Guest 1: Honestly, I haven't decided what I'm gonna do about Helena yet.

Guest 2: Huh, weird. Well, the admins really just do not seem to care about running this site, so that's really not a surprise.

Gust 3: Glad you enjoyed it. Yeah, it felt that way to me to but Oliver had never done anything like that before, it felt OOC to the Oliver we had come to know and it was ultimately just done to shove Olicity down our throats. No kidding on Blood.

Guest 4: No kidding on Diggle, Felicity, and Laurel. Unfortunately, Diggle and Felicity are needed for the plot at the moment, so they'll be sticking around for a while. Yeah, Oliver, Roy and Sara are RTA (Real Team Arrow). Yes, Roy, Barry, Slade, Anatoly and Tommy are Oliver's brothers, but not Diggle.

Arrow lair

Night

Oliver and Diggle were watching a news report on the Unity Rally as Felicity listened while she worked.

"I tried to get him to stand down," Oliver said lowly.

"He seems as stubborn as you when it comes to fighting back," Diggle noted.

"This isn't about fighting back; this is about Blood stroking his ego. And he's willing to endanger innocent people to do it," Oliver snapped.

"Well, Roy and Sara are at the rally, just in case this guy tries anything," Diggle said in an attempt to calm Oliver's nerves.

"I think I have something," Felicity said as they turned their attention to her. "I analyzed the bomb remnants we got from Lance. The design's identical to the bombs used by an anti-government militia group called The Movement. Lucky for us, they have a very active and hackable message board. One of their most prolific fans has an IP address right here in Starling."

"Tell me," Oliver demanded.

"The computer's in a local souvenir shop. The whackadoo in question goes by the username Shrapnel," Felicity said as she pulled up the location on a digital map of the city.

"You want backup?" Diggle asked as Oliver grabbed his bow.

"No, I want you at the rally. If Roy and Sara find something, they'll need someone who can disarm it," Oliver said.

Starling City Police Department

Not long after

Quentin was looking over the phone records when Laurel walked up behind him.

"Is this all for me?" she asked in surprise.

"No, for me. Gift from Oliver," Quentin explained ad she nodded as they began walking through the precinct. "So I found something on this Maya Resik."

"What?" Laurel asked, not sure whether to be excited or not.

"Well, she's Blood's aunt. Blood covers her expenses," Quentin explained.

"If he has other family, why did he end up in an orphanage?" Laurel asked confused.

"Well, maybe because Aunt Maya is nuttier than a Snickers bar. She's a patient at St. Walker's Hospital. It's a mental institution; it's the kind you don't check out of," Quentin explained and paused. "Laurel, there is nothing sinister about a guy who is covering the expenses of his only living relative."

"I think we learned six months ago that things aren't always as they seem. With Slade out there somewhere, I just feel better if I can clear my mind on this. You're always telling me to trust my instincts. Well, my instincts are screaming at me to see this through. Wherever that leads," Laurel said and Quentin sighed.

"Alright. Just be careful sweetie," Quentin said uneasily and she nodded.

"I will," she promised.

Starling City

Not long after

Oliver cautiously entered a souvenir shop, gripping his bow tightly. He heard a sound and quickly reached back into quiver and pulled out an arrow. He notched it in his bow before finding himself surrounded by several ultra-red beams.

"Boom," a man's voice said as Oliver looked around, realizing that the voice was coming from a speaker. "You're dead. Or you will be if you take one more step or move a single muscle. And then you'll miss the show."

In the corner, a monitor flared to life, showing a video feed. It was the rally, Oliver realized with dread.

"Candidate Blood's unity rally. Already rigged with 50 pounds of RDX high explosives. Not unlike what's packed inside the drywall of my store. This city thinks Sebastian Blood can keep them safe. Tonight, they learn that the only thing politicians care about is protecting their jobs," the voice ranted.

"Felicity," Oliver growled.

"Here. Did you get him?" she asked.

"No. He said he rigged the Plaza with an explosive device," he said lowly.

"Oliver, it's crazy town there. That bomb could be anywhere," Felicity said.

"I can narrow it down. Patch me through to the others," Oliver demanded.

"Okay, you're good to go," Felicity said after a moment.

"Diggle, Shrapnel said he ringed the perimeter with RDX. Roy, Sara, he'll need to be close by in order to detonate it," Oliver said.

