin shoots him before he has a chance to fire.
- Not So Stoic: After Laurel breaks off her kiss and flees the room, Oliver can't help quietly pleading for her not to go.
- Obfuscating Disability: Oliver shows Laurel his scars and tells her his PTSD makes it impossible for him to be the Vigilante.
- Sound-Only Death: The final scene is of the Hood telling Mueller that, "You have failed this city!" before loosing an arrow and we cut to credits over Mueller's scream.
- Title Drop: "Because if people knew, if you knew... you'd see me differently. And not as some... vigilante guy. As damaged."
- Tracking Device
- Oliver is given an ankle monitor that restricts him to the Queen residence.
- Diggle can't help cooing over the tracking devices in the Arrowcave, which he later uses to monitor the arms dealer.
- Scar Survey: Leading to the inevitable Big Damn Kiss.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Walter makes his disapproval of Moira clear by leaving on a business trip to Melbourne, with no word on when (or if) he might come back.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Diggle does not appreciate Oliver trying to manipulate him into providing him with an alibi.Diggle: I'm the one person you don't lie to.
- You Know Too Much: Walter tells his Head of Security to have the remains to the Queen's Gambit transferred to another location. He later gets a call telling him the man was killed in a car accident.
