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S06.E22: The Ties That Bind


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18 minutes ago, Mellowyellow said:

Things that plague my mind - Olicity totally had a quickie right? Cuz you don't kiss like that without seeing it through?

Great minds think alike. :D

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Did they destroy almost all their sets in this episode? The OTA bunker was trashed and set on fire while the NoTA one was blown-up. The Queen apartment was shot-up, as well as Felicity's loft, the SCPD, Rene's house, and the hospital's only hallway. I think the only things left standing are ARGUS, the Mayor's office/city hall and that one multi-purpose hospital room that they use as an ER/exam/patient room. Was all this destruction, like, a metaphor for how this season's arcs with all the focus on the noobs, the "civil war", and the underwhelming villains totally blew up in everyone's faces and how they're going to have to rebuild everything next year with Beth as the new showrunner?

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They keep telling us that Diaz is the baddest bad to ever bad but in the next breath, they tell us he's not on A.R.G.U.S.'s radar or list of priorities. And this is while he's actively trying to kill the head of the organization! Slade, Deadshot and Darhk all got A.R.G.U.S. intervention/interest so how is he so much worse than them? I don't get it.

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49 minutes ago, Mellowyellow said:

Things that plague my mind - Olicity totally had a quickie right? Cuz you don't kiss like that without seeing it through?

Maybe that solves the mystery of the t-shirt in the kissing scene and the sweater at dinner?

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(edited)

"Once we start decryption, it's all or nothing. If it doesn't work, the data is wiped."

So, maybe we should copy the data to another device first. Like we did when we cloned Diaz' hard drive.

"Who is that? Someone is trying to talk sense around here? Get them out! We can't have that on this show. Especially not this late in the season!"

4 hours ago, apinknightmare said:

I guess that's what they get for letting someone come in and murder one of their members without consequence. They all get what they had coming to them because they're even dumber than Diaz, which is saying something.

My No-Prize explanation is that all the current heads of the Quadrant were like that idiot kid Diaz killed a few episodes ago; their parents (or grandparents) were actually competent and built up the organization, but now it's being run by a bunch of incompetent, dilettante children who have run the organization into the ground.

Edited by Cthulhudrew
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ANATOLY FOR THE WIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Watching Oliver beat the crap out of the shooters, as incompetent as they were, single-handedly, so he don't need no fooking NOOBS.

I loved that cold, silent, non-panic look that Anatoly gave Marble Mush Mouth while the latter was choking him, accusing him of being the traitor. Of course he was, but that's okay!

I won't lie-I gasped when Tataglia/Corinthos stuck a knife in Quadrant Lady's throat. Did not see that coming, though I should have. But really, he's just a whiny, petulant THUG. Who is easily manipulated.

I couldn't roll my eyes hard enough at Pouty Lips' monologueing at the inept shooters before just screaming them into subconsciousness. Like ain't she cool, her scream "bounces."

Fast forwarded all the NOOBS' scenes that didn't have Oliver in them.

GAGGED when Felicity hugged Stutterbark.

So, like they're all friends now? And Oliver FUCKING apologized again???! Da Fuck?

And Watson is back, along with her smug. I will never understand why the show and writers made Oliver so fucking weak this season.

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(edited)

I loved this episode, although it was not without its flaws...

I really, really hope that Diaz doesn't carry over to Season 7. He is, like, the least scary Big Bad in all 6 seasons of Arrow - and I'm sick and tired of the show trying to convince me that he's scary. He's not. Adrian Chase all by his lonesome was 10 times scarier. Diaz is just an immature, angry bully, who got rich through illegal means and is now blackmailing a lot of spineless people into doing his bidding. C'mon, he could barely defeat Curtis in a one-on-one fight!

I'm surprised that The Quadrant is so powerful when its leaders are so stupid. Three of them go to see Diaz unaccompanied by any bodyguards or minions. Really?