"We're on it," Diggle said as, at the rally, he moved to look for the explosives as Roy and Sara started searching the crowd.

"Felicity, I need you to pull me up anything you can on the store. Blue prints, permit schematics, anything," Oliver ordered.

"What's going on?" Felicity asked as she started to do just that.

"Shrapnel left behind a surprise. Said he packed the drywall with explosives, but the trigger needs to be-"

"Would need to be hooked up to some sort of power supply. That's assuming that the detonator's connected to the store's electricity and not something independent like a car battery. I know, not helpful," Felicity paused. "The building was built in the seventies. That's good news. The wiring in a lot of construction back then is defective. So if you sever one wire, it will blow fuses in the entire building and shut off power to the bomb."

Seeing a fuse box, Oliver silently aimed before releasing the draw string. The arrow went flying, hitting the fuse box, which let out an explosion of sparks as the red beams vanished.

"Oliver? Oliver?" Felicity called out worriedly as Oliver tapped the Comms piece in his suit.

"It's all right. Tell the others I'm on my way," Oliver said before he began heading out.

At the rally, as Blood began his speech, Roy was walking among the crowd, looking for anything suspicious when he ran into someone.

"Sorry, I – Sin," Roy said surprised to see her there.

"Abercrombie," Sin said as surprised to see him there. "What are you doing here?"

As Roy tried to think up an excuse, a few feet away, Sara, her hair tied back wearing a ball cap, stiffened as she saw Sin. She turned and walked back into the crowd as, by the sound equipment, Diggle popped off the back of the stereo. Inside was a cell phone hooked up to the explosives.

"I'm on the east side, I found the trigger," Diggle said over the Comms.

"On my way," Sara said as she began heading over to him.

"Let me guess, you're here on some vigilante business," Sin said with a smirk.

"Something like that," Roy said uneasily. "Didn't expect to see you here though."

"Figured I'd see what all the fuss was about," Sin said as they looked back to where Blood was giving his speech. "What's your take on him?"

"Not sure yet, he's more talk than action so far," Roy said.

Back by the sound equipment, Diggle and Sara were looking at the explosives.

"Guys, Shrapnel activates the bomb by cellular transmission," Felicity told them.

"Then we don't have to disarm it, just disable it," Diggle realized.

"Okay, I'm gonna try and talk you guys through it," Felicity said.

"He probably put in a safeguard. Tampering with it will set off a dead man's switch," Diggle warned.

"Step away."

Diggle and Sara whirled around. A man was standing a few feet away, aiming a gun at Diggle as he held the detonator.

"Or we all know how this ends," he finished.

Diggle made a move towards him and he fired. Diggle went down, groaning as the crowd panicked at the sound of the gun shot. Blood's bodyguards rushed him off the stage as Roy took off for the east side. Oliver rolled up on his motorcycle as Sara pulled out a knife. But she wasn't in time to stop Shrapnel from throwing a grenade into the air. However, Oliver fired an arrow, which made contact with the grenade.

The resulting explosion caused a lighting tower to fall. Sin saw that it was headed towards two kids and rushed over. Just as it would have fallen on the kids, Sin used her body as a shield. To her own surprise, the weight didn't crush her. She then rose, pushing the tower off as the kids looked at her in astonishment.

Roy was racing after Shrapnel. He paused to fire at Roy, which allowed Sara to throw her knife at him. He dodged the knife as he clutched the trigger in his hand. With a snarl, he pushed the button but, to his surprise, nothing happened. He looked down to see that the knife had cut the cord.

"You won't be killing anyone ever again," Sara said coldly.

Suddenly, an arrow flew out and hit Shrapnel in the chest. He went down, dead as Oliver walked over, lowering his bow.

"You're right, he won't," Oliver said darkly.

Arrow lair

Later

"Was killing him really necessary? You could have just handed him to the police," Felicity said as she watched a news report on the rally.

"I've seen what men like him are capable of Felicity," Oliver said darkly, thinking of Shrieve. "I won't allow history to repeat itself."

It was silent for a moment before Diggle and Sara walked in, Diggle's arm in a sling.

"Another night of skull mask hunting?" Diggle asked as he saw Oliver replenishing his arrows.

"Not exactly," Oliver said as he looked over at Diggle. "How's your shoulder?"

