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On the island, Oliver and Sara conceal the truth about Shado’s death from Slade as they bury her. Sara expresses concern about Mirakuru’s potential to alter Slade’s physical and mental state. Slade discovers his enhanced strength when he overreacts to Sara’s request that they lie in wait for Ivo instead of hunting him down. Later, Oliver and Sara awake to hear Ivo on the walkie promising them passage off the island if they return the drug, but Slade has run off with it.
Visiting Sebastian Blood’s office, Laurel learns that his mom abandoned him after she killed his dad and that Blood is paying all of his supposed aunt Maya Resik’s bills while she’s in the mental ward. Laurel asks her father for help investigating Blood, but he insists that Blood is a good guy. Laurel visits Maya, who calls Sebastian the devil and reveals that he killed his own father. Maya is his mother.
With Felicity in Central City, Oliver patrols the streets in search of the Man with the Skull Mask, but comes up empty. He then hosts a party for Blood. Shrapnel blows up a nearby building, so Oliver cuts the night short to save those trapped inside. Detective Lance informs Arrow that someone with training bombed the building and asks an unrelated favor that Felicity dig up the precinct’s phone records for him. Another blast occurs and Felicity, back in town, guides Arrow after the bomber, but he gets away.
Felicity discovers that an anti-government militia group called “the Movement” is responsible and tracks them to a shop where Arrow finds himself in a booby trap. With guidance, Oliver soon manages to shoot himself free. Felicity and Diggle work to disable a bomb’s trigger at Blood’s unity rally. Shrapnel interrupts and shoots Diggle in the shoulder, then Arrow severs the trigger’s tie to the bombs around the city. Roy saves Moira from falling scaffolding with his newfound super strength and discovers he heals quicker than normal. Shrapnel is arrested, and Arrow and Sebastian seal their allegiance.
Tropes Applying to This Episode
- Big Bad Friend: Oliver is now friends with Blood in both his public and vigilante personas, completely unaware he's the "man in the skull mask" he's hunting for.
- Blame Game: Oliver and Felicity have serious tensions stirred up after failing to catch Shrapnel twice—Felicity's fault for being absent on the first explosion on Starling City and Oliver's fault for being an inconsiderate Jerkass at Felicity's concerns over Barry's comatose state.
- Blatant Lies: Roy trying to hide the Mirakuru effects from Thea; he's a fast healer, he had adrenaline to lift the pillar away from Moira, etc.
- Bomb Disposal: Averted as what they have to do is defuse the triggering mechanism. Unfortunately Shrapnel is lurking nearby and shoots Diggle before he can do so.
- Bomb-Throwing Anarchists: Shrapnel.
- Came Back Wrong: Revealed to be an effect of Mirakuru. While the subject may survive, he or she is completely changed, whether in body or mind. This is shown with Roy's more proactive approach to his work with Thea as well as Slade's new Hair-Trigger Temper.
- Cassandra Truth: Quentin can't find anything wrong with Blood, and thinks Laurel is just trying to talk herself out of the relationship.
- Cliffhanger: At the end of the episode, the Arrow is shaking hands with Blood and agreeing to work together to save the city, just as Laurel discovers that Blood had his own mother condemned to an insane asylum to cover up how he killed his father. On Lian-Yu, Ivo radios Sara and promises to take them off the island if they return the Mirakuru—if not he will either raze the island or send his men out to torture them to death. Meanwhile Sara and Oliver discover that Slade has disappeared with the box of Mirakuru.
- Friendship Moment: After Shrapnel is caught, Oliver tells Diggle to take the night off and apologises to Felicity for getting angry at her, admitting that he could not do his job without the rest of Team Arrow.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Diggle notes that Oliver has been rather short with Felicity ever since she's been cozy with Barry Allen.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Slade gains this as a side effect of the Mirakuru injection.
- Healing Factor: Thea is shocked to see Roy's deep wound from the glass is completely gone.
- He Is Not My Boyfriend: For a different reason than usual, as Laurel is dating Blood in order to investigate him.
- Hidden Weapons: When the Arrow turns up in his office, Sebastian Blood puts his hand on a pistol concealed under his desk, only to relax on realising the Arrow is only there to warn him off the rally.
- Irony:
- When Laurel asks Quentin to help her investigation into Blood, he notes that usually he's the one suspecting her boyfriends of doing bad things.
- Arrow defeats Shrapnel, a villain who specializes in wireless detonations, by cutting the only wire he had, connecting the trigger to the detonator of a Dead Man's Switch.
- Laser Hallway: Ollie goes to Shrapnel's toy store to investigate, only to trigger a booby trap that exposes lasers in the room that will blow it sky high should Ollie touch them. He escapes by hitting a junction box with an arrow, fusing out the power.
- Mad Bomber: Shrapnel
- My Horse Is a Motorbike: When Shrapnel throws a grenade at him, Oliver does an Apache Hideaway so his motorbike will shield him from the blast.
- Mythology Gag:
- Maya Resik references Anna Resik, a.k.a. Mother Mayhem, a character involved with an incarnation of Brother Blood in the 1940's.
- The militant organization Felicity hacks into to find information on Shrapnel is called The Movement.
- Shrapnel, aside from being a villain in the comics, behaves much like Mad Stan.
- The mental institution Maya Resik is in is named Saint Walker's Hospital, after a Green Lantern supporting character from the Blue Lantern Corps.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business
- Oliver is Not So Stoic over the prospect of a Mirakuru-enhanced army rampaging though his city, unjustly lashing out at Felicity when she loses track of Shrapnel.
- On the island when Oliver tries to calm down Slade, he responds by grabbing the 'kid' in a Neck Lift until Sara hits him with a log, snapping Slade out of it.
- Thea trolls her brother by claiming the only thing strange about Roy is that he is turning up for work on time, but she has noticed him acting strangely yet he refuses to tell her why.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Oliver enters the souvenir shop where Shrapnel works only to be caught in a web of laser triggers. A recorded voice then announces there are even more bombs at the rally, and Oliver sees Moira, Thea and Roy on television there.
- Laurel's reaction when Maya snaps out of her Madness Mantra to reveal Sebastian killed his father and had her — not his aunt, but mother — committed.
- Properly Paranoid: Laurel suspects Blood, and Quentin suspects that a police officer tipped off Cyrus Gold that he was going to be raided—he has the Arrow ask Felicity to check the cellphone records.
- Rhetorical Question Blunder: When Roy wonders how he could get so lucky as to get a girl like Thea, she reminds him that it was because he stole her purse.
- Shoot the Bullet: The Arrow arrows a grenade that Shrapnel throws over the crowd which then explodes harmlessly without any shrapnel.
- Super-Strength:
- Roy has revealed his newfound powers by saving Moira from a falling support pillar and lifting it out of the way.
- Slade does a Neck Lift to Oliver.
- Take Up My Sword: After burying Shado, Slade hands Oliver the green hood that used to belong to her father. When Oliver objects that Slade deserves it more, Slade points out that Oliver was the one she chose.
- Wall Bang Her: Thea and Roy discover the perils of this trope when they have sex up against a shelf and bring down a box of glassware on their heads, cutting Roy's arm.
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Slade nearly choked Oliver to death until Sara had to step in and stop Slade.
