Recap / Arrow S 2 E 22 Streets Of Fire

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Tropes that apply to this Episode

• Always Save the Girl: Oliver has to leave Laurel to get back to her father alone while Team Arrow races to secure the antidote, and frets accordingly over whether he made the right decision. Fortunately her sister returns to protect her.
• Answer Cut: Felicity gets a call saying that STAR Laboratories have developed the antidote and have sent a courier to deliver it. When Oliver wants to know where he is, we cut to a courier with a Handcuffed Briefcase lying halfway out of his upturned car.
• Artistic License – Physics: Oliver tells Laurel the bow will do all the work for her. That's not how bows work.
• Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: The last conversation between Blood and Oliver suggests they would have had problems after the Mirakuru threat was stopped, especially given that Blood knew Oliver was the Arrow. Then Isabel kills him.
• Between My Legs: Isabel making an appearance in Blood's office.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • Felicity rams Isabel with the team's van to save Diggle.
  • Malcolm Merlyn turns up as the Dark Archer to save Thea from a Mirakuru soldier, then Sara as the Canary does the same for Laurel.
  • The Canary saves a child from a burning building.
• Blackmail: Blood tries this in order to make sure Oliver doesn't expose him as implicated in the Mirakuru army's attack, threatening to tell everyone that Oliver is the Arrow if he does so. Judging from his response that Blood should "do what he has to", it's evident Oliver doesn't even care.
• Book Ends: The back half of the season began with Blood and Moira Queen as the candidates for Starling City mayor. By the end of this episode, both of them are dead.
• Bringing Running Shoes to a Car Chase: A Mirakuru soldier is able to run down the Team Arrow van and shove another vehicle in its path, causing it to crash. Then they slow down as usual so our heroes can escape.
• The Bus Came Back:
  • After half a season away, Malcolm Merlyn comes back just in time to save Thea from one of Slade's Mirakuru-powered goons.
  • Sara, who left town a couple of episodes ago, returns in time to save Laurel from another goon.
• Call-Back: Just like Malcolm Merlyn before him, Slade starts Suddenly Shouting about his need to kill far more people than strictly necessary when questioned about the murder of innocents. Also Malcolm uses the same exploding arrow trick that Oliver used against him.
• Car Fu: Felicity slams Rochev with a van. Later there's a variation when a Mirakuru soldier physically pushes a car into the path of the van, causing it to crash.
• Cliffhanger: Waller is going to obliterate Starling City if Team Arrow haven't saved it by dawn, Oliver has injected Roy with the antidote with no idea if it will kill him, and Thea shoots her own father.
• Chekhov's Gun: Blood tells Oliver that Slade intends to kill the person that Oliver most loves.
• Complaining About Rescues They Don't Like: Thea is rescued from the Deathstroke army by her biological father, Malcolm Merlyn. Given that he's a villain responsible for hundreds of deaths and millions of dollars in destruction, she rather understandably doesn't want much to do with him now. At first she flees him and then ends up shooting him several times in the cliffhanger of this part of the finale.
• Conservation of Ninjutsu: The Mirakuru soldiers, though difficult to take down, are significantly less resilient than Slade or even Cyrus Gold. A Justified Trope, as they got a much smaller dosage of Mirakuru from Roy directly, which itself was a smaller dosage constructed from the blood of Slade Wilson. Presumably the effects of Mirakuru lessen the less is taken.
• Dancin' in the Ruins: While looking over the burning city, Slade references the myth that Nero sang as he watched Rome burn and believes that, other than just not caring, he was thoroughly enjoying the carnage.
  Slade: If only Shado were here to see this.
• Death by Transceiver: Team Arrow hears the screams of the courier over Felicity's phone as they're running to save him. By the time they get there, the courier is dead and his briefcase gone.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Because Oliver loves his city, Slade intends to lay waste to it, regardless of his alliance with Blood.
• Dramatic Irony:
  • Laurel is trapped under rubble as she was during the Undertaking, but this time both she and her rescuer are able to escape.
  • Oliver comforts himself with the thought that at least Thea got out of Starling City in time. She's not only trapped in the city, she's with his Arch-Enemy from the previous season.
• Elite Mooks: How the Mirakuru soldiers play out.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Sebastian Blood is horrified at Slade's plan to level the city, leading to a Heel–Face Turn.
