Recap / Arrow S 2 E 21 City Of Blood

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Tropes that apply to this Episode

• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Despite being angry at her brother for not turning up for their mother's funeral, and blaming him for not warning them about Slade, Thea is thrown when Oliver encourages her intent to make her own way in the world and tells Thea she is the purest member of their family. Rather than give him a What the Hell, Hero? lecture, Thea awkwardly promises to get in touch after she settles down, not knowing Oliver is saying this because he intends to commit Suicide By Slade.
• Bait-and-Switch: Oliver goes to the pier from which the Queen's Gambit left to surrender himself to Slade. Someone tranq darts him in the neck and he wakes up in the Arrowcave with Felicity and Diggle. And Laurel.
• Break Out the Museum Piece: Not only the World War 2-era Japanese submarine, but the suicide torpedoes it's armed with.
• By "No", I Mean "Yes": Oliver has disappeared following his mother's death...
  Diggle: Any luck finding Oliver?
  Felicity: Tons. All of it bad.
• Cliffhanger: On the island Sara has been captured by Slade. In the present day, Oliver and Laurel are buried in a collapsed tunnel, Diggle is cornered by Isabel, Thea and Quentin are stuck in buildings being attacked by Slade's soldiers, and Felicity is last seen getting a call from S.T.A.R. Labs (presumably, one can hope, about the Mirakuru cure).
• Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames: Isabel Rochev is not referred to as Ravager.
• Dissimile: Anatoli says piloting a submarine is like riding a bicycle. Underwater.
• Call-Back: After Laurel turns up in the Arrowcave, she discusses with Oliver the events of the Undertaking when Tommy was killed. Oliver is finally able to reveal to her what happened in Tommy's final moments.
• Conveniently Timed Attack from Behind: Oliver is being garroted by a Mirakuru soldier when Laurel (who disobeyed orders to stay behind) whacks his attacker on the back with a pipe. It has no effect but does serve as a distraction so Oliver can get free and Boom, Headshot! him with an explosive arrow as the soldier advances on Laurel.
• "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Thea blames Oliver for failing to warn his family that Slade Wilson was a dangerous psychopath with a personal grudge against him. While Oliver is understandably reluctant to talk about what happened on Lian Yu, it's hard to argue with this.
• Corner of Woe: Diggle and Felicity track down Oliver in a second Arrowcave he's prepared in case the first was compromised. Turns out he's been using it when he wants to be alone.
• Godzilla Threshold:
  • Felicity points out that using explosive to drop tons of concrete on Blood's army is murder no matter how you look at it. As far as the Arrow is concerned, the Mirakuru soldiers aren't even human any more.
  • Amanda Waller is not in a mood to help Diggle after he disobeyed orders in "Suicide Squad" but the news that there's an army of Mirakuru soldiers about to run rampant in an American city changes her mind.
• Gut Feeling: Laurel when getting her father to look into Blood one more time, despite her previous mistakes. Given that Quentin himself believes in this trope, it works.
• Handshake Refusal: Thea to Isabel.
• Heroic BSoD: Oliver spends most of the episode getting himself ready to commit Suicide by Cop for Slade. Finding out that Brother Blood is actually Sebastian Blood snaps him out of it.
• Hope Spot: Diggle is about to blow up Blood's army during his New Era Speech when Isabel intervenes in her Ravager outfit. Thea is about to leave Starling City for safety when a Deathstroke soldier attacks the train station. Oliver and Anatoli have blasted the submarine free, only to find that Sara has been captured.
• Heroic Sacrifice: On the island, Peter — already dying from radiation poisoning courtesy of Ivo's experiments — pilots a kamikaze torpedo to free the Japanese sub in order to give Oliver, Sara, and Anatoli a chance to stop Slade and escape the island.
• Internal Reveal:
  • Oliver learns that Laurel knows he is the Arrow, as well that Sebastian Blood is "the man in the skull mask".
  • Laurel and Quentin Lance learn that Sebastian Blood knew that Moira was going to be killed, which also leads to them realizing there is a larger conspiracy than Slade's vendetta against Oliver.
  • Sebastian Blood learns that Oliver is the Arrow.
• Involuntary Charity Donation: How Diggle and Felicity get Blood's bodyguard to talk. Said bodyguard says he's not afraid of a beating. In walks Felicity, tablet in hand. He holds out while she drains his secret account in the Caymans, but he finally sings when she moves in on his parents' retirement account.
• It's the Only Way: In the past, Peter sacrificing himself manning a kamikaze torpedo. In the present, Oliver sacrificing himself so Slade will no longer have an interest in hurting his friends and family just to hurt Oliver.
• Just Between You and Me: Oliver and Blood have a reasonably civil chat in the Japanese restaurant where Oliver reveals he's the Arrow and Blood admits he's working with Slade and his motives for doing so.
