ARROW Review: "Brothers In Arms" Finds Oliver & Diggle At Odds With One Another Like Never Before
The latest episode of Arrow raised the stakes for the Original Team Arrow as Oliver and Diggle fought it out for the right to wear the Hood. Here's my review of season 6 episode 17!
To start off I should say that I didn't hate this episode, and had the story-arc between Oliver and Diggle fighting for the Green Arrow mantle developed through multiple episodes rather than just two episodes, this would've been much better and a more emotionally invested and compelling story.
Let's start with the obvious: Oliver vs Diggle. For those who aren't aware because you've quit Arrow and have just been reading reviews... wait why are you reading reviews if you don't watch the show? Okay, so basically Diggle feels that Oliver in a way doesn't deserve the mantle of Green Arrow the way he does, especially because he cares more about the city in his eyes. Now, that's all well and good except that it's not. I said this last week in my initial review of Arrow's season 6 so far and I'll say it again, John Diggle does not act this way at all! The writers have done an absolute 360 with his character and not in a good way at all, they've made Diggle this whiny and immature person by taking shots at Oliver for reasons that are even unknown to him till he has a heart-to-heart conversation with his wife, making this all the less compelling. Diggle did raise some good points when confronting Oliver about how he has failed in being Green Arrow but none of them add up to his character or the fact that Diggle is supposed to be the one character that sticks by Oliver because they're basically brothers. It's just so sudden and out of character that they've transformed Diggle into someone who could be so annoying for no good reason at all.
Let's talk about Oliver's side of this. Oliver is mainly right in this nonsense fight primarily because he mentions that Diggle not only put the team at risk when he lied at the start of this season but also that he put himself and the city at risk by funding Ricardo's operation. Now, say what you will about Oliver but he would never do something like that, and yes I know he worked with Ra's Al Ghul at one stage but he was double-crossing him. Diggle was quite literally helping Ricardo's operation financially and when he got called out for it, he doesn't see it as him failing as Green Arrow which is absolutely hypocritical. Oliver also has every right to keep the mantle, he started it and honestly he never really needed Diggle but he trusted him after everything. But... let's move on to our next point.
Next we have Ricardo Diaz to talk about from this episode. Honestly just an absolute shame is the way I would describe Diaz this season. For me, Ricardo Diaz is a villain I've been waiting for since about the end of season 2 and now that we finally have him, he is one of the weakest structured villains on this show. Even though I disliked Damien Darhk on Arrow, at least there were some things that made him likeable and even interesting as an individual character. Diaz has not been developed whatsoever this whole season and it's 17 episodes in... that is just awful. What did we learn this episode about Ricardo Diaz personally? We still don't even know his true motivations or why he hates Oliver Queen so much. We don't even know his backstory. Take for example Adrian Chase, obviously his character was introduced quite early on and he was developed so that when he was revealed as Prometheus, it was exciting or interesting in some way. Ricardo Diaz is not interesting at all and quite frankly comes off as almost a lazy villain. Everyone around Oliver seems to say that Diaz has won already... but what has he really won? The city? The fight with Oliver? Yes, he does have the city in control but that's it, and honestly Oliver is still Mayor so clearly he hasn't won complete control over the city. Oddly enough Ricardo Diaz is a character that isn't difficult to create onto the show from the comics especially as his overall backstory in the comics fits well with the tone of Arrow.
Let's talk about Oliver and his overall character this season. Like most seasons Oliver basically goes through stages. The first stage of this season is him being in his prime as Mayor and Green Arrow up until usually mid-season finale where we then see a more serious, more focused and almost just a darker Oliver. Finally, we have the back half of the season where Oliver is now typically tormented by the villain, he's defeated in a way whether that's emotionally, mentally or physically. This formula has kind of gotten old on Arrow but my issue is that this season has not really given Green Arrow a challenge. Sure we see Oliver struggling as Mayor for obvious reasons like the accusation of being Green Arrow and the fact that he failed the city when Cayden James threatened to blow up the city. We don't have a challenge for Green Arrow even though that challenge is supposed to be Diaz but he obviously likes to take it slow and easy. The only real challenges Oliver has faced as Green Arrow is the civil war that Team Arrow faced and now Oliver against Diggle. Other than that this season has been lacking and weak in drawing the audience. I like seeing Oliver tormented, in fact I think Stephen Amell is at his best when Oliver is broken and just absolutely defeated, he really portrays that perfectly and makes it feel so convincing but this season hasn't done anything at all in terms of developing Oliver as a hero or as a person.