Ellie Bishop: No kidding, it just makes too much sense. Yep, Lyla as director is one bright side. Yep, had to come from somewhere else.

Guest: Glad you enjoyed it. Agreed, Diggle was one of my favorite characters up until the end of season three, then he gets progressively worse until there really isn't any difference between him and the recruits in season six.

Starling City

Night

As Quentin led a SWAT team into a Taxi depot in search of Hugo Mannheim, Oliver and Sara watched from a nearby rooftop.

"Thanks for helping me keep watch over my dad tonight," Sara said gratefully.

"As long as Slade's out there, neither of our families are safe," Oliver reminded her.

He was going to say more, but at that moment, shots rang out. Without exchanging a word, the two raced to intervene.

Quentin and the SWAT team were in a shootout with the mobsters. Oliver fired an arrow, disarming one as Sara jumped down, whirling her baton. Oliver fired another arrow, pinning a man's arm to a nearby shelf as Sara disarmed two men and sent them down to the ground, out cold.

As the mobsters began retreating, Oliver spotted a familiar face roll out of the depot under the half closed garage door. Making a decision, Oliver raced after him.

"Move, move, move!" Quentin shouted as the SWAT team ran after the mobsters.

He then turned around, coming race to face with a man with a gun. Before Quentin could react, the man fired and he was hit in the chest. He grunted in pain as he went down, the man racing off. Sara raced over to Quentin's side, pulling his shirt open, nearly sagging in relief at the sight of the bullet lodged in a Kevlar vest.

"I'm fine, go. Sara, go," Quentin told her.

Swallowing her surprise at him knowing who she was, she stood up and raced after the mobster. One thing was for certain, she and her father would be having words late.

Oliver was racing after his target, who was fleeing. Notching an arrow, he fired at the man's legs. The arrow exploded into iron cables, which wrapped around the man's legs, binding them together. As he fell, rolling over on his back, Oliver approached, staring down at his target.

"Frank Bertinelli."

"My daughter send you here to kill me?" Bertinelli asked.

On the second floor of the building, Sara had caught up with the man who shot Quentin. Throwing a knife, she disarmed him as it hit his hand. He turned around as Sara rushed him, sending a powerful kick to his chest before striking him with her baton. He hit the wall face first, out cold before he slumped to the floor.

Hearing police sirens, Sara decided it was time to leave and exited the depot.

Later, after all the mobsters were loaded into the back of a police car, Quentin met Oliver and Sara in the back alley of the depot.

"Dad, are you alright?" Sara asked in concern and he nodded.

"Yeah, I'm fine. And to answer your question, no, Laurel didn't tell me," Quentin assured her. "When I found out you back and I saw the footage of you, I put two and two together. You're my daughter, you could be wearing a paper bag over your head and I'd still know it's you."

"Detective," Oliver called out and the pair looked over at him. "We have another problem."

"Yeah, I know. With Frank Bertinelli in custody, it's just a matter of time before she rolls back into town," Quentin said with a sigh.

"Who's 'she'?" Sara asked in confusion.

Arrow lair

Later

"Helena Bertinelli," Oliver said as he, Sara, Felicity and Roy stood in the lair, Felicity pulling up the file on Helena. "Daughter of mafia boss Frank Bertinelli."

"Or as I like to call her, 'Oliver's psycho ex-girlfriend hell-bent on revenge against her father'," Felicity quipped.

"Ex-girlfriend?" Sara asked cheekily and Oliver shot her a look that was part annoyance and part amusement.

"Why does she want to kill her father so badly?" Roy asked in confusion.

"He had her fiancé murdered, she wants payback," Oliver explained.

"Puts the many fights I've had with my father in perspective," Sara noted.

"We've been keeping tabs on Helena since she left Starling City last year," Oliver said as Felicity pulled up multiple pictures, taken from crime scenes of murder victims.

"She has been busy, torturing and killing Mafioso's that might know where her father is," Felicity said. "Last known sighting was a month ago, Palermo."

"Once her father's arrest hits the wire, Helena will come back here first thing," Oliver said grimly.

