Arrow recap: The 5 most shocking moments in Season 7, Episode 6

The latest installment of Arrow featured a number of shocking moments, including a big change to the Diaz storyline and a horrifying revelation about a Slabside inmate.

Given that Arrow Season 6 was almost bad enough to make me quit the series, it’s been remarkable to see how much the show has recovered in Season 7. The program’s characters are intelligent and sympathetic again, its plotlines are more engaging and its tone is a lot more consistent.

In fact, even though we’re now almost 1/3 of the way through, the season has yet to produce a bad episode. If nothing else, it’s clear the show should’ve moved to a flash forward format years ago.

On that subject, once again the most gripping elements of Arrow Season 7 has been the material set in 2039. Adult William (Ben Lewis) has really come into his own as a character and slow reveal of what the cast is up to in 20 years has been fascinating. As opposed to the flashbacks of earlier seasons, the flash forwards have built intrigue instead of tedium.

Aside from a few exceptions, it appears that most of the show’s main characters have either died or have become the kind of people they’ve always hated. The mystery of what broke the heroes of Star City has become increasingly tantalizing. And though it’s been alluded to before, the reveal of Felicity’s (Emily Bett Rickards) destiny was legitimately shocking.

5. “She ran in some dangerous circles”

Because of her established characterization, I assumed that future Felicity was still fighting the good fight as Overwatch until she was murdered. However, Dinah (Juliana Harkavy) revealed in this episode, that’s not what happened. Apparently sometime after the ARGUS takeover, Felicity cut ties with the city’s heroes and adopted her supervillain father’s Calculator moniker. Moreover, as discovered by Team Broken Arrow, Felicity fully embraced her legacy and created a plot to completely level Star City.

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Now, while the episode made it clear that there’s more to the story, future Felicity obviously underwent quite a transformation. Although she’s gone down an increasingly dark path this season, she still one of the show’s most human characters.

To find out that she reaches a point where obliterating her hometown is an option is horrifying. Although, as “Due Process” would later reveal, the Felicity of 2018 isn’t as averse to crossing moral lines as she once was.

4. “I didn’t do this for you, I did this for me”

Although it wasn’t as stunning as some of this episode’s other revelations, the resolution to Black Siren’s (Katie Cassidy) subplot was still pretty shocking. With her working as a district attorney and palling around with Felicity, it almost seemed like the show forgot she was a super villain last season. However, “Due Process” brought all of the character’s past misdeeds to the fore and forced her to reckon with them. It did this by having everyone who wasn’t Felicity reject, sometimes cruelly, her attempts to do the right thing.

Her failure spiral hit its nadir when her can’t lose argument to get Oliver (Stephen Amell) out of jail was rejected by a judge. Afterward, she immediately tried to murder said judge but was talked down by Dinah. After thinking things over, Siren told Oliver that while she wasn’t his Laurel, she wasn’t Black Siren anymore either. And in doing so, the character finally felt like she belonged on the show. And I can’t wait to see what she does next.

3. “Call the whole team, we’re going to need all the help we can get on this one”

Another one of this episode’s big shocks was present day Team Arrow reuniting. Even more shocking, the group was finally able to finally capture Diaz (Kirk Acevedo). Thanks to some grudging assistance from Anatoli (David Nykl), the team was able to nab Diaz before he ignited all of Star City’s gasworks. And as opposed to what kept happening last season, the Dragon’s capture was legit. He didn’t appear to be working an angle, he was beaten by the good guys, with a last-second assist from New Green Arrow.

Though later events in the episode would complicate matters, it was really heartening to see that heroes win one for a change. Stretching back to season five, it seemed that Team Arrow has been a major losing streak. They’d stop that week’s guest villain and would take down the occasional Big Bad, but their victories were always pyrrhic in nature. And that’s not even touching on all the bitter infighting. As such, seeing the group put aside their differences and get an unqualified win after all this time was shocking.

2. “You destroyed my life”

Thus far the season, pretty much everyone in Felicity’s life has tried to dissuade her from crossing ethical lines. However, former mob boss Anatoli was different. Although Diggle (David Ramsey) chided Felicity for putting Anatoli’s life at risk in the op that got crucial intel on Diaz, the gangster understood. In fact, he compared her new pragmatic outlook to the one Oliver had back in Russia. He even went as far as to say that she wouldn’t get her revenge until she stopped taking half measures.

In this episode’s second most shocking scene, Felicity almost took his advice. After shutting down the cameras in SCPD HQ, Felicity confronted her white whale with a gun. Although Diaz claimed she didn’t have the guts to actually kill them, I think she might have had Laurel not interceded. In fact, I’m not even sure the prospect of getting Oliver home in exchange for his testifying against Diaz will satisfy her. As we saw in 2039, there comes a point when Felicity will embrace full measure solutions. And I think that change in perspective starts in 2018.

1. “How did you know it was Turner’s blade?”

Finally, the most shocking moment in Arrow Season 7, Episode 6 was the reveal of Stanley’s (Brendan Fletcher) true nature. Early on, it was revealed that a Slabside inmate had murdered a guard in the showers. As Stanley was the last person seen with them, he was sent to solitary confinement and tortured by the guards. Disbelieving that such a meek individual could be a murderer, Oliver fingered one of Brick’s (Vinnie Jones) crew as the true culprit. And as the episode concluded, he found a bloody shiv with Turner’s (Michael Jai White) fingerprints on it.

But as it turned out, Brick’s assertion that there are no innocent men in the Slab was correct. By casually noting that he knew that the evidence pointed toward Turner despite being in the hole when the shiv was found, Stanley confirmed his guilt. Looking back, he even planted the idea that one of Brick’s guys did the killing in Oliver’s head. That suggests his entire hapless sidekick Prasanna has been put on. And it begs the question, exactly what kind of monster is Stanley Dover?

What you think the most shocking moment in this week’s episode of Arrow was?