If, like me, you were ready to steamroll people to get into San Diego Comic-Con’s Hall H to find out details on Marvel Phase 4 it may be time to find something else to do. This past weekend was the big press junket for Avengers: Infinity War, so there are tons of little news bits coming out, some important most not so important. Kevin Feige dropped a minor bombshell by revealing that Marvel will not be at Hall H this year, which is kind of a shock. Here’s what he actually said…
“We’re going to do um, of course, Marvel will have a presence there.Marvel Studios will have a presence there only in that there will be 10th-anniversary materials and a 10th-anniversary panel. Not doing Hall H this year”
I wouldn’t be surprised if there was something new during the 10th anniversary panel, but one never knows. The timing just doesn’t make sense. Marvel has a lot they could be showing this summer, like revealing the Avengers 4 title (They can’t keep it secret forever!!), maybe some footage from Captain Marvel, perhaps set dates for the other Phase 4 movies. And there’s no Disney D23 convention going on so there isn’t even that excuse to fall back on. Maybe those rumors of Marvel starting their own convention are actually true?
Perhaps with Ant-Man and the Wasp opening two weeks before SDCC they just feel it’s a good time to kick back and relax for once.
Nah, that doesn’t sound like Feige at all. I expect there will be plenty of Marvel to be found, though. We may just have to walk around the show floor to find it, or maybe corner Robert Downey Jr. at the Starbucks and press him for information.
This assumes Feige is telling the truth. It could be a ruse on his part but I don’t really see the point. And in 2015 Marvel said they were skipping it and that’s precisely what they did, leaving the door open for Warner Bros. to have one of their biggest presentations. I expect that’s what will happen again if Marvel opts out.
On the plus side it’s one less Chris Hardwicke appearance to sit through. Hooray.
Even before the Nova Corps was introduced in Guardians of the Galaxy there have been rumors of Nova joining the MCU. Those have died down somewhat lately since the character wasn’t featured in Vol. 2, either, and wasn’t remotely rumored for Infinity War. But it sounds like Kevin Feige does have a plan for Nova aka the Human Rocket, teasing to Comicbook.com that it could be fairly soon…
“Nova is… if we have a big board with a bunch of characters that have more immediate potential, Nova is on that board. Because of the connection to the Guardians universe, because there are more than one examples to pull from in the comics that are interesting. And you’re absolutely right, he was in the earliest drafts of the [Guardians of the Galaxy].”
That begs the question which version of Nova would we get? The original Nova, Rich Ryder, is a former member of the New Warriors and held the mantle for a long time. He’s probably the most well-known version of the character. He died in a battle against Thanos, interestingly enough. His successor Sam Alexander is a teenager and would be close in age to Peter Parker. He’s currently a member of the Champions along with other young Marvel heroes.
Both versions could easily find a niche within the MCU, and we shouldn’t leave out the possibility Marvel goes with a Nova Corps movie rather than a solo film. Whatever way they decide to go it looks like Nova will be hurtling to a big screen near you, probably when you least expect it.
I’m guessing the timing on this is no coincidence. James Cameron is making the rounds for his new docuseries AMC Visionaries: James Cameron’s Story of Science Fiction, and just in time for Avengers: Infinity War to drop he’s out there hoping audiences start suffering from “Avenger fatigue here pretty soon.”
Yeah, you keep hoping. People have been predicting superhero fatigue for years and so far it hasn’t happened. The funny thing, even if audiences did get tired of Marvel movies it wouldn’t have anything to do with Cameron, and wouldn’t necessarily mean they’d start flocking to his movies. He adds…
“Not that I don’t love the movies. It’s just, come on guys; there are other stories to tell besides hyper-gonadal males without families doing death-defying things for two hours and wrecking cities in the process. It’s like, oy!”
The irony is that Cameron has spent the last decade working on exactly one story, his four Avatar sequels, and if there’s any audience fatigue it’s waiting for them to be completed. The original opened in 2009 and made the most of the 3D boom, becoming the highest-grossing movie ever with $3B worldwide. Cameron has directed some documentaries and produced a number of films in the time since, from the cave-diving thriller Sanctum (aka Stanktum), Robert Rodriguez’s upcoming Alita Battle Angel, and a reboot of his Terminator franchise directed by Tim Miller.
