Oliver and Diggle, armed with guns, burst into Dinah's apartment, looking around for any threat. They quickly find that no one is there and Oliver finds Curtis' phone on the floor, surrounded by broken glass. Felicity chimes in over the Comms that Rene was probably captured as well. Oliver quickly realizes Chase is picking them off one at a time.
"Who is this Chase guy?" Quentin asked, remembering the news report at the beginning.
"He's Justin Clayborne's son," Arsenal said and Quentin's eyes widened in realization, as did Laurel and Moira's.
"I'm sorry, who?" Thea asked, speaking for herself and Roy.
"Justin Clayborne, he was a business tycoon who acquired the rights to a drug called Dycloseral, which can treat tuberculosis. Only, when there was an outbreak in Lamb Valley, he jacked up the prices to far past reasonable," Quentin explained. "Oliver put an arrow in his chest, but he died from drowning."
"From the sounds of it, he had it coming," Mia said and was shot several looks.
"He was immoral, but he didn't deserve a death sentence," Quentin disagreed.
"Only his crimes weren't just limited to being greedy," Rene said, to the confusion of the time travelers.
"After he gave Clayborne his little warning, Oliver did a little digging. Clayborne was part of a black market marketers group that specialized in bio-weapons. Guess what they were working on," Arsenal said.
"Weaponized Tuberculosis," Laurel realized and the trio nodded.
"Dad was understandably pissed, so he killed Clayborne. He was more merciful than I would've been," Mia shrugged.
Oliver and Diggle realize Chase's plan has been to catch them off guard by making them think they'd won. Felicity suspects Evelyn and 'evil Laurel' as Oliver finds a flechette sticking out of a book.
"Wait, evil Laurel?" Laurel questioned stunned.
"Have you ever heard of the multiverse?" Arsenal asked.
"What?" Quentin asked as all of them looked confused.
"Take that as a no," Rene said dryly.
"Basically, there are these parallel earths, different dimensions. Through a portal called a Breach, we can travel between them. About a year prior to this, your Doppelganger from what some friends of ours call Earth-2 crossed over here. She ended up working with Chase," Arsenal explained.
"I would've said you were crazy before today. But at this rate, I'll believe anything," Quentin said with a sigh as Laurel was processing there was another version of her.
Oliver realizes the arrow is from Talia al Ghul and her students.
Moira starts at the name. She wonders what her connection to Ra's was and how Oliver knew her.
Oliver orders Diggle to get Thea and Quentin somewhere safe and Diggle suggests a safe house across town. Oliver agrees before going to see Chase.
"What about mom?" Thea realized in horror as she turned towards her mother and Arsenal, Rene, and Mia stiffened. "What if Chase tries to get her to?"
"Well…you see…" Rene trailed off, trying to come up with the words.
"I'm already dead, aren't I?" Moira asked and everyone froze.
"How'd you figure it out?" Mia asked softly as Moira smiled sadly.
"I suspected when there wasn't so much as a mention of a card from me for Oliver's birthday. Prison or not, I would send my son a card on his birthday. Hearing how he wasn't concerned about my safety when Chase was targeting his loved ones was all the confirmation I needed," Moira said with a sad smile. "When did it happen?"
"Ten months from when we took you," Arsenal said and Moira nodded.
"How are you so calm about this?!" Thea asked about to have a nervous breakdown. "You're dead mom!"
"Maybe it's what I deserve," Moira's declaration stunned everyone into silence as she got up, walking over to her daughter and taking her hand as she sat down next to her. "I killed over five hundred people…including Tommy."
"You didn't kill anyone Moira," Quentin said and Moira smiled kindly at him.
"Thank you Quentin, but I built the weapon Malcolm was going to use and I knew what he would do with it. There has to be a price to pay for that," Moira said as she took Thea's face in her hands. "Thea, I've done many questionable things in my life. But, among all of them, are my greatest achievements: you and your brother."
Thea broke down at this, crying into her mother's arms. Everyone was silent, letting Thea let it out. Moira simply stroked her daughter's hair, attempting to comfort her as Thea said 'I'm sorry' over and over again.
"Your future isn't set in stone," Arsenal said once Thea had gained control of her emotions. "That's why you're here. To make sure this future never happens. The first step would be preventing Moira from dying."
After a moment, Thea nodded and Mia pressed a button, resuming the recording.
At Argus, Oliver stormed over to Adrian's cell, glaring at him through the glass door. Adrian taunts Oliver about the fact he never knows Adrian's next move. Frustrated, Oliver declares he will find his team before storming off.
The recording flashes back five years earlier to Lian Yu. Kovar explains Oliver is such a formidable foe because he thinks nothing can hurt him, he thinks he's experienced every kind of pain imaginable. Kovar touches him on the shoulder, on the side, and on his back and Oliver cries out as he flashes back to Yao-Fei shooting him in the shoulder, Billy Wintergreen stabbing him, and being whipped by Conklin.
"That son of a bitch," Quentin said, feeling righteous fury as he gained a new hatred for Kovar at what h was forcing Oliver to go through.
Thea simply put a hand to face, staring in horror at what her brother had to go through. Roy took her hand, but even he was a little squeamish at this. Moira was crying at this point, asking herself why she had let her son go on that damn boat trip. Laurel remembered how she had told Tommy 'we've all been through a lot'. She wished she could go back and smack herself in the head.
In the present, Oliver entered the lair to find it seemingly empty. Felicity jumped out from behind the corner, aiming an assault rifle at Oliver. Realizing it is only him; she puts the rifle down and says she will be relieved to be in an Argus safe house. Oliver says she's not going to a safe house, to her shock. She points out that Malcolm has proved that locks don't keep out the League of Assassins.
"Wait, Malcolm Merlyn? He's still…" Quentin trailed off as they all turned to Arsenal.
