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In the present, Oliver tries to teach Roy to control his anger and manage the Mirakuru. On the Island, Oliver and Sara are trying to find Slade before he can do something they'll regret.
Tropes Applying to This Episode
- Aesop Amnesia: Averted as Oliver seems to not have forgotten the events of the last episode. Whereas before Ollie would have driven Laurel home from the bar, he coldly shrugs her off and tells Thea to call a cab.
- The Atoner: Olvier thinks that helping Roy can help atone for his failure to help Slade.
- Bait-and-Switch Comment: It looks like Oliver is going to confess to Slade what happened with Shado's death, but instead he says that Shado loved them both, and she would want Slade to get off the island and return to his family, instead of destroying their only chance of doing so.
- Blood Knight: Even though Bronze Tiger has already been paid off with a huge sum, he still attacks Oliver rather than abandon his former employer.
- Boxing Lessons for Superman: Throughout the episode Ollie strives to teach Roy how to control his anger and Super-Strength.
- Call-Back: Oliver has Roy slap bowls of water like Shado had him do. He doesn’t find it any less frustrating.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- Slade is planning to use the missile launcher from Season One to destroy the freighter.
- For the next episode when Moira tells Walter that the obstetrician who handled Thea's delivery is the only person who can reveal her parentage, and they need to take steps to deal with that.
- Laurel collapses in her apartment, seeing Sara before she passes out.
- Commonality Connection: When the Arrow tells Roy to think of his love for Thea, it only makes him angry because he thinks the Arrow knows nothing of her. Discovering that Oliver is Thea's brother makes all the difference.
- Does Not Know His Own Strength: Roy breaks his training equipment and hurts Thea when he grabs her too hard.
- Drowning My Sorrows: Laurel turns up at Verdant getting plastered. She finds it ironic that Thea of all people is the one cutting her off.
- Earthquake Machine: An Arms Dealer wants to get hold of a prototype earthquake machine stored in the Merlyn mansion.
- Foreshadowing
- Amanda Waller recruits Bronze Tiger for a squad.
- Oliver on the island will 'kill' Slade with an arrow in the eye, explaining present day Slade's desire to return the favour.
- Get into Jail Free: The guards have a good laugh at their latest inmate who tried robbing a store across the road from the police station. Turns out he's been paid to smuggle Bronze Tiger's claws inside the prison.
- Godzilla Threshold:
- With another earthquake machine about to go off, Ollie reveals his identity to Roy to get him to listen and cooperate so he can use his strength to punch a hole in the reinforced shipping container.
- Laurel's problems with drugs and alcohol have gotten so bad that Oliver ends up calling Sara, at the risk of the League of Assassins coming back to Starling City.
- Hollywood Law: Apparently Laurel is being investigated by the Bar's disciplinary committee for her problems with drinking and pills. If lawyers could get disbarred for substance abuse problems, the legal profession would be half the size it is.
- Humiliation Conga: Continued from last episode. After Laurel is fired, her father tries (and fails) to take her to AA, she loses a chance at a job because she's about to be disbarred, and she gets wasted at Thea's bar.
- Improperly Paranoid: The villain of the week hires Bronze Tiger to help with his attempt to get Merlyn's prototype earthquake machine. After all, why wouldn't the Arrow have gone over Merlyn's place with a fine-tooth comb and set up a system to alert him if anyone went after it? However, because of Oliver's grief over Tommy's death, he didn't do a proper follow-up and all of Merlyn's belongings are right where he left them, uninspected.
- Inadvertent Entrance Cue: A mook wants to know why they needed Bronze Tiger for a simple break-and-enter job. Bronze Tiger indicates Roy and the Arrow who have just made an appearance. "For them."
- In-Series Nickname:Roy: Does this group have a name? Like "Team Arrow", or something?
Oliver: We don't call ourselves that.
Felicity: I do. Occasionally.
Oliver: Stop. - Internal Reveal: Oliver reveals to Roy that he's the Arrow.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Felicity doesn't want to engage in Monday morning quarterbacking because it's actually Wednesday.
- Morality Chain: Thea is unknowingly this for Roy. His love for her is what calms him down. Shado's memory was also this for Slade, at least temporarily.
- Mythology Gag
- Milo Armitage is a minor villain from the comics.
- The state of Markovia gets another mention, as the intended target for the earthquake machine.
- Near the end, we see Amanda Waller recruit Bronze Tiger for something she describes as a "squad".
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Roy is so busying pounding the truck driver he doesn't notice Bronze Tiger get into the truck and drive off. Oliver can't chase after him because he has to stop and pull Roy off the man.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Subverted. Roy nearly delivers one to Bronze Tiger, but Ollie stops him while also revealing his true identity. Earlier, Roy did deliver one to one of the mooks Tiger was working with.
- Oh, Crap!:
- When Oliver recognizes the drawings on the wall of the Mirakuru cave as firing equations and realizes that Slade is going to use Fyers's launcher to blow up the Amazo.
- The revelation that there's another earthquake machine out there.
- Open Secret: Oliver admits that too many people already know his Secret Identity.
- Percussive Therapy: Roy is getting frustrated with his training, so convinces Oliver to take him on a mission so he can pound on someone who fights back. It doesn't go well.
- The Power of Love: Lampshaded by Sara, and shown with both Slade and Roy.
- The Power of Trust: Roy gets increasingly angry over how the Arrow is keeping things from him, like how he got his knowledge of the Mirakuru and who's helping him from Mission Control. Eventually Oliver does The Unmasking as it's the only way to gain Roy's trust at a crucial moment.
- Properly Paranoid: Subverted. See Improperly Paranoid above.
- Revealing Cover Up: See Improperly Paranoid. If the arms dealer trying to sell the prototype earthquake device had left Bronze Tiger in prison, Team Arrow would never have been clued in to who the dude was, what he was after, or where he was getting it from. They wouldn't have even known something was up until after the fact, if ever.
- Short-Distance Phone Call: Thea calls Oliver while he's in the Arrowcave and asks if he's anywhere near the nightclub. Oliver looks at the ceiling where the faint noise of music is coming from. "I'm pretty close."
- Tame His Anger: Arrow spends the entire episode trying to teach Roy to channel his anger without letting it control him.
- This Is the Part Where...: When Oliver takes Roy down to the Arrowcave, Roy asks if this is the part where he gets killed because He Knows Too Much.
- Treasure Chest Cavity: Crosses over with Jail Bake in a pretty gruesome way. A man, to provide for his family, is bribed into smuggling Bronze Tiger's Wolverine Claws into his cell by hiding the various components under his skin. It's implied that he bleeds to death in the process of removing them.
- Wham Episode: Ollie reveals his true identity to Roy, Sara reveals that she's alive to Laurel, and Amanda Waller starts assembling the Suicide Squad.
- Workout Fanservice: Oliver works out his frustrations on the salmon ladder.
- You Have No Idea Who You're Dealing With: Or in this case, what.Arrow: You don't know what you're dealing with.
Bronze Tiger: Big machine, makes earthquakes.
Arrow: Don't you know what happens if the wrong people have it?
Bronze Tiger: Yeah. I get paid.
