ARROW Season 6×23, “Life Sentence” (season finale) recap

19 May

Welcome back, Arrowheads! So we’re here at the end of season six, and things are getting tough for Team Arrow. Not only have they lost both their HQs, Ricardo Diaz has solidified his hold on Star City and whatever’s left of the Quadrant. So of course Ollie has to make a Hail Mary pass by asking for help from FBI agent Samanda Watson. All she wants to give her help is to know Ollie is the Green Arrow. He confirms that, but she asks for something else. That “something else” is what we’re about to learn about.

The Big Bust. We open up at the police station as Ollie walks in. He’s not walking in alone though, as he is helped by some of his teammates and FBI agents to arrest everyone! At the same time, another combo of Team Arrow and FBI guys are busting into Diaz’s place, but in both cases, no Diaz. Later on as the FBI are cleaning up in the police station, the Team (sans masks) and Agent Watson are chatting, all because Ollie got his teammates immunity. Clearly Diaz got wind of this FBI raid thanks to all the city officials he has in his pocket, but Ollie still has a connection of his own: Anatoly.

He calls his old Bratva buddy, and before they can chat about where Diaz is, Diaz shows up in Anatoly’s car. Diaz wonders aloud how Anatoly avoided getting arrested, but nevermind that, because Diaz says he’s called in some help: the Longbow Hunters. After Diaz leaves an address they can meet up at, Anatoly walks into the police station and offers up to the Team what he has heard. Besides the Longbow Hunters being bad news (and maybe immortal based on how long rumors of them existed), the Team knows where Diaz is now. Before they go, Ollie patches up things with Diggle and offers him his own Green Arrow suit! Diggle is not sure he wants it now, but we’ll come back to that later.

Really? Can’t call The Flash or some of your Legends buddies for help, huh?

Watch Where You Stand. At the Mayor’s office, Quentin is chatting with Agent Watson when Diaz calls. He just wants the mayor to know that he has his pseudo-daughter Evil Laurel hostage and if the FBI isn’t called off, she dies. He doesn’t mention this to Agent Watson, at least not yet. After that, Watson, the FBI, and the Team arrive at the address Diaz is at. But it’s a trap, a warehouses full of explosives that Watson, Rene, and a few FBI people are now trapped in. If they move or set off the laser triggers around their feet, the bombs will go off. So yeah, now’s a good time for Rene to make a phone call to his daughter to see if everything’s all right.

While Felicity is trying to circumvent the radio detonators, Anatoly gets a call from Diaz, who lets Anatoly know that he knew Anatoly betrayed him, and is just gonna blow the place up NOW. Felicity can only guarantee a few seconds of a delay before they go off, and so everyone in the building makes a run to get out. Somehow they make it out alive as the warehouse goes up in flames. Back at the police station, Ollie talks to Rene, who admits that was the first time he thought he was going to die and leave his daughter without a parent. Ollie admits that Rene has become a better man since he first met him, and that Ollie had failed to see that for a long time. These teammate chats are getting odd, aren’t they?

Proof Of Life. Diaz calls up Quentin again, and making the same threat as before, and Quentin tells everyone else about what’s going on. This seems like a perfect opportunity to bust Diaz, but that doesn’t guarantee Evil Laurel’s safety, to which Agent Watson says, and I’m paraphrasing here, “Um, why are wanting to save this murderer who isn’t your real kid, anyway?”. Good point. Quentin storms off upset about this, and when Diaz calls again, Quentin wants proof she’s alive, and so he’ll meet him somewhere secure to get it. Ollie just pops by, and assures him he wants to keep this from ending badly. Quentin offhand asks about that lie detector test that Ollie passed all the way back in season one, and during that chat, Quentin mentions the pacemaker he got. I gots a bad feeling.

At the meet, Quentin arrives to only find Diaz and some goons there. With the FBI waiting to move in, Quentin calls an audible and says they need to get him away because he’s under FBI surveillance! Dammit! Well, Diaz takes off with Quentin, and they lose all tracking of them in the process. So that didn’t go as planned. On the other hand, Quentin does get to see his not-daughter again!

Hopefully one of these people saw Entrapment or Ocean’s Twelve, so they know how to shimmy out of this.

Give Of Yourself. Back at the police station, things are pretty grim until Ollie remembers Quentin mentioning his pacemaker earlier. They may be able to track it, which is kind of creepy when you think on it. While that is going down, Ollie wants to chat with Dinah, and just be clear that they aren’t going there to just recover Quentin, capture Diaz AND kill Evil Laurel. She understands, and feels bad she turned on her old teammates. Felicity sees this chat, asks Ollie what is going on with all these little chats, and what was the deal he made with Watson. Before he can explain it all, they got a trace on that pacemaker and are off!