• Fire-Forged Friends: Anatoli and Oliver's future friendship is sealed with a handshake.
• Futureshadowing: Anatoli promises to teach Oliver how to speak Russian. Properly.
• Godzilla Threshold:
  • The police are so badly outmatched by the Mirakuru soldiers that they're willing to call a truce with the Arrow in order to get the help they need.
  • Amanda Waller views the Mirakuru threat to the rest of the country as so great that she has A.R.G.U.S. seal off the city and gives Team Arrow until dawn to defeat Slade's forces, or she'll turn the city into a crater to stop them.
  • Waller's aforementioned example is what causes Oliver to get over his reluctance about injecting Roy with a possible cure and inject him immediately.
• Grenade Tag:
  • Quentin dumps some grenades he took from the police weapons room at the feet of the Mirakuru goon tearing the place apart.
  • Malcolm has learnt from Oliver's explosive arrow trick and uses it himself.
  • After escaping from their crashed van, Oliver fires an explosive arrow into the rear cargo door. When the goons open the door, it blows up in their faces.
• Heel–Face Door-Slam: Oliver completely disabuses Blood of the notion that he's gonna be in office any longer once the threat is handled and his complicity is exposed.
• Heroic BSoD: Oliver lapses into despair again when Slade has the antidote and the city once again faces destruction with nothing he can do to stop it. Felicity gives a Rousing Speech and Blood then calls to reveal he's stolen the antidote from Slade.
• Heroic Fire Rescue: Canary performs one to save a little girl from a building attacked by the Mirakuru soldiers. A police officer who saw later praises her actions, not knowing she's right next to her inside the precinct in her civilian identity.
• Hotline: Waller isn't amused that Oliver has somehow gotten hold of her classified phone number.
• If I Do Not Return: Before going to rescue Sara, Oliver gets Anatoli to rig a torpedo to run straight, and tells him to fire it at the Amazo if he is not back in one hour.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Isabel runs Blood through the chest after he turns against Slade.
• Inadvertent Entrance Cue: Isabel is beating up Diggle prior to killing him. She demands to know where Felicity is, as she intends to put a bullet in her smug face, when Felicity chooses that moment to run her over with the team van.
• Internal Reveal: Thea discovers her real father, Malcolm Merlyn, is alive. Sara discovers that Laurel knows she is the Canary.
• It Has Been an Honor: In the flashbacks, Oliver and Anatoli exchange these sentiments before parting ways.
• It's All About Me: Blood calls out Slade on this, realizing what the actual goal of the Mirakuru army was all part of his vendetta against Oliver Queen.
• It's the Only Way: Team Arrow are running out of Tibetan Pit Viper venom to keep Roy sedated. They get hold of the Mirakuru antidote but it's never been tested, so Oliver worries that it might kill him and can't go through with it. Then he finds that ARGUS have sealed off the city and are going to drop fuel-air bombs on it unless Team Arrow solves the crisis, so he goes ahead and jabs the needle in Roy.
• Lampshade Hanging: Felicity wonders why every secret formula has to be some kind of color, instead of "good old fashioned clear".
• Lodged-Blade Recycling: A variant. Malcolm Merlyn kills a Mirakuru soldier by stabbing him in the neck with an arrow he already fired into his side.
  Goon: You are out of arrows...
  Merlyn: You're not!
• Multi-Part Episode: The season finale is billed as three episodes: "City of Blood", "Streets of Fire" and "Unthinkable" as a three-part cohesive unit.
• Neck Snap: How a Mirakuru soldier kills DA Kate Spencer.
• Nigh-Invulnerable: Isabel's Badass Boast while fighting Diggle. She proves this when after getting run over by a van she just gets back up again and Team Arrow have to run for it.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: After freeing Sara from her cell in the Amazo, Oliver insists on trying to retrieve the antidote for one last attempt to save Slade. As always Slade is The Anticipator—he's already removed the antidote from Ivo's safe and is waiting to capture them.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Malcolm tries to establish a Commonality Connection with Thea.
  Malcolm: If you're going to use that, you'll want to click the safety off.
  Thea: I'll shoot you. I will!
  Malcolm: I can see it in your eyes. My eyes. They're just like mine. Both of them filled with pain and anger, because those we loved were ripped from us. I lost my name, my wife... Tommy.
  Thea: Shut up!
