Oliver is faced with a life-or-death situation after being double-crossed by Lyla. Laurel has an opportunity to make amends.
Tropes:
- Alternate History: In the time loop, Quentin survived being shot by Diaz and remained Mayor of Star City. There's also mention of introducing the Vigilante Task Force from the previous season to other cities, implying that Team Arrow got a lot more support under Quentin's administration than under Pollard's.
- Arbitrary Skepticism: Defied by Quentin in the second iteration. Oliver expects Quentin to react this way to his claim of being stuck in a "Groundhog Day" Loop, but Quentin accepts it immediately. When Oliver is surprised by this, Quentin points out just how many weird things have happend in their lives, so why should something like this be outside of the realm of possibility?
- Black Comedy: Quentin's speech includes a joke about Oliver's time in Slabside. To his credit, Quentin asks Oliver if it's okay to make the joke before actually giving the speech.
- The Bus Came Back: Paul Blackthorne returns as Quentin Lance.
- Call-Back:
- The intro uses the old logo, and Oliver even wears his outfit from his days as the "Arrow".
- Dinah uses Sara's canary cry device she gave to her.
- In their last conversation, Oliver and Quentin recall their messy personal history, with Quentin attributing their later alliance to Laurel and Sara's trust in Oliver.
- Celebrity Paradox: Laurel makes a reference to Edge of Tomorrow, a film which stars Franz Drameh (Jefferson Jackson).
- Complexity Addiction: Discussed; when Oliver questions the point of the Monitor subjecting him to the time loop instead of just telling him what he wanted, Lyla replies that Oliver is too stubborn to accept the Monitor's point unless he came to the conclusion himself.
- Determinator: Oliver steadfastly refuses to abandon the possibility of saving Quentin in the time loop. Deconstructed, as it's exactly this quality that keeps Oliver in the time loop, and he can only escape by admitting that he can't fight fate.
- Event Title: Referring to the "Groundhog Day" Loop Oliver and Laurel went through.
- Face Death with Dignity:
- Quentin takes the news of his death in the real world rather well and later gracefully accepts it (multiple times) to help Laurel and Oliver succeed.
- The episode ends with Oliver determined to do this himself; in the last run of the time loop, he calmly expresses his pride in his children and voices his hopes that he'll see Quentin again in whatever afterlife awaits him.
- Fatal Flaw: Oliver's stubbornness is the root of his every problem in this episode. The whole reason that the Monitor subjects him to the time loop in the first place is because the only way Oliver would ever accept that he can't escape his fate is if he comes to that conclusion himself, and Oliver proves the truth of this throughout the episode; even with Lyla all but spelling it out for him, Oliver keeps pushing forward until Quentin's last death drives the point home for him.
- Fate Worse than Death: Laurel has to watch Quentin die over and over again in the time loop, which she admits is her idea of hell. Small wonder that she and Oliver initially assume that the time loop is the Monitor punishing them for their defiance.
- Feet-First Introduction: How Lyla reveals herself before she shoots Quentin.
- Foreshadowing: Quentin refers to cheating death during his first meeting with Oliver, and John later calls attention to Oliver's absolute refusal to give up. These are the exact reasons why the Monitor placed Oliver in the time loop, although Oliver's pigheaded stubbornness keeps him from putting two and two together until the very last loop.
- Good All Along: While he's definitely an example of Good Is Not Nice, the Monitor is established as one of the good guys in this episode. By extension, Lyla is still on the side of good despite secretly working for the Monitor.
- "Groundhog Day" Loop: Oliver and Laurel spend the episode trapped in a time loop that resets every time Quentin dies. Laurel is removed from it when she makes peace with Quentin's death, but Oliver takes a little longer, only freeing himself when he makes peace with not only Quentin's death, but his own.
- I Did What I Had to Do: Lyla justifies herself in just wanting to protect her family, just as Oliver wanted to when he left Felicity and Mia in the cabin.