"Oh, just a through-and-through. Sara's pretty good at patching up wounds," Diggle noted and Sara shrugged.

"You have to learn on the fly out there," Sara said simply, which Oliver, Diggle and Roy nodded in agreement with.

"Still, Diggle, you should go home and get some rest," Oliver almost ordered.

Diggle nodded in agreement before heading out.

It was silent in the lair before Roy spoke up.

"Sin," he said and three pairs of eyes turned to him. "She saved two kids by pushing a lights tower off her back. That's not possible. That's why you've been watching her; you know what's happening with her."

"At Christmas, she was injected with something called the Mirakuru," Oliver said after a moment and Roy fought to keep his face blank at this news. "Sara and I have experience with this. And yes, that is why we've been watching her."

"What's so bad about this Mirakuru?" Roy asked after a moment.

"The guy who killed all those cops on Christmas? He was injected," Sara said grimly.

"Oh," Roy said, knowing he needed to talk to the others.

If the Mirakuru was here, that meant they weren't waiting for Slade to show up. He was already here.

Blood's Campaign office

Later

Blood was watching a news report on his speech at the rally when the lights went out. Less than a second later, Blood was grabbed by the front of his shirt and slammed against the wall. Standing in front of him was the furious vigilante.

"Do you realize how close you came to getting hundreds of people killed tonight?" Oliver growled.

"In the end, they were safe. Thanks to you," Blood noted.

"Yes, because of me. Not because of you. You may fool average people, but tonight, you showed your true face. The bomber may have been wrong about a lot, but he was right about one thing: you do not care about anyone or anything but your own ambition," Oliver growled.

"I love this city," Blood said in indignantly.

"But not the people in it," Oliver said.

He pulled a flechette out of his sleeve and moved like he was going to stab Blood. Blood closed his eyes, anticipating the blow, but Oliver slammed the flechette into the wall, inches from Blood's head.

"If you ever put the people of this city in danger in any way again, you will answer to me Alderman. You do not want me as your enemy. Think about that before you pull a stunt like this again," Oliver warned before he released Blood.

Oliver walked out as the lights came back on, leaving Blood staring after him, Oliver's words ringing in his ear.

Starling City

Same time

At St. Walker's, Laurel was let into the room of Maya Resik. Maya was in a corner of the room, singing softly to herself. Laurel felt a brief hesitance before walking further into the room.

"Maya? I'm here to talk about your nephew," Laurel tried.

Maya gave no indication that she had heard her, but Laurel tried anyway.

"Maya, my name's Laurel Lance. Maya?" Laurel tried again as she walked further into the room. "I'm here to talk about your nephew. Maya?"

Maya still didn't respond. Laurel listened to the song and got an idea as she knelt down in front of Maya.

"Maya, que Chico? Que Chico? Sebastian?"

This finally triggered a response, as Maya looked up.

"Sebastian?" she repeated.

"Yes, Sebastian Blood," Laurel said.

"Sebastian is the devil!" Maya suddenly shouted, taking Laurel back. "He's the one who put me here. He made everybody think I'm insane."

"Why would he do that?" Laurel asked cautiously, not sure how much stock to put into what Maya was saying.

"He killed his father," Maya said to Laurel's shock. "And I was there. I saw it."

It took a moment for Laurel to digest what this meant. Maya wasn't Sebastian Blood's aunt…she was his mother. Who had witnessed him murdering his father, if this wasn't just a delusion. If that was the case, then Blood had covered up the only witness to his crime. And a man with that capacity for ruthless and manipulation was on his way to being mayor of Starling City.

"Don't trust a word he says. You can't trust Sebastian Blood," Maya said ominously.

Anyone else find it weird that, despite earlier in the episode having the same feelings about the rally as Oliver, Moira then allows Thea to drag her there instead of making Thea stop home? It feels an awful lot like making Moira change her mind for the sake of the plot.

There wasn't much of a chase with Shrapnel because, even with Diggle taken out, between Roy, Sara and Oliver, he would not get far.

I went back and forth on what to do with Shrapnel, but I think the season one version of Oliver would likely kill him. Once you stop to think about it, it's hard not to draw parallels between Shrapnel and Shrieve, and the bad memories would make Oliver not allow the chance for history to repeat itself.