In the show's 150th episode, a film crew follows Oliver and Team Arrow around for a documentary - Emerald Archer: The Hood and the Rise of the Vigilantism. Meanwhile William comes home for a visit, and the mysterious vigilante stalker, dubbed Chimera continues to haunt Team Arrow.
- Ambiguous Situation: It's not made one-hundred percent clear if Rory and Helena are alive or not. Given that Chimera just wants to collect their masks, they probably are.
- Apologetic Attacker: Pollard is sorry when she has the SCPD arrest Oliver's friends, but as she says it, there can be no exceptions to the law.
- Big Damn Heroes:
- John saves Oliver during his first fight with Chimera, shooting the latter right out of a window.
- The entire team saves Oliver during the second encounter.
- Blatant Lies: Barry claims he never knew Oliver was the Green Arrow. His convincing lies make one wonder how Barry himself still has a secret identity.
- Brutal Honesty: Barry refers to Oliver as "horribly damaged". He then becomes a bit concerned about whether or not that will be used in the documentary.
- The Bus Came Back: In addition to Caity Lotz and Grant Gustin, Willa Holland, Bex Taylor-Klaus, and Joe Dinicol make cameos as Thea, Sara, Sin, Rory, and Barry come back to be interviewed for the documentary and thanks to stock footage Paul Blackthorne makes an appearance as Quentin Lance, alongside Earth-1 Laurel (as the Black Canary).
- William comes back from school for a visit.
- In a complete surprise, Connor Hawke, because his previous sole appearance was an early episode of Legends of Tomorrow that happened before Flashpoint turned Baby Sara into Baby John; he was assumed to have been born some time after Sara. With changes to his family's history, as well as the Bad Future of his episode being averted by its end and that episode never being referenced again, that particular version of him existing anymore seemed unlikely, but here he is, same actor and all! This of course gives fuel to speculation that Conner is perhaps not John Diggle Jr.
- Call-Back:
- The Vigilante Stalker's collection of vigilante make is eerily reminiscent of Damien Darhk's collection he had in the Doomworld.
- Chimera using Adam Hunt's building as trap for Oliver is reminiscent of how Prometheus taunted Oliver with his knowledge of the Hood's crimes in Season Five.
- Calling the Old Man Out: William really lays into Felicity for sending him away and then not bringing him home for Christmas break. Felicity responds she needed to keep him safe and then things were too crazy at Christmas too bring him back.'
- The Chains of Commanding: Oliver contemplates that maybe he was never meant to be a leader.
- Continuity Nod: When Pollard snarks that Oliver started a firestorm, Dinah tells her that that's actually a different superhero.
- Culture Police: In-Universe, Emerald Archer: The Hood and the Rise of the Vigilantism is banned in Star City in the Bad Future for being "vigilante propaganda".
- Dramatic Irony:
- Rene gets overprotective at the thought of William being interested in Zoe. None of the characters (possibly including William) are aware that William is gay, but the audience is.
- Laurel-2 during her interview says she knows what it's like to be a criminal. Of course she's actually referring to herself being the Black Siren, not the Black Canary.
- The film ends with Oliver at Team Arrow's old base, ready to rebuild it and hopefully do a better job. Then we find out the film is being watched by Blackstar in the future, who scoffs at this.
- Genre Shift: The episode starts as In-Universe documentary film, after the commercial break it shifts back to a normal episode. Then if shifts back and forth for the rest of the episode.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Non-lethal, but Rene, Curtis, and John are arrested under the Anti-Vigilante Law. However Laurel refuses to press charges against them.
- Home Base: Oliver returns to the Arrow Cave, ready to rebuild it.
- Immune to Bullets: Chimera's suit is immune to bullets, arrows and Curtis' T-Spheres.
- Implausible Deniability: Pollard claims that the SCPD made up Chimera. After the camera crew caught him on tape trying to blow Oliver to kingdom come.
- Internal Reveal:
- Oliver tells John and later Dinah about Emiko being his half-sister and the New Green Arrow. Rene finds out about it too.
- Pollard finds out about Dinah being the former Black Canary and a metahuman.
- Intrepid Reporter: Pedowitz, the reporter filming the documentary, who isn't afraid to endanger her own life to get some good footage.
- Jerkass: Mayor Pollard still wants to get Oliver kicked off the force — even when Chimera begins killing vigilantes, she still insists on going through with her town hall, even believing the SCPD is lying about the threat. She softens up a little by the episode's end — enough to make Rene, Curtis, and John SCPD deputies like Oliver.
- Just Friends: What Zoe and William claim to be towards Rene.
- Loony Fan: Chimera, real name Kevin Meltzer, turns out to be one of these; he's after vigilantes because Oliver saved his life years ago, and he wants to collect their masks. He seems to consider the vigilantes surviving afterwards to be a lesser concern.
- The Lopsided Arm of the Law: After Team Arrow takes down Chimera, the SCPD shows up led by Mayor Pollard to arrest Curtis, Rene, and John.
