TV REVIEWS: FTN Reviews Arrow Season 6 Episode 21: Docket No. 11-19-41-73

Last week delivered a pretty good twist in that Diaz allowed Oliver to live so he could convict him in court of being the Green Arrow. We knew he had to get out, the question, was how? Well, “Docket No. 11-19-41-73” delivered a pretty good answer, and it delivered on the character drama as well, which is good given how great recent episodes have been.

One of the things I really appreciated was that despite all the fallout from the Civil War of Team Arrow and the breaking up of Diggle and Ollie, all of Team Arrow was willing to lie in court to protect him. For while they may hate him as a person, they can’t deny what he does, and what he does is good. Seeing Renee step up to try and right the wrong of betraying Ollie in the first place was really nice. He’s really come into his own in recent weeks, I hope he stays that way.

But, because Diaz owned almost everyone in the city, many of their best-laid plans were put down. Dinah tried to not please the 5th, but because of the corrupt judge, she was forced to. Renee was going strong, until Diaz brought in his daughter and hovered over her like the Grim Reaper, forcing him to tell the truth in order to save her life. Diggle and Felicity didn’t do much better, so how was he going to get out of this?

Well, Tommy Merlyn would save him of course. Ok, not exactly. It was actually Chance, aka Human Target who we met early in Season 05. I honestly forgot about him until the epic Diggle action scene that kicked off the episode. And ironically, it made sense for him to use Tommy’s face because he was dead, and that reaction from Oliver would’ve made most jury’s think he didn’t know what was going on.

Yet, even that didn’t work out, not even with Black Siren’s betrayal of Diaz, and Oliver had to accept in front of his wife and son that he might not be able to get out of this predicament. And when the “Guilty” verdict rang out, my heart sunk. Did Diaz seriously win? Well…nope! That twist with the judge was great, I again forgot about Chance, and thought that maybe Diggle and Renee put the screws to him. Instead, they just swapped him, it was great.

And because of that, we got to see the mending of fences between Oliver and Renee, which was long overdue in my opinion. And though I know this doesn’t mean Team Arrow will be reunited, it might mean they can help each other occasionally.

As for Black Siren, I was happy that she stood up to Diaz, but the ending was telegraphed, we knew she wouldn’t kill Diaz just yet, and sure enough, now she’s captured. But hey, it’s a step in the right direction at least.

“Docket No. 11-19-41-73” was a powerful episode that put a lot of tension on the team, and though they made it out, Diaz wants them all dead now, and he might just be able to do it.