Arrow 6X23: Life Sentence

After all this, Diaz is still in the wind, Quintin is dead, and Oliver is in jail. Thanks. I hate it.

So, along with the FBI, we mount a concerted effort against Diaz, but he's continually one step ahead of us. First we end up in a trap. Felicity manages to delay the explosion just long enough for everyone to get out, but it's a really close call. We have to watch Rene call Zoe and say goodbye, as he's pretty sure he's gonna die. Not fun.

Then, Diaz calls Quintin and tells him to get rid of the FBI or he'll kill Laurel, and Quintin is really hell bent on keeping her safe. The FBI tells him to demand proof of life for Laurel, and we can use that to capture Diaz. So, wired up Quintin goes to the meeting place, but Laurel isn't there. Quintin tells him that he better take him to Laurel now because the FBI are on there way in. Watson is pissed, because, Quintin ruined the plan to save Laurel. But, he just casually dropped that he's got a pacemaker into the conversation, so Felicity can track them via that.

Diaz gets tossed in a cage with Laurel, and Diaz demands he call off the FBI. He resists for a little bit. Diaz gets more and more angry threatening to shoot Laurel. He eventually does, but Quintin jumps in front of her and takes the bullet. Just then, the cavalry arrives so Diaz leaves them to deal with it. Team Arrow and FBI are busy killing everyone to get to Diaz.

Dinah finds Quintin and Laurel, and even through the two have beef, Dinah cuts off Laurel's dampener and the two of them drag Quintin outside to safety screaming at everyone along the way.

Oliver and Diaz are fighting along, with Oliver besting him in the end. But, Diaz knows Oliver won't kill him. And they are sort of at a stalemate. However, Laurel shows up and is all like, 'Maybe you can't kill him, but I can.' Then she sonic screams him over the edge where he tumbles into the water. Which, of course, isn't a high enough drop to kill him. Oliver is pissed. They worked so hard to get him and now he's gone. But the big takeaway is that Felicity modified his suit so he had a sniffer inside it, and was close enough to Diaz for long enough to get all the info off his little USB drive. So we do have the names of everyone on his payroll and can take back the city. Silver linings, I guess.

Meanwhile, in the hospital, we're waiting for Quintin to get out of surgery. Sara shows up after being called by Laurel. While we're waiting, Watson tells Oliver it's time to go. Everyone is confused and we find out that part of the deal Oliver made with her was that after this was over, he'll go to jail in exchange for immunity for everyone else. And oh Felicity (and I) were not happy. And fucking then, we find out that Quintin didn't make it through the surgery. So now, Quentin is dead and Oliver is on his way to jail. Again. I hate it.

Felicity manages to get some face to face time with him before he's sent to jail. She assures him that she and John have a plan to break him out. But he informs her he's going to a Super Max prison, and we're all just going to have to deal with the fact that he's going to jail. He's so calm about it. But he's had time to make peace with this. No one else has.

He makes a statement on his way to jail. He admits he's the Green Arrow and encourages the rest of the city to take up his fight while he's in jail. Diaz watches this on TV from somewhere. Other than a couple of bruises, he looks fine.

I have no idea where we go from here. I'm sure that the next two seasons are not going to be Oliver in jail the whole time. I guess, maybe, Oliver might be able to exchange his freedom for information. Or the vigilante law will get reversed and he can get out. Or they really need his help to take down someone, so they trade. I don't know.

All that said, I really enjoyed this season. I remember being annoyed when we switched from Cayden James to Diaz as the big bad, but turned out, I still liked it just as much.