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In flashbacks, Malcolm tells the group of high-profile men that they should switch strategies to fix the Glades. Robert doesn’t approve of Malcolm wanting to destroy the Glades, so he suggests to Frank Chen that they stop him by buying the areas that Malcolm doesn’t own yet. To travel to China separately from Frank, Robert takes the Queen’s Gambit. Oliver accompanies his father and brings Sarah to avoid taking the next step that Laurel wants for their relationship. Frank assures Malcolm that the Gambit will go down.
The Hood steals a computer from an accountant with a knack for extortion. Trying to return the money to its proper owners, Felicity finds a $2 million transfer the day Walter disappeared. She traces the money to Dominic Alonzo, the leader of an underground casino. After failing to persuade Diggle to come back, Felicity, undercover, gets caught counting cards as they planned. The Hood tears through the casino to find Alonzo, who says that Walter was killed.
While Thea and Moira shop online, Oliver delivers the bad news. Malcolm shows an angry Moira that Walter is alive. Oliver overhears. From Malcolm’s phone records, Felicity finds that Walter is in Bludhaven. The Hood rescues Walter. At the hospital, Laurel tells Oliver what Tommy said about her belonging with him (Oliver). Oliver admits he still loves her. After apologizing to Diggle, Oliver asks for help stopping his mom and Malcolm.
Tropes applying to this Episode:
- A God Am I: Robert calls Malcolm out on having a God complex for his plan.
- The Atoner: Robert only joined Malcolm's group to atone for accidentally killing a corrupt city councilman. Moira eventually convinced him that stopping Malcolm from leveling the Glades is a true path to redemption.
- And of course, because she convinced him of that, she blames herself for his death.
- Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: Invoked; when the money laundering accountant says he's more afraid of his employers than the Hood, Oliver just steals his laptop off him and leaves him to face the consequences.
- Boyfriend-Blocking Dad: Flashback!Laurel wants them to get an apartment because her father has threatened to taser Oliver if they're in a room together with the door closed.
- Conflict Killer: The scale of the Evil Plan they're up against causes Oliver to reconcile with Diggle because he needs his help. That fact that Diggle had been right all along about his mother also forces Oliver to swallow his pride.
- Corner of Woe: Oliver sits on the floor of the Arrowcave in the dark until Felicity returns, after finding out the truth about Moira and Malcolm.
- Dramatic Irony:
- A flashback shows that Tempest wasn't that different from the Hood, using blackmail to force corrupt businessmen like Adam Hunt to reinvest the money they stole back into the city they stole it from.
- Chen died when Moira Queen betrayed him to Malcolm. Turns out Chen did the same to her husband, and she was unwittingly avenging his death.
- Exactly What I Aimed At: Alonzo is holding Felicity as a Human Shield. Oliver fires an arrow, but it hits the dart board next to him.Alonzo: (grins) I heard you never miss.The Hood: I don't. (arrow explodes, knocking Alonzo down)
- Fixing the Game: Felicity gets caught counting cards at a casino. Subverted in that getting caught was the plan.
- Foreshadowing: Turns out this isn't the first time Oliver has used a steerable parachute to get to his target.
- Friendship Moment:
- Walter greets Oliver as son, which Oliver makes no objection to, showing he has finally accepted Walter as his stepfather.
- When Felicity walks in Oliver's tete-a-tete with Laurel and she asks Who Are You?, Felicity says she's nobody and Oliver claims she's helping set up his internet in the club. At the end of the episode when Felicity walks in on the happy family reunion, Moira asks Who Are You? and Oliver introduces Felicity as a friend, which Walter confirms.
- Future Shadowing: "One man alone can't save this city."
- Hallway Fight: The Hood slugs and arrows his way through the mooks guarding Walter's cell.
- Happy Flashback: Subverted; the Queen family are shown in better times, but things take a dark turn when Malcolm first proposes what will become the Undertaking.
- The Heart: Felicity tries to convince Oliver and Diggle to mend their rift. Eventually Oliver swallows his pride and apologizes.
- I Let Rebecca Die: Rebecca called Malcolm on his phone at least twice the night of her murder. He was busy working so he just let the phone ring the first time. She called a second time and this annoyed him so much that he shut down the phone. Past midnight, the police call to tell him she had been shot. So he finally decides to check his phone and it turns out she had been calling him for help while bleeding to death. She died while leaving her last message. Malcolm implies that, had he answered his phone that night, she wouldn't have died.
- Improvised Armor: The Hood uses the Briefcase Full of Money as a shield when a mook empties his pistol at him.
- Internal Reveal:
- Oliver discovers that Malcolm Merlyn is involved in the Undertaking and his mother is a co-conspirator.
