Arrow Season 6 Episode 20 Review: Shifting Allegiances

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Arrow is starting to wind down its currently airing sixth season with only four episodes to go.

Coming off the Ricardo Diaz focused "The Dragon," we were hoping to see more from Diaz that really makes him a menacing villain and that proves to be the case in "Shifting Allegiances."

The episode starts off with Oliver in Russia of all places for the first time in awhile, as we find out he is completing a task for the Bratva in return for letting Anatoly return.

He knew that he was exiled from the group and that getting him an in again might lead to him leaving Star City. This plan backfires however, as Anatoly refuses and betrays Oliver by chaining him up.

Oliver tries to appeal to Anatoly's honor code that he at least once had, but that does not go too well for now as Anatoly ends up bringing him straight to Diaz.

After being beaten pretty badly by his underlings, Diaz starts to beat up on Oliver before Anatoly tells him that he should be fighting fairly instead.

Diaz agrees and frees Oliver and has a hand to hand fight to him.

This fight sequence was pretty good, but when Oliver gets the upper hand and has Diaz in a choke hold, Diaz pulls out a knife and stabs Oliver.

You can tell that Anatoly was not happy with this at all, but he just holds back for now.

While all of this has been going on, the episode has had two other major plotlines. The first started off with Rene finally returning after a number of episodes of being gone as a result of his injuries sustained at the hands of Oliver.

He doesn't wait long at all to suit back up, as Dinah, Curtis, and Rene go out into the field to track down a lead on what Diaz will be doing next.

However, Rene freezes when someone aims a gun at him, but thankfully Diggle and ARGUS are there as backup and they are able to get out of there.

Back at the New Team Arrow bunker, Diggle is there with the other three as they try to gameplan how to take down a weapons deal that The Quadrant is working on. Diggle talks to Rene about how to compartmentalize the fear of being in the field, but he just says that he can't right now.

This was a nice take on PTSD for someone that had two major health scares from battle this season.

They even have his daughter come out and reveal she knows about them being vigilantes early in the episode, which I liked as well.

Rene still has been a bad character most of this season, but he was more likeable this episode like he was last season.

Dinah, Curtis, Diggle, and ARGUS are then successful as they prevent the gun deal from happening for The Quadrant.

With Oliver being out of the picture, Diggle seems to be fine working with New Team Arrow and vice versa, which was an interesting dynamic similar to when Diggle was being the Green Arrow.

The other storyline that actually was fitting for the title of the episode in some ways like Anatoly was one between Quentin, Laurel, and Diaz. Laurel has Quentin out to eat, where Diaz comes in and reveals they are together. He wants Quentin to sign over a land deal, but he ends up refusing.

Laurel goes to him though and explains that she's only with Diaz because he's a monster and she's afraid for Quentin's life, as he has threatened it.

She tells him to sign the contract, which he agrees to do. Diaz then reveals that this was just a power play to see if the new mayor was in his pocket or not.

While Laurel is very afraid of Diaz, Quentin says he will protect her and she agrees to work with him to find a way out from under him.

This is not the only shifting allegiance of the episode though, as Anatoly also kind of does so as well.

Going back to when Oliver got stabbed earlier, which Anatoly did not see as honorable, he goes to try and let Oliver get free.

However, Diaz pulls him elsewhere before he could and had the police come in to arrest him as he reveals his court date has been moved up to now.

This then cuts to a TV reporter revealing this information, which we see Felicity for the first time this episode responding to with William.

This all sets up the actual trial next week it appears, which is earlier than I was expecting.

This was yet another really good episode in a row after the first few back from the winter hiatus this year were a little middling, so hopefully keep up this hot streak for the last three of the season as well.

Wanna read more on this? Check these out: Arrow Season 7 Episode 4 Review: 'Level Two' (more); Arrow Season 7 Episode 3 Review: 'Crossing Lines' (more); Arrow Season 7 Episode 2 Review: 'The Longbow Hunters' (more); Arrow Season 7 Episode 1 Review: 'Inmate 4587' (more).

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A few more: Arrow Season 7 Premiere Title And Director Revealed (more); Synopses Revealed For Upcoming Seasons Of Arrow And DC's Legends of Tomorrow (more).

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