Arrow season 6, episode 17 recap: Dispute between brothers
A painful but exhilarating new episode of Arrow saw Oliver and Diggle come to blows over Oliver’s selfish behavior.
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When I saw the preview for this week’s Arrow I expected it to be a series low point. It appeared that best friends Oliver (Stephen Amell) and Diggle (David Ramsey) would be coming to blows over the right to wear the Green Arrow’s hood. And if it played out that way, it would’ve indeed been one of the show’s worst chapters. Instead, it used the trivial matter of the hood to bring some of the pair’s long-simmering hostilities to the surface. And it finally addressed one of the season’s biggest issues in a way that restored my faith in the show’s writers.
It was also nice to see Oliver and company finally go on the offensive against Diaz (Kirk Acevedo). While I’m still unclear as to why Oliver doesn’t just put an arrow in his throat to resolve the matter, it was nice to see the team take a proactive stance. There’s no way they can take out the powerful drug kingpin by playing defense and it was nice to see that acknowledged. And while I expect a few more reversals before the big confrontation between hero and villain, seeing Oliver and Diaz’s Cold War go hot was very satisfying.
“His dead body send good message to other police.”
“Brothers in Arms” began with Dinah (Juliana Harkavy), Oliver and Diggle teaming up to arrest Anatoli (David Nykl). Unfortunately, Diaz’s connections within the government led to the gangster getting released almost immediately. Twisting the knife, Diaz had one of Anatoli’s arresting officers killed. To retaliate, Oliver plotted to shut down Diaz’s drug pipeline. Additionally, Oliver finally told Diggle he wouldn’t be relinquishing the hood. Meanwhile, Dinah sequestered the other officers who arrested Anatoli.
Oliver fired Star City’s corrupt District Attorney and Police Captain. Oliver and Diggle interrogated one of Diaz’s distributors but a disagreement about tactics led to their not getting any info. Afterward, Diggle realized that his problem wasn’t with not being Green Arrow, it was with Oliver’s leadership. Subsequently, Diggle and Oliver had an explosive argument about the issue, which turned into a brutal fight. Simultaneously, Diaz’s men attacked Dinah and her allies, which forced Curtis (Echo Callum) to reveal his secret identity to his vigilante-hating cop boyfriend.
Putting their issues aside, Oliver and Diggle were able to destroy Diaz’s supply of vertigo. In the aftermath of Diaz attack, Dinah was fired and Curtis’ boyfriend, also fired, decided to stand by his man. Having lost his faith in Oliver, Diggle resigned from Classic Team Arrow and considered joining A.R.G.U.S. The newly unemployed D.A. and captain held a press conference calling for Oliver’s impeachment. It was revealed that Black Siren (Katie Cassidy) was now all in with Diaz.
“You’ll always have me. I’m not going anywhere.”
To start, Oliver and Diggle’s big confrontation featured some standout acting from Stephen Amell and David Ramsey. Watching their argument escalate from respectful disagreement to hateful brawl was riveting. Moreover, it felt totally motivated. Oliver’s leadership failures have not only made things worse in Star City, they’ve effectively destroyed Team Arrow.
It was cathartic to see someone finally confront him on that point. Especially since it wasn’t for the show’s writers recognize that deficiency. Conversely, Oliver’s perspective made sense. Diggle didn’t exactly excel under the hood and his hiding a debilitating injury and drug addiction could’ve gotten people killed. Ultimately, Dig was in the right, but I can see why Oliver didn’t want to grant him the point.
Although I expected Team Arrow to be reunited by the end of the season, this episode may that reunion seem less feasible. In addition to some of the borderline unforgivable things Oliver and Diggle said to each other, I can’t imagine how the team would ever follow Oliver again. Not only has he made a series of devastating strategic errors, he’s also been too stubborn to admit he was wrong. When Team Flash experienced a similar loss of confidence in Barry’s leadership abilities, Iris just took over. Given Oliver’s controlling nature I don’t think such as transfer of power will be possible here.
Next: Arrow season 6, episode 16 recap: Thea vs. the League of Assassins
As Diggle rightly pointed out, Oliver can be either an effective hero or an effective mayor. He can’t really do both, but he seems unwilling to change. If alienating all of his closest friends and allies didn’t cause him to wake up, it’s hard to see what would. My fear is that it’s going to take another big loss to shake Oliver out of his selfishness. But if he loses William (Jack Moore) or Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) because he couldn’t let someone else take the wheel, it’s going to be really hard to continue caring about his character.
Arrow airs on The CW Thursdays at 9 pm.