Arrow returned for season 6 with “Fallout” written by the team of Marc Guggenheim and Wendy Mericle and directed by James Bamford. Now that the flashbacks of Oliver’s (Stephen Amell) five year absence have been caught up, the only flashbacks we got in this episode were to how the events on Lian Yu in last year’s finale played out. As the episode opens, there’s been a five month time jump. And as the episode progresses, it’s clear that they are all still dealing with the fallout of what happened that day.
There were a couple of standout stunts for me in this episode. I really liked the opening sequence of Oliver coming up out of the water and then the ensuing fight – including him skewering Faust (Dominic Bogart). Bogart was annoyingly fun as a new bad guy with a penchant for explosions – and gadgets. We quickly see that Diggle (David Ramsey) survived the Island and has a nice new helmet. Rene (Rick Gonzalez) is also there and so is Curtis (Echo Kellum).
Back at the bunker, Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) brings the others burgers, including a meal for William (Jack Moore). Felicity and Oliver haven’t made a lot of progress and are still somewhat circling each other as Oliver puts William first. He’s also brought on Raisa (Kathleen Gati) to care for William, and it seems she did the same for him as a boy. Gati could be an interesting addition to the cast. William is having trouble sleeping and it turns out the bad man in his dreams is Oliver because William blames him for Samantha’s (Anna Hopkins) death.
Dinah (Juliana Harkavy) is now a lieutenant and well on her way to becoming a blond. She leaves her interrogation of Faust to answer a text from Quentin (Paul Blackthorne) who is struggling to stay on the wagon. He’s consumed with guilt over a secret that he and Dinah share from the Island. He’s convinced that he shot Black Siren (Katie Cassidy) and left her for dead on the Island. Blackthorne delivers his usual terrific performance. Dinah points out that Black Siren is not Laurel and that he shot her to save Dinah because Black Siren had a knife to Dinah’s throat.
Black Siren shows up at the police station just after Faust has removed a tooth and used the explosives in it with the cola that was brought to him to blow his way out. Quentin is sure that Black Siren is after him. Oliver refuses to let the city give in to terrorists and is determined to carry on with the Policy Academy graduation go forward – but they do move the venue to City Hall.
The team goes after Black Siren and it’s clear that they are all suffering from the fallout of what happened on the Lian Yu. Diggle’s inability to shoot one of the bad guys results in Rene getting shot – and my second favorite stunt in the episode as Oliver jumps off a building to save Rene from the fall. Dinah and Quentin are both taken out by Black Siren as they are distracted by each other.
Felicity and Curtis have electronic bomb sniffers but have to go to the graduation to monitor them. Clearly, Dinah, Quentin, and Oliver have to be there. Quentin tells the others the truth about what happened on the Island. Diggle is quick to volunteer to stay at the lair and monitor things from there. There’s a nice moment between Quentin and Oliver at the Graduation. Oliver reminds Quentin that Black Siren is not Laurel and Quentin was protecting a friend from an enemy when he shot her – not shooting his daughter. Oliver laments that he’s failing as a father and that he should send William to be with Samantha’s parents. Quentin reminds him that Samantha’s last words to Oliver were to be a father to William.
It seems like Black Siren was actually after Diggle as she shows up in the lair – and we get another Battle Royal – but really they are there to steal one of Curtis’ proto-type T-spheres. They have no idea why…
Oliver visits Rene in the hospital where he’s trying to check out early. Oliver has arranged for Rene to get another hearing to try to get his daughter Zoe back. It seems like all the families are trying to be reunited. Oliver visits Thea in the hospital too where she is on life support. I thought having a flashback where it appears certain that she is dead and then having her on life support was a bit cheap. In fact, if she wasn’t dead, why was Oliver just sitting there mourning her??? Slade shows up at the hospital to check on Thea and to tell Oliver that he’s going to Calgary (yeah Canada!) to look for his son.
Slade also tells Oliver to be careful in choosing between the man people need him to be and the father William needs him to be. He tells Oliver that they walk between two worlds and that they can only do that for so long.
Oliver goes home to William. He tells him that he used to blame his father for things too. He knew that he wasn’t perfect, but he also knew that he loved him. He tells William – finally! – that the last thing Samantha asked was for Oliver to look after William, so whether William wants it or not, Oliver vows never to walk away from him. Oliver scores a small victory when William agrees to watch the game with him the next night.
The episode ends with Felicity telling Oliver to turn on the tv. It seems that he’s been unmasked and now everyone knows the identity of the Green Arrow! Haven't we been here, done that already? Wouldn't it be easy for Felicity to show the picture had been manipulated somehow?
What did you think of the episode? Were you expecting more deaths? Is Thea dead? Will William actually be able to stay with Oliver or will he prove to be a way for bad guys to get to Oliver? Who was the mysterious guy from the helicopter who rescued Black Siren on the Island? Kirk Acevedo maybe? Or maybe Michael Emerson? Will one of them be the new DA that Oliver talked about? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