"Not to sound callous, but why do we care if she kills her father?" Roy inquired.

"Because Helena will stop at nothing to do it, and she doesn't exactly care about any collateral damage she may cause. When I first met her, she nearly killed my mother trying to kill a member of her father's organization," Oliver said grimly.

"Well, Dig certainly picked a Hell of a time to head off with Amanda Waller," Sara noted dryly.

Washington DC, next day

Afternoon

Diggle was cleaning his gun when his phone rang. Putting it down, Diggle answered as he saw it was Felicity.

"Hey," Diggle said in greeting.

"Please tell me you're on your way back," Felicity almost pleaded.

"Sorry. This whole business with the Ninth Circle has Waller extra paranoid, we've changed planes a few times and should finally reach this black site she has in mind today. Why, what's up?" Diggle asked.

"Last night, Frank Bertinelli was arrested," Felicity said and Diggle closed his eyes as he understood.

"And it won't be long until his daughter comes looking for him," Diggle noted. "Oliver knows how to handle her, it's gonna be fine Felicity."

"I hope you're right," Felicity muttered. "Just get the Intel out of Dante and hurry back."

"With Waller, I don't think that's gonna be a problem. I'll see you soon," Diggle promised before hanging up.

As he pocked his phone, Diggle felt someone behind him. Turning around, he saw Isabel Rochev standing a few feet from him.

"Can I help you Isabel?" Diggle asked.

"It's almost time to get moving. The Ninth Circle agents you have in Argus got me clearance for the mission," she said and Diggle nodded.

"You'd be surprised at how good we are at infiltrating an organization, especially ones that pride themselves on seeing threats everything," Diggle aid smugly.

"You know, when I found out you were a member of the Ninth Circle, I was surprised," Isabel noted and Diggle smirked.

"My job was to fool a man who didn't trust anyone. Fooling you was no difficult task," Diggle said and she smirked.

"Out of curiosity, how long have you-"

"Been part of the Ninth Circle?" Diggle asked and she nodded. "About four years now. I was recruited not long after my brother's death."

"I see. So how did you end up working with Oliver?" Isabel asked.

"After Oliver came back from that island, Emiko wanted to know if their father had told him anything about her, if he was a threat. Being his bodyguard put me in the perfect position to get close to him, figure out what he was thinking. After he told me his secret, my orders were to distract him, get him off the list to avoid interfering in Ninth Circle operations," Diggle explained.

"And he never suspected anything?" Isabel asked surprised. "You said it yourself, Oliver didn't trust anyone."

"And so I gave him someone he wanted to trust. Oliver didn't recruit me because of my military background; he recruited me to be his moral compass. He wanted someone to help him open up again," Diggle pointed out.

"And it was that easy for you? All this time working with him, standing by his side and you felt nothing for him?" Isabel asked, impressed despite herself.

"I respect what he's trying to do, but Oliver is under the delusion that once he crosses all those names off his father's list, magically Starling City will be saved. Malcolm Merlyn was right about one thing: the city can't be saved because the people there don't want it to be saved. The only way to save it is to start over," Diggle explained as he grabbed his gun. "Any more questions or can we get on with this?"

"No, I know all I need to," Isabel said with a smirk.

"Good. Then let's get this show on the road. It won't be long until ARGUS realizes something is wrong. Even Amanda Waller would check in once in a while. They'll know something's up when she doesn't call in after a few days," Diggle said grimly.

ARGUS base, Starling City

Same time

Lyla Michaels, acting director of ARGUS while Waller was off dealing with Dante, was looking over a report when the door to Waller's office opened. She looked up, unsurprised to see it was Oliver.

"Sorry to barge in like this," Oliver apologized.

"It's fine, I've been expecting you," Lyla said as she put the report down on her desk. "I haven't heard anything from Johnny or Waller Oliver."

"I know; I didn't expect you to, knowing Waller. That's not why I'm here," Oliver said and Lyla raised an eyebrow. "Helena Bertinelli."

"Right, her father was arrested last night," Lyla noted and Oliver nodded.

