“We have something in common. We’re both dealing with the consequences of my father’s actions. What he did then, that’s on him. What we do now, that’s on us.”
- Oliver
This week we begin not with Oliver, but at a bank that’s being robbed. Three guys in playing card masks burst in. One keeps time while the other two do the robbing. Things seem to be going well for them until an off-duty cop tries to play hero and gets shot. One of the employees hit the panic button so the cops show up. In a somewhat clever move the robbers send all the hostages out of the bank in masks and escape through a hole in the floor of the vault. Down in the man cave, Oliver and Diggle are training a bit. Basically it is our weekly excuse to see Oliver shirtless and looking all sexy and buff. He’s intent on going after another name on his father’s list but Diggle points out the bank robbery. Oliver isn’t interested. He says it’s not his job to go after street crime. He also says he’s not a hero (when Diggle points out that he has a narrow definition of the word). We flash back to the island and Oliver is trying to stay warm in the cave by ripping pages out of his father’s book (the pages are currently blank). Just as he tosses a page in, he turns to see his father standing over him.
Over at the legal aid office, Laurel and Joanna are panicking. One of their biggest sources of funding is pulling its support so it doesn’t look like they are going to be keeping their doors open much longer. It doesn’t help that Tommy shows up wanting to whisk Laurel off on his private jet for dinner. He doesn’t get much love from Oliver either. Moira has just told her children their presence is required at brunch the following day. She’s invited the Bowens (Oliver and Thea take turns niggling their mother about how much she thought Carter Bowen was perfect). Right after Oli promises he and Thea will be there, he gets a call from Diggle saying the guy he wanted to go after tried to kill himself and that Oli needs to get to the hospital ASAP. So Oliver takes off and Tommy is left with Thea giving him advice. It’s obvious that Thea thinks Tommy is interested in her but is being coy about it. When Oliver gets to the hospital he realizes Diggle tricked him into helping the injured police officer from the robbery. He agrees to go after the bank robbers.
Oliver does some digging into the crew and after sneaking into the police station in full Arrow garb (and not getting caught. Seriously there have to be some really stupid cops working there) he discovers that the gang is likely the Resten family. Just as Oliver and Diggle agree to keep tabs on the family, Oliver races off for brunch. He’s late. Things are going somewhat awkwardly (I see now why Moira thought Carter was perfect) when Diggle saves the day. Another bank is being hit. So Oliver goes off to try and stop them from getting away.
Over at the legal aid office, Tommy is back with the offer of a fundraiser for the clinic. Laurel is totally against it, seeing it as an attempt to get back together with her but Joanna twists her arm and so Laurel accepts. At the bank, the Restens are making a break for it through the water treatment tunnels when the cops show up. And so does Oliver. A shootout ensues but no one is hurt. Oliver manages to snag the bags of cash and get away clean. In a parking lot somewhere, the Restens are having a little family pow wow. Mr. and Mrs. Resten want to call it quits but the boys don’t think they have enough money to be set for life yet. So they’re going to pull one more job and then they’ll be out of the game. Over at Queen Consolidated, Oliver and Diggle have got to Ms. Smoke for some background on Resten. It turns out he was a factory worker employed by Oli’s dad and he got laid off five years ago. It was a pretty nasty affair. Legal found loopholes in the union contracts that made it possible to get out of paying severance or pensions. Brutal. Oliver is going out to a local bar to see if Resten is taking a trip back to his old watering hole. He’s going to give Resten the chance to make things right.
We continue the flashback on the island. Oliver’s father tells him that if he doesn’t think he can survive, there’s still one bullet left in the gun. Oliver takes it and puts it to his head, saying he’s not as strong as his father thinks and he just wants his death to be fast (rather than by starvation). Back in the present, Laurel and Tommy are trying to decide on cake types for the fundraiser. Honestly, it sounds like they’re planning a wedding. Laurel says she wants carrot cake. Ultimately, Tommy gives in. He’s trying to be nice to her and show her that he can be a good guy but she’s really resisting it. Over at the bar, Oliver tries to convince Resten to stop his spree by offering him a job. He gets turned down and walks away (but not before slipping a bug into Resten’s jacket pocket. Clever little billionaire!
Oliver is disappointed by what he hears on recording. The Restens are still planning on hitting another bank. So it’s up to Oliver to stop them. But first he has to put in an appearance at the legal aid fundraiser. He tries to apologize to Moira about ducking out of brunch but she blows him off. It turns out not to be terrible since he has to go stop a robbery. He gets there and ends up taking down the oldest son. Unfortunately, the security guard is trying to be a tough guy and shoots Mr. Resten. He dies before the cops and ambulance arrive. But as he’s dying and saying that he turned his son into a monster, Oli flashes back again to the island. He realizes he’s hallucinating and comes to. He’s about to toss another page in the fire when the heat reveals writing on both sides. I have to say that sort of reminded me a little of Harry Potter and how the ink in Tom Riddle’s diary appeared in the film. Anyway, back at the fundraiser, Laurel is dancing with Carter and Thea gets a major rejection from Tommy. She ends up drunk and hitting on him. Before she can make too big of a scene, he escorts her out. Laurel goes to check on them and says the only reason she was dancing with Carter is because he made a large donation to the clinic. She really thinks he’s an ass.
Back at the man cave, Oliver comes to realize, with Diggle’s help, that he honored his father’s wishes by trying to stop Resten. So all wasn’t lost, even if he didn’t get the name from the list like he wanted. I guess there is always another time. We end with Oliver and Moira bonding over burgers at Diggle’s sister-in-law’s burger place.
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