Recap / Arrow S 2 E 18 Deathstroke

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Tropes Applying to this Episode

• All According to Plan:
  • Oliver twists Isabel's arm to make her reveal where Thea is. She readily gives up the address, so Oliver naturally thinks she's lying. Isabel gives an Evil Laugh, saying everything is playing out how Slade wants it and Oliver had better Come Alone or he's going to have Thea Gutted Like a Fish. Oliver slugs his way through Slade's mooks only to find Thea has already been released.
  • Sebastian Blood rips into Slade because Moira is running ahead in the polls thanks to public sympathy over her daughter's abduction, and he can't understand why Slade is wasting time with some incomprehensible vendetta against the Queens. Slade is unperturbed and Isabel points out that she now controls the QC Applied Science division, so can proceed with their original plan of mass producing the Super Serum.
• Antagonist Title: This episode is in reference to a moniker frequently given to Slade.
• Appropriated Appellation: Slade admits that he rather likes the Deathstroke moniker that ARGUS has given him.
• Bait-and-Switch: The cutting between Oliver driving to rescue Thea, and Slade suiting up, are built up to make it look like Slade is going to confront Oliver face-to-face. Turns out he and Thea are long gone by the time Oliver gets there, and the whole thing was a humongous Batman Gambit.
• Bait-and-Switch Comment: Oliver has an Oh, Crap! response when a distraught Thea tells him that Slade told her his secret. Turns out what she means isn't what he thinks.
• Batman Gambit:
  • Slade's kidnapping of Thea is nothing more than a distraction to get Oliver to hand over his company to Isabel and to allow Slade to recruit criminals for his army.
  • Slade allows the Arrow to hand him over to Quentin for arrest, knowing Quentin will be discredited for trusting the Vigilante after Slade provides evidence that he was in Costa Rica when Thea was abducted. Even when Thea confirms that Slade abducted her, the fact that Quentin was working with the Arrow is enough to get him arrested.
• Broken Pedestal:
  • Oliver becomes this to Thea when she finds out her true parentage. She's used to the fact that her mother lies to her, but the fact that her brother was in on the secret and didn't tell her is unforgiveable.
  • And Oliver to Roy after he handed Slade over to the police instead of letting Team Arrow force the truth about Thea's location out of him. That, and insisting that Roy break up with Thea which only left her vulnerable to her kidnapper.
• Cassandra Gambit: Isabel tells Oliver that handing over his authority as CEO to someone else is a bad idea.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • At the beginning of the episode, a news website says that Iron Heights Prison has finally rebuilt the wing damaged in the earthquake. Later Slade kills the guards on a prison bus transferring prisoners to the new wing and recruits them for his Evil Plan.
  • One of the land mines that gave our heroes such trouble on Lian-Yu is dismantled to make a bomb to place on Hendrik.
• Cruel Mercy: Slade discovers the bomb hidden on Hendrik, but doesn't kill Oliver, Sara and the others because the hallucination of Shado tells him to abandon them on the island for the rest of their lives. He also says before leaving that he will visit Oliver's family and kill them instead.
• Determinator: We learn how Slade got off Lian Yu. He swam the entire way to land, getting cut up and regenerating due to his Healing Factor.
• Do Not Adjust Your Set: The political debate between Moira and Sebastian is interrupted by Thea appearing on the projection screen being held captive by Deathstroke. This is the first indication anyone has that Thea has been abducted.
• Double Meaning
  • While snarking at Moira over pretending to support her, Oliver says, "I have gotten pretty good at pretending to be someone I'm not."
  • When Oliver wonders why Thea hasn't turned up to the political debate, Sebastian Blood says that it's his fault. Though he gives the excuse that his motorcade delayed her arrival, rather than admitting he abducted her while wearing a skull mask.
• Evil All Along: Isabel Rochev has been working in partnership with Slade.
• Evil Laugh: Isabel lets one out during Oliver's interrogation of her.