Of course, I loved the Oliver/Felicity, Oliver/Felicity/William, Oliver/Diggle, and Diggle/Lyla scenes. More of those scenes, please.

Big thumbs up for the Lyla and Felicity field mission. Yay!!  Also, Diggle & Lyla fighting side by side was a thing of beauty.

While I believe Felicity was right in what she did (going into the precinct to retrieve the sniffer, trying to finish the decryption), I am tired of Oliver always being wrong and always being the one to apologize this season. I was super annoyed by Oliver's asking the newbies for their trust, when the newbies are the ones who should be trying to earn back Oliver's trust.

Once again, Felicity was willing to sacrifice her own life in order to save the city. Felicity (to Oliver): "You have to get out of here... Once this decryption's done, I'm gonna email it to you and basically the entire world." Clearly, she expected to die.

Speaking of the newbies, unfortunately, we were subjected to more scenes of them being annoying. What, still no apology from Dinah or Curtis? 

Thankfully, however, we were spared any Quentin/Black Siren scenes in this episode. 

Both the Arrow Bunker and the NTA Bunker are no more! I did not see that coming.

Although I still haven't forgiven Anatoly for killing that good young cop a few episodes back, it was still great to see him helping Oliver again and fooling Diaz.

Btw, the best fight scene in this episode (imo) was when a weaponless Oliver fought and defeated all those goons with guns (after he, Felicity and William were attacked in their home). Tell me again why he needs the newbies? Also, did anyone else get Godfather 2 vibes during the later scene when he's talking to Diggle?

Oliver (to Diggle): "Diaz's people attacked us in our home! Sitting down for a meal in our home. So don't ask me to sit here and pretend like things aren't different."

Michael Corleone (to Frank Pentangeli): "You heard what happened in my home? ... In my home! In my bedroom, where my wife sleeps. Where my children come and play with their toys... In my home."

I really hope that the season finale next week doesn't end predictably with Oliver going to jail for life as part of his deal with the FBI agent for her help in defeating Diaz. Instead, I hope there's a twist. I would much prefer it if Oliver finally beats the stuffing out of Diaz and emerges victorious.

ETA: I am now awarding 'eyeroll' scores to specific lines of dialogue (scale: 1 to 5 eyerolls):

William: "Yeah. Are - are they dead?"
Oliver: "No, but they're down."

Score: 2 eyerolls (If there ever was a case for justifiable homicide, it's when armed guys attack you and your family in your home.)

Oliver (to NTA and Diggle): "Let me set a meet with him, okay? Let us make a move off of his Intel. But until we have it, I want you guys to stand down, and I'm asking you to trust me. I know that that trust does not come easy after everything that's happened. Let's put all of that aside and get this done."  
Score: 3 eyerolls (The newbies should be the ones trying to earn Oliver's trust again.)

Lyla: "A.R.G.U.S. doesn't have authority to arrest Diaz."
Score: 5 eyerolls (Yet ARGUS had the authority to destroy an entire city and kill millions of people in S2.)

Curtis fights Diaz, but isn't killed.
Score: 4 eyerolls (Should it even be a fight? Also, Diaz had plenty of time to kill Curtis and grab the necklace.)

Diggle (to Oliver): "Truth is you were there for her tonight the same way she's been there for you as Overwatch. And, look, when I said that your focus was split, I didn't mean throwing away everything and everyone that gives you strength."
Score: 2 eyerolls (I'm getting whiplash from Diggle's week-to-week advice to Oliver.)

Edited by tv echo
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8 minutes ago, tv echo said:

Thankfully, however, we were spared any Quentin/Black Siren scenes in this episode. 

It seemed really appropriate that Paul Blackthorne's new show was announced yesterday, because nothing says "The writers think my character lacks importance" like not appearing in the penultimate episode of the season.

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42 minutes ago, tv echo said:

Once again, Felicity was willing to sacrifice her own life in order to save the city. Felicity (to Oliver): "You have to get out of here... Once this decryption's done, I'm gonna email it to you and basically the entire world." Clearly, she expected to die.