- Magical Security Cam: Averted by only using Stock Footage that might conceivably be taken by CCTV or news cameras.
- My God, You Are Serious!: When Rene jokingly asks Emiko if she and Oliver are related, the latter confirms this to be true. At first he can't believe it.
- Narrator: The documentary is narrated by Kelsey Grammer no less.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Diaz pulls this in his interview; he claims that the only difference between himself (a convicted criminal) and Team Arrow (vigilantes, who are also criminals) is that he's smart enough to only look out for number one.
- Old Shame: In-Universe with footage of Diggle denying that his employer could be the Hood after his arrest in Season One.Past!Diggle: No, look, you don't become successful in my line of work without being really good at sizing people up. Trust me. Oliver Queen is no one's hero.Present!Diggle: Obviously, this particular comment didn't age too well.
- One-Man Army: Chimera is a skilled fighter, his suit is extremely durable and he has some very heavy weapons at his disposal. It takes the entirety of Team Arrow working together to finally bring him down.
- Pet the Dog: Mayor Pollard still believes the Anti-Vigilante Law should stand, but after Laurel declines to press charges she orders Dinah to deputize Rene, Curtis, and John.
- Poor Communication Kills: In a nice change of pace, the team are making efforts to avoid this; Oliver tells Diggle and Dinah the truth about Emiko's identity, and Diggle tries to tell Oliver about using Diaz in the Ghost Initiative, but he's interrupted by Curtis and they never get another chance to bring it up.
- Protagonist Title: The title refers to one of Oliver's Red Barons.
- Putting the Band Back Together: Team Arrow finally gets back together, after each member doing their own thing for most of the season in order to take down Chimera.
- The Resenter: William is quite pissed about having been sent of to boarding school by Oliver and Felicity. As it turns out later, he even managed to get himself expelled.
- Saying Too Much: Curtis blurts out about the top secret Blackwatch satellites used by ARGUS right in front of the documentary cameras.
- Shout-Out: Sin's surname, Simone is one to her creator Gail Simone.
- Chimaera’s real name Kevin Meltzer is taken from two of the Green Arrow comics’ former writers, Kevin Smith and Brad Meltzer.
- Small Steps Hero: It's implied that Rory has been doing good in other ways since giving up being Ragman.
- Special Edition Title: In order to make this episode really feel like an authentic documentary film, the episode begins with the then-current Warner Bros Pictures logo.
- Stranger Behind the Mask: If you were expecting Chimera to be unmasked as a familiar character, think again. He turns out to be a random Loony Fan who somehow managed to get his hands on military-grade equipment, and has never been seen up until now and won't likely be seen again.
- Superhero Paradox: Mayor Pollard cites this trope in her bid to get Oliver kicked off the force. She's not entirely correct; while Slade did lay siege to Starling City to take revenge on Oliver (although that has more to do with something that happened before Oliver started wearing the hood), Merlyn's plot to level the Glades and Darhk's attempt to destroy the city with a nuclear bomb were both in the works before Oliver became a vigilante, and in the latter case, it's only Team Arrow's intervention that kept the city from being reduced to a cinder.
- To Be Lawful or Good: While Rene's never made his feelings on the matter a secret, both Diggle and Curtis decide to suit up as vigilantes to help Oliver rather than obey the anti-vigilante law.
- Turn in Your Badge: Both Oliver and Dinah are ready to do this at the end, as they would both rather go to prison than arrest their friends. Thankfully, there is no need for that, as Pollard agrees to deputize them all.
- Turn Off the Camera
- Oliver asks that his son William not appear in the documentary for his own protection. Which he does anyway.
- When Rene tells Oliver that the Chimera took "the new Green Arrow", Oliver does a Film the Hand. Pedowitz isn't happy, pointing out that Oliver promised them full access.
- Twerp Sweating: Played for Laughs; When Rene gets the idea that William and Zoe might be into each other, he makes it a point to let the teens know he'll be in the room right outside theirs...cleaning his guns.
- Uncertain Doom: Helena and Rory's masks are in Chimera's collection, and Diggle later mentions that neither of them could be reached, but their statuses are left unclear by the end of the episode. Given that both Rene and Emiko survived their encounters with Chimera, it's not impossible that Helena and Rory did as well, especially since Chimera is revealed to being just a Loony Fan who wants to collect all vigilante masks.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Averted, for a change; Pollard is actually grateful for Team Arrow saving the day, although the law forces her to still have them arrested.
- Villain Has a Point: In his interview for the documentary, Diaz points out that vigilantes are criminals, which is accurate.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Rene wants to know why Oliver has been given a badge, and not him. Dinah replies that 1.) Rene is too reckless and 2.) Mayor Pollard is still pissed that she deputized Oliver and is still trying to get him kicked off the force.
- Whole Episode Flashback: At then end of the episode, it's revealed that the film is being watched by Blackstar & Connor Hawke in the Bad Future.