• Evil Is Petty: At the end of the episode Slade goes off to commit one last Kick the Dog for Oliver. It involves turning up at Laurel's house and making no effort to harm her, just to tell Laurel that he is the Arrow.
• Faux Affably Evil: Slade, Isabel and Sebastian all adopt a sympathetic demeanor while secretly plotting the downfall of the Queens.
• A Friend in Need:
  • Oliver's morale is at Rock Bottom by the end, but Felicity and Diggle assure him You Are Not Alone.
  • Subverted with Isabel who is shown to be as supportive of Oliver as possible in this crisis, right up to the moment when she stabs him in the metaphorical back.
• Futureshadowing: Sara's ruthlessness in the flashbacks foretells the Dark Side that the League of Assassins will bring out, and that she'll struggle with for the rest of her life.
• Hero Insurance: Averted; even though Slade Wilson did turn out to be guilty of Thea's abduction, Quentin Lance still gets arrested for working with the Vigilante. He's told he can cut a deal if he gives up the Arrow's Secret Identity, but Quentin doesn't know it (and wouldn't reveal it even if he did because it would put Sara at risk).
• Hidden Badass: After The Reveal of her villainy, Oliver is surprised when Isabel demonstrates martial arts skills, though she's nowhere near Oliver's level and he easily subdues her. But she's clearly not intimidated by him even then.
• His Own Worst Enemy: Oliver comes to view himself this way by the end of the episode. He states it practically word for word as he tearfully reflects on how badly he screwed up with Roy (alienating him by making him keep secrets from Thea to the point of putting her in danger), Thea (keeping her Locked Out of the Loop), and his company (allows it to be taken over by Isabel) because he was too focused on how Slade could ruin him.
  Oliver: Roy was right. At every turn, I've made the wrong decision, with him, with the company, and with Thea. I was so... focused on what Slade could do to me that I didn't realize what I could do to myself. I am my own worst enemy.
• Ineffectual Death Threat: When Thea threatens to kill Slade if he harms her family, Slade asks her how a nineteen-year-old girl is going to do that.
• Internal Reveal
  • Thea finds out Malcolm is really her father.
  • Laurel finds out from Slade that Oliver is the Arrow.
• Ironic Echo: Seeing Isabel ripping into a journalist, Oliver comments how scary she is. In a flashback to Lian Yu, Anatoli says the same about Sara after she proposes using Hendrik as a human bomb.
• Knight Templar Big Brother: Oliver is scary when Thea's in trouble. He shouts at his friends despite normally being The Stoic, threatens to kill Isabel Rochev and brutally takes down the guards to try to get to Thea.
• The Mole: Isabel has been working for Slade all along.
• Mythology Gag:
  • On the sign for leaving Starling City, the motto is "Starling City is a STAR City!" Star City is the name of the city in comics.
  • Anatoli mentions having been in the KGB, a reference to his comic book alias of KGBeast.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Twice with Oliver. This is enough for him to finally realize that his decisions regarding the whole Mirakuru situation have been extremely bad.
  Oliver: I was so... focused on what Slade could do to me that I didn't realize what I could do to myself. I am my own worst enemy.
  • First, his decision to completely reverse Roy's treatment of Thea, from staying with her as a bodyguard against Slade to breaking her heart to save her, leads to not only her kidnapping, but also to Roy quitting on both Team Arrow and Starling City in general and Thea finding out about her parentage and blaming Oliver for not telling her.
  • Second, his decision to assign Isabel Rochev as a temporary CEO leads to her taking over the company in full as originally planned and kicking him out.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Thea calls Oliver on how he sounds exactly like Moira by justifying his lies as being to protect her. Earlier Moira mentions how parents are so focused on how the world might harm their children they fail to see how they might harm them themselves. Later Oliver realises he made the same mistake with Thea.
• Not Me This Time: On being asked who might abduct Thea, Moira's first thought is Malcolm Merlyn, though she still keeps the fact that he's alive to herself.
