Oliver still struggles in prison, while Felicity and Laurel work on getting his case overturned. Oliver has a tough time trusting anyone, but his heart remains in the right place. Anatoly is still alive, but Diaz has plans for him, none of which are good for Anatoly. The future is still looking fairly bleak, and Felicity’s secrets begin to unravel.
Laurel goes to visit Oliver in prison. He’s not thrilled to see her. She begins talking about his case, but Oliver has no idea what she’s talking about. Laurel explains that she is working to try and get him out of prison, but Oliver isn’t buying it. He doesn’t believe that Laurel would do anything nice for him if there weren’t something in it for her. Oliver hasn’t seen how Laurel has changed in the time since Quentin’s death; all he knows is that she isn’t his Laurel and never will be.
Despite Oliver’s resistance for Laurel’s help, she goes forward with his case and goes in front of a judge. For a moment, she actually does sound like the old Laurel. Plus, she’s definitely been brushing up on the law. Unfortunately, the judge denied Laurel’s motion, which means Oliver remains behind bars. Laurel is ready to resort to her old ways and considers going after the judge, but Dinah was there to stop her. Dinah listened in on Laurel’s motion and knows that Laurel really is changing.
Meanwhile, with Anatoly still alive, Diaz is ready to keep going with his plan to ruin Oliver’s life and city. He plants the Silencer’s tracker on Anatoly, leading the Arrow team, Argus, and the Star City Police Department into a trap. At least between all of them, they manage to get Anatoly out alive, and there are no other casualties. The team regroups to figure out how to take down Diaz, with one condition. No one except for Felicity wants to work with Laurel because they don’t trust her. For some reason they keep Anatoly around, an international criminal, but Laurel can’t be trusted. She even points that out, but they don’t care. Felicity does promise to reach out to Laurel when they capture Diaz.
At least Anatoly does some good. He reaches out to an old contact who might have an idea of Diaz’s plan. During the meet, Felicity leaves Anatoly out to dry and almost gets him killed, but she is trying to be ruthless in order to get Diaz. At the end of the day, Anatoly actually doesn’t seem upset. He knows that she has to be someone else to get Diaz. The team figures out that Diaz is trying to basically destroy all of Star City, since Oliver loves his city. They work together and actually manage to catch Diaz. I’m not going to lie; I was surprised that they have Diaz in handcuffs.
Once Diaz is in custody, Felicity does right by Laurel and reaches out to her. Good thing she does because Felicity is pointing a gun at Diaz when Laurel interrupts with good news. Diaz can’t be harmed because Laurel promised him to the FBI, in exchange for Oliver. This is Oliver’s ticket out of prison. Of course, prison has become a difficult place for Oliver. His friend Stanley was blamed for the murder of a guard, but Oliver knows he couldn’t have done it. Oliver finds the blade in Turner’s cell and turns him in. When Stanley gets out of the hole, he makes a comment about Oliver finding Turner’s blade, but Oliver never said who had the blade. I have always been suspicious of Stanley, but I really wanted to believe that he was a good guy. With Oliver leaving prison, what will happen with Stanley?
We only saw snippets of the future, but it isn’t looking any better. Dinah reveals that Felicity only died a few weeks prior, and she was murdered. Felicity had started calling herself The Calculator, and she had become “something else.†When they look closer into Felicity’s clues left behind, they find she was looking at a plan to level all of Star City. It’s unclear as to why she had this plan, but her last call was to someone named Blackstar. I’m guessing we will learn more about Blackstar in the coming episodes. Dinah is worried about trusting William, but Roy trust’s Oliver’s son. Another mystery is “the mark of four,†which we finally learn is what Roy found in Oliver’s bow.