Recap / Arrow S 2 E 19 The Man Under The Hood

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Tropes Applying to this Episode:

• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: A variant — Deathstroke easily breaks into the Foundry (just to steal the Skeleton Key), but basically could've taken it over if he wished.
• Badass Boast: Slade, when Oliver confronts him at the episode's climax:
  "If you could feel the power coursing through me, you'd know that I do not fear an arrow."
• BFG: The Ray Gun that Cisco uses on Deathstroke. Too bad it only works once and just slows him down.
• Bait-and-Switch: The episode opens with another gang of masked villains on their way to commit a crime. Then one removes their balaclava to reveal...Felicity?
• Big, Screwed-Up Family: As Thea points out she's the daughter of two mass murderers and she had a crush on the man who turned out to be her half-brother.
  Thea: You know who else is my half-brother? Tommy. Tommy, who I tried to kiss. I tried to kiss my half brother... before my real father killed him. That's how screwed up I am!
• Blatant Lies: Felicity trying to conceal how she knows just who robbed the STAR Lab warehouse.
• Call-Back: Loads of them.
  • Team Arrow revisit the factory where they first met Barry. And subsequently blow it up.
  • The Skeleton Key that William Tockman tried to steal is used to infiltrate the Queen Consolidated factory, then is stolen by Slade.
  • Oliver remembers that Moira warned him not to trust Isabel.
  • Oliver and Slade briefly engage in stickfighting like in their first Training Montage in "The Odyssey". Slade promptly lampshades it. "Don't forget who taught you how to fight, kid!"
  • The Big Board Laurel has done up includes newspaper articles about Marcus Redmond, Thea Queen's rescue from the Hoods and Laurel being rescued from the Dollmaker.
  • Laurel has a flashback of the Canary in "Birds of Prey" after seeing Sara's scars.
  • Thea freaks out over the fact that she almost kissed Tommy Merlyn.
• Call-Forward: Oliver kills Ivo for Sara to spare her the feeling he had after taking his first life. Little do either of them know, she'll soon end up on Nanda Parbat and be trained to kill as a specialty.
  Oliver: Once you take a life... it changes you forever. And I don't want that for you.
• Chekhov's Gun: Ivo tells Sara there is a cure for the Mirakuru, and gives her the key to his safe where it is kept.
• Conveniently Timed Attack from Behind: Well technically from the front, but it's played this way when Diggle shoots Isabel just as she's about to shoot the Arrow.
• Crucified Hero Shot: Roy isn't just strapped into the blood transfuser, he's crucified.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: When Deathstroke breaks into the Foundry, he easily wipes the floor with the whole team — except Felicity, who wisely doesn't even try to attack him and finds a hiding spot.
• Double Meaning: When Laurel says (regarding her father's claim not to know the Canary's Secret Identity) "Sometimes it's the people closest to us who lie to us best", it's an obvious barb at her sister taking off with Oliver on the Queen's Gambit.
• Downer Ending: Thea walks out on her family, abandoning any chance they have of salvaging the family wealth. Slade now has twenty men who have the same super-abilities that he does, while Isabel now has those same abilities (and insanity) to fuel her own vendetta. Roy has been rescued but is still in a coma. The only hopeful sign is that Felicity may get her friends in STAR Labs to whip up an antidote.
• Dramatic Irony: Oliver kills Ivo to spare Sara from becoming a killer, only for her to become a Professional Killer for the League of Assassins.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Danielle Panabaker as Caitlin Snow and Carlos Valdes as Cisco Ramon show up in this episode before their debut in the Flash spinoff.
• Exact Words: When Laurel asks Sara if she thinks father's lying about not knowing who the Canary is, Sara says it's not like him to lie. Of course she didn't say he wasn't lying, because her father knows exactly who she is.
• A Friend in Need: Laurel turns up at the end to give Oliver a hug, knowing just how much he needs it now.
• Good is Not Nice: The episode opens with Team Arrow dressing in balaclavas to blow up the Applied Science building, including knocking unconscious guards that used to work for Oliver.
• Half-Sibling Angst: Thea has a minor freak out when she finds out that Tommy, her older brother's best friend that she crushed on throughout her childhood, was actually her older paternal half-brother.
• Heel Realisation: A dying Ivo reflects on how he was a once good man who let his obsession turn him into a monster.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Det. Lance think serving a little time in a dangerous prison surrounded by people he's put away who will be more than happy to see him dead is the least he could do for the Arrow.
• Hope Spot:
  • Team Arrow blow up the Applied Sciences building, showing they're fighting back against Slade's plan. Slade then walks right into the Arrowcave, kicks everyone's ass and walks out again with the Skeleton Key, which he uses to steal an advanced technological device that actually works better for his purposes.
  • Team Arrow knows the one time Slade will be weak is when he uses the bio-transfuser to inject Mirakuru into the other members of his 'army', and he can't activate it without causing a massive energy spike giving away his location. When this happens Oliver rushes to stop him...only to find Roy being used in Slade's place, meaning Slade is there to confront Oliver at his full strength.
  • Oliver tells Thea how Robert Queen knew the truth about her, yet still loved her like a daughter. Thea listens...then walks out on them anyway.
• Human Resources: Roy is used as a source of Mirakuru for Slade's soldiers.
