ARROW Season 6×14, “Collision Course” recap

3 Mar

Welcome back, Arrowheads! It’s a “good news, bad news” time since the brief break from last episode. The good news: Cayden James has been stopped from his and plot to blow up Star City! The bad news: pretty much everything else! Cayden James is murdered by Ricardo Diaz, the true architect behind the city’s recent woes. The original flavor Team Arrow is still having issues with their former teammates, mostly because their former teammates can’t get their crap together. And Quentin has secretly taken Evil Laurel, Black Siren, away to recover from that bullet wound Dinah gave her. It’s just a matter of when all this will boil over for our heroes, and that time might be NOW…

Insufficient Balance. Ollie gets the news about Cayden James’ death in custody, but surprisingly not about Diaz being involved from the new police captain (who we learn later, along with the new D.A., are Diaz’s associates). Ollie has more citywide concerns to worry about, mainly the retrieval of that ransom money paid to James that the city needs to keep its services going. Well, Ollie promises to retrieve the funds in the next two days, which should be easy since James said the money is still in the account he gave them, right? WRONG, because a city accountant has found the Corto Maltese based account is empty. It’s not until Felicity does some cyber-sleuthing that we find out why: the funds were removed by Evil Laurel days earlier. So obviously they need to find her, but where is she?

I’m sure Dinah would like to know too since she is still wanting revenge for what she did (and doesn’t trust Ollie to think straight in dealing with her), but the answer is Quentin has her resting in a cabin outside of town. He’s still under the delusion that he can change her because he thinks can fill her need for a living father (which is kind of creepy if you ask me). When he hears about her being involved in the money theft, he lies about what he knows, and Thea seems unconvinced by his claim. He’s not a good liar is what I’m saying.

Well, William gets home schooling on how to make cookies. Hooray for schools with no money WHOA HOLD ON THERE!

The Most Wanted Woman. Our squad of noobs revisit the scene where Evil Laurel went missing, and discover through some super tech that she was dragged from the scene, but not who did it. Original Team Arrow head back to the same place too, but find some fresh boot prints from Dinah there. So, obviously Ollie and friends will call that team, ask them if they have Evil Laurel and explain this weird thing, right? WRONG AGAIN, because they decide to just barge into the noobs’ headquarters demanding answers.

Once again revealing why this group REALLY needs to go into group therapy immediately, they start accusing each other of all sorts of crap, and then Rene pretty much pisses Ollie off by putting hands on him. That leads to a standoff where OTA leaves, and our noobs even more upset they got pushed around by their former leader again. But then Rene reveals that instigation on his end had a point: to put a tracer on Ollie! Seriously…group therapy. NOW.

Divisive Moves. Quentin goes back to the cabin to talk to resting Evil Laurel, and — surprise! — Thea follows him there. She’s trying to figure out Quentin’s thinking, and Evil Laurel puts together she has something Team Arrow wants. So she offers a trade: the stolen money for papers so she can leave the country before Dinah finds her. The noobs overhear this through that tracer, and thinks Ollie is making a mistake trusting Evil Laurel to follow through, and they think they can do a better job. Yeah, the group made up of a murder hungry Dinah and an impatient Rene. Right.

As Team Arrow is driving to the scene, they realize their former buddies are following them (in the least inconspicuous car following ever). They find Ollie’s tracer, and dump it, leaving the newbies with nothing. Well, not exactly nothing, because Curtis suggests another way to find them, and it involves Diggle. Specifically, HURTING Diggle. Oh these clowns need to stop this route now.

Man, I don’t know if the writers want me to hate these guys unequivocally, but if they did, mission accomplished.

Gambling With Lives. Ollie starts discussing the plans for getting Evil Laurel out of the country, and Quentin offers to go with her to make sure she fulfills her end of this bargain. Then, Diggle’s arm starts hurting, and Felicity discovers the chip fixing his nerve injury is shut off and now transmitting where they are. The noobs are already there, and they seem content to plow through Team Arrow to get to Evil Laurel, but as Curtis says, but not to kill her. At the cabin, Felicity is trying to get Diggle’s chip working, and he has to ask if they should even fight their ex-teammates. Ollie insists they started this, and while that may be true, that doesn’t mean the noobs are wrong either in trusting Evil Laurel. Either way, it’s time for a nasty fight.

Throw Down. The newbies arrive demanding Laurel, and Team Arrow is not willing to do that. So once again, the noobs press forward and Team Arrow is forced to keep them at bay while Quentin takes Evil Laurel away. Things get dicey, like Ollie putting the smack down on Rene, and especially when Dinah catches up with Evil Laurel (and knocking Quentin out, which is not cool. He needed a punch, but not that way). She’s ready to kill her, until Curtis arrives and talks her down from crossing that line. This gives still wounded Evil Laurel a chance to escape. They all could go after her, but Rene needs medical attention because he got his butt kicked that badly!

Well more like, that gunshot wound he took back in the season premiere popped open again, but still…

Bad Gets Worse. As Team Arrow tends to their injuries, they wait for Evil Laurel to contact them, but it seems like she never will, much to Quentin’s chagrin. Ollie has to go to the city leaders and besides tell them he will find the money to keep the city running, also tell them that they couldn’t retrieve the money and that he…wait for it…”failed this city” (WAMP WAMP!). The corrupt D.A. goes to the corrupt police captain with a way to cement the FBI case against Ollie, but needs the resources of the SCPD for it. And while the noobs are happy to have not killed Evil Laurel, hear Rene is alive but has to take time out to recover from his injuries, they aren’t happy to see Team Arrow when they come to see Rene. In fact, they flat out say they aren’t going to work with them anymore in ANY capacity. Well, good luck guys, until you’re left crying and crawling back to Team Arrow after Ricardo Diaz hands you your asses, losers.

And as for Evil Laurel? She runs into some random delivery guy, and starts claiming she’s been kidnapped for the last two years. Oh yes, you guessed it, she’s claiming to be our Laurel Lance! Dammit!

“So, let’s just deal with what you want to rag on me about: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2. I…have no excuse.”

–Comic book connections: Mr. Terrific has a new team called The Terrifics in the DCU, and from what I’ve seen, they are not impetuous jerks like here.

–As much as I see why you might want to sow some division between our heroes in the story this season, I’m really concerned all this playing both teams them against each other is not going to go well when they have to be made likable again. Because right now, I could care less if they live or die by the end of this season. Okay, not so much Curtis, because he’s still cool.

–Thea really doesn’t do much fighting here (or at all), but that will likely change if the promos for next episode seem to point to her having a real good reason to.

–I actually thought Rene shot Felicity, and I’m sorry, that’s would have been way too far past redemption there.

–That was a nice note for Diggle to remind Ollie he was hired for his driving and eluding pursuit skills too.

–“If she’s here, she’s…not warm.”

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