Diaz has tracked down Anatoly to take his revenge for his "betrayal". Meanwhile Slabside becomes more dangerous when the guard Dunbar is murdered and Stanley is declared guilty. Back in Star City, Black Siren is frustrated that Felicity is the only one on Team Arrow who trusts her.
- Artistic License – Law: Earth-2 Laurel losing her first attempt to get Oliver released from Slabside is Right for the Wrong Reasons, because the case should probably have been dismissed without a hearing, instead of actually getting a ruling. She argues that Oliver should be released because of the abuse he suffered at Slabside and the FBI's failure to catch Diaz, but neither of these are legal reasons to release him:
- The prisoner abuse would probably entitle Oliver to monetary damages and/or transfer to another facility, since Felicity is correct that his Constitutional rights were violated (specifically his right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment), but not release.
- And while Oliver presumably pled guilty to breaking the anti-vigilante law in exchange for the charges against the rest of Team Arrow being dropped, there's no way to make a plea deal requiring the FBI to catch another criminal. Plea deals just don't work that way, so the FBI's failure to catch Diaz is irrelevant to Oliver's conviction and incarceration.
- Big Damn Heroes:
- The new Green Arrow stops Diaz from detonating his bomb, which allows the heroes to capture him and turn him into the SCPD.
- Black Siren pulls it when she's made a deal with the feds to free Oliver in exchange for testifying against Diaz.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: The end scene indicates Stanley might not be so harmless and innocent after all.
- "Blackmail" Is Such an Ugly Word: When Anatoly tells Team Arrow he doesn't want to "play the hero again" and retire to somewhere tropical, Felicity points out it's hard to travel being on the no flight list, which he isn't on... for the moment. She calls it an enthusiastic suggestion rather than a threat.
- Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Just before Felicity is about to shoot Diaz, Laurel comes in at the last second and tells her not to since they need Diaz alive to get Oliver out of prison.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: What Diaz inflicts on Anatoly when he captures him.
- Combat Parkour: New Green Arrow uses this fighting Diaz.
- The Corrupter: Surprisingly, given how he used to be Oliver's Morality Chain back then, Anatoly actually encourages Felicity in her ruthless ways, even providing her with a gun to shoot the incarcerated Diaz.
- Cryptic Background Reference: There's quite a bit of this in the flash-forwards: something called the "Mark of Four" is enough to convince Roy to end his self-imposed exile and return to Star City (what it is and what it means goes unrevealed, but Roy and Dinah are both disturbed by it); Felicity had some kind of falling out with her friends that led to her becoming the second Calculator; and something about Oliver makes Dinah apprehensive about trusting William.
- Defiant Captive: Anatoly towards Diaz.
- Distressed Dude: Anatoly is captured by Diaz and used by him to lure Oliver's friends into a trap.
- Evil Is Petty: Diaz is willing to see all of Star City go up in flames solely to spite Oliver, who's already rotting in prison because of Diaz's manipulations.
- Frame-Up: Subverted. At the end of the episode, it seems like Stanley really did murder the guard. Instead, Turner is being framed by him.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Aside from Felicity, nobody is particularly excited to have Black Siren around. Dinah is the only other person to treat her with anything approaching respect.
- Friendship Moment: In a surprising moment, Dinah talks Black Siren out of attacking the judge who denied Oliver's appeal telling her she has changed and to not throw that away.
- Grey-and-Grey Morality: Earth-2 Laurel invokes this, telling Oliver that everyone has good and bad inside of them and that he shouldn't put people in boxes.
- Hope Spot: The judge agrees to launch an investigation into the prisoner abuse at Slabside... but she refuses to get Oliver out of there.
- How the Mighty Have Fallen: After the Fight Club fiasco, Brick has lost his position of power in the prison, being harassed by the guards now.
- I Did What I Had to Do: Felicity is absolutely unapologetic about everything she did so far to capture Diaz.
- I'm Standing Right Here: During the briefing at A.R.G.U.S. headquarters, everybody talks about how uncomfortable it is to have Black Siren around while she is standing besides them.
- I Never Said It Was Poison: Oliver realizes he made a mistake freeing Stanley when the latter mentions how he found Turner's weapon, without having been told about it.
- Internal Reveal: Diggle and Dinah find out that Felicity and Black Siren are working together, and Rene's "help" with the new Green Arrow. Also, Stanley learns what Oliver went through in Level 2.
- Irony: Diaz is being kept in the same interrogation room he murdered Cayden James in, and is almost murdered there too.
- It's Personal: Diaz is pretty pissed at Anatoly for betraying his friendship. Anatoly counters that men like Diaz don't have any friends.
- Jumping Off the Slippery Slope:
- Felicity continues her downward spiral as she blackmails Anatoly into working with them and he's nearly killed on an operation to get data to lead to Diaz. She later tries to kill Diaz, but Black Siren talks her out it.
- Meanwhile, in the future Felicity apparently fell back into her old bad habits going so far as to appropriate her dad's moniker — the Calculator — for herself.
- Killed Offscreen: With the exception of Anatoly, Diaz slaughtered the entire Bratva.
- Know When to Fold Them: The Longbow Hunters retreat once Diaz is down and they realize they are outmatched.
- Laser-Guided Karma: After he bent over backwards to make sure that Oliver wound up in prison last season, Diaz now faces being sent to prison for the rest of his life while Oliver is set to go free.