What those Avatar sequels will entail still remains a mystery, but Cameron opened up a little bit about them, name-checking a crime classic in the process…
“I’ve found myself as a father of five starting to think about what would an ‘Avatar’ story be like if it was a family drama. What if it was “The Godfather?” It’s a generational family saga.”
Oh, so it’s like Star Wars? That’s novel.
Meanwhile, Vulture caught up with Marvel prez Kevin Feige at a presser for Infinity War and told him of Cameron’s comments. Feige, as per usual, was able to find the bright side…
“Uh, he loves the movies!” Feige said, a knowing grin spreading on his face. He stood up, pumping his arm. “That’s awesome! Wow, James Cameron loves our movies! That’s exciting!”
Well played.
If you want to check out the AMC Visionaries series it debuts on April 30th and includes interviews with Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Christopher Nolan, and more.
Last week Fear The Walking Dead returned with a (semi)crossover connecting the spin-off show to its predecessor The Walking Dead with fan favorite Morgan leaving Alexandria and heading west. In the aftermath of the war against The Saviors, Morgan was fed up with people and felt that he was better off alone. The inaugural episode followed him as he walked, ran, drove, and walked some more until he came across some new faces. His newfound Texas friends include John, a cowboy searching for his long-lost love, and also Al, probably the last journalist in the apocalypse who wants to understand people via interviews with her video camera (which still has power somehow). Just like on the East and West Coasts, Texas is a part of the zombie apocalypse, so the three have to deal with zombies, as well as people. While Morgan doesn’t want to be with them, he goes with them, until they get caught slipping by some people: Alicia, Nick, Luciana, and Strand.
While we thought the latest episode of Fear The Walking Dead would show us the aftermath of the dam blowing up with their confrontation with the Proctors, we did go back in time. We get a bold “Before” on the screen as we see that the Clarks have survived the dam and were now holed up in an abandoned baseball stadium. Their new home is aptly named “The Diamond,” where they have been living there for a year. Everything seems nice and comfortable. They have cows, crops, coffee, even maple syrup, and life doesn’t seem too difficult for the group.
Their community has more than 40 people and they have just taken in a new stray. A young girl named Charlie has just joined them. Charlie seems to have some shell shock as she’s been separated from her family. Madison, being the leader as well as maternal, tries to get Charlie to open up about her missing family. While Charlie doesn’t say too much as to what happened to her family, she points them in the right direction. Madison wants to launch a rescue operation for Charlie’s family. Luciana, Madison, Alicia, and Madison go into a nearby town, even though there’s a danger as it’s out of radio range. Nick isn’t ready to leave the safe refuse of The Diamond as he’s still dealing with the trauma of the dam exploding. As they head into the town, it’s completely abandoned. All supplies have been picked clean. Even the dead aren’t around. The spray-painted flag mystery continues as there’s one with “457” there. Madison finds one survivor named Naomi, who hold her at gunpoint. Naomi has been through hell and is untrusting. Even though everyone gives her breathing space and tells her that they are good people, she’s hesitant and ends up falling through an oil silo filled with zombies. Madison decides to jump in to save Naomi, which convinces her to join them.
Naomi’s happiness is short-lived as the next night the stadium has a confrontation with a new group of bad guys. Surrounding the stadium, these bad guys already know the fact that weevils have destroyed most of their crops, they even know Nick by name. Turns out, they have a spy. Little sweet Charlie was really not separated from her family, but she’s been with this group. Their leader Mel simply waits in front of the stadium in a lawn chair and cracks open a beer. Madison confronts the new enemy who tells her about Charlie’s betrayal, and reveals that their crops would die and they will need to leave as that’s the “natural cycle.” He doesn’t threaten Madison, just tells her that’s the way it is.
Flash forward to the present with them taking Morgan and his new friends hostage. They think that Morgan and his group are with “The Vultures.” They did have one of the flags which they capture on their trip, but they assure them that they are not. They order their new captives to prove it.
The Good:
After not having them in the first episode, it’s good to have the Clarks back on the show. When we last left them, the dam exploded and it wasn’t clear who would survive. All we saw was Madison survive. It’s clear that she got her bearings and saved her family. Towards the ends of last season, Alicia made the decision to go out on her own away from her family, but it’s clear that once they were reunited, their once again back to the tight-knit family they need to be in order to survive the apocalypse. While it looks like their community is no longer together at the current time, it looks like Strand was getting ready to have a boyfriend, which is good for LGBTQ representation. Although Strand previously betrayed the group, Madison took him back in and even he doesn’t understand why she did. Madison sees the good in people, no matter what they have done. To remind himself not to stray off again, Strand holds a piece of the concrete of the dam as a reminder to be good.
