Thursday, May 3, 2018

Arrow: Season 6, Episode 20, "Shifting Allegiances" - Moving forward is what's best for everyone

 
Although many took the Team Arrow split poorly and still hold some animosity for Dinah, Curtis, and Rene, part of "Shifting Allegiances" worked to set them forward after holding the three of them back for a good period of the season. That's not to say that the show itself has finished mending the damage it did by dividing the team, but it sets everyone moving forward towards to finale. With a clear goal in mind, it feels as if Arrow has found its way again.

Everything in "Shifting Allegiances" all center around Ricardo Diaz, but unlike most hours of television, the surprising fact is none of the stories ultimately come together like you'd expect. It's an interesting method of showing that despite Team Arrow finally being fractured, the spirit lives on to defend Star City in one way or another. Oliver works to try to undermine Diaz through Anatoly, New Team Arrow do what they can to hurt Diaz, Diggle draws up war plans at A.R.G.U.S., and Quentin does his best to resist Diaz now that he's mayor.

Most of the hour is dominated by Dinah, Curtis, and Rene and their attempts to take back the city. Now that the latter has finally returned from being off-screen for quite a few episodes, it means New Team Arrow is once again allowed to don on their costumes. They've never quite come out from under the shadow of Team Arrow, and their reasoning for leaving and continued spite still feels a little rickety to be sure (the same goes for Diggle), but placing them back into a more active role is at least a first step into redeeming the three junior vigilantes, even if it's just for the audience's sake. The trio are rounded off with Diggle, who joins up once they realize they both are tackling the same target - The Quadrant.

There are a few scenes that the team and Diggle share together that almost feel like they'd fit right in with Oliver and Felicity bouncing in and out of in the scene, so it feels a bit of a shame to waste the cast on going their separate ways for the time being. The show also feels like it wants to put the attempt at the Team Arrow "civil war" in the rear-view mirror (if not far in the horizon) and set everything back to mostly as it was. Diggle, of course, is the most reconciliatory of the bunch, though the show itself seems to just not want to waste time with pleasantries (through Rene) and get back to brass tacks. Somehow they manage to fit in some struggle with Rene's recovery, and let Diggle give him a little heart-to-heart advice on how to fight crime while being a family man. It's maybe not Arrow at it's strongest, but it's trying to fix what they broke at least.

Oliver still tries to take his solo act on the road, this time hoping he can remove Anatoly from Diaz's influence. He starts by travelling to Russia to pay off Anatoly's debts, then returns and hopes that it's enough to draw him away from Star City. When it isn't, he gets himself kidnapped and somehow turns the tables, showing Anatoly that Diaz isn't an honourable man. Anatoly thinks he already knows this, or at least assumes that Diaz adheres to a different criminal code that Anatoly can tolerate, but Oliver shows Diaz's ugly side nonetheless. For the audience, it helps give us a better image of Diaz, who still exists mostly as a blur even after the laser-focused Diaz episode last week. In turns out he's just incredibly unscrupulous about any notion of honour when running a criminal enterprise. As long as he can maximize any action to his benefit, it will be carried out. It's a shame it took the show this long to show that Diaz simply engages in realpolitik, and had to keep him hidden so long. Also, I guess he was born in The Glades, as Wild Dog reminds us.

As for Quentin, Diaz manipulates him through Laurel by using her as bait to set up a meeting. He strolls in casually before demanding he sign a legal document to hand over a piece of government-owned property. It ultimately means nothing to a man like Diaz, who holds complete sway over the city, and the action is only to prove that Laurel will do what she can to convince Quentin, and Quentin will sign it because he's afraid Diaz will harm Laurel. I'm with Quentin on this one though, Black Siren is a metahuman facing off against a human who surrounds himself without other metahumans. There doesn't seem like any step where Black Siren really has any real obstacles to clear to really be afraid of Diaz other than having him slit your throat in your sleep. I guess you can extend that to Quentin in that case. Part of me wishes the show had maybe shown something to not make the Quentin-Black Siren relationship so one-sided, and that Laurel does ultimately care about Quentin because he's the father she lost - or something. She saw Diaz burn a man alive for a childhood grudge which somehow is enough to frighten her. The performance works but the writing doesn't seem to match it, unfortunately.

Miscellaneous thoughts:
  • I cannot get over the fact that they redressed the Jitters set as a Chinese restaurant, which is hilarious to me
  • The shot after Curtis sends the T-Sphere to blow up the last truck is hilarious too - Curtis, then Dinah and Diggle, followed by one of the only A.R.G.U.S. agents with speaking lines. Now I want that guy to come back for more episodes!
  • Small Easter egg, but a non-speaking Quadrant member is named Cyrus Broderick, also a villain in a recent Green Arrow comics run.

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