Arrow has messed around with playing with the futility of the superhero life, because naturally when it comes to superheroes facing off with supervillains, sometimes it's necessary storytelling to put the hero on the back foot just long enough so you can propel them forward again. The division of Old and New Team Arrow is something I have thoroughly enjoyed this season and has helped to serve in a way to remix old motifs and tropes the show has relied on and usually, they come out fairly refreshing. When it comes to the case of "All For Nothing", Arrow also brings back their flashback format to help hammer home some of the feeling of futility its characters are trying to fight with Cayden James in control of Star City. "All For Nothing" feels like a bit of a transitional episode even with a lot of plot being churned through, simply because it seems like the show wants to work towards an inevitable Dinah-Laurel-Quentin Mexican standoff.
Unfortunately for one aspect of the show, it's been a bit of a bummer to see the show can't really afford to use its budget to really show Star City under siege by the invisible hand of Cayden James other than Oliver having to wire money to make things less worse, a few lines from the news report reminding us of the dire straits they're in, and Thea asking everyone to pinch some pennies to make the next installment. Admittedly, the opening teaser does show how far Cayden James can reach by dispatching an ARGUS squad in no time flat, though it stands to reason the budget will be best spent elsewhere in the future for something a little more flashy and assuming Star City citizens have even given up rioting in the face of uncertainty or having their smartphone murder them while on the toilet. This is especially hard to swallow when the show was willing to show exactly how bad it can get in the previous episode's teaser that taking the city out of the equation from a storytelling perspective feels almost like dialing back the stakes.
Although Thea and Quentin have mostly carried on with C-level plots through the season, their journey brings them closer and closer to maybe turning Earth-2 Laurel into a neutral character (how Slade Wilson/Deathstroke stands now). It eventually leads into some kind of revelatory moment for Quentin and Earth-2 Laurel that they can make each other better people if they only tried, right up until Cayden James demands loyalty from Laurel and the rug is pulled from under Quentin. The show makes no secret that Laurel feels a bit more regretful as she is asked to murder Vincent, but that shot seem reserved mostly for the audience (and James) and not so much Dinah or Quentin. Quentin has always had a poor time recovering from bad news involving his family and it will be interesting to see how Dinah complicates things.
Dinah meanwhile, continues this season with much more definition than last season as she comes off just as headstrong as Oliver can be and acts almost as a de facto leader of New Team Arrow. "All For Nothing" is somewhat of a headliner for her as Juliana Harkavy has to run double time in the present and in flashbacks to just before the Central City particle accelerator explosion five years ago. With flashbacks on Arrow being absent for much of season six, they have been deployed in a much more pointed storytelling method rather than feeling like plot that sometimes needs to be played forward for its own sake. In this case, this episode shows the parallels from Dinah and Vincent's undercover stint for Sonus and how it went down contrasted with how it ends up affecting the present. Dinah's the one that thought that even with Sonus aware of an undercover cop in his employ that the two of them should see their mission to the end; Vincent was the one who was wary. The tables are turned possibly because of Vincent's metahuman ability to regenerate while Dinah becomes extremely protective of Vincent as a result of her past mistakes. In the end though, Dinah is forced to relive watching Vincent die for a second time as the extreme demands of Cayden James citywide ransom forces everyone's hands to this conclusion.
Make no mistake, "All For Nothing" never dips so far low to the point of absolute futility for our heroes, but for Dinah's sake, trading Vincent's life for a bunch of data rather than his bomb was not worth it for her in the long run. As for Oliver, Felicity, and Diggle, having access to James' treasure trove will likely put the heroes back on the hunt as they have real leads to move on even with his bomb still in play. As for the forged video of the murder of Cayden's son, it seems rather poorly put together to work as a real motivating factor for Cayden James and more as a foreshadowing of someone behind all the events that have played out. Although it's not to dismiss the simple distress of a parent losing their child to make them blind to anything but simple (or in Cayden's case, extremely advanced) revenge.
The show also seems to want to move Dinah in the direction of carrying on Vigilante's modus operandi of simply snuffing out criminals instead of working to assist law enforcement. Whether or not any of Old or New Team Arrow will be able to help her walk back her newfound stance will be interesting to see, as the show seems determined to put her on a collision path with Laurel and Quentin in her quest for vengeance.
Miscellaneous thoughts:
- Loved the shot of Earth-1 Laurel in costume superimposed over Earth-2 Laurel's face in the projector.
- I absolutely cannot get over how silly the forged video is on multiple viewings and how a simple criminal can evade a shot from the Green Arrow like a ninja. Although perhaps that speaks to how events might unfold coming up, or is telling about who might be involved.
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