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Joanna asks Laurel for help in proving that her brother, a fireman who died while responding to a call, was murdered. For the six weeks after Walter went missing, Oliver practically gave up his mission, until Laurel swipes her father’s direct line to him and enlist The Hood’s help with this investigation. Inside a currently burning building, Oliver notices the suspect has a firefly tattoo, meaning he is part of the 15th Engine Company, several members of which died months ago in the fire of an improperly constructed tower. Laurel narrows down the suspect list to Garfield Lynns, who was believed dead in that fire.
Tommy organizes a fundraiser for the fire station that they hold in Oliver’s unfinished nightclub. During the benefit, Lynns causes a fire there, exacting revenge on the fire chief who abandoned him during the tower fire. The Hood tries to reason with Lynns, but Lynns consumes himself in flames.
Nick Foster, the C.O.O. of Queen Consolidated, suggests that Moira take over for Walter. Moira initially refuses, but because of Thea’s efforts to knock her out of depression, Moira later accepts. Joanna departs for a leave of absence to comfort her mother. Laurel briefly gives the phone back to Detective Lance, but he allows her to keep it, having set up a way to monitor her calls with The Hood. Oliver hears a newscaster praise The Hood, calling him a hero, and decides to pursue people on the list again.
On the island, Oliver fights and kills one of Fyers’ men, then finds a set of keys and a map in the pocket of a vest.
Tropes applying to this Episode:
- 10-Minute Retirement: At the end of the episode, Oliver decides to get back to taking on the List.
- Adaptational Heroism: Not heroic by any stretch of the means, but Garfield Lynns's "broken man with nothing left but revenge" characterization and motives (which, while very understandable, are also quite misguided) are a far cry from his comic book counterpart Firefly, who is a maniac who is driven solely by pyromania.
- Adaptational Wimp: The comics Firefly utilized high-tech equipment and could put up a fight against superheroes. Here he uses some basic home-made arsonist gear, though he manages to defeat the Hood in their first encounter.
- Alas, Poor Villain: It is quite easy to feel sorry for Garfield Lynns, as he's a broken man who is out for revenge for feeling betrayed. Oliver certainly feels sympathy for him and offers him a chance to get help. Lynns appears touched by the gesture, but elects to kill himself instead.
- Bait-and-Switch: Quentin turns up at Laurel's workplace...to deliver a Death Notification to her friend Joanna.
- Bat Phone: Laurel steals the mobile phone sent to Quentin by the Hood so she can contact him. She claims the Hood took it back but Quentin realises she's lying and, after she returns it, decides to give it back to her. Turns out Quentin planted a bug in the phone so he can use Laurel as The Bait to catch the Hood.
- Beneath the Mask: A
Deleted Scene has Oliver charming an attractive female bank employee, then coldly dropping the smile the moment she leaves the room. - Call-Back: When Laurel asks the Hood for help, he can't help bringing up how she called him a remorseless killer in "An Innocent Man". Though when Laurel asks if he is, the Hood has no response.
- Centipede's Dilemma: Oliver is suffering a serious case of the Yips since his ass-kicking by the Dark Arrow. He's tumbling off his salmon ladder and missing his tennis balls.
- Character Development: Oliver and Laurel are pleasantly surprised by the new Tommy, who is cracking the whip on the contractors to ensure the nightclub is built, and organizing a charity benefit for the firefighters on his own initiative.
- Chekhov's Gun: The bug Quentin places in the mobile for "Betrayal".
- Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames: He is never actually referred to as Firefly, with that name instead being given to his former firefighter team who he is hunting down.
- Convection, Schmonvection: We see several scenes where people are within arm's reach of an inferno, often for the length of an entire conversation, yet suffer no ill effects so long as they are not actually engulfed in flames themselves. Also the Arrowcave is completely unaffected by the building above burning down.
- Dramatic Irony: When Joanna first comes to Laurel suggesting that her brother's death was a murder, Laurel talks of how she refused at first to believe the Queen's Gambit sinking (and therefore her sister's death) was an accident. Turns out it really wasn't.
- Fallen Hero: Once an honorable fire fighter, now a broken man thirsty for revenge, Garfield Lynns has gone to the deep end.
- Feet-First Introduction: Laurel striding into the benefit in her pumps.
- Get A Hold Of Yourself Man:
- According to Thea, Walter did this to get Moira out of the house after Robert's death. Thea tries the same and is surprised when Moira is back to her old self the next day, though this is actually because Moira knows Walter isn't dead; she just feels guilty and worried about him.