This has been a trend since S5 and I feel like it's that bit of Oliver that has rubbed off her. When things get really bad she's quite willing to jump in and die if it means saving everyone, just like him. Every time she does this I think of the S2 scene between them where he told her he was going to surrender to Slade.

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12 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

I mean, sure Oliver's faced millionaire domestic terrorists, evil wizards who want to destroy the world, mad scientists, immortal ninja cults, an endless line up of powerful and corrupt government and military types, alien invaders, immortal world conquerors, an army of super soldiers led by a totally insane super soldier, a super genius sadistic martial arts expert, a super hacker who held the whole city hostage, and freaking intradimentional Nazis with superpowers...but truly Diaz is his greatest threat! I mean, Diaz has...a gun! 

He also gets really loud. Does he want to be the next BC? Is his screaming an audtition? I wish Anatoly had gone, Say it, don't spray it, in his heavy Russian accent. I was really worried about him throughout the episode. But he made it out okay, but I'll be tense until the finale finishes. 

Screw Diaz for killing the mob lady. I was hoping she'd take over as she actually seemed to have two brain cells to rub together.

9 hours ago, BkWurm1 said:
  1. Or when he quickly get dressed again he grabbed the wrong grey shirt.  
  2. I also appreciated that they can be upset with each other without acting like children.  
  3. I would have preferred if Oliver hadn't had to relearn a lesson when it comes to what Felicity will risk but I think they did finally explain his mistaken thought process and I appreciated Dig walking back the stuff he put in Oliver's head that Oliver took the worst possible way.  
  4. Felicity and Lyla in their short scene were really great.  It was so human and relatable.  

  1. My headcanon is that T-shirt got destroyed in a dirty, dirty way during their quicky. It died for a noble cause.
  2. As William picked up on the tension, I truly did think that kid is going to have some good role models for relationships. It's not all roses and they disagree, and Felicity gets scary, but they are always there and always work through it.
  3. Honestly, even with this attempt, I have no effing clue what Dig meant then. I don't think I ever will.
  4. Loved that! I want gifs of Lyla popping her head back into the car and Felicity's double take at her crack about divorce. It was hilarious all around.

A long time ago, I pitched Oliver should get his own cooking show or a segment on TV and I want to renew that pitch now. It would be the perfect outlet for him and allow him to be the primary care taker for William and any future kids. 

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More thoughts now that I've watched the entire episode:

I'm still surprised by how much I like Oliver/Felicity/William family scenes. 

I loved the Olicity scenes. I just hope that Oliver doesn't have to re-learn the lesson next season. (He probably will. And yes, whenever we get a pregnant Felicity, I feel like he's going to be the most overprotective person ever.) 

I truly wonder if Diaz's men who went after Oliver, Felicity and William looked at the apartment and wondered, "Why is there a door here? What exactly is the layout of this place?" 

Really like that Anatoly helped Oliver. Hate that when Diaz asked if he forgot his gun that Anatoly didn't just shoot him. 

Has anyone put together a list of the times Diaz should have been killed but wasn't simply because it's not the season finale yet?

Hate Diaz's tech guy. Hate that they had him be able to hack and trace Felicity. NO ONE is better than Felicity at computers. Like I said in the live thread, Arrow needs to remember that. 

I miss when Felicity and Diggle talked to each other on-screen.

Liked the Oliver/Diggle conversation. Much better than what we got when they needed a reason for Diggle to join ARGUS.

Not really a fan of how the OTA/NTA split was just basically forgotten? I understand why - need to stop Diaz - but really, it's almost like it never happened? 

So disappointed in the Quadrant. I feel like they have to make everyone else weak/stupid in order to make Diaz the least bit threatening (even though he still isn't). It's absolutely ridiculous. Maybe if they had made Diaz part of the Quadrant from the beginning (but the audience didn't find out until, say, 619 and that was in FBs). Maybe. Instead, here's this guy who just joined them and he beats them all?

