Arrow Season 6 Episode 3 Review/Recap: Next of Kin

It was going to certainly be tough to follow up on Arrow's stellar fifth season and the season's first two episodes have been very solid so far.

We thought the cliffhanger at the end of the first episode with the Green Arrow's identity seemingly being outed was huge, but then they gave us one maybe even more so at the end of episode two with Oliver asking Diggle to take over as the Green Arrow, leading us into the third episode of the season titled "Next of Kin."

This isn't the first time we've seen Oliver give up the hood before, but every time prior he was back and suited up very soon.

It doesn't appear they are going that route this time, instead going full in on Diggle as the Green Arrow.

However, as we learned last episode, he has degenerative nerve damage that he's keeping a secret from everybody but Dinah, so something bad is bound to happen eventually.

The episode starts with the team, now led by Diggle, tracking down and capturing the criminal we were introduced to in the premiere named Alex Faust that was working with Black Siren.

He seems to have no issues in the field here, though he isn't using Arrow's at all but instead just melee combat instead.

FBI agent Watson is back again too, pointing out this fact as well, as she thinks Oliver has gotten a replacement to throw her off the scent.

While everything seems fine this time, Diggle has some major issues later in the episode.

A new villain from the comics is introduced in Onyx Adams, who utilizes some sort of flashing light devices to blind opponents and take them down.

She is a part of a former CIA black ops team that went rogue and ended up stealing $100 million in Syrian government gold, with her team trying to hunt down the members of that squad that were not okay with the crime and left.

After a break-in at Kord Industries, we learn that Onyx and her team are after some sort of nerve gas that is being transported that night. We get a very funny scene in the transport truck between two random characters, which gets even better when Diggle shows up as the Green Arrow and ends up sitting inside the front with them while the rest of the team hides in the back.

After Onyx and her goons show up, Diggle gets shot in the chest and temporarily knocked out, which allows Onyx's squad to steal the nerve gas and her take the transport truck.

Diggle freezes here and can't decide who to go after, leading to the truck crashing into a building and seriously injuring a number of people.

Instead of a physical issue as we've seen prior with Diggle, he had a mental issue here with him freezing.

This leads Rene to go to Oliver and tell him that he needs to come back to the team, because he just doesn't think Diggle has what it takes.

This was kind of disappointing as they really set up a friendship and almost mentor/mentee relationship between Diggle and Rene last year, but it does make sense considering what happened.

Instead, Oliver goes and talks to Diggle, which was a nice reversal of the many speeches that Diggle has given Oliver over the years.

We get a nice callback to the Royal Flush Gang from season one when Diggle made Oliver realize there was more than just the list as the then Arrow, leading him to become more of a hero instead of just a vigilante.

They find out that Onyx is trying to kill the remaining person that did not want a part of their theft, which they track down at a hotel. He gets trapped in a lobby area in this hotel along with many other civilians, but luckily the team tracks them down.

The nerve gas goes off however, and it first looks like Diggle might freeze again.

He manages to grab ahold of himself and sets off after Onyx outside.

In this standoff, we get a phenomenal fight sequence where the guy Onyx is trying to kill gets into a vehicle and we see the fight from his perspective outside, with Diggle and Onyx then taking the fight inside of the vehicle as well.

On the inside of the building, Curtis comes up with a plan to blow up the wall with the nerve gas and his T-Sphere, which will ventilate the gas and let the people get out. This plan works and everyone gets out safely, while the team itself gains more confidence in Diggle as the leader.

Felicity and Curtis even give him a crossbow that fires more like a gun, yet still uses regular arrows, which he shows off in the bunker.

The lack of arrows being used has Agent Watson looking at Oliver's other associates on her big board in her office after this, with Diggle being prime suspect number one, so this crossbow will be very big towards helping throw her off.

Oliver's storyline this episode had two ongoing plots, the first of which involved his son William that was stressing over a big math test.

The approach he took did not help at all, which leads to him enlisting Felicity's help.

William seems to take a liking to Felicity, which leads to him realizing she should be part of his life, with the episode having him giving her a key to his apartment at the end.

The other plot was an anti-vigilante bill that politicians in the city were trying to draft up. This kind of put Oliver between a rock and a hard place, as he couldn't back a bill that would hurt his friends, but it also would look very obvious if he's opposing it staunchly.

In the end, he comes up with a plan by envoking the town's charter by forcing the vote on the bill to go to the people instead of the city council.

This means we'll definitely see more of this as the season goes on, which definitely should be interesting.

Once again though, we get a massive cliffhanger that we did not see coming. In the episode, Diggle told Dinah that he got control of his tremors and he was okay.

However, at the end, we see someone walking in an alley and handing money to some random guy in return for a small briefcase.

We then see the briefcase has some sort of drugs in it, with it then panning out to reveal it is Diggle as his hand is shaking again with tremors as he injects himself with this miracle drug.

The fact that they are going this route with Diggle definitely leaves a lot of room for story, especially with him saying in the past he's never done drugs.

We already got the mirakuru storyline with Roy and other drugs with Thea, but the show has never really done the whole Roy Harper is on drugs storyline and destroying his life, which perhaps we will see a take on here.

This could eventually be the downfall of Diggle and I have a bad feeling something might happen to his this season as a result, making me excited yet hesitant for the upcoming episodes as a big fan of the character.

"Next of Kin" was another really good episode to kick off season six of Arrow and yet we still haven't been introduced to either of the new villains this season that we know are coming, one of which we don't know exactly who he will be.

It looks like Black Siren is back next week though, so that could start our trek towards introducing the villains for the season.

Wanna read more on this? Check these out: Arrow Season 7 Premiere Title And Director Revealed (more); 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).

And here are some more related articles: Arrow Season 6 Finale Episode Description Teases A New Ally (more); Arrow Season 6 Episode 18 Review: Fundamentals (more); Arrow Season 6 Episode 17 Review: Brothers In Arms (more).

A few more: Arrow's Stephen Amell Teases A Big Change For Oliver That Can't Be Undone For Season 7 (more); Colin Donnell Teased For Non-Flashback Return To Arrow By Star Stephen Amell (more).