Line #25 Recap/ArrowS2E17BirdsOfPrey


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2
3	!Tropes Applying to This Episode
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5	* AlasPoorVillain: Helena gets to see her father die, just not by her hand, and is arrested. Ollie isn't angry but rather feels sad for her and lets her know she's not alone.
6	* AssholeVictim: Hendrik's KickTheDog moments in "The Promise" are presumably so the audience won't feel too bothered when he's handed over to Slade.
7	* BadLiar: Slade can tell Sara is lying when she says she doesn't have Hendrik.
8	* TheBait: Both Frank Bertinelli--who's in on the plan to catch his daughter--and Laurel Lance who was given her job back because she's the most expendable member of the DA's team. When Laurel figures this out, she {{blackmail}}s the DA into giving her job back for real, rather than reveal the whole hostage crisis was their fault.
9	* BatmanGambit: By Adam Donner of all people. He sets a trap for Helena by staging a public trial for her father, knowing that she will eventually show up and try to kill him.
10	* BigSisterWorship: Inverted as it's big sis Laurel who thinks that Sara is the strong one.
11	* BreakHerHeartToSaveHer: When Thea refuses to accept Roy's rather curt breakup, Roy lets Thea catch him making out with a blonde so she'll leave him of her own accord. Oliver finds her in tears afterwards--turns out Thea is smart enough to know Roy is invoking this trope, but is still angry because he won't tell her why he's breaking up with her.
12	* CallBack: Helena's snarky comment about Oliver dressing up his girls is a reference to how Oliver made up Helena's superhero outfit.
13	* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: Helena's final conversation with Oliver in her cell implies that she could redeem herself and one day become a hero, but this is the [[LongBusTrip last we see of her]].
14	* ChronicHeroSyndrome: Laurel resists the Canary's attempt to get her out of the courthouse, insisting on helping save the hostages. It backfires when she becomes a hostage herself as Helena can [[IHaveYourWife coerce Oliver]] into handing over her father.
15	* ClarkKenting: Laurel can't seem to tell that the Canary is Sara even when she's right in front of her. Sara uses a [[SecretIdentityVocalShift voice changer]] and DominoMask and like the Arrow tries to keep her face averted when speaking to her.
16	* {{Cliffhanger}}: Slade has abducted Thea.
17	* CopsNeedTheVigilante: Quentin is covertly helping his daughter and the Arrow. Averted with the Special Operations commander who's unimpressed with this trope and orders his men to shoot anyone they see in a mask.
18	* CreateYourOwnVillain
19	-->'''Oliver:''' I failed Helena, I created the Huntress.
20	* CreateYourOwnVillain: Ollie feels this way about the Huntress and Slade.
21	* DarkActionGirl: Both Huntress and Sara--the latter being not quite on board with Oliver's ThouShaltNotKill ethics.
22	* DidNotThinkThisThrough: Slade decapitated the engineer, so there's no-one to get the ''Amazo'' working again. Hendrik has the required skill, but he's one of the escaped prisoners.
23	* DisguisedHostageGambit: When Special Operations storm the courthouse, they find a hostage dressed as the Huntress, as Helena leads Laurel out at gunpoint while ImpersonatingAnOfficer.
24	* DoesNotKnowHisOwnStrength: Roy breaks a man's collarbone just by grabbing his shoulder after he pisses Roy off. This convinces Roy to go ahead with breaking up with Thea, for fear he might harm her too.
25	* DramaticIrony: Thea, at her DespairEventHorizon, realizes that Ollie may be [[ObliviousGuiltSlinging the only one ''who's never been hiding anything from her.'']]
26	* ElectricTorture: Slade threatens he will kill Ollie this way if Sara doesn't hand over Hendrik.
27	-->'''Sara:''' Slade! Stop, please! [[WeUsedToBeFriends Look, he's your friend!]]
28	-->''(minion jabs shock prod into Oliver's side)''
29	-->'''Slade:''' That is the sound of electricity surging through my friend. Five milliamps, to be exact. Seven causes cardiac arrest. ''(screams)'' Oliver just passed out with six milliamps. He'll be delivered with the fatal blow of seven in one hour if Hendrik is not standing here by my side!
30	* ExtremelyProtectiveChild: After her father gets shot, Sara throws the man responsible out a window, to Dad's annoyance as he was wearing a bulletproof vest and was therefore unharmed. Laurel has to talk her down from killing Huntress at the climax, after Huntress threatens both [[ViolentlyProtectiveGirlfriend Oliver]] and [[KnightTemplarBigBrother Laurel]].
31	* {{Fanservice}}: If you like to see two hot chicks dressed in black leather fighting each other...
32	* FiveSecondForeshadowing: Laurel wonders why Frank Bertinelli is being brought through the courthouse lobby moments before Huntress attacks.