- Innocently Insensitive: While she understandably sees it as a hellish punishment, the Monitor put Laurel into the time loop as a reward; he was glad that she wouldn't betray Oliver and wanted to do her a favor by letting her say goodbye to Quentin, not seeming to realise the pain that watching him die repeatedly would inflict on her.
- It's Personal:
- Oliver and Laurel assume that this is the case. The Monitor is torturing them due to Oliver trying to kill him and Laurel not taking his offer. Turns out they are wrong, he's actually doing this as a favor to Laurel (to say goodbye to Quentin) and as a test for Oliver (to make him realize that he can't fight fate).
- Laurel is very pissed at Lyla, promising revenge. She abandons this at the end of the episode.
- Live-Action Escort Mission: What Oliver and Laurel repeatedly try to do for Quentin, especially while fending off White’s goons from a wounded Quentin.
- Mental World: Except for the final scene, the entire episode takes place in Oliver and Laurel's minds while they lie unconscious in a tent on Lian Yu.
- Never Got to Say Goodbye: Subverted; in the real world, Laurel never got to say goodbye to Quentin, but the time loop gives her the opportunity to do so, allowing her to finally make peace with losing her "father".
- The Oner: The scene with Quentin and Oliver fighting off Anderson White's men goes for 1 minute, 10 seconds without a cut. It's relatively short as far as oners go, but is so dense with stunts and explosions that it might feel much longer.
- Parental Substitute: The episode highlights how Quentin meant as a surrogate father to both Oliver and Earth-2 Laurel.
- Pet the Dog:
- The Monitor puts Laurel in the time loop to give her a chance to make peace with Quentin's death. After waking up, Oliver realises that Novu did it to reward Laurel for passing a Secret Test of Character by not betraying Oliver.
- When Oliver asks why the Monitor brought his children and Connor Hawke to the present, Lyla replies that "time is a gift", implying that the Monitor wanted to give Oliver a chance to get to know his children before he met his fate in the Crisis.
- The Reveal:
- The Monitor's "offer" to restore Earth-2 was a Secret Test of Character for Laurel; he was trying to see if she would betray Oliver, and was pleased that she didn't.
- As was implied two episodes prior, it was indeed the Monitor who brought Mia, William, and Connor to the present day.
- Secret Test of Character: The Monitor's offer to Laurel is revealed to be this; he had been hoping that she wouldn't betray Oliver, and rewards her (albeit in a rather strange fashion) in this episode for choosing correctly.
- Seen It All: Quentin (and later John too, after some hesitation during the first tries) is quick to believe Oliver's and Laurel's story of this being a test by an all-powerful cosmic being, due to all the crazy stuff he already witnessed.
- Shout-Out:
- Quentin compares the time loop to Groundhog Day. Laurel sees it as more akin to Edge of Tomorrow, but admits that it comes to the same thing.
- Laurel calls Lyla "Dr. Phil".
- The episode's plot is heavily influenced by two well-known works within the Star Trek universe: The episode "Cause and Effect" from Star Trek: The Next Generation note , and the Kobayashi Maru from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (also referenced in the 2009 reboot film).
- Unwinnable Training Simulation: What the Mental World ultimately turns out to be. It eventually becomes clear that The Conspiracy to assassinate Quentin cannot be fully uncovered as it will inevitably go on forever due to The Monitor designing it that way. The purpose is for Oliver to accept that he can't save Quentin in this world, just like he can't save himself in the real world.
- Vagueness Is Coming: Lyla reassures Oliver that The Monitor is on their side while the real, exponentially more dangerous, and still unnamed threat is coming soon.
- Where It All Began: Appropriatly enough, for the last episode before the Crisis, Oliver's final mission brings him back to Lian Yu.
- You Can't Fight Fate: The Monitor subjects Oliver to the time loop in order to drive home the simple fact that Oliver cannot escape his death in the impending Crisis, so that he can accept it and stop wasting time fighting the Monitor.
