Arrow 1.16: "Dead to Rights"

“You know, Dad. Sometimes, the people you want there the most aren’t. You taught me that.”
- Tommy

Starling City’s finest are racing to catch a helicopter with an assassin on board. Of course, Oli gets there first and after a little scuffling, lands an arrow in the guy’s chest. He snags dead guy’s phone and hightails it back to the man cave where Diggle is trying to give Felicity some self-defense training. Oli wants Felicity to do her tech thing to see what they can get about who hired the assassin. Oli has to head off to meet McKenna for Tommy’s birthday dinner. Before he goes, we flash back to the island when he seriously not buff. He can barely do four pull-ups. Slade gets some shirtless work out time in while Oliver says he’s going to try to fix the radio in the plane. Apparently Robert did his own maintenance and Oli liked it so he got pretty good at it. Back in the present, Oli and McKenna share some kisses before heading in for diner at Laurel’s place. Things seem to be going well until Malcolm shows up. He’s being honored with a humanitarian award and wants Tommy to be there. Tommy isn’t interested in supporting his dad. I do have to say, I like Tommy a little more now that he’s not a trust fund brat.

As rumored, Deadshot is not actually dead. But he does seem to be drinking and smoking his life away. China White isn’t impressed. She wants to hire him to kill Malcolm. He’s lost his edge since he tussled with Oli (blind in one eye). But with new tech offered up by his overseas benefactor, he’s up to the task. Moira assure Frank that it will be happening at the awards dinner just before they walk in for a meeting of the Undertaking. Malcolm announces that they are only months away from fruition and Moira tells him they are all with him. I guess it’s important to not betray the fact she wants him dead.

Felicity isn’t having a lot of luck decrypting the assassin’s phone. But she did find that the last number he called was for the Jade Dragon in Chinatown. Oli knows it’s a front for the Triad so he tells Dig to make reservation for two and he and Tommy go there for dinner to celebrate Tommy’s (now) belated birthday. They have sort of a heart to heart over a really big fish. Tommy admits that he spent so much time at the Queen residence because his dad was so cold after his mom was killed. It was Oli’s dad that did typical father things with him; taking him to sports games, R rated movies. Oli tries to explain that his dad wasn’t perfect and that he still has a lot of anger towards him. The conversation is cut short when he spots a Triad enforcer walk by. Under the guise of hitting the head, Oli follows him and learns that whatever is going down that the Triad is involved in happens tomorrow. He calls Detective Lance to try and get some help but Lance just tells him that SCPD doesn’t work for him and to call back when he has the name of the target. He’s still convinced he is going to catch the vigilante. Back on the island, Slade’s returned with some dead animal while Oli is still fiddling with the radio. He gets it to turn on and they can hear stuff on the other end but they can’t communicate. Meanwhile, China White and her thugs are planning their attack on Malcolm. Their goal is to disable his security, force him outside with the rest of the people attending the dinner and then let Deadshot do his thing.

Oli is prepping for another date with McKenna while Felicity and Diggle continue to decrypt the assassin’s phone. Moira is getting ready for the award ceremony and she’s a little shaky. Tommy, after taking Oli’s little dinner speech to heart decides to go to the ceremony. China White and her men are intermingled among the crowd (well she’s mingling, they’re impersonating the servers). Malcolm gets up to give his speech just as Felicity cracks the phone and Diggle imparts the news to Oli. He calls Detective Lance as he’s on the move. Malcolm’s speech is really all about his dead wife but it gets a smile out of Tommy. Malcolm steps off the stage and China White gives the signal. The fire alarm goes off and her men take out Malcolm’s body guards. But he’s more worried about Tommy. With Malcolm making a beeline for Tommy, Deadshot can’t get what he wants so he is going to change vantage points and hopefully Malcolm will head to his penthouse office. Which of course, he does. He takes out two of China White’s men, too. That freaks Tommy out. Oliver has entered the fray and saved their asses and is giving China White a beat down without telling him why she wants Malcolm dead. Malcolm thinks his office is pretty damn safe. Unfortunately for him, just as he’s about to show Tommy his secret room and that he was the Dark Archer, Deadshot breaks he window and puts three or four bullets in Malcolm. Things are not looking good for him.

Things aren’t going any better for Oli either. He’s got China White on the ground at arrow-point when McKenna shows up and orders him to drop his bow. He ends up shooting a fire extinguisher to make his getaway. Upstairs, Tommy drags Malcolm out of the line of fire and Malcolm comes to and says he’s okay. He was wearing a bullet proof vest. Too bad one of the bullets missed the vest and actually hit him. He passes out just as Oli gets there and reveals that Malcolm is going to be dead in four minutes if Tommy doesn’t accept his help. Tommy brandishes his dad’s gun until Oli reveals himself. He convinces Tommy they need to do a quickie blood transfusion to help keep Malcolm alive. It works and Oli promises he’ll explain things later. He watches as McKenna and Lance question Tommy but he denies any knowledge of who the vigilante really is.

Back on the island, Oli is getting frustrated that Slade keeps fiddling with the now working radio. Well he’s crabby until they tap into the bad guy’s frequency. They have a location and a time where he’s meeting someone. And Slade wants to be there. They trek out to find that there’s a huge Russian anti-missile launcher thing. So the bad guys’ mean business. Meanwhile, Oli brings the bad news to Diggle that Deadshot is still alive. He heads to the hospital and runs into McKenna. She’s still game to giving their relationship a try if he is. I don’t know why he’s making his life so complicated but he is. Meanwhile, Tommy and Malcolm share some father/son time and Malcolm reveals that he went away and met a man who gave him a purpose and a way to make Starling City better. Before he can answer Tommy’s question of how, Moira shows up. Malcolm tasks her with finding the traitor in their midst and dispensing with them. Little does he know he’s looking at said traitor. Outside his room, Oliver pays Tommy a visit. Tommy certainly has lots of questions but the one he’s most interested in knowing the answer to is if Oli was ever going to tell him about being the vigilante. Oli says no and Tommy walks off. Aww, sad Oli! And to top things off, Laurel gets a visit from her long-estranged mother (played by the ever awesome Alex Kingston rocking non-curly brown hair and an American accent). Mama Lance seems to think that Sarah is still alive.