Loved It? Hated It? What did you think of "The Ties That Bind?"

[KSiteTV]

What did you think?

[vantheman77]

So Oliver went to the last person least expected - the FBI agent who wanted him in jail from the start and reveal his identity. I wonder if they will go to SuperMax next season.

[President_Luthor]

The action was really good, Lyla was awesome and she was in practically the whole episode. A really good penultimate episode that even ended in a cliffhanger. A clean slate ep. too as both old and new team hangout are in ashes. (I hear Barry and Iris have a pretty big loft: maybe Curtis and Rene can go on Target runs for Casa WestAllen, while Felicity proofreads Iris' articles and Oliver offers bad relationship advice to Cisco.)

Diaz attacking every team member at once, while thrilling, lost some of its impact when everyone except Curtis' "Paul 2.0" gets out unscathed and even he's still breathing. It's probably because Quentin is on his way out, with BS likely going elsewhere. It was nice that Oliver didn't kill those goons in front of William, though I suspect the crooked cops at the station were less fortunate.

Anatoly messing with Diaz while pretending to be an ally is an obvious treat. I'm really hoping he makes it out alive ... because Diaz is going to be soo pissed that Anatoly sold him out.

Oliver and Felicity sorting out their marital woes in the midst of it ... not so thrilling. The thing is that, while obviously they are a couple and his going solo without any support was never realistic (he still had Diggle back in S1), Oliver had some valid points. He was terrible at explaining them, but the jist is that he doesn't want William to be left in the lurch without a parent ... hard to ensure when both parents want to be in the field.

I'll give Felicity a point for asking Lyla for marital advice, though asking for it on the cusp of their major plan was totally off. Lyla saying that she and Dig getting a divorce helped was probably not what Felicity wanted to hear. And does Diggle always have to roll over and show his belly whenever he's asked to choose from Oliver v. Felicity's viewpoint -- I mean, Oliver wanting to be a lone wolf may not be practical with Diaz running rampant, but I understand why he wanted both Felicity and William far away. There's a "reason" why Oliver is pushing her away, his sucking at explaining it doesn't mean he's completely wrong.

William is the new factor that didn't apply in previous seasons and his needs should be paramount, not Oliver's lingering identity crisis nor Felicity's need to validate her place in the field as Mrs. Queen. Better hope Raisa's good with close quarters combat and weapons, because she and some ARGUS safe house are the only things keeping Diaz from ending Oliver's bloodline. In this light, it makes little sense outside of wonky melodramatic reasons.

Lyla and Diggle were held up as examples of how to do it as a couple/team, but their being in sync came at a price ... and it did take a divorce for them to figure it out. But naturally Felicity can never be made out as wrong, even when Diaz narrowly blew her brains out. Only luck prevented Diaz from ending the Queens that night and making William an orphan. And they still failed to copy those Diaz files in time, so her recklessness didn't even get a payoff.

I'd say the action sequences (there were a lot!), a whole lot of Lyla proving why she's one of the most formidable Flarrowverse characters, Anatoly toying with Diaz' unhinged mind and that cliffhanger with Agent Watson were all highlights. (If you need to, you can fast-forward the Curtis/Paul 2.0 and 'Keeping Up with the Queens' parts haha.)

[Amarice]

Did Ollie outed himself in this episode? It seems so, based on the gifsets I've seen on Tumblr. Hey, that was my idea! Actually started to write a fanfic like this over 2 years ago. #rememberwhowasherefirst

So I guess in the finale Ollie ends up in St.Walker's Iron Heigths, Quentin on the cementary, Black Siren in Team (Without) Arrow and Felicity with a positive pregnancy test (as I think Iron Heigths doesn't allow conjugal visits). Very well done *sarcasm*, and I wonder how fast they will get back to square one. By 7x01 everything will be erased I think, except Olicity baby, of course.

Also, I'm standing a new tag trend: #noquentinnoarrow I might not watch this show any more but I know that Quentin's death will hit me pretty bad on fandom frustration level.