- Diggle realises Oliver is stalling because of his defeat by the Dark Archer, and tries everything from empathy to throwing punches to get him to face his fears and get back In the Hood.
- Heroic BSoD: Following his curb-stomp at the Dark Archer's hands, Oliver's off his game.
- I Got You a Drawer: Lampshaded when Laurel busts Tommy drawing up a list of Reasons Why I Deserve A Drawer.
- Kick the Dog: Turns out Quentin Lance isn't above using his own daughter to bait the vigilante, this is even lampshaded by one of his coworkers.
- Kill It with Fire: Lynns sprays turpentine on his victim from the tanks on his back, then ignites it. One man he throws into a roaring sea of fire.
- Left for Dead: Garfield Lynns was abandoned in a burning building and barely survived, after the fire chief refused to risk the lives of his men further.
- Noble Demon: Lynns is on a crusade to burn all those who he believes betrayed him, but he has no intentions of harming innocent bystanders, even telling them to run before he goes about his business. Neither does he harm the Hood when he's at his mercy during their first encounter.
- Not Afraid to Die: Oliver talks of how he wasn't afraid to die on the Island because he had nothing to lose, and emphasizes with Lynns who thinks he has nothing to live for. However realizing that he now has family who will be hurt all over again by his death makes Oliver reluctant to risk his life.
- Oh, Crap!: A firefighter in full dress uniform walks into CNRI, accompanied by a police detective. The girl whose brother is a firefighter knows exactly what's happening and has a full meltdown before he can even relay the bad news.
- Pet the Dog: Lynns tells Oliver and Laurel to run before he carries out his revenge on his former boss.
- Pragmatic Adaptation: Firefly's high-tech suit, flamethrowers, and jet-pack have been replaced with his old fire fighter suit, a tank of turpentine, and a cigarette lighter. It makes for a much more realistic arsonist than his comic counterpart.
- Put on a Bus: Joanna leaves work at Laurel's office, to comfort her mother after the whole incident.
- Pyromaniac: Played with. Lynn doesn't seem to enjoy setting things on fire, but uses it as his go-to weapon to inflict a Karmic Death on his victims.
- Reusable Lighter Toss: Lynn attempts to light someone on fire by tossing a lit zippo but the Arrow in typical hero fashion fires an arrow at it in mid flight.
- Revenge Before Reason: The Fireflies were obeying the fire chief's orders when they pulled out of the building, while Lynns disobeyed orders and stayed behind to die. Even if he disagreed with the chief's decision, his abandonment and disfigurement was as much his fault as the others.
- Rogues' Gallery Transplant: In the comics, Firefly is a Batman villain.
- The Real Heroes: The obligatory mention of this trope in an episode involving firefighters.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: The fire chief being targeted by Lynns; he made the right call, but it happened to be the call that would have resulted in Lynns dying of his burns. The chief hates himself for it, but still thinks it was the right call.
- Robbing the Dead: Island!Oliver is shocked when he accidentally kills an enemy soldier during their tumble down a cliff, but helps himself to his uniform and equipment. A gun and a map of the island are the more obviously useful items. There is also a bunch of keys.
- Self-Immolation: Rather than try a chance at redemption, Firefly walks into his own flames.
- Short-Distance Phone Call: Laurel places a call to the Hood just as Oliver is walking away from her.
- Serial Killer: Garfield Lynns is slowly killing each member of his old unit, the Fireflies, all because they forgot about him. He eventually quits his revenge and kills himself.
- Tempting Fate: The fire chief is ridiculing Oliver and Laurel's idea that Lynns could have survived the fire, when the man himself turns up to disagree.
- Took a Level in Badass: In the flashbacks, Oliver manages to start a fire on Lian Yu in the rain, and then he manages to defend himself well enough to kill one of Fyers's soldiers.
- Training Montage: Subverted; Oliver is providing Workout Fanservice intercut with flashbacks of his battle with the Dark Archer, culminating in his firing an arrow at a tennis ball...and missing.
- Two-Faced: From the flames, leading to the inevitable Face-Revealing Turn when we first see what lies behind Lynns' breathing mask.
- Underestimating Badassery: A single soldier is sent after Oliver. Even if he was part of a sweep, there's no-one within line-of-sight or close enough to respond to his radio call in time.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Diggle repeatedly tries to get Oliver out of the Arrowcave and back into the Hood.
- Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Lynns stops to deliver a Motive Rant to the fire chief, giving Oliver enough time to run down to the Arrowcave, don his superhero outfit and return. If he'd decided to just torch his victim without talking like the others, the audience would have thought Oliver was cowardly running away!
