ARROW Season 6×06, “Promises Kept” recap

17 Nov

Welcome back, Arrowheads! When last we left everybody, things were getting dicey in Team Arrow. Diggle was hiding his nerve injury from his teammates, which I’m sure is less disturbing than the fact he’s been taking some kind of drug to quell that injury. Ollie has found himself on a mission to help Slade recover Slade’s son, Joe, from a Kasnian prison and the eyes of a deadly mercenary group called The Jackals. What neither Slade world Ollie counted on was that Joe was the Jackals’ leader! Family reunions get so awkward, don’t they?

The Poisoned Root. In the flashbacks this week, we find Slade laid up in a hospital bed after we saw him get an arrow through his eye thanks to Oliver Queen on Lian Yu. He floated to the Philippines from there, and ended up being treated at a hospital, with Joe waiting for him to wake up. Slade does awaken and promises to never leave his son again, and for a while, everything’s good. He helps his son train for the Australian Secret Service, but something seems off with him, and even Joe can start to see it.

Of course, what we know is that Slade is still under the influence of the Mirakuru, still having visions of a vengeful Shado (welcome back, Head Shado!), and barely holding onto sanity. It’s when five years ago that he hears of Oliver Queen being found alive that sends Slade out of control, stealing his now signature Deathstroke suit, and slaughtering some Australian spies. Joe arrives to find his now blood splattered dad out of control, who warns his son never to come looking for him. Someone should have taken their own advice.

“I got something on my face, don’t I?”

The Apple From The Tree. Back in the present in Kasnia, Slade finally meets Joe, who now calls himself Kane, and his son is a little angry at dear old dad. Before going through with committing patricide, Joe decides to welcome Slade into the Jackals and catch up on things, like say a big plot the Jackals have going on in Kasnia. When Slade has a moment alone, Ollie reveals himself and overhearing what is going on with Joe’s group, knows he has to help. Slade is not exactly cool with help right now, but maybe right now he needs a fresh pair of eyes to see Joe is clearly nuts.

Slade gets to see how crazy Joe is when he joins the Jackals to pick up some explosives for a big demolition job, and watches Joe murder security guards without remorse. Slade sees what his son has become, and it’s not good. Meanwhile, Ollie checks the Jackals lair for info on this big demolition gig, only to not see Nylander nearby. Before we get to what happens next there…

Printing Red. Back in Star City, Team Arrow busts up a crew lead by some crime boss named “Dragon”, trying to steal material for a 3D Printer, which seems a lot of extra work seeing as how relentless & merciless this crew was to get it. But Diggle has more pressing concerns, like running low on that drug for his injury. He meets with the main supplier of the drug, Ricardo Diaz, who is making this non-FDA approved drug and offering it to people out of the goodness of his heart (yeah, right). Well, Team Arrow gets a jump on Dragon’s crew as they are pulling another heist, and–surprise!–Diggle sees that Ricardo Diaz is Dragon! I mean, who thought a guy selling experimental drugs would be selling illegal drugs, huh?

Personal Conflicts. Back in Kasnia, Joe noticed Slade a little wary of killing any of those security guards from earlier, but offers his dad a chance for resolution on one thing: they have Ollie captive! Slade plays along that he still has beef with Ollie, and that plays out as Ollie is taken into a room for Slade to execute him. Even Ollie is not sure Slade wouldn’t just kill him just to stay with his son, crazy spawn or not, and reminds him he’s not the monster he knew years ago. And he’s right, because Slade frees Ollie and they both escape the Jackals’ lair. But Joe isn’t concerned, because he knows dad will probably be by to stop that big scheme the Jackals have going on, which is to blow up the country’s water reservoir (always with destroying the water!).

“Its time you paid for how I got treated in season three, Kid!”

The Itch. Back in Star City, the Team has put the puzzle together that Ricardo Diaz is Dragon, while Diggle is unsure how to deal with this complication. So, he tells Lyla about what is going on, and how he needs those drugs to keep going as the Green Arrow. She of course, doesn’t believe that Diggle would sell out his virtues to sabotage stopping Dragon, and maybe she’s right. I mean, he does tell the Team where Diaz’s base is, but doesn’t say that he knows because he was there getting his fix.

The Team hits the lab, and things get tense when Dragon decides to just burn down the place. He escapes as his drugs start burning, and just for a minute, Diggle pauses and wonders if he should steal some of them while he has time. But he doesn’t and follows the Team out of the burning lab.

Father and Son Talk. While Ollie is determined to stop Joe’s plan to blow up the water supply, Slade is conflicted because he sees only one solution to stopping this: killing his son. Ollie says not to give up hope to save Joe from his rage, but they still have a job to do. While Ollie faces the Jackals, Slade confronts a waiting Joe, and that argument over resentment and anger boils over into a fight between father and son. As they fight, they reach an point where Joe reveals some horrible truths.

Besides Joe having another brother Slade never knew about named Grant, he had seen his father kill before all that stuff with the Mirakuru, at that father-son camping trip we saw last episode. After that, Joe wanted to be like his father so much he killed a guy a few months afterwards! So much for him just being an angry son! Slade is almost ready to give up to his son’s madness, but Ollie arrives to intervene, and Joe escapes.

Are we gonna get cyborg Diggle this season? Stay tuned…

Facing Our Sins. After stopping that big water supply plot, we find the Jackals are in custody, with Joe still in the wind. As for Slade, he will search for his other son Grant and maybe try to redeem Joe if he can, but for Ollie, it’s time for him to go home. Ollie gets back home to see William and Felicity, but he doesn’t want to talk about what happened with Slade. It’s a bummer of a story.

As for Diggle, after talking to Lyla about what happened at the lab and what he was tempted to do, he comes to a decision and later tells the Team everything about his injury. As apologetic as he is, his teammates are super supportive, adding, “dude, why didn’t you tell Curtis this months ago, because he made Felicity Smoak walk again, he can fix your injury!” Well, that’s all good news to end this episode. Next time, a quiet reflective Thanksgiving episode…is probably what’s not coming.

–Comic book connections: Richard Dragon (Kirk Acevedo, another pull from the J.J. Abrams produced family of shows) was an antihero at times, and occasional villain at other times in the DCU.

–Let’s take this time to note Grant, the other crazy Slade Wilson spawn from the first season of Legends of Tomorrow was mentioned. Can’t imagine how that reunion with father and son is going to go better than the one with Slade and Joe.

–Felicity doesn’t bother going to Diggle’s big confession meeting with the Team. Priorities are changing.

–You know the second Joe points out that Deathstroke armor in the training room, you can just guess the massacre that was gonna happen in there.

–“Anyone want to guess? You guys are no fun.”

–“That was way too convincing.”

–“I created a chip to make a woman walk, people!”

–“‘Never give up on family’. You taught me that.”

That’s it for now, but come back next week for the recap of “Thanksgiving”…