  Malcolm: You're all I have left in this world, and you've lost everything, too. Thea. But you still have a father. You still have—(Thea fires. Cut to credits)
• Not With the Safety On, You Won't: A Do Wrong, Right version from Malcolm... who is being held at gunpoint at that time by Thea. She follows his advice and fires twice.
• Ominous Walk: Team Arrow have enough time to drag Felicity from their crashed van before the Mirakuru goons catch up with them in time to catch an explosive arrow in the face.
• On Three: Oliver talking Laurel through firing an explosive arrow to clear a path in the collapsed tunnel.
• Papa Wolf: Malcolm to Thea. Thea doesn't care.
• Redemption Equals Death: Downplayed. Blood gives Oliver the Mirakuru cure. Not long after that, he receives a visit from Isabel, who stabs him with what seems to be Slade's old swords. Blood is still considered a dick by Oliver and Dig for allowing Slade's plan to come to fruition and trying to justify his role in it.
• So Proud of You: Quentin and Laurel's faces clearly express this when they overhear a cop calling Sara a hero for having saved a child from a burning building.
• Speak of the Devil: When Isabel has Diggle down, she gloats about her desire to put a bullet in Felicity, but barely gets it out before Felicity plows her with a van.
• Subverted Catchphrase: Oliver says, "I have failed this city" during his Despair Speech.
• Technicolor Science: Lampshaded when they open a briefcase of the Mirakuru antidote to find it's full of blue vials.
  Felicity: Why does every secret formula have to be a color? Whatever happened to good old-fashioned clear?
• That Man Is Dead: Sara tries to tell this to Laurel regarding "Sara", saying that she picked the name Ta-er al-Sahfer because her former identity was gone, leaving only a killer. Neither Laurel nor anyone else in the episode believes this.
• Trick Arrow: Perhaps learning from his defeat at Oliver's hands, Malcolm has started using these, as a Mirakuru-powered guy learned the hard way.
• Try Not to Die: When Oliver and Diggle leave to meet with Blood, which may well be a trap, Felicity says she will get really pissed if they get killed.
• Villainous Rescue: Malcolm shows up in his Dark Archer outfit and puts two arrows into a Mirakuru soldier to stop him from killing Thea.
• We Can Rule Together: Low-key with Malcolm trying to appeal to similarities between him and Thea to get her to agreed to accept his protection during the Mirakuru army's attack. It doesn't work.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Blood, unlike Slade and Isabel, genuinely believed he was working for the greater good, and he was going to rebuild the city in a better form after the destruction. He seems rather broken when he realizes that he's been used.
• Wham Shot: Right at the very end, and quite literally too. Thea shoots Malcolm twice mid-sentence, and it cuts to the title card.
• Who Are You?:
  • A Mirakuru soldier is attacking Thea when the Dark Archer does a Conveniently Timed Attack from Behind. The Mirakuru soldier yanks an arrow from his body and turns to confront his attacker.
    Mirakuru Soldier: Who are you? (arrow in his hand explodes)
    (The Dark Archer does Dramatic Unmask)
    Malcolm Merlyn: I'm her father.
  • The "Who Was That Masked (Wo)man?" version when Sara rescues a child from a burning building.
    Mother: Who was that?
    Laurel: (smiling) That's the Canary.
• The Worf Effect: Downplayed Trope. While Malcolm Merlyn does defeat the Mirakuru soldier he is fighting toward the end of the episode, he is forced to resort to underhanded tactics, and is left winded and exhausted afterwards, showing how much of a threat these enemies are.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: After having her father and Oliver tell her this any number of times, and Laurel doing so earlier in the episode, Sara finally comes to the realization they might be right when she overhears a cop telling others about witnessing the Canary go into a burning building to rescue a child, calling her a hero.
• You Are Not Alone: Felicity tells this to Oliver.
• You Are Not My Father: Thea is not happy to see Malcolm.
• You Have Failed Me: Slade to Blood, once he gave the Mirakuru cure to Team Arrow.
  Slade: (on speaker phone) Does he still have the cure?
  Isabel: No.
  Slade: Goodbye, Mr. Blood. (Isabel draws both swords and stabs him)
• You Wouldn't Shoot Me: Averted; Malcolm can see from Thea's eyes that she will shoot him, and she does. Unlike other examples of this trope, he uses this to show they're the same.