"I used to think he was a cockroach, someone who would outlive us all," Arsenal said gruffly.
"Oliver stabbed him through the chest!" Quentin exclaimed in denial.
"Merlyn had a bunch of resources, including one in the coroner. Merlyn's inside man smuggled him out and got him somewhere safe until he could recover," Arsenal said.
"That son of a bitch!" Laurel snarled, filled with rage as Moira paled, knowing he would come for her.
"Okay, let's calm down," Quentin sighed, trying to think rationally. "We know he's alive. So we can prepare now."
"You don't prepare for Malcolm Quentin," Moira said in a shaking voice, knowing she was dead no matter what.
"There's only one way to deal with Merlyn," Mia said and they all turned to her. "Dad needs to kill him."
"He tried that already, didn't take," Roy pointed out.
"When you get back, have Oliver seek out Talia al Ghul, have her complete his training," Arsenal said.
"As in the same woman who's working with Chase?" Laurel asked incredulously.
"She hates Oliver because he killed her father, due to events set in motion by Merlyn. Those events won't happen for almost two years in your time, more than enough time to change it. You wanna stop Merlyn. The only way is for Oliver to kill him and he won't be able to do that without Talia's training," Arsenal said.
Oliver insists he needs Felicity with him so the two of them can stop Chase. Felicity asks if tactic is the only thing making him keep her close. Oliver admits it isn't, but the main reason is that he let his guard down. He knew something was wrong and now everyone he loves, including his son, is in danger.
"Since when does Oliver have a son?" Quentin wondered as Moira stiffened.
"Something you wanna talk about grandma?" Mia asked as everyone turned to Moira.
"If you don't tell them, I will. But it should come from you," Arsenal said and Moira sighed.
"You're right," Moira admitted and turned to the Lances and Thea. "About a year before The Gambit, Oliver confided in me that he'd gotten a girl, Samantha Clayton, pregnant."
"He cheated on me again?" Laurel asked, more shocked than anything.
"If it helps, dad was just too drunk to think rationally. He didn't even remember anything about that night except waking up next to her the next day," Mia shrugged.
"Somehow, that doesn't help," Laurel said sarcastically.
"Why am I just hearing about this now?" Thea demanded.
"Because I paid Samantha a million dollars to move to Central City and tell Oliver she lost the baby," Moira admitted and they all stared at her shocked.
"You robbed him of knowing his child," Quentin said in disgust.
"I knew Oliver wasn't ready for that kind of responsibility and I wanted my grandchild to have a good life. So I ensured that I my grandchild would have a good life and I planned to tell Oliver the truth when the time was right," Moira said.
"You never even gave him the chance mom," Thea said angrily and her mother sighed.
"Maybe I didn't. I've thought a lot about that, especially since I've been in prison, if I made the right choice. And…seeing you here, I made a choice," Moira said as she looked over at Mia. "When we get back, I'm going to tell Oliver the truth; and I'll deal with the consequences, whatever they may be."
Privately, Arsenal wondered how Moira would have reacted to Emiko if Robert had told her. In the end, he supposed it didn't matter. Emiko's mother had made it clear she would ruin Robert's reputation if he tried to have any involvement in Emiko's life and had fed her daughter lies, turning Emiko into a psychopath who hated Oliver.1
Felicity assures Oliver Chase won't be able to find William but Oliver is doubtful. Diggle walks in then, telling them that Thea and Quentin are safely hauled up in an Argus safe house. Felicity suddenly gets an alert from Argus, telling them Black Siren isn't in her cell. They realize that Quentin doesn't know about her and that's why Chase will send her right to him.
"I'm guessing Black Siren is my evil twin?" Laurel asked and Arsenal and Rene nodded.
"She wasn't evil really. She'd just been handed some bad deals in life and was under some bad influences. She came around, she was actually one of the leading forces to getting Oliver out of prison," Arsenal said.
At the safe house, a bored Thea complains about not having a phone to Quentin. Quentin mentions that he wants a phone himself to talk to a judge about Rene's case. He lost a daughter and doesn't want the same thing to happen to Rene.
"Good old Hoss," Rene smiled gratefully at Quentin, who simply nodded.
One of the guards discovers the Comms are down and walks out, ordering Quentin and Thea to stay there. They ignore him, Quentin pulling out a pistol and walking out. They discover the guard unconscious and Thea takes the guard's gun as they split up. Quentin walks into a room and sees someone hiding behind the corner. Quentin barks at them to come out and is shocked when he sees Black Siren come out, mistaking her for Laurel. Thea walks in, telling him not to take his gun off. But before she can explain, Thea and Quentin are both hit by tranq darts. They fall down, unconscious as Black Siren walks over to Quentin, he looking up at her before he loses consciousness completely.
"Dad," Laurel said as she grabbed her father's hand in a vice like grip.
Quentin knew assuring her he was right here wouldn't do any good, so he simply wrapped her arm around her, hoping his presence would bring her comfort.
Thea suddenly found herself wrapped up in a hug by her mother and her hand in a vice like grip by Roy.
Arsenal had certainly been right when he said that it was going to be a bumpy ride. And the time travelers had a feeling it wasn't even close to over yet.
1: Honestly, the only thing the Emiko plot has done is destroy the basis of Oliver's crusade. To make Emiko into a villain, they had to completely destroy the characters of both Robert and Moira, making them into completely unlikable people. Robert went from someone who was deeply flawed but a good person to a complete jackass with a few good deeds under his belt, someone who is clearly not worth honoring. Moira likewise went from someone who made quite a few bad choice but was simply doing what she thought was best for her family to a control freak with no moral compass. Honestly, the hatred for season one Oliver is so disturbing, I never even hated Felicity as much as they seem to hate Oliver.