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Arrow season 7, episode 15 review: Training Day

By Scott Brown

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“This is how we do things now Oliver. I’m sorry, but we’ll have to just get used to that.” Spoilers for Arrow season 7, episode 15 follow.

Team Arrow is now completely part of the SCPD just in time for a gang war breaking out in The Glades. The only problem is, they have to learn to deal with the proper systems.

In the future, Mia and William search for a tape recorder to listen to Felicity’s message. A seemingly simple task that everyone knows isn’t.

Team Arrow and the SCPD

With Team Arrow now officially deputized by the police, it’s pretty obvious that things aren’t going to play smoothly, no matter how much Oliver wants this team to work. So after the first mission goes completely awry, it’s really no shock at all that it happens.

A lot of the scenes set in the precinct before the first mission are played for comedy given the differences between how Team Arrow and the SCPD operate which, other than a couple of Felicity’s lines, fall flat. That idea is solid enough, but it’s simply executed incorrectly in the beginning. Post-mission though, it’s played much more dramatically, which works so much better than the comedic take on it.

Oliver starts out the episode completely opposite of how he normally is, which is stubborn and cynical, but that changes very quickly. He really begins to channel his Arrow persona in this episode, even though he’s been trying to hide it for a good amount of the season, so to see it begin to creep out again with this episode is interesting. It really sets up a fall from grace by the end of the season.

It’s not just Oliver though struggling with this new partnership, the rest of the team is as well, mainly Dinah though. As Captain, she has responsibilities that none of the others care about and has now found out she’s lost her powers. She has to pick sides in an extremely difficult choice, making this the most empathetic that Dinah has been since she was introduced into the show. The episode ends up stepping back on those hard choices, which ends up having the show almost essentially revert back to what it was a while ago, with Team Arrow assembled again.

Mia and William team up

More from Arrowverse

These two are great together. It’s a shame that a Mia and William team-up didn’t happen sooner in this season, because they’re absolutely fantastic together. Even with the least amount of screen time, this is probably one of the best parts of an otherwise pretty good episode.

They’re dynamic is very reminiscent of early Oliver and Felicity interactions, given the personalities of the two, which is really fun. The dynamic is different enough that it doesn’t feel like the show is copying anything, but similar enough that there’s almost a nostalgiac feel to it.

This episode also does a really solid job of beginning to tie the present into the flash-forwards and as to why the city is the way it is and why Mia and William are the way they are.

Ricardo Diaz is…

Dead. Diaz is dead. After being sent to Slabside, according to Bronze Tiger, Diaz was apparently killed by Emiko Queen. Or at least, that’s what he told Laurel when she wanted to know about what happened. It’s disappointing to see this happen off-screen, but it sets up an interesting idea around Emiko moving forward.

After the reveal that Emiko is working with Dante in the previous episode, it’s not that surprising that the show is potentially taking a turn for her becoming a villain and probably a part of the Ninth Circle, given his name is Dante. If you don’t understand, read Benjamin Percy’s Green Arrow run and Dante’s Inferno. Again, it’s disappointing that this happened off-screen, but it can lead to something bigger, including Diaz not actually being dead.

Next. Arrow season 7, episode 14 review. dark

Even though some things in the episode were poorly executed, this episode of Arrow ends on a strong note with solid potential moving forward.

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