This episode seems to introduce the new bad guys. While we are used to The Saviors from The Walking Dead, who rule through terror and violence, The Vultures seem to be the exact opposite. They are trying to survive, but they aren’t threatening their enemies. They don’t seem to have a lot of weapons, but have found a way to use music to control the zombies as evidenced by them corralling zombies, which could then be used for future purposes, almost weaponizing them. This is similar to how The Whisperers did in the comics. They don’t seem to have an endgame at this point, but they are just moving from community to community to starve people out. They do let people they conquer to join them, so they might not be 100% evil, just incredibly desperate.
The Bad:
We didn’t get to see the aftermath of the dam explosion. While we got a flashback, it would have been a little better if we got to see Madison have to find her family, confront Strad, and find the new community. Instead, we just find them, after all, is well. Well, all isn’t well for one person. Nick, who is the most fearless of the group has become a shell of himself. He doesn’t even want to leave The Diamond as he’s afraid to go outside. It just seems so unlike Nick.
The Dead:
The zombie well was good! We got to see Naomi and Madison fight off some zombies as they were stuck in the oil well surrounded by a bunch of the undead. There was even a fakeout where Alicia thought her mother turned into a zombie as you really couldn’t tell with her being covered in oil, only for it to be Madison. Despite humans being a big problem, zombies are still a big deal.
Next week, the gang takes Morgan and the newbies hostage to unravel the mystery of the Vultures and their flags.
1. A Quiet Place– $22M/$132.3M
John Krasinski’s A Quiet Place continues to make a lot of noise. The original horror dropped a scant 33% in its third week, which is just remarkable, and now has $132M domestic and $207M worldwide. We’re looking at one of the most successful movies of the year and when 2018 wraps up I think we’ll still be saying that.
2. Rampage– $21M/$66.6M
Dwayne Johnson’s box office muscle was enough to power Rampage to a strong $21M in its second weekend and a 41% drop, suggesting audiences are rushing to see this one based on good word of mouth. To be honest, they also probably want to see it now because next week is Avengers: Infinity War and that’s all that really matters. Rampage sits at $283M worldwide with $66M of that stateside.
3. I Feel Pretty (review)- $16.2M
Amy Schumer and STX should be pretty happy with the $16M debut of I Feel Pretty, her comedy that has been getting hammered from all sides. Actually, it’s been the target of criticism based on trailers more than anything else, which could have had a negative impact on its opening weekend. So it’s a credit to Schumer as a leading lady to get such a strong start, and I suspect it may do well next week as counter-programming to Infinity War. I had my problems with the film overall but feel its heart is in the right place and Schumer is great as always.
4. Super Troopers 2 (review)- $14.7M
Whoa! I had no idea so many people were this pumped for Super Troopers 2! The Broken Lizard sequel to 2002’s dumb cop comedy earned a huge $14.7M at just over 2000 theaters. That’s a massive $7K per site average, the best of any film in the top 10. I’ve never been a big fan of the Broken Lizard comedy troupe (Club Dread was it for me, and I kinda like that one) but I know they have a loyal fanbase who have been hoping for this one. They turned out in droves and apparently trekked out of the way to see it, as well they should. It was largely due to the support of fans that this movie became a reality, and it has paid off.
5. Truth Or Dare– $7.9M/$30.3M
Blumhouse won’t shed a tear over the $38M worldwide haul for Truth Or Dare. The film only cost $3M and it’s lucky to be doing so darn well with rival A Quiet Place tearing up the box office.
6. Ready Player One– $7.5M/$126.1M
7. Blockers– $6.9M/$48.2M
8. Black Panther– $4.6M/$681M
9. Traffik– $3.8M
Lionsgate’s “black” division released Traffik into theaters. The small-budgeted thriller stars Paula Patton and Omar Epps as a vacationing couple terrorized by a gang of bikers who are part of a sex trafficking ring. They didn’t screen it for us so I assume it’s terrible, but can’t say definitively.