• Hypocritical Humor: A nervous Felicity complains that the plan to blow up Applied Sciences is awful, only for it to be pointed out that it was her plan.
  Felicity: I didn't think you'd actually say yes.
• I Have No Family: Thea rejects all attempts to reconcile with her family.
• It's All My Fault: Because he missed his chance to cure Slade of the Mirakuru back on the Amazo, Oliver blames himself for Slade's vendetta now.
• Killed Off for Real: Ivo is shot by Oliver just as he's saying that he never used any of the Mirakuru for himself, to make it clear to the audience that he won't be reviving like Slade did.
• Mercy Kill: Ivo asks Sara to kill him quickly, as his severed hand has become massively infected, condemning him to a slow death. Oliver does it instead, not wanting her to be changed as he's been by taking a life.
• Mortal Wound Reveal: Cisco and Caitlin see a guard not moving or responding to their questions. Then he falls forward with a knife in his back to reveal Deathstroke standing behind him.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Cisco asks Caitlin if she's getting a bad "vibe" off the guard before he drops dead. Subtle, Greg Berlanti.
  • The gun Cisco used against Deathstroke was invented by psycho Arthur Light, otherwise known as the supervillain Dr. Light.
  • Bludhaven is mentioned again, as the place where Roy was captured.
  • Sara screaming while hurling herself at Slade in the Arrowcave is another reference to the Canary cry.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • Slade points out that Oliver drove away Roy with his actions, an act that made him so broken in spirit he didn't even put up a fight when captured, despite his own Mirakuru enhancement.
  • Diggle shoots Isabel to save Oliver, but this results in Slade using the Mirakuru to revive her, meaning we have yet another supervillain to worry about.
  • Isabel has weakened all the Queen family holdings, yet they can salvage some of it if only Thea signs a document approving the transfer. Thea refuses, preparing to let her entire family (including herself) go bankrupt just to show her rejection of them.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Slade revealed the Arrow's Secret Identity to Laurel to create further disruption, but it has the opposite effect. Instead of feeling betrayed like Thea, Laurel realises that Oliver has been secretly protecting her and her loved ones for the past two years, and Sara has been doing the same since she returned.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: A prisoner knocks out two guards and uses one of their nightsticks to beat Quentin in his call, in revenge for Quentin and the Hood putting him in jail. Fortunately Laurel is able to use this to pressure the DA into getting her father released and reinstated.
• Ominous Walk: Deathstroke after Cisco and Caitlin as they flee through the warehouse. He says the more they run the slower their deaths will be, so is prepared to kill Caitlin quickly when he sees her standing waiting for him. Then Cisco jumps out and shoots him with a Ray Gun.
• Only Mostly Dead: Isabel is shot twice in the chest, but Slade revives her with the Mirakuru.
• Poor Communication Kills
  • Moira warned Oliver not to trust Isabel, but was reticent about the reasons why. Letting him know that she had a personal grudge against the Queens might have made Oliver more wary of trusting her.
  • Oliver and Moira withholding the secret of Thea's parentage has destroyed her bonds with her family at a time when they need Thea's signature to preserve whatever wealth Isabel hasn't gotten her hands on.
• Sadistic Choice: Just when Thea has agreed one last time to meet with Oliver, Felicity calls to tell him that Slade has brought the bio-transfuser online. Oliver has a choice between saving lives or saving his family's personal fortune, and chooses to save lives. By the time he hangs up, Thea has walked out on him anyway.
• Saying Too Much:
  • During her Motive Rant Isabel lets slip that Robert knew Thea wasn't his daughter, yet gave up his chance to run away with her because Thea was injured falling off a horse. It would be a case of Nice Job Fixing It, Villain, but Thea is no less angry after hearing the news.
  • Cisco mentions that someone called Iris is visiting Barry in the hospital.
    Felicity: That's just swell. Barry's in a coma and he's already moved on.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: As soon as they spot Slade in his armor, Cisco and Caitlin wisely nope the fuck out and find a weapon that can hurt him, then run some more.
• Secret Secret-Keeper:
  • Laurel now knows that Oliver and Sara are the Arrow and the Canary, but isn't telling anyone, even them.
  • And Quentin Lance vehemently rejects the opportunity to learn who the Arrow is, even though he could use the information to bargain for his freedom. He needs him to be more than a man; he couldn't bear thinking of him as a real person.
    Quentin: It's the Arrow that matters. The man under the hood isn't important.
• Selective Obliviousness: Laurel notes that she's never asked herself why the Arrow keeps showing up to protect her family, and why she always felt connected to him.
• Tempting Fate:
  • "You can't hurt me, kid." (explosive arrow beeps and detonates in Slade's chest)
  • Felicity snarkily refers to Isabel as a supervillain. By the end of the episode that's literally true when she gains superpowers.
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Deathstroke appears in the Arrowcave, knocks everyone except Felicity unconscious and then vanishes instead of finishing them off. Turns out he was just there to steal the Skeleton Key, and even Oliver's associates are Not Worth Killing.
• Woman Scorned: The reason for Isabel's vicious vendetta against the Queens? She and Robert were lovers, but he scrapped their plans to run away together out of concern for his children.

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