TV REVIEWS: FTN Reviews Arrow Season 06 Episode 17

I recently read an interview with Arrow showrunner Marc Guggenheim that stated that the point of Season 06 was to break down all the comforts and shields that Oliver Queen had placed around himself. To that end, the Outsiders broke away from Team Arrow, Roy and Thea are on a mission with Nyssa Al Ghul, and in “Brothers-In-Arms”, Diggle reached his breaking point.

To their credit, they’ve been teasing this for a while, as Diggle has said he wants the suit back, but Oliver wasn’t willing to give it up. Also to their credit, they showed that the outfit was the problem, and that even an honest apology from Oliver can’t fix all wounds. Although I doubt people will give credit to her, Lyla was an unsung hero in the episode, as she was able to get through to John and reveal his true pain when even he couldn’t figure it out himself.

Which, led to easily one of the best “OH MY GOSH” moments in Arrow history, where Oliver and John let loose their grievances in an all-out war of words that ended with them going into a very emotional fight. And while the immediate aftermath was a bit too neat, the true aftermath had John leaving the team because he doesn’t trust Oliver’s leadership anymore. And now, he’s a part of Argus.

Oh, and that line about Felicity “not leaving him”, yeah that’ll last all of a week if the previews are to be believed.

Aside from the fracture between John and Oliver, the other real storyline here was Diaz and his power continuing to rise and show its force. Diaz hasn’t had too many episodes to show off what a threat he is, but in the first 8 minutes of the episode tonight he proved just how deadly he can be even when he’s not pulling the trigger. Add to that the numerous events that happened after that and he’s becoming quite a villain. All he needs is words and pressure and he can make anyone submit pretty much, and that’s scary.

The Dinah/Curtis storyline also returned as they tried to protect good cops, which led to Curtis unintentionally revealing to his new boyfriend that he’s Mr. Terrific. I hope they get to do more to root out the rot in the city rather than focus on Curtis’ relationship issues.

Also, Black Siren got to help tighten the screws to Oliver while impressing Diaz, I hope she gets a more helpful role in what’s to come as well.

“Brothers-In-Arms” helped bring Oliver Queen down even lower, and with six episodes left this season, there’s more room to fall.