- Laurel discovers that Oliver is still in love with her.
- Ironic Echo: In the flashback with Laurel she's asking Oliver where the bottle opener is, like Sara did in the pilot episode.
- It Is Beyond Saving: Another similarity to Batman Begins that the first season shares, in that Malcolm intends to destroy the Glades because of this trope.
- It's Raining Men: As there's only one guard on the roof but no building close enough to zipline from, the Hood jumps from an aircraft using a steerable parachute.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Subverted; Oliver cites this trope but is unable to lie about his feelings towards Laurel.
- Karmic Death: It turns out Frank Chen ratted out on Robert Queen, setting off a chain of events that would lead to the former's own demise, after being ratted out by Moira Queen.
- Kill the Poor: Zigzagged with the Undertaking itself; Tempest believes that the only way they can fix what's wrong with the Glades is if they level them and kill or drive out everyone who lives there. However, it's not out of disgust at their low income level as it is at the repeated failure of conventional philanthropy to seemingly make a dent in the Glades' population of criminals and Apathetic Citizens.
- Make It Look Like an Accident: A bomb was planted on the Queen's Gambit set to go off around the time the yacht encountered the storm front.
- Mythology Gag:
- Malcolm's plan is revealed to involve a device that will create a natural disaster in the Glades called the "Markov Device". Brion Markov (Geo-Force from The Outsiders) and Tara Markov (the first Terra from Teen Titans) are both super heroes with geological powers, specifically relating to terrakinesis.
- There’s a reference to Ted Kord’s fundraiser. Ted Kord is the superheroic adventurer known as Blue Beetle in the comics.
- “Ray and Jean” is a reference to Ray Palmer (The Atom) and Jean Loring.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain
- Alonzo finds the radio earpiece in Felicity's ear and destroys it. This only brings the Hood down on him, convinced that Felicity is in danger.
- Alonzo claims that Walter is dead, and when told this by Oliver, Moira rushes off to confront Malcolm over breaking their deal. So Malcolm calls his minions and has them send a live camera image of Walter in his cell, which Felicity then uses to track down his location.
- No-Sell: When Oliver storms the casino a mook breaks a pool cue over his arm. Ollie doesn't even flinch, and just uses the broken cue to stab the mook.
- Out-of-Character Alert: Moira's response to being told that Walter is dead is not grief but anger. When she leaves her children to rush off somewhere at 10pm, Oliver is suspicious, follows and listens in on her conversation with Malcolm.
- Pay Evil unto Evil: Invoked In-Universe. When Tempest began its plans for the Undertaking, it started with several of the members reminding the group of tragedies they had experienced at the hands of Glade residents, such as one member's daughter being raped on her way back from a nightclub until she was left catatonic from the trauma, or the death of Malcom Merlyn's wife; stabbed to death whilst coming home from the free clinic she operated there. This is obviously done to convince themselves that the Glades deserve what the Undertaking will do.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: Felicity as a Lady in Red when infiltrating the casino.
- Shout-Out:
- The whole scene where Ollie kicks every Mook's ass in Bludhaven is a Shout-Out to Oldboy.
- Malcolm cites the US officer at the Battle of Ben Tre who said, "It became necessary to destroy the town to save it."
- On finding Laurel at his bar in Verdant, Oliver quotes from Casablanca.
- That Came Out Wrong: Felicity's wearing an earbud so she can talk to Oliver inside the casino:Felicity: It feels really good having you inside me. By "you," I mean your voice. And by "me," I mean my ear. I'm going to stop talking now.
Oliver: That would be my preference. - There Was a Door: Subverted in that, while invading the casino, Oliver opens the door. Before he walks through, he throws a mook through the closed half of the double door.
- Trust Password: Oliver listens in on the password used to gain admittance to the casino ("Snapdragon") and transmits it to Felicity.
- Villains Never Lie: Averted; Alonzo claims that Walter is dead and buried.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Malcolm feels that the crime in the Glades is corrupting the city as a whole, and so intends to level the whole area in order to start fresh. He views the resulting deaths of thousands as an acceptable loss.
- Wham Episode: We see what the Undertaking really is about, the events that led up to the sinking of the Queen's Gambit, Oliver learns that Malcolm Merlyn is the Big Bad and that his mother is involved, Oliver rescues Walter from his kidnappers, Oliver admits he still has feelings for Laurel, and Oliver and Digg reconcile.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: It's confirmed that the death of Malcolm's wife was his Start of Darkness.
- You Remind Me of X: Seeing Tommy in a suit talking business, Laurel says he looks just like his father. If Tommy is pleased by the comparison, it doesn't show on his face.
