Oliver is trying to stave off an aggressive FBI agent investigating the claims he's the Green Arrow, just when Anatoly and the Bratva show up for their revenge.
- Aesop Amnesia: Diggle won't tell anyone about his nerve damage; will nobody in the Arrowverse learn that Keeping Secrets Sucks?
- Bittersweet Ending: Anatoly kills his hostage just to spite Oliver, and while the media retracts their claim about Ollie being the Green Arrow, Agent Watson sees no reason to give up to up her investigation.
- Blatant Lies: Watson sees right through Quentin's and especially Rene's excuses considering Oliver supposedly not being the Green Arrow.
- Broken Ace: It is revealed that John isn't having trouble using his gun due to PTSD (or at least not just because of that), he caught a shrapnel in one of the explosions on Lian Yu and now has nerve damage.
- Cassandra Truth: Played with: when it's announced that the photo of Oliver in the Green Arrow garb was doctored (causing it to be believed that Oliver being the Green Arrow was a hoax), it's implied that Felicity and Curtis made this up to debunk the photo. However, as Felicity and Curtis discuss among themselves, it was doctored.
- Continuity Nod:
- John taking over as Green Arrow is a nod to how John Jr. took up the mantle in a ''possible'' future.
- Curtis brings up the possibility of Christopher Chance/Human Target impersonating Oliver so that he and the Green Arrow can appear simultaneously in the same room, but Diggle says he's out of the country.
- Oliver being previously accused of being the Hood way back in Season 1 is brought up repeatedly in this episode.
- When confronting Anatoly, Oliver mentions their old nemesis, the late Bratva leader Gregor.
- Contrived Coincidence: Agent Watson points out how unlikely it is for Oliver to have a family crisis right when he is expected to appear in her office; or when a media report clearing Oliver happens just when she's interrogating him.
- Crazy-Prepared: Team Arrow speculates that the media ousting Oliver was one of Prometheus' contingency plans, but nothing's really confirmed.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Anatoly invokes this by bringing up that he hasn't targeted Oliver's son because he is a man of honour. Thus, Oliver can't kill him, because somebody else wouldn't have had any scruples about that.
- Evil Is Petty: Anatoly kills his final hostage when Oliver shows up with a cure.
- Foregone Conclusion: Although William is right to be concerned about the extreme dangers of a vigilante lifestyle like Oliver's (hell, look what happened to Laurel), Eobard Thawne told him he would live to 86. The Legends also discovered him alive and well in 2046, though it's unknown if they told him about it. On the other hand, in the post-Flashpoint world, Oliver's fate could have been one of the things that are different, just like Diggle now having a son instead of a daughter.note
- Framing the Guilty Party: While Oliver is the Green Arrow, the photo that exposed him was a forgery.
- From Bad to Worse: The FBI putting Oliver under a microscope is bad enough. Then Anatoly shows up in town.
- Handicapped Badass: John's tremors are revealed to be the result of nerve damage, caused by shrapnel that he took in the explosions on Lian Yu. While it seriously affects his ability to use a gun, the same can't be said for his prowess at hand-to-hand combat.
- Hannibal Lecture: Anatoly tries to lecture Oliver how he's a "good man" forced into a desperate situation; Oliver doesn't buy it.
- Honor Before Reason:
- Oliver refuses to lawyer up when Agent Watson comes calling, claiming it'll make him look guilty. Even the ruthless Agent Watson advises him to get one.
- Oliver does this again when he lets Anatoly escape. Justified because he can't risk Anatoly outing his secret with the FBI and media on his back.
- Diggle hasn't told anybody his tremors due to his pride as soldier. Dinah nearly getting killed forces him to change his mind.... until Oliver asks him to suit up in his place.
- Inspector Javert: Agent Watson is very intent on putting Oliver away for being a "criminal" (which is technically true, but she's deliberately ignoring the good in favor of the bad — plus Billy's death was accidental making it manslaughter not murder); nothing will convince her to give up — not even a media retraction about Oliver being Green Arrow.
- Mythology Gag: Oliver name-drops Bruce Wayne.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Downplayed: John deciding to not tell Oliver about his nerve damage-induced tremor winds up biting him in the ass when Oliver decides to have John take over as the Green Arrow at the end of the episode.
- Not Me This Time: Anatoly claims he wasn't the one behind the leaked photo.
- Opt Out: Oliver decides to retire as Green Arrow, so he can focus on his son. Unfortunately his preferred successor, John, has tremors and can't shoot worth a damn anymore.
- Papa Wolf: Oliver isn't really concerned about Agent Watson... until she puts William on her "persons of interest" list.
- Passing the Torch: At the end of the episode, Oliver asks John to take up the mantle of the Green Arrow for him.
- Passive-Aggressive Kombat: Oliver asks Agent Watson that if he really was the Green Arrow, how far does she think he would go to keep his son safe?
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Averted, Oliver's relationship with ARGUS or the service he did last year by saving the Earth from the Dominators aren't enough to get the FBI to lay off.
- Shoot the Hostage: Subverted, as Oliver's arrow is a trick arrow filled with the antidote for the hostage's poison. Too bad Anatoly then simply shoots the man.
- Shut Up, Kirk!: Anatoly's reply to Oliver's disgust over what he's become is that he was always like this, Oliver's just too naive to see it and believed him to be simply an example of Neighborhood-Friendly Gangsters.
- Soft-Spoken Sadist: Anatoly still acts calm and friendly, even while threatening the life of a hostage.
- Spoiled by the Format: Come one, does anybody really expect Oliver's retirement to be permanent? Especially since the poster for this year's crossover shows him back in green.
- The Un-Reveal: Who sent that picture to the media? We don't find out. Anatoly denies it, so for all we know it could be one of Prometheus' gambits.
- Wants a Prize for Basic Decency: Antaloy claims he's a "good man" for not targeting William.
- We Used to Be Friends: It's once again made very clear that there is no chance for Oliver and Anatoly to ever be friends again.
- We Will Not Use Photoshop in the Future: Averted. Not only is "photos can be doctored" Oliver's first line of defence, it turns out the photo actually was doctored (albeit to depict a real event).
- What, Exactly, Is His Job?: Curtis wonders this about John; apparently Lyla makes enough that he doesn't need to work.
- Wham Episode: Anatoly has been kicked out of the Bratva for being "weak"; extorting $20 million from his former friend is way of proving his strength.