33	* GetItOverWith: Subverted when the Huntress is holding her crossbow on Daddy.
34	-->'''Frank:''' Well, what are you waiting for? (beat) ''I said, [[DoubleMeaning what are you waiting for?!]]''
35	-->''[[LuredIntoATrap Special Operations pour into the room.]]''
36	* GreenEyedMonster: Downplayed, but on hearing that "Oliver's PsychoExGirlfriend hell-bent on revenge against her father" is in town, Ollie gets irritated that it's the 'girlfriend' part that Sara picks up on.
37	* HasAType: Various people [[LampshadeHanging note]] the fact that Ollie tends toward [[ActionGirl Action Girls]] who have a tendency to kill, and dress in sexy, leathery get-ups.
38	-->'''Huntress:''' ''(on getting a close look at Canary)'' Oliver does like to dress up his girls.
39	* HostageSituation: After Oliver hustles her father out of the courthouse, Helena has her men take hostages and threatens to execute them if Frank isn't handed over to her. The police are hardly going to comply, but fortunately she's able to grab Laurel too, knowing that the Arrow isn't restrained by legal niceties.
40	* HypocrisyNod: Sara wants to just kill the Huntress, and points out that Oliver didn't have a problem with trying to headshot Slade when his own family was threatened. Oliver concedes the point that when it comes to their own families no-one is objective.
41	* IDidWhatIHadToDo: Invoked by Sara when she has to protect the people she loves, now and in the past. In the island flashbacks, Slade is threatening to torture Oliver to death unless Hendrik is handed over to him. Hendrik has no intention of going back to the hellhole of the ''Amazo'' and he's entirely justified in doing so--Oliver means nothing to him, and he regards Sara as a collaborator of the man who had him imprisoned and tortured. That doesn't stop Sara and Anatoli from knocking Hendrik out and tying him up for delivery.
42	* IHaveBoobsYouMustObey: Felicity mentions it when she finds out the guy Huntress recruited into her plan was a local frat boy and says that explains why he did it.
43	--> '''Felicity''': Boobs can get a frat boy to do anything.
44	--> '''Oliver''': I was a frat boy.
45	--> '''Felicity''': I rest my case.
46	* ImpaledPalm:
47	** A variation. [[SuperToughness Roy]] grabs a handgun by the muzzle, and is shot through the hand. By the end of the episode, [[HealingFactor he's back to relative normal with a scab]].
48	** Played straight during the BatmanColdOpen when Oliver sticks his arrows through the hands of several mooks with guns.
49	* ItWasAGift: Roy spends all his spare money for an expensive bracelet for Thea, which Thea throws back at him after catching Roy cheating. Roy is shown crushing it in his hand after watching Thea walk out of Verdant.
50	* TheMissusAndTheEx: As per the RunningGag with Helena, this time with Sara as the current girlfriend crossing swords with the PsychoExGirlfriend. One look at her black leather outfit is enough to tell Helena that she's fighting Oliver's latest girl.
51	* MythologyGag
52	** Ollie calls Roy "Speedy" in order to get him to calm down. [[EmbarrassingNickname Turns out he doesn't like it]].
53	** The episode title comes from the [[ComicBook/BirdsofPrey superhero group]] of which Black Canary and the Huntress were members.
54	** The gangster Hugo Mannheim shares his last name with one of DC's foremost crime bosses, Bruno Mannheim, head of Intergang and minion of ComicBook/{{Darkseid}}.
55	** At one point Helena is at the corner of "Gail Street and Simone", an obvious reference to ComicBook/BirdsOfPrey writer Creator/GailSimone.
56	* MarkOfShame: Slade has Oliver branded with Shado's tattoo in reference to this trope.
57	* MeaningfulEcho: Laurel uses both "Show me" (from Sara) and "Once you let the darkness inside, it never comes out" (from Helena).
58	* NiceJobBreakingItHero:
59	** Laurel convinces Sara to let her help save the hostages instead of getting her out of the courthouse. When the attempt fails, this only gives Helena a hostage that she knows can force Oliver's cooperation.
60	** Oliver convinces Roy to break up with Thea to protect her from his Mirakuru-induced rages. He forgets that Roy is the member of Team Arrow he assigned to protect her from Slade. When [[LeaveMeAlone Thea walks home alone]] after their breakup, Slade appears and offers to drive her home. As Thea has no idea that "Mr. Wilson" is anything other than a business friend of her mother, she has no problem getting into the car with him.
61	* NotSoDifferentRemark:
62	** Laurel tries this with Helena to get her to stop with her revenge plan, saying she knows what it's like to lose someone and feel lost. It actually comes back to Laurel when she blackmails the DA to get her job back; when the latter notes she didn't think Laurel was capable of blackmail, she quotes Helena about what the darkness does to a person.