10. Isle Of Dogs– $3.4M/$24.3M
On this week’s Cinema Royale, I’m joined by Hannah Buchdahl, one half of the Cinema Clash podcast on Critical: The Movie Critics Network. We’ll take a look at Amy Schumer’s new comedy I FEEL PRETTY and if it’s deserving of all the backlash it’s been getting. Plus, Hannah will talk about the acclaimed drama THE RIDER because I still haven’t seen it for reasons I’ll talk about later.
Plus, news on Vin Diesel developing XXX 4, a new BIRDS OF PREY movie starring Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, Spielberg on another DCEU film with BLACKHAWKS, and Paramount’s M.A.S.K. film! All this and so much more the show was over before I knew it!
This week’s Gotham
seemed like a bridge episode between the craziness of the recent Valeska family drama and the destruction that Joker will bring to Gotham in the
coming weeks. We all needed to catch our collective breathes after what
happened last week so it’s okay that this episode wasn’t as crazy as the last
few (although there was essentially a zombie sighting!). Let’s get to it.
Ra’s had a change of
heart story arc: “…molding you into a Dark Knight of Gotham” –
This week’s episode starts with Barbara staring at the
portrait of herself and Ra’s. A group of inconsiderate ninjas ambush her and
she does manage to hold her own for a bit before they end up being too much for
her to handle. The ninjas were actually members of the league of shadows trying
to see if Barbara has fully accessed the powers of the Demon’s Head. Apparently
the Demon’s Head can see the future and intense emotions are the catalyst to
trigger this power. Barbara buys into this theory and tells them to step up the
intensity next time. Tabitha has asked Selina to bring Bruce and meet her to
discuss the situation with Barbara. Tabitha walks the two of them into a church
where they get ambushed by the members of the league who have remained loyal to
Ra’s. In the middle of the room is Ra’s decomposing body and the men force
Bruce to go to it. They cut Bruce’s hand and pour his blood onto Ra’s body
which reciting an incantation – bringing him back from the dead, in peak
physical zombie form. Needless to say, Ra’s is not pleased about being woken from
his planned slumber. The men beg him to reconsider his appointment of Barbara
as his heir, claiming she will bring an end to the league. It turns out that
Barbara must give the Demon’s Head back to Ra’s, he doesn’t
automatically get it – however Ra’s isn’t too worried about that…he’ll just
kill her and take it back if she refuses.
Ra’s goes to visit Barbara and asks her what she has done in
his absence. Barbara is focused on using the power of the Demon’s Head to rule
Gotham like a queen. Ra’s does not take too kindly to this plan and demands
that Barbara gives the power back, which she refuses. This leads to a fight,
but the members of the league who are loyal to Barbara attack Ra’s as Barbara
escapes the room. Outside Bruce, Tabitha, and Selina pull up in Bruce’s car and
drive Barbara to Wayne Manor. They realize that Ra’s must be killed again,
which will require the dagger. Unfortunately, after killing Ra’s the first
time, Bruce and Alfred had donated the dagger back to the Nanda Parbat embassy.
Alfred and Tabitha go to the embassy to try and get the dagger back. Alfred simply
tries to ask for it back, but his request is promptly denied. That is all part
of the plan and Alfred turns on the theatrics, pretending to have a
heart attack to distract the embassy security and employees. During this diversion
Selina repels down from the ceiling and steals the dagger. Selina, Tabitha,
and Alfred meet up with Bruce and Barbara who both demand that Selina give them
the dagger. It seems like both of them really want to kill Ra’s. Selina is
clearly torn between her mancrush and her loyalty to her crime trio. Barbara
decides to make the decision easier for Selina and points a gun at Alfred.
Selina gives the knife to Barbara and the crime trio drive back to Club Siren.
The female members of the league who are still loyal to Barbara meet them
there. Barbara lays out her plan: use her glowing hand to summon Ra’s and then
stab him. Selina has major doubts about this clearly super sophisticated
approach and refuses to sign up for a suicide mission.
Selina goes back to Wayne Manor and tells Bruce that she
only gave Barbara the knife to try and spare Bruce from having to kill Ra’s
again. While Selina is trying to get back in Bruce’s good graces, Ra’s and his
men go to Club Siren. Barbara agrees to give Ra’s what he wants if he admits that they had a connection. She uses this moment to get close to Ra’s and stab him with the dagger, which does not kill him. Ra’s and Barbara get into a brawl
and Ra’s ends up knocking Barbara down. He grabs her hand and begins stealing
the Demon’s Head power back. At this very opportune moment Bruce runs out of
nowhere and punches Ra’s, which stops him from continuing to recoup the power
from Barbara. Ra’s picks up the dagger and stabs Barbara…or so we think.