• Just One Little Mistake: Sebastian Blood typed up the press release about Moira's death the day before she was killed, as shown by the datestamp. This finally provides the proof Laurel needs that he is in league with Slade.
• Kick the Dog: Isabel reveals she is alive to Felicity and Diggle by mocking Oliver at his mother's funeral reception and threatening their lives. She then goes on to seize Verdant off Thea on the grounds that the foundry it's built on is still a QC asset (though she's likely also planning to shut down the Arrowcave).
• Killed Off for Real: Kelton, the police IT tech gets a Neck Snap from a Mirakuru soldier.
• Malevolent Masked Men: The Mirakuru soldiers are all wearing Deathstroke masks.
• Meaningful Echo: "The essence of heroism is to die that others might live." Oliver takes the words Peter said when volunteering to man the suicide torpedo to heart, deciding that he has to commit suicide to protect his family.
• Motive Rant: Blood tells Oliver his motives for letting Slade's Badass Army wreak havoc on the city — so that he can build it to be "a better city" from the ground up.
• Multi-Part Episode: The season finale is billed as three episodes: "City of Blood", "Streets of Fire", and "Unthinkable" as a three-part cohesive unit.
• Never Speak Ill of the Dead: Defied by Felicity at Moira Queen's wake. She admits that she never liked her and calls her diabolical (her last interaction with Moira had the latter trying to emotionally manipulate Felicity), but is still in grief for Oliver's sake.
• Never Split the Party: Island!Oliver gives Sara a radio and tells her to wait outside on hull in case something goes wrong when they launch the torpedo. The plan works only for Sara to send a panicked radio message as Slade's men grab her.
• Oh, Crap!: Diggle and Felicity's reaction to Isabel showing up alive at Moira's wake for some Evil Gloating, then Diggle later when he sees Isabel in her Ravager outfit, ready to get payback for him killing her.
• Parting-Words Regret: Thea talks of how Moira died thinking that she hated her.
• Play-Along Prisoner: A Mirakuru soldier lets the police capture him, but when the time comes to attack the precinct from inside, he just snaps off his cuffs.
• Plot-Demanded Manual Mode: The submarine's torpedoes are Kaiten manned suicide torpedoes. Fortunately someone who doesn't have Plot Armor is already dying of induced radiation poisoning.
• Gasoline Lasts Forever: Even if they could get the submarine working, the fuel would have long since evaporated.
• Red Shirt: The computer tech at the police station who has been helping the Lances gets killed by the Trojan Mirakuru soldier.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: With her mother dead, her brother estranged from her, her ex-boyfriend vanished who knows where and the house she grew up in being sold off due to the Queen family bankruptcy, Thea decides to leave Starling City and make her own way in the world. She's surprised when Oliver encourages her to go ahead (in actuality so she'll be safely elsewhere when whatever Slade is planning hits the fan).
• Spies In a Van: Felicity and Diggle planting the charges to bring down the sublevels on Blood's head.
• Stuff Blowing Up
  • With the submarine trapped by decades of sediment, the only way to free it is to launch a torpedo and blast it free.
    Anatoli: I can see why you two are made for each other. You like your explosions.
  • Faced with Mirakuru-enhanced soldiers, Oliver resorts to explosive-head arrows.
• Technology Porn: Felicity geeks out over the ARGUS computer system, some of which isn't supposed to have been built yet.
  "Is that the satellite frequency communicator TX-50? Can I touch it? I know that sounds a little weird and creepy, but I've never seen one in real life."
• Took a Level in Badass: Diggle can't believe his eyes when a Mirakuru-enhanced Isabel appears before him wearing a two-color half-mask and a red and black leather supervillain outfit, holding a sword in each hand, eager for payback on the man who killed her.
• True Companions: Oliver tells Laurel to stay behind when going to take on Blood and his army, because he wants her to be safe. Laurel points out that Diggle and Felicity are going with him.
  Oliver: This started with the three of us. It's time we got back to that.
• Villain with Good Publicity: For a moment Oliver contemplates killing Blood right there in the restaurant. Blood sees this and just smirks, pointing out that killing the Mayor of Starling City in public would be a bad idea.
• Wham Episode: Oliver learns the identity of Brother Blood and vice versa, Laurel joins Team Arrow, and Slade's army begins its attack on the city.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are:
  • Island!Oliver says that he could not do a Heroic Sacrifice like Peter is about to do, and that he only returned to the Amazo because he wanted to return home rather than because he wanted to save the prisoners.
    Oliver: I wasn't thinking about saving anybody. It's not who I am.
    Peter: Maybe not yet.
  • In the present, Laurel pulls Oliver out of his Heroic BSoD by reminding him that he is The Determinator, and it's not just his family but also the city that needs him.