Recap / Arrow S 2 E 20 Seeing Red

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Tropes Applying to this Episode:

• A Death in the Limelight: The flashback this week focuses on Moira, and she is killed.
• Apologetic Attacker: Slade sheds a tear before killing Moira, regretting that he has to kill such a noble person because her son didn't have that kind of courage.
• Arrow Catch: Roy catches an arrow and later uses it to stab a police officer to death.
• Ax-Crazy: Roy, who is also a Silent Antagonist for this episode.
• Bait-and-Switch:
  • Thea sees someone in a hoodie waiting for her in a dark alley, only for it to be Sin instead of Roy.
  • Thea goes to Roy and tries to snap him out of it, but as she keeps talking, she starts sounding less and less like herself until it's revealed she's just one of Roy's hallucinations.
  • Before the ending that puts the whole episode into perspective, the focus of the flashback and the present day storylines would have one believe that Oliver's determination to save Roy is somehow linked to his (not) miscarried illegitimate child from 7 years prior.
• Bait-and-Switch Comment: When Moira tells Oliver, "I know", he thinks she's agreeing with him that she should run for Mayor to show Thea she can do good. Then Moira says it again with emphasis and Oliver realises she has worked out he is the Arrow.
• Batman Grabs a Gun: Sara puts away her bo staff and shoves a pistol in her pants, fully prepared to Boom, Headshot! Roy to stop him.
• Big "NO!": By Oliver when he watches Roy kill a cop while too far away to do anything to stop him.
• Book Ends:
  • The first episode begins with Moira and Oliver saying, "Mom" and "Oliver" after one of them is revealed to be alive. This episode ends with them screaming "Mom" and "Oliver" shortly before one of them dies.
  • Moria's first words to Oliver in the show was "My beautiful boy". Those are the last words she says in the episode.
• Bullying a Dragon: Some friends of Sin see Roy rough her up and come out to defend her. It doesn't end well when one of them tries to manhandle Roy despite Sin's trying to get them to back off.
• Call-Back:
  • The doctor treating the Arrow makes reference to how he stopped the shipment of medical supplies from being hijacked by the Triad while treating him, commenting that he's been looking for a way to repay him.
  • Diggles notes that fortunately Thea isn't as good as ditching him as Oliver was.
  • Moira notes that Oliver has picked up another motorcycle accident injury, "the second in as many weeks".
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • The Tibetan Pit Viper sedative prepared for Slade comes in useful for knocking out Roy.
  • Sara departs Starling City on her motorcycle because she has to "see an old friend".
  • Oliver's illegitimate son and the check that Moira cut for Samantha comes back into play during the latter half of Season 4.
• Character Development: Inverted as we see just how shallow pre-island Oliver was compared to the man he is now. He gets a woman pregnant while cheating on Laurel, copes by running to Mommy for help, allows the supposedly grieving Samantha to brush him off with a phone call, then having apparently dodged the bullet, he learns nothing from the experience and returns to his hedonistic ways with consequences that we all know.
• Commonality Connection: Moira and Oliver have both sacrificed the people closest to them to save their city.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Instead of shooting Moira and letting her have an instant death, Slade stabs her with his katana, leaving her to bleed out and die more slowly, inches from Oliver's face. Though another interpretation is that from Slade's point of view, the sword was a more honorable death.
• Death by Secret Identity: Moira implies she knows Oliver is the Arrow and says she couldn't be more proud. Then she gets stabbed by Slade.
• Dented Iron: The doctor notes that some of the injuries inflicted on Oliver's leg are chronic, "the result of jumping off rooftops, no doubt."
• Dies Wide Open: Moira.
• Dissonant Serenity: Oliver and Sara find a bunch of panicked guys attacked by Roy, with wounds that would imply they were beaten with a blunt weapon. Cut to Roy walking past Sin, looking a little miffed but otherwise not really looking like he just beat the crap out of someone.
• Dramatic Irony:
  • When Thea tells Diggle their family's bankruptcy means he will soon be unemployed, Diggle just gives a quietly sardonic, "Right..."
  • Sin tells Sara that she knows she isn't a killer.
