Arrow S06E19 Review: Enter the Dragon

Arrow, Season 6, Episode 19: The Dragon

One of my biggest complaints about the sudden revelation that Ricardo Diaz is the true big bad of the season is the fact that beyond his name being a cheeky nod to a pre-existing DC comics villain, and a recurring appearance, is that Diaz himself as a character is a huge cipher. 

So thankfully, we get an entire episode devoted to Ricardo Diaz, otherwise known as the Dragon. And it's... it's a pretty damn good episode. We get a bit of a flashback (and definitely very little of it -- we've definitely moved past the 15-minute-every-episode-for-a-flashback format) of young little Ricardo Diaz being tormented by an older boy in an orphanage. We get to see Ricardo Diaz's entire persona -- how his whole deal is that he's someone who is a fighter, who fought to get every scrap of food and advantage in the world. We see that reflected both in his flashback where he was tormented, and how he acts in the here and now. 

The plot of the episode is a bit odd. Ricardo Diaz, ostensibly after taking control of Star City, is using it as leverage to sell it to "the Quadrant", which is some sort of international crime cabal society ring that we've never heard about for some reason. Whatever the case, that serves as the backdrop of Diaz's storyline in the episode. Not-Laurel asks him why he's willing to play fetch and roll over for Cartier Jr, the spokesperson of the Quadrant, and we get to see into Diaz's psyche. He's willing to do the dirty work, but god forbid you cheat him, or you disrespect him, or you try to take advantage of his willingness to play nice. The younger Cartier, a smug, entitled son of a rich man, is a fun foil against the calm facade that Diaz is putting up. 

And, of course, I've always said that Kirk Acevedo has never been my problem with Diaz -- it's the writing behind him. Now that he's brought up into the spotlight, Acevedo flexes his acting muscles pretty well, delivering a pretty intense and extremely fun performance throughout this episode. Whether it's him putting on his 'business face', or him trying to coach Evil Laurel, Acevedo's just fun to watch. 

It's a bit weird, though, when we do come to the final scene of the episode. We learn that Diaz is a methodical surgeon of a man, only killing when he has to, kowtowing if it suits his needs, but never afraid to throw his weight around if that's what's needed. He keeps his ego and temper in check until he needs them, and won't lose sight of his ultimate goal (or at least for this episode, anyway). In a sense, the Quadrant seems to be how Diaz viewed Cayden James -- he doesn't care that a bigger ego or a flashier villain thinks he's a mere thug, as long as he gets what he needs. He allows himself to be used by the likes of James and Cartier until their motives don't align. Unlike the likes of Slade, Adrian Chase, Cayden James and Damien Darhk, Diaz doesn't seem to take anything particularly personally (Jesse notwithstanding), and it's a pretty neat contrast.

That said... I'm not sure what I'm supposed to take from the final scene, where he confronts the older boy in the orphanage, Jesse, now grown into an old, fat "loser". And having Diaz burn the man alive (as well as the remaining photograph of what I assume to be his biological father) for no reason other than to prove that he's "not a loser" now feels weirdly petty and not at all what the past half-hour had shown us Diaz could be. But I digress -- Kirk Acevedo's performance has pretty much won me over. Again, though, we'll see if the writing manages to shaft Ricardo Diaz the way it did Cayden James. We shall see. 

The B-plots are... eh. We get Felicity and Curtis trying to work on their little company, with Curtis being fun as always -- he clearly doesn't blame Felicity for any of the estrangement between the Arrow squads, although as he notes, he's trying and failing to do a 'I told you so' bit at learning that even the OG squad has shattered. We also don't see Oliver Queen that much in this episode, which plays into Felicity's character arc -- being a bystander not able to influence matters as Overwatch is breaking her heart, and only being able to see whether Oliver is dead or alive via TV news isn't sitting well with her. It's something that the show has drummed into both Oliver and the audience since day one -- that he needs allies -- so it's a bit weird that the show seems to be leaning the other way. Eh. 

Still, this is a pretty goddamn fun episode. It's not perfect, and there are still holes in Ricardo Diaz as a character, but the performance was pretty outstanding here, and it helps to give some extra layers to Diaz. 

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• Evil Laurel makes a brief aside to the 'man who brought (her) to this earth', an obvious reference to Zoom. 
• The Quadrant is original to Arrow.