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22 minutes ago, insomniadreams88 said:

I truly wonder if Diaz's men who went after Oliver, Felicity and William looked at the apartment and wondered, "Why is there a door here? What exactly is the layout of this place?" 

10,000 points to you. LOL

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13 hours ago, statsgirl said:

I kept thinking he's Sonny Corinthos.  Mumbly, ego bigger than his brain, inferiority complex.

OMG now I can't unsee/unhear that.  The original Mumbles McGee

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I can't help but wonder what this episode would have been like if the "Civil War" storyline and n00bs had been better received. I mean, this can't be what they originally planned for this point in the season, right? Surely there would have been more interaction between the teams, Dinah and Curtis and Rene would have played bigger parts. But insead we got focus on Oliver/Felicity and Diggle/Lyla and the n00bs played mostly pointless roles in terms of fighting Diaz? While they didn't kill off any of the n00bs like I might have hoped, they were still minimal and mostly just said stuff that was obvious/useless. (At least, I'm assuming since I fastforwarded through what scenes with them I could and still understood the episode.) I'm rewatching and I'm so curious what this would have looked like in a different world. 

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21 minutes ago, bethy said:

I can't help but wonder what this episode would have been like if the "Civil War" storyline and n00bs had been better received. I mean, this can't be what they originally planned for this point in the season, right? Surely there would have been more interaction between the teams, Dinah and Curtis and Rene would have played bigger parts. But insead we got focus on Oliver/Felicity and Diggle/Lyla and the n00bs played mostly pointless roles in terms of fighting Diaz? While they didn't kill off any of the n00bs like I might have hoped, they were still minimal and mostly just said stuff that was obvious/useless. (At least, I'm assuming since I fastforwarded through what scenes with them I could and still understood the episode.) I'm rewatching and I'm so curious what this would have looked like in a different world. 

I actually can't even remember what the newbies did now. Curtis got stabbed and Dinah said something to him about something? It went totally over my head. They really were pointless. 

And I know they basically worked together in this episode but I still don't think anything has really been resolved? It was more of a case of Diaz being a time sensitive issue and they needed to shelve their mess and get on with it because their lives were in danger.

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Curtis called the fired cop his man. I know this because it made me laugh. Sure, they compare to Oliver and Felicity. After what, two dates? Also, Paul who?

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33 minutes ago, Kymmi said:

OMG now I can't unsee/unhear that.  The original Mumbles McGee

Mooby's more like Stutter McGee, inability to speak in complete sentences. And who looks SO FUCKING RIDICULOUS when brandishing a gun.

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2 minutes ago, bijoux said:

Curtis called the fired cop his man. I know this because it made me laugh. Sure, they compare to Oliver and Felicity. After what, two dates? Also, Paul who?

Also, what is his boyfriend's name? Actually ignore that because I don't care. ??

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Just now, bijoux said:

Sure, they compare to Oliver and Felicity. After what, two dates? Also, Paul who?

I was already thrown off by the show/Dinah and Curtis even trying to compare the cop bf to Vince...whom Dinah knew for over a year and they had a lot more going into their relationship.

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2 hours ago, insomniadreams88 said:

Not really a fan of how the OTA/NTA split was just basically forgotten? I understand why - need to stop Diaz - but really, it's almost like it never happened? 

Everyone working together again without any of the previous issues being mentioned makes all of the episodes they spent on  OTA/NTA being at odds with each other kind of pointless.  

If that is the end of the team split, then it seems like it’s only purpose was to give Oliver a reason to feel isolated enough to go back to working solo, which is a lot of show time to devote to something that didn’t last very long.

But, I can understand why they might want to take a low key approach to wrapping it up after how poorly it was received and I’m not going to complain if the newbies take the backseat again for a while. 