- Like Parent, Like Child: In the future, Felicity (for unknown reasons) takes up her father's mantle as the Calculator.
- Manipulative Bastard: It's heavily implied that Stanley conned Oliver into framing Turner for murdering a guard to get away with having done it himself. In hindsight, this implies that their entire friendship was nothing but Stanley playing Oliver for the sake of protection and being able to get away with his own crimes.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Oliver has a silent one, when Stanley thanks him for finding Bronze Tiger's blade, which he shouldn't know about, meaning that Stanley may not be so innocent as he seems.
- Mythology Gag:
- Seems like Anatoly's old codename was "KGBeast", like in the comics.
- Earth-2 Laurel's attire during the A.R.G.U.S. scene is reminiscent
of one Otto Schmidt's Black Canary sketch during his run as artist on Green Arrow (Rebirth).
- Nerves of Steel: Diaz doesn't even flinch when he is at Felicity's mercy.
- Never My Fault:
- Funny enough, Laurel thinks that Oliver should own up to his mistakes when he brings up how Diaz got away because of her, even though he is telling the truth with that statement.
- Diaz doesn't seem to think that his own psychopathic behavior had anything to do with Anatoly betraying him.
- No Honor Among Thieves: The Longbow Hunters shamelessly abandon Diaz after he's been defeated.
- Noodle Incident: What exactly Felicity in the future did that led to a falling out with her friends is only alluded to.
- Not Me This Time: Turner screams at Oliver that he didn't murder the guard when he is being taken away to the Hole. The ending scene indicates he was sincere.
- Oh, Crap!: Diaz has one when he sees the new Green Arrow.
- Pyrrhic Victory: How Felicity feels about Diaz's capture since Oliver is still behind the bars. Laurel manages to turn it around by negotiating a deal with the feds to see Oliver released in exchange for his testimony against Diaz.
- Reformed, but Rejected:
- Oliver is understandably, but still needlessly, cruel to Black Siren when she visits him, believing she's only helping to free him for her own selfish reasons and tells her she'll never replace his Laurel. But he's forced to eat his words when he finds out that thanks to her Slabside is being investigated.
- Diggle tells Black Siren he doesn't want her on Team Arrow's operations; yet he's fine with Anatoly on the group.
- Replacement Goldfish: Oliver mocks this, telling Black Siren she'll never replace his Laurel. Near the end of the episode, she throws this back at him when revealing the results of her appeal to the federal court, stating she knows full well she's not his Laurel because she was never trying to be her Earth-1 counterpart in the first place.
- The Reveal: What did Roy see inside Oliver's bow that convinced him to return to Star City? The Mark of Four, whatever that is. We do get a reveal, however, that there seems to exist some kind of plan to level all of Star City.
- Shame If Something Happened: When Anatoly wants to leave without helping the team, Felicity implicitly threatens to put him on the Most Wanted list.
- Slowly Slipping Into Evil: By this point, Felicity has become disturbingly apathetic to the suffering of anyone who isn't Oliver; she not only threatens Anatoly into helping, she knowingly endangers him to get a chance at getting Diaz, and barely feels any remorse about it after Diggle narrowly saves his life. The hope of Oliver getting free seems to have put a halt on her descent into darkness, but the flash-forwards imply that she'll end up as a villain regardless.
- Skewed Priorities: In the middle of the mission debrief, Curtis complains that everybody forgot about his birthday.Felicity: Your party's in a week, act surprised!
- Strike Me Down with All of Your Hatred!: Diaz actually encourages Felicity to just shoot him already. Fortunately, Laurel steps in.
- Terminology Title: Due process is the legal requirement that the state must respect all legal rights that are owed to a person. Due process balances the power of law of the land and protects the individual person from it.
- Then Let Me Be Evil: After everyone voices their distrust towards Black Siren, and her best efforts at securing Oliver's freedom fail, she tries to murder the judge who refuses to get Oliver out of prison. Fortunately, Dinah talks her down.
- This Cannot Be!: Diaz utters a subdued "impossible" when he sees the new Green Arrow. He initially seemed to think it was Oliver.
- Toxic Friend Influence: While Diggle tries to talk Felicity down of her more questionable decisions, Anatoly tells to embrace it.
- Vodka Drunkenski: Felicity assumes that Anatoly is drinking vodka out of a flask near the end of the episode. He's offended by the stereotype, then admits that it actually is vodka.
- We Used to Be Friends: Anatoly, on behest of Felicity, visits an old associate named Piotr to gather intel on Diaz. Piotr is not happy about whatever happened when they last saw each other.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Diggle takes Felicity to task for her more questionable decisions in finding Diaz including risking Anatoly's life, warning her that she may not be a hero any longer when her quest to find Diaz is over.
- What You Are in the Dark: Laurel uses this as an argument in Oliver's favor when trying to convince a judge to overturn his conviction; he had a chance to escape in the previous episode, but instead used the opportunity to help his fellow inmates.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Dinah, of all people, manages to convince Black Siren that she really has become a better person, and the message sinks in; not only does Laurel spare the federal judge who denied Oliver's release, she talks Felicity out of killing Diaz as well.
- You Remind Me of X: Anatoly tells Felicity that her current self reminds him of Oliver back in Russia — someone who's not a villain per se but willing to do what they think is necessary no matter the cost.