Barbara’s hand begins glowing and we see that the stabbing is actually a vision
of the future that Barbara has seen. Barbara now knows Ra’s every move before
he makes it and manages to counter all of his blows, getting the upper hand in
the fight. Ra’s realizes this and in desperation grabs Tabitha and puts a
knife to her throat. Ra’s demands that Barbara gives him the Demon’s Head or he
will kill Tabitha. Barbara can’t bring herself to give up the power and Ra’s
kills Tabitha in front of her. Once again we see that this is a vision of the
future and instead, Barbara allows Ra’s to take the Demon’s Head from her.
Absorbing this power causes Ra’s to become dezombified. Bruce demands the knife
from Ra’s so he can kill him again, but Ra’s refuses and breaks the knife in
half before disappearing.
Later that night the women from the league go to Barbara and
tell her that she is worthy to lead them and they reaffirm their allegiance to her.
Back at Wayne Manor, Bruce is with Selina trying to plan how he can kill Ra’s.
Selina tells him he needs to take a night off and they lean in to kiss. Ra’s
appears and rudely interrupts the moment. He tells Bruce that he respects who he will become. Ra’s came to give Bruce an
explanation as to why he chose to live. Ra’s tells Bruce that he saw a vision
of a cataclysmic event that will plague Gotham. It will be a cleansing fire
that will be used by Ra’s to forge Bruce into the Dark Knight of Gotham. We see
Ra’s turn away from Bruce with visions of Gotham in flames in his eyes.
My thoughts:
Well…Ra’s is back. I knew that Barbara being the head of the
League of Shadows wasn’t sustainable. The power to see the future is a neat
little trick and it was pretty cool to see the power of the Demon’s Head in
action. Ra’s vision of Gotham’s future was interesting and matches up with
Jerome’s words to Jeremiah – to make them all burn. Anything to speed up the
process of Bruce becoming the Dark Knight is good for me, so if this storyline
will help move that along – all the power to it!
The narrows story arc:
“Ed Nygma, you are a riddle” –
While all of the craziness is going on with Ra’s and the
league, Lee and Riddler are moving their plan along. When we last saw Lee and Riddler,
she challenged him to break his record of robbing 3 banks in one evening. At
the GCPD, Jim and Harvey are discussing robbers who robbed 5 banks in one night
– turns out Riddler and Lee crushed that record. Jim and Harvey feel like the
person who robbed all of the banks did it to prove how smart they were – which leads Riddler
to becoming their primary suspect.
In the narrows everyone is buzzing about all of the money
that Lee and Riddler have brought in. Lee distributes the money to the people of
the narrows – sort of like a dark and twisted Robin Hood. Riddler questions
what their relationship is, but Lee manages to avoid answering the question.
Riddler and Lee are planning to continue the bank robbing fun the next night.
Penguin and Butch happen to have chosen this moment to visit the two of them
and overhear the plans. Lee is not jumping for joy at the idea of splitting the
money with Penguin and Butch. Penguin can see that Lee is using Riddler’s
feelings for her to her advantage and warns Riddler to be careful.
Jim goes to visit Lee and asks about Riddler. He tries to
convince Lee to give him up, but as the conversation progresses he begins to
suspect that Lee may have had a larger role in the robberies than he initially
thought. We see Riddler in the back room being tormented by visions of Ed
mocking him, just like he did to Ed. Riddler goes to visit Penguin and tell him
that he knows that Lee is using him. He wants Penguin to help him get rid of
Ed’s personality. In exchange, he will split the score from that night’s
robberies with Penguin – which should be about 100 million each.