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I loved how things came around full circle with Olicity and Dyla. We had Felicity saving them at the beginning by making Oliver check his phone, and then Oliver saving her at the n00bs' bunker. And there was Dig saving Lyla at the hospital, and her him later on. And his little kiss on the head as he thanked her was a thing of beauty. I love Dig so damn much when he's not being a prissy pod person. 

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I think that this episode had some really great scenes, I loved Dyla especially. I love the parallels between the two couples. Diggle has always been written as someone Oliver should aspire to be like (I think the phrasing used was 'Diggle is Oliver in five years time') so having that relationship side of the dynamic explored was lovely to see. I really like how Felicity appreciates the relationship as well, it was nice to see that bond. 

I like that Felicity had something to do, something that she fought for. I feel like Felicity has kind of been sidelined this season as a lot of her story hasn't really been about just her. Watching her stand up for herself again was really great to see.

That said, as much as I enjoyed the scenes, I don't think that it was enough to cover up the shit plot. Arrow has never been the best at plot holes, but when you've got a shit villain like Diaz it becomes harder and harder to ignore. The former mayor has his apartment shot down and no one notices? His old campaign headquarters gets burned down and no one notices? That's just a stupid thing for a villain who wants to stay hidden to do.

 

Quote

 

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(edited)

From ScienceFiction.com review:

Quote

Even if the FBI woman got a confession for Oliver, he can’t be tried for it again, can he? Does that fall under double jeopardy?

If double jeopardy prevents Oliver from being tried again, then he can't be convicted based upon his confession to the FBI agent. If he can't be convicted, then he can't go to jail, right? I mean, even if he's willing to go to jail in order to get the FBI's help, on what basis would Oliver be imprisoned if there's no conviction? Now I'm perplexed as to what the "second thing" would be.

Edited by tv echo
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15 minutes ago, doesntworkonwood said:

The former mayor has his apartment shot down and no one notices? His old campaign headquarters gets burned down and no one notices? That's just a stupid thing for a villain who wants to stay hidden to do.

Diaz isn't looking to hide anymore. That's kind of the point. He's apparently tired of being the guy in the shadows and wants to be the biggest creep in the history of creeps. I guess it's just escaped his notice how pathetic he is. And to fair, the only cops left are on his payroll and they're certainly not going to investigate the attacks they're committing, and by now most of Star City has learned to just duck and cover whenever you hear gunfire and explosions. No one wants to get involved with whatever masked (presumably) lunatic is attacking this week.

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This episode was sooooo close to being good again, except for the world's lamest villain.  I actually don't mind NTA if they're back to acting like decent human beings instead of constantly being written as spoiled whining brats.  I have to tell myself that even characters like Caitlin and Cisco on The Flash would have been unbearable and made me want to kill them if they'd been written with the same infuriating snotty brattiness that NTA was written with this season. I notice that the episode pretty much just ignored that there was tension and arguments between OTA and NTA which is exactly what they need to do if they want to have any hope of saving those characters.   Let's just pretend that none of this ever happened.

Diaz, on the other hand, WTF?  He's still what I'd call a "tell but don't show" villain: we keep hearing about how powerful he is and how in control of everything he is, but there's never any logical reason why.  Is he magic?  Because he somehow escapes all logical realities of how things actually work.  Zip!  He's taken over pretty much everything in the city, including the police force, with no real pushback, because.... uhhh, I'm not sure.  Zoom!  He takes over an organization of powerful gang leaders who don't immediately have their people destroy him because of... ummmm, reasons, I guess.  If there ever was a season that would justify having Oliver wake up at the end and Felicity told him the whole season was just a bad dream, this one's it.

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Why didn't Oliver just shoot Diaz when he turned the corner after hiding behind the dumpster? He had the clearest shot possible... And why did he even have to hide anyway... He could have shot 2 arrows pretty fast which he has done in the past.. I mean, i hate it when they nerf him. It just screams BAD stunt team and writing by nerfing him for just for 1 fight... Facepalmed like crazy...