  • Oliver convinces his mother not to drop out of the mayoral race, putting her right back in Slade's sights as her death is therefore more necessary to advance Blood's agenda.
  • Right after he saves Roy as the Arrow, Oliver comes back into the club and gets chewed out by Thea for not being there when needed. Fortunately, Moira gives him an alibi.
• Dying Declaration of Love: Moira's last words are to tell Thea she loves her.
• Even People Going Crazy Off Mirakuru Have Standards:
  • Roy runs off after killing a police officer, and begs Sara to kill him after he attacks Thea.
  • Slade looks somewhat stunned after killing Moira, having been impressed by her willingness to sacrifice herself for her children.
• Every Man Has His Price: Unknown to Oliver, his child is still alive and living in Central City after the mother was bribed $2 million to fake a miscarriage and relocate to break off contact with Oliver. Moira softens the crude bribe by asking Samantha to Think of the Children! and presenting it as a sacrifice she would make to ensure the child's future.
• Facial Recognition Software: Felicity has difficulty locating Roy on CCTV because he's In the Hood. "Now I know why you wear yours."
• Fainting: Oliver, upon Moira being impaled.
• Futureshadowing: When helping Past!Oliver out of his predicament, Past!Moira says she hopes her son will forgive her for any mistakes she might make.
• Grievous Harm with a Body: A security guard tries to stop Roy when he attacks Verdant. Roy grabs him by the arm and slams him into Diggle.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Moira gives her life to save Thea.
• Hope Spot:
  • An especially cruel one for everyone (both audience and characters) involved. Moira offers to sacrifice herself to protect Ollie and Thea. Slade holsters his gun, applauds Moira on her courage and it looks like he's about to walk away. Then he pulls out his sword...
  • Before this, Roy has been recaptured and Moira is reconciling with both her children, and is even willing to reveal the truth about Malcolm Merlyn. Then their limousine is ambushed by Slade...
• I Cannot Self-Terminate: Roy begs Sara to kill him to end his berserker rage.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Ollie and Thea urge Roy to fight the Mirakuru, with little effect.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Moira's execution by katana through the heart.
• Inelegant Blubbering: Thea in the end scene. Very understandable, as within a few minutes' time, a madman threatens to shoot her, her mother offers herself to protect her, and her mother is then killed.
• Insecure Love Interest: Sara breaks up with Oliver because he deserves someone who will bring out the light in him, rather than herself who will draw him into the darkness.
• Internal Reveal:
  • Sin tells Thea about Roy getting injected with Mirakuru.
  • Slade inadvertently tells Oliver he's hallucinating, and reveals to Oliver's family that he was on the island with him.
• Ironic Echo: In-Universe when Sara notes they're having the exact same conversation about Roy that she had with Oliver about Slade five years ago.
• It's What I Do:
  Sara: I wanted to kill Roy, because it's what I do. It's who I am. I spent six years in the darkness, and I looked into the eyes of the Devil, and I gave him my soul.
• Jump Scare: Felicity realises the table Roy was lying on is empty, then turns to see him giving her a Kubrick Stare. When she tries talking to Roy, he's suddenly Flipping the Table and attacking Diggle when he tries to stop him.
• Kind Restraints: After Team Arrow recaptures Roy, he's back on the table, this time sedated and with his hands and feet bound.
• Knee Capping: When Sin stands in the way of Sara killing Roy, she shoots him in the knee instead to take him down.
• Knew It All Along: Moira knew Ollie was the Arrow since at least the night of the Undertaking.
• Kubrick Stare: Roy has one the whole episode.
• Lap Pillow: Past!Oliver lying with his head in Laurel's lap—he pretends it's because he has a hangover when he's actually in a funk because he's got a woman pregnant and it's not Laurel.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Sin notes that Mirakuru made Roy "comic book" strong.
• Mama Bear: Moira proves in this episode she's willing to do absolutely anything to protect her children, whether it's providing hush money to the mother of Oliver's illegitimate child or giving up her life to protect Thea.
• Meaningful Echo: Slade invokes this with the Sadistic Choice he forces on Oliver, only this time he's forced to choose between Moira and Thea.