Jim and Harvey are desperately trying to find out where Lee
and Riddler’s next robbery will take place. They question an executive from the
Gotham bank branch that has been targeted by the robbers. She lets them know
that the money from all the branches has been transported to one secure
location. Riddler and Lee are already at this location and quickly take care of
the guards. Riddler however has ulterior plans with Penguin and Grundy and he
betrays Lee. In the vault, the Riddler accuses Lee of taking advantage of him
which she denies. Riddler tells Penguin to take the money but leave the
property deeds to the narrows because they are worthless. Butch and Penguin go
into the vault to take care of his request. While the two of them are
preoccupied, Riddler makes a Molotov cocktail and throws it in the vault with them
– causing them to be trapped in the vault. Riddler warns Penguin to not come
after Lee again and the two of them head upstairs. Lee asks Riddler why he did
what he did and Riddler lets Lee know that the virus she had has awoken
something within her that he loves. He forecasts that one day she will love him
back the way he loves her. Jim arrives and Lee tells Ed to take the money to
the narrows while she takes care of Jim. Lee walks outside and Jim immediately
arrests her.
My thoughts:
It is still unclear about the relationship that Lee and
Riddler have. I believe Lee is internally conflicted which is not helping
provide any clarity for her in her other relationships. Jim is clearly going
through a hard time dealing with the criminal version of Lee. He’ll have to get
used to it sooner rather than later, because it doesn’t look like she is going
to become a law abiding citizen any time soon.
In two weeks on Gotham:
There are only 3 episodes left of
this crazy season of Gotham. I know
these next few episodes are going to be crazy, but I am sure as hell sad to
know that the season is winding down. Next episode it is looking like Bruce and
Jeremiah will have a reunion, of course Jeremiah is now a victim of Jerome’s
special batch of laughing gas. At the very end of the preview for next week it
looks like Jim is being held at gunpoint by…Harley Quinn!!! This is getting
real folks!
Hey, you want to watch a movie about putting jigsaw puzzles together? Nah, not like a life-or-death jigsaw puzzle like in some adventure movie or something, just a typical puzzle you might piece together on a lazy night in. Well, you might want to after watching the trailer for Puzzle, a film which earned top marks at Sundance earlier this year for the lead performance by Kelly Macdonald, who is pretty much good in everything.
Directed by Marc Turtletaub and co-starring the great Irrfan Khan, Puzzle finds Macdonald as a sheltered suburban housewife who finds a new passion when she receiveds a 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle as a gift. Turns out she’s REALLY good at puzzles, and it helps her piece together the fragments of her life. Khan plays a puzzle champion in need of a partner for an upcoming competition.
Turtletaub is a longtime producer (Jack Goes Boating, Safety Not Guaranteed) directing only his second feature. His first, an adaptation of the satirical novel Gods Behaving Badly, was never released despite a star-studded cast. Not the kind of background that inspires at ton of confidence but the reviews for this have been through the roof. And this looks like such a perfect role for the understated Macdonald, who has been a gift in everything from Trainspotting to Intermission to No Country for Old Men and many more.
While we’ve heard rumblings about it, the first Avengers to have a run-in with Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War are likely to be Thor and Hulk, following from the events of Thor: Ragnarok. In the aftermath we’ve seen images of Loki, still in possession of the Tesseract, in the grip of the Black Order. We’ve also seen Thor knocked comatose until he encounters the Guardians of the Galaxy. Bruce Banner somehow makes his way to Earth, though, where he connects with Doctor Strange, Wong, and Tony Stark.
In this extended version of the clip we recently posted, Banner issues a dire warning about Thanos’ arrival and how important it is that he not get his hands on the final Infinity Stone.
I’ll continue to note that we haven’t seen Banner as Hulk in any of the footage, which makes me think he somehow gets depowered by Thanos or his Black Order.
Watch the clip below, followed by an extended version of the fight scene between Cap, Black Widow, Falcon, Corvus Glaive, and Proxima Midnight. Avengers: Infinity War opens April 27th.
Last week on Arrow, Oliver got hopped up on Vertigo and went through an extreme hallucination where he came to the realization that he needed to “get back to basics,” meaning that he has to continue his mission of “saving the city” by himself, without the help of Team Arrow. He also got impeached because of his recent political activities. So now Oliver has a lot of free time to take his fight against Diaz on and save the city. He no longer has Team Arrow to work with, and Oliver also made the decision that he would do things going forward without Felicity operating as “Overwatch” either, disappointing his wife.
This week on Arrow, however, we take a detour from Oliver and his new solo mission to “save the city” and instead focus totally on bad guy Ricardo Diaz, AKA “The Dragon”, hence the title of the episode and even the into logo being different. This episode is so villain-centric, that there’s only one scene with Oliver as we spend a lot of time with Diaz as he tries to negotiate yet another way to the top of the food chain in the criminal world.