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Tbh I was more bothered by the henchpeople who had Dinah cornered and waited for her to finish her X-Men Storm-like banter with them after they were literally saying how easy it would be to kill her. Oliver at least has the possible excuse of it being dark and not wanting to hit Curtis or seeing what Curtis and Diaz were doing.

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2 hours ago, bijoux said:

Speaking of dirty cops, I hope the one who has a speaking role dies a horrible and gruesome death next week. I hate him.

If you're talking about the one who called Lyla" Bitch from Argus" or something like that yeah I hope the same 

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(edited)

It was good to see Lyla in action but it's curious how the head of ARGUS can't get more agents if she wants. 

Why did Lyla have to put the device on the cabinet when she could have kept it in her purse or pocket?

Edited by mxc90
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11 hours ago, bijoux said:

Curtis called the fired cop his man. I know this because it made me laugh. Sure, they compare to Oliver and Felicity. After what, two dates? Also, Paul who?

It reminded me of s1 with the Merlyn Global caper when Felicity was pretending to stalk Tommy Merlyn "He's my man!"

7 hours ago, KirkB said:

Diaz isn't looking to hide anymore. That's kind of the point. He's apparently tired of being the guy in the shadows and wants to be the biggest creep in the history of creeps.

The thing I don't get is that Star City isn't isolated. There's a whole country out there and even if Diaz is the biggest bad that ever badded in Star City, there are national organizations that will take him down, not just ARGUS but the FBI and ATF.  He's acting like he could be the dictator of the third world country.

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(edited)
12 hours ago, insomniadreams88 said:

Hate Diaz's tech guy. Hate that they had him be able to hack and trace Felicity. NO ONE is better than Felicity at computers. Like I said in the live thread, Arrow needs to remember that. 

The one thing that makes it ok for me is that this dude had an enormous lucky advantage of being there when the sniffer was first activated.  Had he not already been doing whatever special thing he was doing to verify the drive was fine, he would never have had any kind of bead on her device.  Clearly, he's no match since he couldn't stop her from cloning the files but Felicity never knew anyone had any info on her sniffer that they then could try to track back.  It's only under these very specific and unlikely circumstances that let the tech guy to be able to track the device. 

And I guess we can also point to that Felicity was doing a rushed coding job right up to the moment that Lyla went in so it makes sense Felicity wouldn't have added ALL the bells and whistles to prevent a trace that under normal circumstances wouldn't have been likely anyway.     

7 hours ago, tv echo said:

From ScienceFiction.com review:

If double jeopardy prevents Oliver from being tried again, then he can't be convicted based upon his confession to the FBI agent. If he can't be convicted, then he can't go to jail, right? I mean, even if he's willing to go to jail in order to get the FBI's help, on what basis would Oliver be imprisoned if there's no conviction? Now I'm perplexed as to what the "second thing" would be.

 

He was prosecuted and acquited under state law though, not Federal so there could be a loophole (this is Arrow after all)  since originally Watson was bringing Federal charges.  She might have had other charges the state didn't use.  

I also found this on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Jeopardy_Clause

If, however, the judge overrules a conviction by the jury, the prosecution may appeal to have the conviction reinstated. 

Edited by BkWurm1
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8 hours ago, mxc90 said:

What are the chances the second request from the FBI lady is for Arrow to work secretly for the FBI in exchange for her not to prosecute him? 

That would be great. instead of having one boring villain throughout the season, it's better to cuff down one villain per episode.

 

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(edited)
26 minutes ago, DeadZeus said:

Who were the road workers that stopped Diaz's van and Killed the drivers?

I assumed they were among the few A.R.G.U.S. resources Lyla could provide. After the fight at NTA's lair, Dinah says she's sorry about Lyla's men so there were apparently some involved.

Edited by JamieLynn832002
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