Following the attack, Felicity is in the hospital, going constantly in and out of surgery. Oliver has hit the streets with disturbing brutality in the search for Darhk, while Diggle tries to get information out of his brother. And Anarky is back in town, to finish his debt with Darhk and thank Thea for setting him on fire.
- Ambiguous Situation: The possibility exists, at the beginning of the episode, that Felicity will be the one in grave. At the end of the episode, Felicity is sitting in a car during the flash-forward to the funeral, leaving some wiggle room on whether she's still paralyzed.
- Bond Villain Stupidity: The trope gets name-dropped when Thea questions the wisdom of not immediately turning Anarky over to the police.
- Came Back Wrong: Anarky didn't die, but he came back with a whooooole lot of creepy. He has a shitty, masochistic fixation on Thea and now loves killing for its own sake, rather than chaos, and he wears a really disturbing translucent mask to make his scarred face that much worse to look at.
- Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Reiter stops Conklin from killing Oliver when he sees the mystical Chinese characters tattooed on Oliver glow.
- Composite Character:
- Felicity is paralyzed, which combined with her tech skills make her Oracle in all but name.
- Though this was pretty much the case last time he appeared, Anarky becomes Practically Joker, as he becomes far more theatrical, develops an obsession with a hero (in Anarky's case, Speedy) eggs the hero(ine) to kill him, and is treated with nothing but disgust by all.
- Continuity Nod: When Laurel criticizes how Oliver basically released a killer lunatic (Anarky) back in the streets, Oliver retorts that Laurel did the exact same thing when Sarah was revived with the bloodlust rampage.
- Crazy-Prepared: Darhk's family can't be linked to him because they have false ID and deny knowing him.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Once again, Darhk effortlessly kicks Green Arrow's butt, sparing him because he saved his family. However, he does need his magic to do it, as his attempt to engage Oliver hand-to-hand was less than stellar.
- Debt Detester: Darhk doesn't kill Green Arrow, since he considers it bad form to kill the man who saved his family. So he decides to let him have some time with his own family before the end.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Anarky's attack on his family sends Darhk into a rage like we've never seen before. Interestingly enough, dialogue indicates that his wife is just as evil, if not more so, than Darhk himself.
- Diggle finally, barely manages to break through to Andy, by appealing to family.
- Evil Is Petty: Although Reiter offers Conklin the opportunity to kill Oliver, Conklin decides to take revenge by whipping Oliver in payback for his own whipping.
- Facial Horror: Anarky's post-Thea face, which he covers with an opaque mask.
- Foregone Conclusion:
Word of God says that Felicity not wearing the ring in the flash-forward was an intentional visual cue, meaning that her and Oliver's engagement will presumably be broken off at some point before this. - Good Cop/Bad Cop: With John Diggle filling both roles. Angry over Felicity, he tries beating the information out of Andy. When that doesn't work Lyla convinces John to approach him as a brother, and they end up playing cards.
- If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him!: Anarky actually encourages Thea to shoot him for this reason.Anarky: A little piece of me inside of you just begging to come out and play.
- Internal Reveal: This time it's Laurel and Thea's turn to find out Quentin is dating Felicity's mom.
- Invulnerable Knuckles: Averted when Lyla sees John's reddened knuckles from his beating up Andy for information.
- I Surrender, Suckers: Anarky puts his hands up when Team Arrow enters, only for a couple of motion-triggered Sentry Guns to open fire (they had actually been set up for Darhk's men).
- It's All My Fault
- Thea blames herself for creating Anarky because she set Lonnie Machin on fire during her Lazarus Pit-induced bloodlust.
- Averted during the flashforward to Oliver standing over the unmarked grave. Oliver says in response to Barry's anticipated comment that this is not his fault—it's his responsibility.
- It's Personal: Even though Oliver denies it, the war against Darhk definitely became this after Felicity was shot.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Laurel is as flummoxed as everyone else that Donna Smoak is dating her dad, but doesn't kick up a fuss because she's happy her father is finally seeing someone again.
- Lady Macbeth: Darhk's wife seems to be this to him, deriding him for showing mercy to Oliver out of gratitude for saving her, and telling him to focus on their "Genesis" plan.
- Moral Myopia: Darhk sees hurting Oliver's loved ones as a useful thing to get to him, but when his family is put in danger, he treats it as unforgivable.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Team Arrow captures Anarky, only for Oliver to rescue him from the prison van so he can go and kill Damien Darhk. Oliver argues that he's put a Tracking Device on Anarky and once he's led them to Darhk they can catch them both. Instead the tracker goes dead, and by the time they've caught up with Anarky he's about to burn Darhk's family alive. Instead of focusing their efforts on Darhk, Team Arrow have to split up to get the family to safety and catch Anarky, so Oliver is left facing Darhk alone and as usual loses. So it's All for Nothing as Darhk just moves his family to another secret location, and Anarky is free to commit more atrocities.
- Noble Demon: Reiter agrees to spare Taiana's life as long as Oliver cooperates.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Oliver goes on the war path to make Darhk pay for putting Felicity in the hospital.
- Shout-Out: Anarky tells Thea (who is aiming an arrow at him) to "Hit me with your best shot".
- Silk Hiding Steel: How Alex sees Thea—despite all the tragedy she has endured, she is working every day to rebuild her home. Oliver also notes how strong Felicity is even though she's not the one suiting up every night.
- Stop, or I Shoot Myself!: When Flashback!Oliver realizes that Reiter needs him alive, he grabs a gun off of Conklin and holds it under his own chin, threatening to kill himself unless Reiter lets Taiana live.
- Strike Me Down with All of Your Hatred!: Anarky constantly tries to goad Thea into giving in to her bloodlust. She resists, if only barely.
- The Unreveal: Felicity is not the one in the grave, but that's our only clue.
- This Is Unforgivable!:
- Even Felicity wants blood for Team Arrow's future fallen comrade.
- Lyla notes that this is why John Diggle is not making headway with Andy; he's so angry at his brother's 'betrayal' that he is not approaching him as a brother, which might get through his HIVE brainwashing.
- Thou Shalt Not Kill: Oliver is willing to make an exception for Damien Darhk. He even wonders if Darhk's willingness to go the extra mile is why he keeps winning.
- Too Kinky to Torture:Anarky: You can't do anything to me that I haven't already enjoyed.
- Trading Bars for Stripes: John got Andy to join the army to turn him away from becoming a drug dealer. Andy says he did try to turn over a new leaf, but only succeeded enough to fool his brother into thinking he really had changed.
- Uncanny Valley: Invoked with Anarky's mask. It resembles his comic book counterpart's white mask, but it's translucent. Thus we can see his actual face moving underneath it... a little. It's creepyaf.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Averted with Darhk who spares Oliver since he saved his family. Played straight with his wife who feels like Darhk should've killed Oliver anyway. Justified, as she heard Anarky blatantly state that Green Arrow was the main reason why Anarky got to the Darhk residence in the first place. There's also the fact that she is fully supportive of Darhk's initiative, and would likely see Green Arrow as a growing hindrance in their nearly completed plans.
- Villainous Crush: Anarky avoids killing Thea twice as he has become so enamored with her.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Ollie is on the receiving end when he frees Anarky to get to Darhk.
- Worf Had the Flu: Oliver puts up a better fight against Darhk this time, partly because they fight hand to hand and partly because of the implication that Darhk's magic isn't as potent right now, likely because he hasn't killed recently and because of the spell he had to use to keep from being killed by Malcolm.