"I know Helena Lyla. The moment she hears he's been caught, she will head back here to kill him and she doesn't exactly care about collateral damage," Oliver pointed out.

"What do you want me to do about it?" Lyla asked curiously.

"You're acting director, you can have him put into Argus custody so we can lure Helena into a trap," Oliver said. "I know I'm asking a lot, but I don't think you want Helena roaming the streets any more than I do."

"You're right, I don't," Lyla acknowledged. "I'll see what I can do. But I won't make any promises."

Roy's house

Same time

Roy stared down at the file about his father's death, deep in thought as he sat at the kitchen table. Hearing someone approaching, Roy closed the file and hid it under some paper bags just before Jade walked in.

"Hey, I'm gonna head to work, I have an early shift this morning," Jade said and Roy nodded.

"Okay, I'll see you tonight. We can have dinner if you want," Roy offered.

"You don't have to do that," Jade said immediately.

"I want to. I know I've been…distant lately. I want to make it up to you," Roy promised.

"Okay…I'll see you tonight then," Jade said, giving him a kiss before walking off.

ARGUS base, Washington DC

Later in the afternoon

A plane landed in the hanger by, multiple guards standing by. The ramp deployed and Diggle and Isabel, now dressed in an ARGUS uniform, 'forcibly' led Dante down the ramp.

"You must be John Diggle. Lyla Michaels speaks highly of you," one of the operatives said as the trio reached them.

"I think highly of her to. This is Agent Cameron," Diggle said, gesturing to Isabel before shoving Dante forward. "And this is Dante; you might know him better as the leader of the Ninth Circle.

"Where's Waller? We heard she was planning on being here to," an Operative said suspicious.

"That was the plan, but she's been spooked by the idea ARGUS has been compromised. She changed planes and said something about going off the grid," Isabel lied.

"You know how Waller, this thing has only made her more paranoid," Diggle said and the operatives chuckles.

"Yeah, we know," one of them said in amusement.

They began leading Dante away towards his cell and that's when they struck. Dante broke out of his cuffs, pulled two flechettes out from under his sleeves, and stabbed two of the ARGUS operative in the chest, killing them instantly. Isabel grabbed a knife and threw it, striking an operative in the head as Diggle, taking advantage of their surprise, pulled out his pistol and fired multiple times. Within seconds, all the operatives were dead.

"You'd think Waller would have more operatives here," Isabel muttered as they lowered their weapons.

"It's supposed to be a covert base, off the grid. Waller only placed agents she knew she could trust," Diggle said as he pocketed his pistol.

"Which is good for us," Dante said, searching the bodies until he found what he was looking for. "It means there is no one else here to stop us."

Making their way through the hanger, the trio stopped once they reached a wall with a card panel next to it. Dante swiped the access card he had taken off the body through the panel and the wall lifted open, a medal door retreating into the floor. On the other side were five jets.

"All this trouble for some drones," Isabel said in disbelief.

"Not just drones. They are more advanced than any fighter jets will be for the next few decades. Stealth technology, more fire power than a navy shipyard, and they can all be remote controlled," Diggle explained. "It's the final key to Slade and Emiko's plans."

"Not quite Mr. Diggle. But they will have their roles to play when the time comes. And they will sink Oliver Queen and Starling City until there is nothing left but ash," Dante said with a twisted smirk.

Isabel's alias being Agent Cameron is a nod to Summer Glau's role as Cameron on Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles.

And Slade and Emiko's plans continue to develop, which means nothing good for Oliver.

2x20 is usually seen as the moment when Sara's character started going downhill, but that is actually not true. The moment it started was actually in 2x17. Sara, who previously expressed a weariness with all the killing she'd done over the years, suddenly has trouble showing restraint and going for the kill becomes her first option. And when Oliver tries to talk some sense into her, she is aggressive the point it doesn't even feel like a disagreement between a couple or even friends, it feels like an argument between two people who don't get along. Suddenly, we no longer had Sara, we had Helena in Sara's body. It was a pretty obvious attempt by Guggie to break up Oliver and Sara to make room for Olicity, made very clear by Felicity not so subtly being there to comfort Oliver whenever Sara storms out of the room.