The team wrestles with the stunning return of Laurel while Oliver faces the consequences of his actions killing Billie and Diggle fights to prove his innocence.
Tropes
- Badass Normal: Prometheus not only was able to break into S.T.A.R. Labs and free Black Siren without anyone knowing but he's able to judo flip her for her insubordination.
- Big Damn Heroes: Curtis saves Felicity and Oliver from Black Siren with his power dampener.
- Talia saves Oliver in flashbacks.
- Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: Or rather, Felicity sprained her hand punching out Black Siren.
- Can't Catch Up: After his fiancee, Paul, dumps him, Curtis realizes that he's never going to become good enough in a fight to come out unscathed. Rene convinces him instead to focus on his strength in inventing, instead of trying to mainline as a fighter.
- Character Development: Rene, who before being captured by Tobias Church, had a tendency to refuse to listen to instructions from Oliver, and in many ways was a jerk to the rest of the team. Episodes after that event portray him as having become significantly nicer, going out of his way to arrange for John to spend time with him son, giving advice, and even apologizing to Curtis for pressing him on his apparent lack of usefulness on the team.
- Crazy-Prepared: Somehow, Prometheus anticipated the sedative Oliver would try to use on him."You could say I've developed a tolerance."
- Dead Person Impersonation: What Earth-2 Laurel is doing, pretending to be a resurrected Earth-1 Laurel.
- Evil All Along: Despite all her development, and genuinely tragic past, when offered a choice at redemption Black Siren rejects the opportunity and attacks Team Arrow.
- Forgotten Fallen Friend: When the team starts celebrating Laurel's apparent return, both Rory and Curtis feel uncomfortable since Billy isn't even buried yet. Averted later however, as Oliver once again stresses how sorry he is for accidentally killing him.
- For the Evulz: Implied by the trailer to be the reason Black Siren pretended to be the Earth-1 Laurel. On the other hand, Trailers Always Lie, and we don't know what the relationship between Earth-2 Laurel and Oliver was before the latter died on the Queen's Gambit. In the episode itself it is revealed that she is impersonating Laurel under orders from Prometheus, though that might also be just a lie.
- For Want Of A Nail: Earth-2 Laurel's fall from grace happened with the death of Oliver Queen. She became an amoral and aimless drifter, winding up in Central City when the particle accelerator accident happened, although she claims she never was as moral as Earth-1's version.
- Freudian Excuse: Played with. Black Siren states that she went down the bad road after losing her family and her version of Oliver and that she is forced to do this by Prometheus. Later however, when Oliver tries to make her stand down and not metaphorically kill the good person she once was, she responds that she was never there and proceeds to attack, making it ambiguous if her side of the story was true or not. Nevertheless, after she is back in custody, Ollie still plans to reform her in the future.
- Go into the Light: When "Laurel" is explaining how she's Not Quite Dead she mentions this trope before clarifying that the bright white light was her sister Sara teleporting her on board the Waverider where she was revived with its advanced technology.
- Implausible Deniability: It's hard to buy Black Siren's story about being forced to infiltrate Team Arrow under duress from Prometheus when she herself could very likely easily defeat a Badass Normal like Prometheues in a one-on-one fight (despite him briefly subduing her in close-range combat early on in the episode), given that her metahuman abilities even allowed her to go toe-to-toe with The Flash. Then again, he may have a Sonic Dampener which would render her powerless and her fighting skills are not nearly on par with his.
- Internal Reveal:
- It is revealed that off-screen Team Flash revealed the existence of Black Siren to Felicity and Oliver some time ago. It is however not clear if Sara or Quentin have this information too.
- Curtis, Rory, and Rene learn about the existence of alternate selves on the alternate Earths.
- Although it's not really commented on, Prometheus seems to know everything about all the heroes in the verse as not only was he aware that Black Siren was locked up in STAR Labs, but he was the one who gave her the cock and bull story about Sara saving her with the Waverider's technology.
- Ironic Echo: When Black Siren tells Oliver her backstory, she unknowingly quotes what Huntress once told Earth-1 Laurel: "Once you let the darkness inside, it never comes out."
- Just Eat Gilligan: Rene finally suggests the seemingly obvious idea that Curtis' role on the team should not be as a vigilante that gets into combat (which he has demonstrated on multiple occasions to be ill-equipped for), but as their resident Gadgeteer Genius, much like Cisco.
- The Load: Curtis continues to feel more and more useless. Rene manages to convince him otherwise by motivating him on focus on his engineering abilities, not being a vigilante.
- Loophole Abuse: Adrian Chase successfully prevents John's transfer to the military, at least for the moment, by getting John to attack him and then charging him for assault as the local law gives the District Attorney priority prosecuting a crime that occurs while a prisoner is in local custody.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Prometheus broke into S.T.A.R. Labs and freed Black Siren, and nobody noticed until Black Siren outed herself.
- Oh, Crap!: Felicity has this reaction when Ragman jokes about Laurel having an Evil Twin, as she remembers that Laurel actually does have an Evil Twin.
- Properly Paranoid: Felicity rightly predicts that Laurel isn't who she claims she is.
- Rage Breaking Point: After Rene pushes him too hard, Curtis snaps and recounts on everything he has lost since becoming a vigilante.
- Replacement Goldfish: Zig-zagged. While Ollie knows Black Siren isn't his Laurel, he still believes he can save her soul since he couldn't save his Laurel's life.
- The Reveal: Laurel is actually Black Siren, Laurel's evil doppelganger from Earth-2.
- Rogues' Gallery Transplant: Similar to the Bug-Eyed Bandit before her, Black Siren originally appeared on Arrow's spin-off before finally appearing in Arrow proper.
- Shout-Out: Rene calls Black Siren Trinity.
- Swiss-Cheese Security: Once again, S.T.A.R. Labs, which Prometheus broke into without anyone even realizing.
- Took a Level in Badass: Subverted. Although Felicity decks Black Siren with a single solid punch after being shown training with a heavy bag, she's afterward nursing her very sore hand and reminds herself there's a reason she lets the other members of the team do the punching. Also can apply to Curtis, who realizes that he's nearly maxed out in his fighting potential, but can still save the team with his engineering prowess.
- Trailers Always Spoil: Even though many fans had already guessed it, it's still surprising that the promo for the episode shows Black Siren shrieking to attack Oliver and Felicity.Oliver: That's not our Laurel.Black Siren: Finally, it's about time someone figured it out.
- Wham Shot: Talia al Ghul appears to save Oliver from the Bratva. Another wham shot was the ending, where an unknown woman beats two thugs at a bar with what may be the Canary Cry.
- The Worf Effect: Ragman, whose mystical cloth has previously rendered him invulnerable to everything from bullets to nuclear explosions, is in this episode brought down by a single blow to the head.
- Justified, as his rags require focus to be properly used, and being hit in the head without a warning is not going to give him enough time to focus and react to a threat.
- Written-In Absence: "Laurel" is shown on the phone to Thea, assuring her that she doesn't have to interrupt the conference she's at to rush back and see her.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: Things were going really, really bad for Team Arrow when we last left them, with the return of Laurel seeming to be the only bright spot in their lives. Turns out it's actually Black Siren impersonating her.
