Arrow Season 6 Episode 2 Review/Recap: Tribute

Following up the phenomenal fifth season of Arrow was going to be a tall task, but the season six premiere managed to stick the landing, though the fallout may not have been quite as much as some had hoped.

The very tail end of the episode was a major cliffhanger and that leads directly into the second episode of the season titled "Tribute."

The aforementioned cliffhanger had Oliver turning on his television to News Channel 52 that revealed an image showing the Green Arrow unmasked as Oliver Queen. This leads into the start of the episode where Oliver is holding a press conference where he denies that he is the Green Arrow.

He said in an age where images can be doctored, this was very much fake.

The best part is that he references that they could have even put Bruce Wayne's head on the picture too before asking if Bruce had left Gotham lately.

This was the first time we've had actual mention of Bruce Wayne at all in the Arrowverse, though we have had teases in the past and the Wayne Enterprises name appearing in the past as well.

After these allegations of him being the Green Arrow appear, Oliver now has an FBI agent on his case named Samanda Watson, played by Sydelle Noel, who will play a big role this season.

She does not believe his claims of not being the Green Arrow and finds it all too coincidental later in the episode when he can't make a meeting at the same time the Green Arrow happens to have been out and about.

Later, Oliver is hosting a group of reporters along with a group of Markovian delegates and businessman in a large warehouse, the latter group of which are bringing a new business to Star City that will bring many jobs. Of course the reporters badger Oliver about the Green Arrow leak, but he denies it.

At this point though, gunfire starts and Oliver takes the Markovians in a van driven by his deputy mayor Quentin Lance.

They eventually are surrounded and the Markovians are taken hostage, which prompts Oliver's old friend Anatoly to show up and threaten him, knowing full well he can't do anything as the Green Arrow with his hands being tied.

This leads Oliver to thinking that Anatoly is behind the leaked picture.

Anatoly ends up demanding $20 million in exchange for the captives, which is exactly how much they happened to have just been approved for to rebuild SCPD after the events of the premiere where it was destroyed.

There is a little subplot with Felicity and Curtis in the episode where Felicity finds out that Curtis has been coding on the side.

Later in the episode, this turns into her asking him to go into business with her, in which he says yes.

In the meantime though, they are trying to find out who leaked this picture of the Green Arrow while also trying to find the hostages.

They manage to do the latter, which leads to the team going and saving them.

However, the main hostage is not there and it ends up that Anatoly has him elsewhere. He has also poisoned him and says he will die if they don't give him the $20 million.

Thankfully, they are able to track down an antidote and Oliver finds Anatoly and injects the guy with it. Anatoly doesn't take kindly to this though, as he just shoots and kills the guy anyways. Oliver asks him what happened to the honorable man he used to know.

Anatoly says he was forced out from the Bratva for being too weak and he is still honorable.

Oliver accuses him of leaking the image of him as the Green Arrow, in which Anatoly says he is too honorable to have done that.

This makes me think that it's likely Helix from last season, especially with the way they helped with the similar image on Adrian Chase last season.

After this, there is a news report on TV that reveals that an "anonymous source" produced evidence that the picture of Oliver as the Green Arrow was doctored.

However, FBI agent Watson is not buying it and says she will still be watching him.

One of the big storylines in the episode was Oliver's son William being worried about losing his father like he did his mother, which leads to a major revelation at the end. It was revealed last week that Diggle had an injury from the explosion last season, which he reveals this episode to Dinah that it is degenerative nerve damage.

He is going to meet with Oliver to tell him about this, but Oliver wants to talk to him first.

He tells Diggle that he has to be there for his son and asks Diggle to be the new Green Arrow, which he agrees upon as the episode ends.

Tribute was yet again another good episode. There were multiple plots going on, but they were handled well with going back and forth.

The lack of flashbacks was definitely different for the series here, but it allowed more to go on in the present instead, which was nice.

It will certainly be interesting to see how long the Diggle as Green Arrow plotline goes, with it hopefully not just being a one week thing.

Wanna read more on this? Check these out: Synopses Revealed For Upcoming Seasons Of Arrow And DC's Legends of Tomorrow (more); Arrow Season 6 Episode 20 Review: Shifting Allegiances (more); Arrow Season 6 Episode 19 Review: The Dragon (more); Arrow Season 6 Finale Episode Description Teases A New Ally (more).

And here are some more related articles: Arrow Season 6 Episode 18 Review: Fundamentals (more); Arrow Season 6 Episode 17 Review: Brothers In Arms (more); Arrow's Stephen Amell Teases A Big Change For Oliver That Can't Be Undone For Season 7 (more).

A few more: Colin Donnell Teased For Non-Flashback Return To Arrow By Star Stephen Amell (more); Arrow Season 6 Episode 16 Review: The Thanatos Guild (more).