[President_Luthor]

As much as I've enjoyed Quentin on Arrow -- his character/character arc hasn't been all that interesting for the past few seasons. I think it unraveled for him in S4 once he lost his job at SCPD. If he was used in a plot post-SCPD ... it was mostly only in service to somebody else's story, not his own -- whether it was for Felicity, Oliver, Thea, or currently E2 Laurel. I was afraid that the S6 redemption arc would turn out to be his character's last gasp at relevance on the show and it's coming to fruition now sadly.

While Thea was in a similar boat, she hasn't been a regular in some time. Quentin was, and he still was largely sidelined in the series, especially after S4. Like Thea, they didn't know what to do with him story/character-wise these past few years. I might have felt more regret about his and Thea's departure, had the show given them more to do these past two seasons. They haven't. So while they are connected to Oliver's story since S1 in terms of mythology ... they haven't really been involved these past two years in the way they were in S1-S3/4. They've been special guest stars in all but name in S5-6.

I get how the fandom doesn't like it when longtime characters leave, especially if they've been there from the start. But for the story itself within the series, they haven't been quite as relevant/interesting to me as a viewer, as they used to be in earlier seasons. For Quentin especially, he's been keeping the Reaper at bay for some time and that cheque will most likely be cashed out two seasons late. They have a tendency to hang on to characters long past their expiry date, with Malcolm Merlyn being Exhibit A in the Flarrowverse. (In my universe, Merlyn would have died by Nyssa's hand in S3, Quentin would have been the mystery body in the grave in S4 and Thea should have boarded the LoT Waverider in S4.)

At the end of this episode, the FBI agent wanted two things from Oliver: one- to spell out that he is the Green Arrow. Oliver did that. He had no cards left after this ep's. Diaz snafu, and it was the only card he could play. As for what Watson's second request is -- this is where they left it unanswered til the finale.

[TheSecretVampire]

I found it dumb that Oliver felt the need to apologize to Felicity....Oliver was in the RIGHT when he didn't want Felicity going into the police station with Diaz there. Of course her fate was never in doubt because she can survive anything on this show, but Diaz had her dead to rights and a lucky save by Oliver prevented her death. But still, Oliver was right and Felicity should've never went in there against his wishes. Look, Oliver has been wrong a lot of times and had to apologize for it, but this time, he didn't need to and was in the right. Just makes him look dumb by apologizing when he never needed to to in the first place.

[President_Luthor]

I found it dumb that Oliver felt the need to apologize to Felicity....Oliver was in the RIGHT when he didn't want Felicity going into the police station with Diaz there. Of course her fate was never in doubt because she can survive anything on this show, but Diaz had her dead to rights and a lucky save by Oliver prevented her death. But still, Oliver was right and Felicity should've never went in there against his wishes. Look, Oliver has been wrong a lot of times and had to apologize for it, but this time, he didn't need to and was in the right. Just makes him look dumb by apologizing when he never needed to to in the first place.

^This.

Oliver had valid reasons to keep both Felicity and William away. He didn't want William to be orphaned/alone if he were to go to jail or, worse case , if he were to die. Putting both parents in the field just looks foolhardy. It's dumb luck that prevented Felicity and even Oliver from getting added to Diaz' body count. Makes sense that he'd want Felicity away if things went south.

[Freawaru]

So Oliver went to the last person least expected - the FBI agent who wanted him in jail from the start and reveal his identity. I wonder if they will go to SuperMax next season.

Didn't make sense to me, too. But they mentioned her before as potential ally - didn't make sense at that time as well.

[Freawaru]

All in all an episode I liked - just like the last ones. Could have had not as much guns and more arrows - I really don't like to have to use the volume-control every few seconds and guns are so noisy.

What I really wonder now is: what do they all see in Diaz? Even the Quadrant now. I hope they will solve this believably. So far my best guesses are "he is a meta, inflicting fear in others" or "there is someone/something in Corto Maltese they all are afraid of". What do you think?