Five months after the explosion of Lian Yu, Oliver struggles to connect with his son William as the team is still processing what happened. Meanwhile Black Siren returns for her revenge.
- All for Nothing: This episode confirms that apart from Samantha's death, Prometheus's entire revenge scheme was a complete waste of time, as Oliver's friends and family manage to survive the explosions and eventually put the incident behind them.
- Almost Dead Guy: Or woman, in Samantha's case, as she walks up to Oliver and begs him to take care of William in her last breath.
- All Your Base Are Belong to Us: Black Siren and her men attack the base while everyone save John are protecting the Police graduation ceremony.
- Ambiguous Situation: We don't see the corpses of Evelyn or Talia, so they could still be alive.
- Back from the Dead: Quentin killed Black Siren to stop her from killing Dinah. Subverted that the bullet missed her heart and she was rescued from the island by some mysterious man.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Black Siren gets what she wanted — a prototype T-Sphere for her latest benefactor. Plus she implemented some major psychological damage on Team Arrow.
- Bait-and-Switch:
- William keeps having nightmares about the "Bad Man" who killed his mom. Oliver thinks he's talking about Prometheus...instead he's talking about Oliver.
- At first it seems like Thea is dead since Oliver finds her body and mourns over it. But turns out she's just in a coma.
- Broken Ace: John's aim is heavily impaired after the traumatic events on Lian Yu. It's implied that the physical damage he took in the blast is a factor as well.
- The Bus Came Back: Oliver's old housekeeper from Season 1, Raisa, is back helping him to raise William.
- Cop Killer: Black Siren and Alex Faust shoot and blow up a precinct.
- Dented Iron: Diggle has a scar on his abdomen from the injuries he suffered during the explosion.
- Designated Girl Fight: Black Siren and Dinah face off no less than three times throughout the episode.
- Dragon Ascendant: Black Siren initially appears to be this for Prometheus (and going even further back, Zoom), but it eventually becomes clear that yet another major villain is pulling her strings.
- Dramatic Irony: Oliver's identity is revealed that same way Prometheus' was — a compromising photo given to the media.
- Dying Wish: Samantha's was for Oliver to look after William.
- Downer Ending: Black Siren manages to steal a prototype T-Sphere, and killed scores of innocent police officers as part of her gambit to get it. And just as Team Arrow is licking their wounds, someone sends the local media a picture of Oliver in his Green Arrow outfit outing his identity (again).
- Dude, Not Funny!: Rene makes a joke that the casualties of the SCPD will be balanced by the incoming new recruits. Both Oliver and Quentin are not amused.
- Evil Is Petty: During her raid on the Bunker, Black Siren insists that one of the explosives be used to destroy Laurel's Black Canary costume.
- Flashback B-Plot: Averted; As might be expected, the five year flashback B-stories appear to have run their course.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: Rene briefly seems to be the only person in the history of Star City not to merit treatment in the Queen Memorial ICU Room, which has made an appearance in practically every hospital scene on the show since episode 1. Turns out someone else is using it, someone in much worse shape.
- Foregone Conclusion: Over in The Flash (2014), Cisco mentions Felicity and Curtis (among others) as his consultants in adjusting the Speed Force Bazooka to help bring Barry back.
- Kick the Dog: When Black Siren and Quentin meet again, she assures him she would've killed him on Lian Yu if their positions were reversed.
- Killed Off for Real: Samantha.
- Loving a Shadow: Quentin projects his love for the real Laurel on Black Siren despite the two being obviously very different.
- The Man Behind the Man: Black Siren is working for some mysterious benefactor, who rescued her from the island.
- Mook Carryover: From Zoom to Prometheus to a new headache for Star City, Black Siren is really getting mileage under different villains.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Quentin after he thought he killed Black Siren — he didn't see the monster, he only saw his daughter.
- Mythology Gag: When commenting on Dinah's costume, Black Siren states she would have gone with fishnet stockings, which are a trademark of comicbook Black Canary's outfit.
- Not Quite Dead: Despite her appearing to have died in the explosion, Thea is revealed by the end of the episode to still be alive, albeit comatose.
- Oh, Crap!: Felicity and Oliver when the media drops the bombshell that Oliver is the Green Arrow.
- Put on a Bus: Slade leaves for Calgary, hoping to reconnect with his son, Joe.
- Rank Up: Since the events on Lian Yu, Dinah has been promoted to a lieutenant in the SCPD.
- Revenge: Black Siren's motivation — Quentin tried to kill her, and Team Arrow shunning her, so whatever affection she had is gone, so she's going to make life hell for them all. Subverted, that while it was a genuine desire it also provided a cover for her main objective; stealing a protype T-Sphere for the man who got her off the island.
- Scenery Gorn: The shots of Lian Yu in flaming ruins are not pretty.
- Sequel Hook: The media somehow gets a picture of Oliver unmasked revealing his identity as Green Arrow to the world.
- Spanner in the Works: Prometheus spent the entire fifth season consistently ten steps ahead of Team Arrow, and prepared for every contingency, every setback, leading up to eventually killing himself and destroying Lian Yu. The only thing he failed to predict was that Team Arrow could use Adrian's plane to shield themselves from the explosions, but this oversight saved Team Arrow's lives and rendered Adrian's entire revenge scheme all for naught. Downplayed, though, as he did manage to kill Samantha, cripple Diggle and render Thea unconscious for several months.
- Take That, Audience!: Given how there's a large and vocal number of fans who want Black Siren to be redeemed and join Team Arrow in Dinah Drake's place, one gets the impression that Black Siren's heinous actions in this episode were just to kill those dreams.
- Time Skip: This episode picks up five months after the destruction of Lian Yu.
- Too Dumb to Live: As Dinah leaves Alex Faust in the interrogation room, he asks for a soda. When a cop gets it for him, he watches him bang his face on the table, and only complains about the fake police brutality he thinks the suspect is cooking up. And he just stands there, bewildered, as Alex reaches into his mouth, pulls out a tooth, explains the tooth conceals C4, drops it in the soda, the soda starts to foam, the suspect flips the table over to act as a shield, and then the soda explodes.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Black Siren seems to have lost any affection she had for Quentin after he "killed" her on Lian Yu.
- Trash the Set: Amusingly not done in the finale, but in the premiere for once.
- Trauma Button: Diggle is suffering PTSD from what happened — somebody had to be all rattled up after all that.
- Uncertain Doom: Evelyn and Talia are the only major characters left unaccounted for after the destruction of Lian Yu. Nyssa is mentioned to have gone back for Evelyn, and Dinah is cautious about Talia possibly being alive when she and Quentin search for Black Siren's body, but neither of their fates are confirmed by the end of the episode.
- Villain: Exit, Stage Left: Black Siren, mainly because Quentin can't bear to shoot her.
- Villainous Legacy: Prometheus is long dead, but his influence clearly lingers; a great deal of the angst Team Arrow deals with in this episode is a direct result of Chase's actions, especially from last season's finale, and the team is still dealing with the aftermath of his rampage, both physically and emotionally. On top of that, this episode's villain, Black Siren, is only a threat to Team Arrow because Prometheus broke her out of the Pipeline in the first place.
- Wham Shot: At the end of the episode the news report has a photo of Oliver in the Green Arrow suit, exposing his secret to everyone.
- Wham Line: Green Arrow Identified.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Slade mentions that "Ra's al Ghul's daughter" (Nyssa) went to see if Evelyn survived the explosion, but neither of them are mentioned again during the episode, leaving Evelyn's fate and Nyssa's current whereabouts unknown.
- You Wouldn't Shoot Me: Black Siren pulls this on Quentin. It works.