The flashbacks are back this week as well (something we haven’t seen in a while) as we go back more than 30 years to when Diaz was a young boy at an orphanage, showing that the man running a city-wide criminal empire had humble beginnings. He also wasn’t the big shot either, being bullied by another kid at the orphanage, who even burns up a photo of Diaz’s father, which serves to be the motivating factor of his life as shown later on in the episode. Fast forward to today, Diaz (with Laurel from Earth-2 as his muscle) takes a trip out of Star City to Blüdhaven (another city in the DC universe) to make a sales pitch to the criminal organization called “The Quadrant” as he wants a “seat at the table.” The Quadrant seems to be at the top of the food chain as they run thing across the country. Having taken over all aspects of Star City, Diaz’s ambitions are now growing and he wants them to help, but first, he has to convince them.
Diaz and Laurel meet up with Eric, the son of one of the heads of The Quadrant for his sales pitch. The son, born of privilege, sees Diaz as “beneath” him and tells him in order to even get a meeting with his father, he has to do something for him. Turns out, The Quadrant has a snitch currently in government custody that they need to find out about so they can deal with him. Diaz decides to go forward and help them retrieve their former associate. Laurel rides him as she feels he’s being taken advantage of by The Quadrant. Diaz reassures her that he has everything under control. After Diaz locates the person in custody, he tells Eric where he is. They tell Diaz to retrieve them from custody. Diaz and Laurel storm the safehouse, murder all the federal agents (in an impressively choreographed gun-fu fight sequence) and capture The Quadrant’s guy, predictably, The Quadrant shows up and not only kills their former associate, they gun down Diaz as well. He’s no fool and was wearing bulletproof armor, suspecting a trap.
Meanwhile, in Star City, Felicity is going crazy not knowing where Oliver his. She sees news reports of the Green Arrow dealing with bad guys in The Glades, but buildings are blowing up. With Oliver cutting off all communication with her, there’s no way she can know if he’s dead or not. Felicity meets up with Curtis. While their vigilante activities have ceased with each other after his group split from Team Arrow, they still have a company that the two run together, and they are trying to get back into each other’s good graces and continue working on their tech company.
Having been betrayed, Laurel thinks she and Diaz should pack it up and head back to Star City. Diaz remains focused. She comments that he’s showing behavior similar to the guy who brought her over from Earth-2 (Hunter Zoloman/Zoom), with his extreme dedication that could lead to him destroying himself. Nevertheless, he continues. He storms the nightclub that Eric works out of and takes the young man hostage. He knows that after torturing Eric, he learns that The Quadrant was never going to give him a seat at the table and their plan was to kill him and take over his Star City operations. Diaz has other things in mind. Heading to The Quadrant’s headquarters, he delivers Eric to them, however, Eric had a bomb strapped to his body which explodes and kills many of The Quadrant’s foot soldiers. The remaining ones, Diaz and Laurel defeat while entering their headquarters. Like a video game, they make it in and deal with the big bosses, The Quadrant as they are sitting in a boardroom surrounded by trigger-happy goons. Eric’s father, disgusted with Diaz, says they have no open seats at the table, and will not do business with someone of Diaz’s quality. Diaz promptly shoots him dead, remarking that now there’s an open seat at the table. The other members of The Quadrant decide to entertain him and see what plans he has.
Felicity realizes that she’s fearful of Oliver possibly dying since he now has no support. Just then, Oliver shows up at her home and reassures her that he will always come home to her. Oliver is almost Zen in his thought process. This could backfire because, like she said, there’s no guarantee.
Diaz seems to have everything he’s been fighting for: a seat at the table, and his criminal empire expanding even more. However, he’s not satisfied. He has one thing he still needs to do. He tells Laurel of “The Dragon,” his one fear, the bully who told him that he was a loser and would not amount to anything in life. He feels he’s finally ready to conquer his fear as he and Laurel take a trip to the bully’s house. Naturally, the bully is now just a regular guy with a wife and kids who drives a truck. Diaz finally takes his revenge against the guy. After telling him that he burned his arm saving the picture of his dead father, and now it’s payback time. He douses the man in lighter fluid and proceeds to set him on fire. Laurel looks on in disgust, thinking that maybe she’s with a guy just as bad as Zoom.