At Diaz’s hideout, he lets the imprisoned Lances know if Quentin doesn’t order the FBI away, in five seconds, Evil Laurel gets shot. As he’s doing his countdown, Evil Laurel is ready to die to disrupt Diaz’s plans, but Quentin isn’t, throwing himself in front of the bullet meant for her! He’s still alive, but getting gut shot is still bad. So, Diaz says the threat still stands, and before he can shoot Evil Laurel this time, our heroes arrive.

Dinah arrives to grab Quentin and DOESN’T kill Evil Laurel. The two sonic screamers drag Quentin to safety, as Ollie goes after Diaz. Ollie and Diaz fight it out on a rooftop, and Ollie finally gets the upper hand in this rematch. Diaz tells Ollie he’s not gonna stop unless Ollie kills him, but Ollie won’t do that. On the other hand, Evil Laurel will, and she shows up to the rooftop to sonic scream Diaz airborne into the river below! Ollie’s a bit pissed about it, considering in retrospect Diaz’s body isn’t found in the river, but thanks to some tech Felicity put together, Ollie got the files in that USB drive Diaz carried around last episode and during the fight. So, it’s kind of a win, right?

Over Evil Laurel, man. Oh, Quentin.

Penance. At the hospital, everyone is hanging around to see how Quentin is doing. He seems okay right now, and Ollie goes in to see him before he’s taken to surgery. They chat about how far their relationship has come in these years, and Ollie mentions he had a great dad, and he wasn’t referring to his own. Sniff. Quentin is taken to surgery, just as Sara Lance arrives, called in to see her dad. It’s all awkward stuff here, Sara meeting someone who kind of is her sister in Evil Laurel, and then Watson arrives telling Ollie it’s time to leave.

That’s when we learn the cost of granting immunity to his friends and teammates was he’d have to face federal charges alone, so he’s being arrested. And as that bombshell drops, another one arrives when the doctor tells them Quentin had a seizure in surgery and died! Oh man! The bad news is just piling up!

Carry On. In a holding room, Ollie waits inside, as Watson comes in with Felicity. Felicity mentions that the Team has a plan to get him out of prison, but Ollie says not to do that because he’s going into a federal supermax prison, which is WAY harder to get into than say Iron Heights. Ollie is sorry he didn’t get to tell her what his arrangement with Watson was, but he knew she would try to stop Ollie from making this impossible choice. He didn’t want to deprive William of both his parents by going on the lam, after all. He then asks for a few minutes to tell William everything.

So we cut to everyone else in groups: our newbies, the Lance kinda-sisters at their dead father’s side, Diggle at ARGUS with that Green Arrow suit, and a recovering Diaz (!) as they are seeing live TV of Ollie being led out by the FBI. He stops to answer questions with a simple statement to the press: HE’S THE GREEN ARROW, AND ALWAYS HAS BEEN THE GREEN ARROW! He even claims he’s “The Hood”, and asks his friends to continue their fight to protect the city. So we end with Ollie being put into this supermax prison, with inmates just waiting to get a piece of him!

Don’t worry, Barry Allen got out of prison in like, three episodes. You’ll be fine.

And like that, the season is over! Will Ollie get out of jail, or more like, when will he get out of jail? What about Evil Laurel? What about Diaz? What is Team Arrow going to look like now? Can Ollie get out to go to Quentin’s funeral, at least? I guess that and a lot more questions will get answered in the fall!

–Comic book connections: The Longbow Hunters refers to a pivotal Green Arrow story arc in the 1980’s. What that means to the show we’ll find out next season.

–I suppose the early news of Paul Blackthorne not being in next season should’ve been a hint things were not gonna end well for Quentin this episode. But still, I remain slightly optimistic. I mean, it’s not like all the Quentin Lances in the multiverse are dead or evil Nazis. RIP Quentin Lance.

–So we get some awkward talk with Sara and Evil Laurel, which hey, glad to see Sara pop up if only to find out her dad’s dead because he wanted to change an evil double of her sister. Actually, that sounds worse than I thought it was.

–So the FBI is going to be in charge of the city for the time being (I mean, ANOTHER mayor’s dead and everyone in that office is probably going to prison for corruption!). And Felicity and William are getting protection from Lyla and ARGUS. What will Star City look like next season?

–For a guy who flew about a few hundred feet into a river, Ricardo Diaz looks slightly okay. Not like due for physical therapy, but okay.

–Wait, Ollie really didn’t know about the pacemaker Quentin had? It was like four years ago, and that just never came up from anyone? AT ALL?

–Was there a deleted scene where Ollie makes up with Curtis, because where was that? Maybe the episode was too long?

–“I wasn’t talking about my dad.” Sniff.

–“If this goes wrong, don’t call me ‘hoss’ at my funeral.”

–“It’s been getting better since the first time you arrested me.”

–“We have costume parties in Russia too. It’s great fun.”

That’s it until the fall, but in the meanwhile, you can check out my recaps of other DC TV shows in the Recap Round-Up, and I’ll be finishing up my revisit of the first season of Arrow this summer!