Arrow S06E22 Review: Omelette Cooking

Arrow, Season 6, Episode 22: The Ties That Bind

I am genuinely not sure which villain is more disappointing right now -- Flash's Thinker or Arrow's Ricardo Diaz. Thinker suffers from way too long of a buildup with barely any payoff and a whole lot of pontificating that makes him look far more stupid instead of the whole 'smartest man alive' deal that he's supposed to be. Ricardo Diaz suffers from way too short of a buildup and barely any rhyme or reason as he jumps from 'cool, calculated and detached' to 'KILL EVERYONE OLIVER QUEEN LOVES', reverting back to the modus operandi of... well, Slade, Damien Darhk and Adrian Chase. Except while those three (well, Slade and Adrian, anyway) actually were at least built up with some history for Slade and some well-executed psychosis in the case of Prometheus.

Diaz has neither, and that's what makes a good chunk of season six so messy. Cayden James and Ricardo Diaz were both genuinely introduced as villains that are different from what Arrow has seen in the past. Cayden as a hacker with a vengeance that has gathered a group of enemies in revenge because if his son dying as part of Oliver's crusade, and Diaz as a detached man who seems non-threatening until he decides to take over Cayden James's operation... and we're told (not shown) that Ricardo Diaz is more dangerous than all of Green Arrow's previous foes, but honestly? Other than having the police force on his payroll -- which isn't as impressive as Slade's metahuman army or Ra's and Damien's ninja assassin army -- Diaz doesn't really feel that threatening. Kirk Acevedo is an amazing actor and is pretty much the only thing redeemable about Ricardo Diaz, but this episode honestly just reduces Diaz to a cheap clone of Adrian or Slade but without the obsession that the two have. 

Mind you, this episode was a pretty great buildup to the final episode of the sixth season. We've got a classic 'burn the set' bit with Diaz's mooks blowing up the Arrowcave. We've got characters being injured with Diaz wailing on Mr. Terrific, and his boyfriend being nearly killed in the attack. We've got a couple of neat showdowns that brought the entire Arrow Team (and Lyla) back together, and the scene of Oliver settling down to cook omelettes only for assassins with rifles to show up and machinegun the place up is pretty harrowing. And everything regarding side-characters Lyla Michaels and Anatoly Knyazev is just pretty amazing. Lyla is a great foil and just entertaining to have around, and Anatoly's deft handling of being a double agent, causing Diaz to turn on the Quadrant (although not before choking Anatoly) is pretty awesome. 

Speaking of the Quadrant... after being introduced as this all-encompassing criminal syndicate equivalent of the Illuminati, it's pretty much self-destructed, yeah? Diaz kills Ms. Saccamento, the only named member of the Quadrant, does away with the third and the fourth kowtows before him. When did Diaz suddenly gain the resources of the manpower of the Quadrant? Does the Quadrant operate on some sort of Klingon mentality of "you killed our leader, you are our leader now!" It's weird. 

Another plot hole that really causes me to wince is how everyone talks about the existence of these ARGUS safehouses that Raisa and William are sent to, but why aren't they already there at the beginning of the episode? It's clear that Diaz is not above targeting Zoe in the previous episode, you'd think that they would be a lot more jumpy and paranoid about Diaz attacking them.

There's a running thread of how stable Diggle and Lyla's relationship are, whereas Oliver and Felicity spend the entire episode bickering about whether Felicity should be in the field, which is just honestly pretty tiresome. Also, at the end of the episode, instead of turning to ARGUS (though at least they give the explanation that ARGUS doesn't care about two-bit drug dealer Ricardo Diaz, wouldn't taking down the Quadrant mean something?) or Team Flash or any other allies he has, Oliver turns to... Samanda Watson and confesses that he's the Green Arrow? That just really came out of nowhere and baffles my mind. 

Overall, though, despite the flashiness of this episode, it's ultimately just a setup action scene to bring Team Arrow back together with minimal fuss, and to set up an all-out war between Diaz's Quadrant minions and the combined Team Arrow. Again, it brings to question why even split Team Arrow up in the first place when every other episode after they take a piss at each other end up with them going all "huh, these guys aren't bad after all when they're not written as assholes". Ultimately, though, while the action scenes are fun to watch, the episode really sort of shot the season in the foot of any sort of meaningful conclusion with Ricardo Diaz that doesn't portray him as, ultimately, a thug with lots of goons protected by plot armour until the final episode. As the recently departed Saccamento notes, "You switched gears from careful and precise... to loud and messy?" and that destroys everything unique about Diaz, really.