Roy comes back to Star City to help Team Arrow combat the Ninth Circle. But two subway guards are killed in the confrontation between Team Arrow and the Ninth Circle which gets the SPCD involved which forces Dinah to make some hard choices.
- Bait-and-Switch: Multiple people other than Roy are implied to be the real murderer throughout the episode, namely John, Rene, Emiko and even Oliver himself.
- Bullet Time: Arrow Time in this case, when Emiko dodges one of Roy's shots.
- The Bus Came Back:
- In the present Roy Harper comes back to Star City to help Team Arrow with the Ninth Circle.
- Sergeant Bingsley, the rough cop who has it out for Team Arrow, returns.
- Came Back Wrong: Roy was killed and Thea and Nyssa brought him back via a Lazarus Pit. They gave him the Lotus Elixir to cure the blood lust but the Mirakuru in his system eventually negated its effects.
- CliffHanger: The episode ends with Emiko luring Team Arrow into a building and then blowing it up.
- Consummate Liar: Dinah even compliments the team on it.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Jason Toth, CEO of Aerodyne Initiatives, who provides Emiko with the weapon.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Emiko's entire motivation for releasing a biological weapon on Star City is for revenge on Robert's failures as a father. Going even further, she plans to utterly destroy Oliver's status as a hero before killing him, reasoning that, like their father, he doesn't deserve to live.
- Evil Is Petty: While Robert's actions are unforgivable, Emiko is prepared to lay waste to Star City and destroy Oliver's life just to get back at her long dead father (who died because of Emiko's own inaction, no less).
- Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: Oliver has come to believe this about Emiko after she kills Dante and still continues her association with the Ninth Circle. Rene too when he learns that she's the leader of the Ninth Circle.
- Hoist by Their Own Petard: The heroes are ultimately the cause of their own impending downfall; covering up Roy's murder of two innocent guards provided Emiko with the perfect means to set fire to her hated half-brother's legacy.
- How We Got Here: A big portion of the episode is recounting the events from 3 days back.
- Inspector Javert: Sergeant Bingsley, who wants to uncover the truth behind the murders of the two security guards at all cost. Subverted with Dinah, who is revealed to be actually in on the whole thing.
- Internal Reveal:
- Bingsley learns about the 9th Circle and the fact that the new Green Arrow is Oliver's sister and part of it.
- Roy learns about Emiko too.
- Rene is flabbergasted that Emiko is the Ninth Circle's leader.
- Oliver learns that Emiko knew about Merlyn's plans to blow up The Queen's Gambit and didn't tell him.
- Kick the Dog: Oliver has never been anything but kind to Emiko since he found out about her, and if it hadn't been for him, she'd never have learned the truth behind her mother's death. Emiko is nonetheless downright gleeful in gloating about her plans to kill him, ravage the city he protects, and ensure that his legacy is nothing but ashes.
- Leave Him to Me!: Rene wants to take down Emiko himself.
- Le Parkour: Oliver called Roy specifically because he was so good at this, for breaking into Aerodyne Initiatives.
- Locked Out of the Loop: Team Arrow brought in Roy for back and went to confront the Ninth Circle without telling Dinah. This comes backs to bite them when two subway guards are killed and she's forced to grill her teammates. Only for it to subverted when it turns that Dinah was there with them. Roy killed the two guards because of a Lazarus Pit fueled blood lust fit in his system.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Roy didn't bother telling anybody about Team Arrow he now suffers from blood lust and unlike Sara or Thea it can't be managed or cured because of lingering Mirakuru in his system, which comes back to haunt him big time when he kills two innocent guards in a blood lust fit and the rest of the team is forced to cover it up not only to save Roy but themselves as well.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Roy's murder of the two guards is brutal.
- No-Sell: Nyssa and Thea tried the Lotus Elixir on Roy after he was resurrected by a Lazarus Pit, only for it to lose its effects. Roy speculates that the Mirakuru in his system negated its effects.
- Oh, Crap!: Felicity's delayed reaction to realising that neither she nor Dinah erased the incriminating security footage.
- Once More, with Clarity: Once Dinah's complicity is revealed, the events of the ill-fated mission are repeated, this time showing Dinah as present and revealing what truly happened.
- Poor Communication Kills: Oliver chides Roy on not coming clean about being resurrected, as that would've given the team a heads-up about his bloodlust.
- Protagonist-Centered Morality: Roy killed two subway guards in a Lazarus Pit fueled blood lust fit and Team Arrow — Dinah included all lie to save him and to keep the Team Arrow / SCPD relationship alive. Emiko sabotages it by sending the footage that would expose to Sergeant Bingsley.
- Redemption Rejection: It's made abundantly clear that Emiko is beyond redemption. Learning that Dante killed her mother isn't enough to motivate her to let go of her Biblical vendetta with her half-brother.
- Unstoppable Rage: Combining multiple chemical processes, none of which of which are fully understood, would obviously have unpredictable results; the traces of Mirakuru lingering in Roy's system, combined with the effects of the Lazarus Pit, ultimately cancel out the effects of the Lotus Elixir, leaving Roy as the victim of fits of uncontrollable rage.
- Wham Episode: Roy was killed, resurrected by a Lazarus Pit and the Mirakuru in his system prevents the Lotus Elixir from curing the blood lust.
- Wham Line:
- From Oliver to Roy: "When did you die?"
- Between Dinah and Felicity:Felicity: Thank you for wiping that security camera footage. I could not get there before the cops did.
Dinah: I thought that was you.
- The Worf Effect: Virgil easily disposes of Roy.
- You Killed My Father: Averted. Finding out Dante killed her mom, doesn't deter Emiko from her life of villainy one bit. She's in far too deep with the Ninth Circle and her hatred of the Queen Family is too strong.
- You Wouldn't Shoot Me: Rene towards Emiko. Sadly, he's wrong.