• Nothing Personal:
  • Anatoli says this to Hendrik about handing him over to Slade, then admits that maybe it's a little personal in his case.
  • Sebastian Blood doesn't share his co-conspirators hatred of the Queens and fails to see why they're wasting their time on this vendetta.
• Roaring Rampage of Rescue: Oliver goes on one to save Thea.
• A Shared Suffering: Oliver puts aside his dispute with Moira over their shared concern over Thea, and after hearing how distraught she is over how she's let her children down.
• Sins of Our Fathers: Invoked by Isabel to Oliver, who is disappointed that he's ignorant of her motive for working with Slade.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Roy is shown driving away from Starling City, having become totally disillusioned with Oliver's leadership.
• Skewed Priorities: Slade is surprised that Oliver's first question is not "Where's Thea?" but asking how he got off Lian Yu. Oliver points out he can hardly expect an answer about Thea, so he's going to ask a question that Slade won't mind answering.
• Suddenly Shouting: Slade ordering Thea to Get Out! of the car so she can be abducted by the Man in the Skull Mask—especially notable because it's the first time he's shouted on-screen in the present day. It's implied that even Slade feels a bit bad over this act, hence his harshness.
• Super-Senses: The plan to blow up Island!Slade doesn't work because he can smell the TNT stuffed under Hendrik's clothing.
• Sword and Gun: Deathstroke kills the first prison bus guard with a thrown katana, then follows it up with his pistol on the other guard.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: Team Arrow track down Slade only to find him calmly waiting for them. He points out that killing him would not get Thea back, so they shoot him with a Tranquilizer Dart and call Quentin to have him arrested. When Slade is released for lack of evidence, Roy is furious because surely an ex-Assassin and ex-special forces operative could have forced the truth from Slade. Oliver unfortunately is the only person who knows just how tough Slade is from personal experience, even before he was given Super-Strength and Healing Factor.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: We see how ruthless Sara can get when she hands Hendrik over to Slade, planting a bomb on him as she figures Slade will just kill him anyway once he's got the ship working.
• Understatement: Lampshaded at the end of the episode.
  Quentin: Hell of a night.
  Sara: Quentin Lance, master of the understatement.
• Tracking Device: Team Arrow tries to track Slade to Thea's location after he is released, but as a former ASIS operative he has no difficulty spoofing the signal to throw them off the track.
• Un-Confession: After Oliver begs him, Slade is on the verge of revealing where Thea is when Lt. Pike enters the room to release Slade and reprimand Oliver for talking to him. Of course this is likely just Slade messing with Oliver's head.
• Villainous Breakdown: Various degrees thereof.
  • Sebastian Blood rants at Slade when he realizes that he is very likely not going to be mayor.
  • In Slade's growing instability, he shouts a lot more in this episode than earlier ones post-Mirakuru. He's also shown to be seeing hallucinations of Shado inciting him in his acts.
• Villains Never Lie:
  • Thea has no problem believing Slade's revelation that Malcolm Merlyn is her father.
  • Laurel seems awfully quick to accept Slade's statement that Oliver is the Arrow, though the following episodes show she does take the time to investigate the allegation.
• Wham Episode:
  • Roy leaves Starling City after breaking away from Team Arrow.
  • Isabel is working with Slade and has completely taken over Queen Consolidated.
  • Slade starts assembling his super-soldier army by liberating a bus full of prisoners, with more Mirakuru being developed for them by the QC labs.
  • Quentin Lance is arrested for aiding the Arrow yet again.
  • Thea finds out she's Malcolm Merlyn's daughter.
  • Finally, Laurel learns from Slade that Ollie is the Arrow.
• Wham Line:
  Isabel (to Oliver): Maybe you should have focused a little less on your...evening activities.
  Thea (to Oliver): I know your secret.
  Slade (to Laurel): Because I know that Oliver is... the Arrow.