In Review: Arrow – Shifting Allegiances

Synopsis: Oliver turns to an old friend to help battle Diaz; Rene is out of the hospital but has a hard time readjusting to life as Wild Dog; Lance discovers something shocking about Black Siren.

Review: Things are beginning to escalate as Arrow draws closer to the season finale. And this episode only illustrates how ineffective Ollie is without the back up of a team. Which plays right into the hands of Diaz who is now part of a much bigger criminal organization thanks to the events of last weeks episode, but that said he is still enjoying a degree of autonomy.

In the episode, Ollie effectively gets Anatoly back into the Bravta and reaches out to his former friend to see if there is any hope of making him see sense by exposing Diaz for the dishonorable thug he is.

Elsewhere Rene who has just been released from Hospital rejoins Curtis and Dinah, but when they go on a mission Rene freezes. Luckily for them. Diggle happens to be leading an ARGUS team, which has hit on the same idea of hitting Diaz where it hurts. Naturally, Diggle and his team wind up aiding Dinah and Curtis, which allows Rene to take a back seat and re-evaluate his place on the team.

Back at the Mayors office Quentin who is serving as the new Mayor learns a horrible truth about Black Siren, but is still determined to help her in the hopes that he can get her away from Diaz who is using her as leverage against Quentin so that he will sign over the rights to a building to him. It’s apparent that Siren is terrified of Diaz and what he is capable of.

By the end of this episode. Curtis, Dinah, and Diggle have won a small victory for Star City by destroying an arms shipment, and Rene seems to be ready to return to work given that his daughter has given him a nudge in the right direction.

On the not so good side and somewhat predictably. Ollie has been taken down by Diaz and has been arrested and charged and is about to serve hard time. He has failed his city. Now is it just me or did we do this jig last year and the year before? You know. The one where Ollie ditches all his team members. Goes it alone, attempts to form new alliances. Gets the snot kicked out of him and ultimately winds up being rendered totally ineffective as the Arrow until someone helps him escape or some other thing.

Overall. Despite the predictability factor. This was a pretty tight episode with a great performance from  Kirk Acevedo as Diaz and Katie Cassidy as the somewhat terrified Laurel Lance aka Black Siren. It was also nice to see Rene back again and Diggle reunite with Curtis and Dinah even though it was just for the one mission.