63	** Oliver admits to Helena that his [[APupilOfMineUntilHeTurnedToEvil attempt to redeem her failed]] because at the time he was a killer as well.
64	* OhCrap: A funnier one than usual, as Felicity takes a second to realize why Quentin calling the Arrow while Oliver is standing right next to him is such a bad thing (she's starting to lose track of who knows Oliver's secret identity).
65	* PapaWolf: Quentin is willing to kidnap Frank Bertinelli to save Laurel's life. Sara is entirely willing to kill to do the same.
66	* PoorCommunicationKills: Because no-one in Team Arrow has warned her about Slade, Thea has no problem accepting a lift from him when she walks home alone after breaking up with Roy.
67	* PrisonerExchange:
68	** Slade wants to exchange Ollie with Hendrik, who is the only person able to fix the ''Amazo''.
69	** At the episode's climax, Helena exchanges Laurel for her father.
70	* RabidCop: The Special Operations commander hates vigilantes so much he goes off by himself to the PrisonerExchange and opens fire on it. Ironically the only person he kills is Frank Bertinelli with a stray bullet, and Quentin knocks him out [[ConvenientlyTimedAttackFromBehind just before he can shoot the Arrow]].
71	* RedemptionRejection: Both Ollie and Laurel give Helena a chance to save herself, only for her to throw it back in their faces each time.
72	--> '''Helena''': Once you let the darkness inside, it never comes out.
73	* RemovingTheEarpiece: Sara when Oliver starts complaining about her not removing Laurel from the courthouse.
74	* RightInFrontOfMe: Laurel tells the Canary of her admiration for her sister who remains strong despite everything she has suffered.
75	* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: Helena's back, and she's not gonna let her dad live this time.
76	* [[HeWhoFightsMonsters She Who Fights Monsters]]: Both on the island and in the present, Sara is willing to cross the MoralEventHorizon to protect the people she loves. She forcibly hands over Hendrik in exchange for Oliver, and is willing to break Team Arrow's ThouShaltNotKill rule to protect Laurel.
77	* SecretIdentity: Felicity lampshades the confusion caused by sorting out who knows Oliver is the Arrow versus who's just working with the Arrow without being a SecretKeeper.
78	* ShortDistancePhoneCall: Quentin calls the Arrow, only to be startled by Oliver's phone ringing at the same time. Fortunately Oliver has set up his phone to show his mother is calling when the BatPhone is activated (Moira and Oliver are no longer on speaking terms, so she wouldn't be calling him for real).
79	* TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou: Helena just gives up the fight when she realises her father was killed by a stray bullet fired by a renegade Special Ops officer.
80	-->'''Helena:''' It was supposed to be me...
81	* TokenEvilTeammate: Sara invokes this when she meets Laurel as the Canary.
82	--> '''Laurel:''' Are you one of the good guys?
83	--> '''Canary:''' No, but I'm friends with them.
84	* TropaholicsAnonymous: We get to see Laurel participate in a meeting, with the typical "Hello, my name's Laurel, and I'm an alcoholic" greeting.
85	* UsedToBeASweetKid: Frank to his daughter, though you can also read this as a manipulative attempt to avoid her killing him. Not that that would work.
86	-->'''Frank:''' I'm sorry for that little girl I used to take to ballet class. Go on ski trips with. The one I used to help with her math homework. [[EveryoneHatesMath Oh, she hated math.]] Sorry that I caused her so much hurt. [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes 'Cause she brought me so much joy.]]
87	* VengeanceFeelsEmpty: Helena gets revenge on her father, just not the way she expected. And she still feels empty and unfulfilled about it.
88	* WeNeedADistraction:
89	** Knowing that Team Arrow will be on to her, Helena steals a vehicle with a GPS tracker and then pays a guy to go joyriding in it, while she enters Starling City by hijacking another vehicle.
90	** When Hendrik pulls a gun Anatoli says YouWouldntShootMe, but that's only to distract him while Sara clobbers Hendrik from behind while he's busy waving the gun in Anatoli's face.
91	* WhyDontYouJustShootHim: Neither Diggle or Sara is impressed to find Oliver making 'non-lethal' arrows for the Huntress.
92	* WillfullyWeak: Sara can defeat Helena more easily when she's not [[ThouShaltNotKill holding back]].
93	* YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre: Laurel decides INeedAFreakingDrink and the Canary asks why she's breaking her sobriety vow. Then Laurel (not knowing she's talking to Sara) says she went back to work to show her sister she could be strong. The Canary says, "Then show me." Later the Canary is going to snap the Huntress's neck.
94	-->'''Laurel:''' You're not a killer!
95	-->'''Sara/Canary:''' [[DoubleMeaning You don't know who I am, Laurel!]] Not really!

Context Recap / ArrowS2E17BirdsOfPrey