Arrow 6X19: The Dragon

There are, like, four episodes left in this season. And we waste this one with no involvement from our characters? I mean, this wasn't a terrible episode, per se, but I do not need an origin story of the villain who's only been the villain for a handful of episodes.

Diaz wants to become a crime lord. He works real hard and kills a bunch of people, including the guy whose seat at the table he wanted (and now has). That's basically this episode.

But, we start 32 years ago in an orphanage. Diaz is getting tormented by an older boy, Jesse, who lights a picture of his father (?) on fire.

Then we jump to present day where he and Laurel are waiting for some guy to see if he can join the Quadrant, a group of super villains, basically. He's told by one of the member's son's to do some stuff to see if he's worthy. He does all the stuff and then they try to kill him. They think he's dead (but he was wearing a bullet proof vest). So Diaz heads to the kid's bar, throws all the patrons out, and tortures him until he tells him when and where the meeting of the Quadrant is.

Part of the torture is putting a bomb on him and making him walk into the building and blowing himself up. Diaz and Laurel follow him in and kill dozens of people looking for the room with the Quadrant people in it. When they finally get there, Diaz has, like, 12 guns on him and none of them bother to shoot at him. Instead, they let him offer them Star City for a seat at the table. When the kid that we blew up's father tells him there isn't a seat at the table, Diaz shoots and kills him, leaving an open seat. The Quadrant is intrigued with him and allows him to sit down. Sure. Why not.

Now that he's finally made his dream of being a crime lord come true, he and Laurel head over to current day Jesse, so Diaz can take his revenge. The sad part is, this guy has no idea who Diaz even is. He's held so much space in Diaz's head for so long, and he meant nothing to Jesse. Anyway, Diaz douses him with lighter fluid and sets him on fire. Laurel watches, but she looked increasingly uncomfortable at a lot of the things Diaz his done in this episode.

We get a couple minutes with Felicity and Curtis, who is over working on Helix, and Felicity catches him up a little bit on what's been going on with OTA (which, you know, no longer exists). She's also stressed about Oliver being in the field and her having no idea where he is or what's happening. But he shows up eventually and spends 30 seconds promising her that he'll always come home to her.

Again, this would be a fine episode of some other show. But this wasn't an episode of Arrow. Especially this close to the finale. Is it just me?