There are only a few episodes remaining until the season seven finale of Arrow and in Monday night’s episode, the show took a look at the past of one of the members of Original Team Arrow (OTA).
Before we begin, you should know the article contains spoilers and blah blah, the usual mumbo-jumbo. So without further ado, let’s get into this recap.
The episode begins with someone at A.R.G.U.S. leaking classified information to the Ninth Circle, so Diggle (David Ramsey) takes Oliver (Stephen Amell) to meet with his contact at the Defense Intelligence Agency. Diggle takes the lead on this one as the two are met by General Stewart (Ernie Hudson), who seems to be a real hard ass at first; in fact Diggle actually calls him that.
It is clear from the start that there is history between the two men as Stewart really goes after Diggle for leaving A.R.G.U.S. to which Diggle replies he left to take care of his family, something Stewart wouldn’t understand. Then comes the big reveal: General Stewart is actually Diggle’s stepfather!
Okay, hold on a sec — so, is Diggle’s full name ‘John Diggle Stewart’? Because there’s a certain hero with a ring that has the exact same name, but more on that later.
Later on, Diggle talks with Oliver and tells him that his father died under Stewart’s watch and six months later he was basically dating Diggle’s mother, coming around for dinner and such. When the two married, Stewart made Diggle and his brother do “Spartan” drills to prepare them for whatever they may face in the future. I’m pretty sure Oliver was thinking in that exact moment, “Man, and I thought I had daddy issues.”
Anyway, the Ninth Circle breaks into Smoak Technology and steals Felicity’s (Emily Bett Rickards) Archer program to track down an extremely dangerous biological weapon that just has bad news written all over it. Diggle and Stewart go off to stop them and end up getting captured. Ultimately, the two escape thanks to Stewart’s tips and Team Arrow’s help.
Obviously, the Ninth Circle was successful in finding the weapon, which led Felicity to realize that she created a program that can be manipulated into something used for evil. She would then later decide to kill the program, despite all her work now being for nothing.
Oliver talks to Diggle and gives him some classified information that Felicity found. Apparently, it was actually Diggle’s father who was negligent on that mission back in the day and cost two other Marines their lives. Diggle talks to Stewart and asks why he was lied to all this time. Stewart answered that every man deserves to think of his father as a hero. The two share a nice moment after an entire episode of cold shoulders and resistance from Diggle.
Episode Notes
- The other minor plot involved Oliver finally revealing to Emiko (Sea Shimooka) that Dante (Adrian Paul) was the person who killed her mother. She and Oliver get into a fight but she seemingly believes him despite going off with Dante again. At the end of the episode, she kills Dante as revenge for her mother’s death.
- In the flash-forward this week, we learn that Galaxy One has expanded Archer’s tech and is turning an army of soldiers, which is not good. The daddy issues for Diggle don’t stop in the present day as Connor (Joseph David-Jones) tells Mia (Katherine McNamara) that John Jr. is the leader of the Deathstroke gang. Diggle can’t be happy, if he is still alive that is.
- Speaking of Diggle, I feel like The CW is hinting at a Green Lantern show by revealing Diggle’s full name to be John Stewart. We already know that he is the hero on another Earth and with Arrow and Supernatural both ending next season respectively, could another new superhero show be in the works?
What did you think of the episode? Let me know in the comments below!
Arrow airs Mondays at 9/8c on The CW.