Oliver is the mayor of Star City, but with the rest of his team gone, he is so busy as the Green Arrow that he is failing his day job. Meanwhile, a new criminal comes to the city and decides that the best way to make a name for himself is to take out the biggest man in town: Green Arrow.
Tropes:
- Acrofatic: Tobias Church is quite agile and acrobatic for a man of his weight.
- Actor Allusion: Played With. Tobias Church's actor played a character on The Walking Dead. In the scene directly before the climactic fight, he is tapping people to beat up with a baseball bat, extremely similar to the at-the-time most recent villain, Negan.
- The Alcoholic: Quentin has gone back to this since Laurel's death and breaking up with Donna.Quentin: Alcoholics need an excuse not to drink. Fresh out, my friend.
- All There in the Script: Pino is only named in the credits of Legacy, and is only referred to as Mr. Bertinelli in the episode.
- Batman Gambit: Oliver provokes Church so that Church will have one of his men take Oliver somewhere private and beat the crap out of him, giving Oliver the chance to escape. There's no reason Church wouldn't have his man do it right there in front of everyone, or even just do it himself.
- Beard of Sorrow: Lance now has one, after five months of mourning Laurel in an alcoholic haze.
- Blatant Lies: Flashback-Oliver claims that he made a promise to kill Kovar, which is untrue—he actually promised Taiana to let her family know what happened to her and her brother Vlad. Even Anatoli can tell Oliver is making excuses to avoid returning home to Starling City.
- Bodyguard Betrayal: Church assembles the various mob bosses of Star City and tells them to work for him. And then he demonstrates how he's already infiltrated their organizations by having one of them shot in the back by his own bodyguard.
- Bruce Wayne Held Hostage: Church's goons abduct Oliver and three city councilors in order to draw out Green Arrow. The Dramatic Irony is lampshaded by Quentin.
- The Bus Came Back: Anatoly, who hasn't been seen since Season 2, returns for this season's flashbacks.
- Call-Back: After freeing himself from being bound, Oliver takes down the Dirty Cop who was beating him and kills him by breaking his neck to prevent him from revealing Oliver's skills, as he did in the premiere episode."Nobody can know my secret."
- Call-Forward: In the flashback, the Bratva member who captured Oliver leafs through Robert Queen's notebook and reads out some familiar names from Season 1: Adam Hunt, Frank Bertinelli, Leo Mueller, Jason Brodeur etc.
- Celebrity Paradox: Oliver mentions The West Wing when discussing what Star City thinks of his knowledge of politics. David Ramsey appears in a few episodes of Season 7 of that show.
- Chekhov's Skill: In the flashback, Anatoly frees Oliver from his chair he's tied to by dislocating his thumbs and telling him it's a skill he should learn. Cut back to the present and a dirty cop has Oliver in a chair with his hands zip-tied behind his back...
- Darker and Edgier: Oliver has gone back to his brutal ways from Season 1.
- Despair Event Horizon: Oliver crossed it in the aftermath of Laurel's death abandoning his Thou Shall Not Kill policy.
- Dirty Cop: The Star City police force is apparently becoming as bad as Gotham's used to be.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: Anarky seems quite... disappointed that Oliver still isn't killing him despite him playing Mad Bomber again.
- The Ending Changes Everything: For most of the episode, crime lord Tobias Church is set up to be this season's Big Bad, as he slowly but surely gains power over the city's criminal element...and then Prometheus shows up.
- Exact Words: A bound Oliver informs Church that Green Arrow won't show up to try a rescue. When challenged on how he knows that, Oliver says he knows Green Arrow is tied up.
- He's Back!: After diving back into the bottle after his firing and Laurel's death, Quentin pulls himself together and assembles a team of good cops to help Oliver.
- In the Back: Tobias Church takes Pino out this way. After Pino questioned him about getting inside the criminal groups, it led to Pino being killed by one of his own henchmen, showing it was actually one of Tobias' henchmen all along.
- I Should Have Been Better: After being chewed out by Thea for killing some goons, Oliver responds that he passed up multiple chances to kill Darhk and because of it, Laurel died.
- Legacy Character: A flashback to Laurel in hospital has her telling Oliver that she doesn't want to be the last Black Canary and encouraging him to find someone else to carry on her legacy.
- Lonely at the Top: Quentin says this word for word to Ollie.
- Mandatory Unretirement: Thea is forced to suit up again to save Oliver, but she makes it clear it's the last time. note
- My Greatest Failure: Oliver is still beating himself over not being able to save Laurel.
- Mythology Gag: One of the vigilantes Oliver has inspired is an unnamed "ski goggles guy". His sketch matches the character Vigilante from the comics. The character will show up later in the series.
- Off the Wagon: Quentin has gone back to his alcoholism after Laurel's death and having broken up with Donna.
- Pre-emptive Declaration: Green Arrow to Wild Dog.Green Arrow: And keep that elevated.
Wild Dog: Keep what elevated?
Green Arrow fires an arrow into his leg - Putting the Band Back Together: Oliver really wants to do this, but at the end accepts that Diggle isn't coming back and Thea is giving up the costume.
- Remember the New Guy?: Apparently, Pino had taken over the Bertinelli crime family and their operations, all while not being a big blimp on the Green Arrow's radar.
- The Reveal: Laurel's last words are revealed to be asking Ollie to find her a suitable successor.
- Shout-Out: Church emulates Negan by circling around a group of people with a baseball bat, reciting a children's nursery rhyme (Duck, Duck, Goose rather than Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe) to determine which of them to kill. Doubles as an Actor Allusion given Church is played by Chad Coleman, who had a recurring stint on The Walking Dead.
- Trick Arrow: Oliver is making more use of these, such as a hacking arrow, grapnel arrow, and parachute arrow.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Thea is not happy about Oliver going back to killing goons right and left.
- Working with the Ex: Felicity is still working with Ollie, but has a new boyfriend now.
- Wrap It Up: The dangling plot thread from last season of Anarky being on the loose is addressed in the first five minutes, as Oliver captures him.