• Mood Whiplash: A moment of reconciliation among the Queens after the violent events in Verdant is interrupted by their limousine crashing just as Moira is about to reveal the truth about Malcolm Merlyn. By the time Oliver comes to his senses, he and his mother and sister are tied up at the mercy of Slade.
• Morality Chain: Turns out Sara views Oliver as this for her. Tragically, that only makes her break up with him, because she's worried that she will end up corrupting him.
• Neck Lift: Roy does this to Thea. This is not the first time Willa Holland has been subjected to this by a former friend.
• No Name Given: Samantha's name is not spoken onscreen in the episode. It would be revealed much later.
• Out-of-Character Alert: When Thea speaks up in support of her mother at the televised rally at Verdant, Oliver realises she's only doing it to draw Roy out by letting him know where she is.
• Protectorate: Sara's willingness to hunt down and kill Roy has a lot to do with the shiner he gave Sin, despite Sin trying to convince her otherwise.
• Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: Felicity is puzzled as to why there is no obituary for Isabel Rochev, despite being the CEO of a Fortune 500 corporation.
• The Resenter: Implied with Roy when the hallucination of Thea says she deserves death because she didn't realise his breakup with her was a cry for help.
• Sacrificial Lion: If you thought Slade wasn't serious before about making Oliver suffer, he kills off Moira.
• Sanity Slippage: Aside from Roy, we have Slade going so far that he starts raving about how Shado, who he is convinced is next to him, told him that Oliver chose Sara's life over his... to Oliver's face, who isn't seeing what Slade is. It's somewhat terrifying.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Roy's reaction after fatally stabbing a police officer.
• Secret Secret-Keeper: Moira reveals that she has known Oliver was the Arrow since the night of the Undertaking.
• Shoot the Dog: Sara was willing to kill Roy to protect everyone else.
• Shout-Out: The episode shares a title with the episode of another show that has a major character death at the end.
• Sickening "Crunch!": Whenever Roy breaks a limb, particularly Oliver's leg.
• Silent Antagonist: Roy.
• So Happy Together: At the start of the episode, Oliver is enjoying Sex for Solace with Sara and discusses her moving in with him. After nearly killing Roy, Sara breaks up with him because she thinks he deserves someone better than a killer.
• Stab the Scorpion: After murdering Moira, Slade says that one more person has to die, moves over to Thea with his bloody katana...and cuts her bonds and walks away.
• Sure, Let's Go with That: Thea thinks that Oliver got wind of what was wrong with Roy and that is why he had Diggle follow her around. Oliver is not inclined to argue, even when Thea gets stuck into him about apparently concealing the truth from her again.
• Sympathy for the Hero: Slade admires Moira's courage, and openly tells her he respects her. Unfortunately, she's in the way.
• Tempting Fate:
  • A Starling Hospital doctor says to his friend on the phone that things can't get any stranger after a night of crazy patients. He then walks into a room to find the Canary asking him to help the Arrow who has a broken leg. He tells the person he was calling that he was wrong, and hangs up.
  • Thea doesn't see the point of Diggle following her around as Slade never harmed her.
  • While in Verdant, Oliver tells Sara, "No one dies tonight".
  • On hearing that Samantha supposedly miscarried and wants to break off their relationship, Past!Oliver comforts himself that he can go back to being the "luckiest guy in the world". A few months later he gets on the Queen's Gambit...
• Tranquilizer Dart: The Arrow fires three Tibetan Pit Viper injector arrows into Roy to knock him out.
• The Unreveal: Moira was about to reveal a secret about Malcolm Merlyn to her children—presumably that he was still alive—and then their car crashes.
• Unstoppable Rage: Roy.
• Wham Episode: Moira is killed by Slade.
• Wham Line: From Moira to Oliver.
  Moira: Oliver, I know.
  • From the flashback:
    Oliver: I got a girl pregnant.
• Worf Had the Flu: Roy breaks Oliver's leg, and he can only continue to work as the Arrow by putting his leg in a brace and shooting up with painkillers.
• You Remind Me Of Myself: Sara reminds Oliver of himself when he first came home from Lian Yu.