Arrow – Doppelgänger review S6 E15

Doppelgänger had the hard task of accomplishing a lot in 45 minutes. While mostly successful, this season feels like it’s facing an uphill battle now to become truly memorable.

The biggest objective this week was restoring Ricardo Diaz’s credibility and retconning him into being the season’s big villain. It was great seeing Kirk Acevedo getting more of an opportunity to make Diaz more of a threat. Acevedo has a steely delivery that makes him come off pretty menacing. By the end of the episode I was sold on Diaz as a capable main adversary.

Maybe the best move this season was bringing Katie Cassidy back as a regular. There’s been a ton of questionable character decisions this year, but Black Siren always manages to come off like the smartest person in the room. But in this case, this is 100% Team Arrow’s fault.

They continually coddled her where in one side of their mouth they’re saying she’s not ‘their’ Laurel and the next they’re treating her like Laurel. It wasn’t a big surprise then that Black Siren saw an opportunity and seized it. And she’s got a doozy of a blackmail bomb hanging over Oliver’s head as she threatens to out him as Green Arrow. Diaz brought her back into the fold and all is well with the Legion of Dragon.

Oliver’s courtroom drama was weird as it feels like this storyline has been on the treadmill all season with little development. You can always tell when some science or legal matters don’t make a lot of sense based on how quickly the writers breeze through it. There seemed to be negative likelihood that the prosecuting attorney could throw in a new character witness at the last minute. Even if it’s Roy Harper.

A few things didn’t add up here. If Roy has confessed to being Green Arrow, why does anyone think Oliver is under the hood? Also, why would Roy still need to be a fugitive and not simply return to Star City if everyone knows he’s not Green Arrow? Sometimes writing characters out of shows can be hard if simple questions aren’t considered.

Thea once again rediscovered her love for Roy after learning he was taking the fall for the team again. I always thought Roy and Thea was one of the better Arrowverse relationships, but it feels like the ship has sailed. Still, it was fun seeing Thea back in action for a bit.

Roy didn’t get a triumphant comeback this week and largely got beat on and needed a full-scale rescue. I was hoping to see at least a few needless spin kicks that get high style marks. Instead, Roy was the hostage and just felt like a random dude as opposed to a vital original Team Arrow member.

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I was really glad to see some earlier plot points revisited. I’d almost forgotten this was the same season where Diggle was rocking the Green Arrow hood. It was nice to see a little strife developing as Diggle wants to get back under the hood and resume his abbreviated run as Green Arrow. Both he and Oliver know Oliver is giving him lip service on handing it back over and it’ll be interesting if this tension continues to escalate. Maybe this leads to Oliver’s last ally leaving him and Diggle becomes the leader of The Outsiders? At least he’s always tried to have their backs.

Easily Doppelgänger’s most maddening moment was when Oliver appeared to give Laurel his stamp of approval in continuing her charade. She didn’t screw them over the very first time so now Oliver trusts her? You’d think after Prometheus, Oliver would be more cautious and less trusting when things seem to good too be true.

Hopefully either Oliver is suckering Laurel into thinking he trusts or Laurel really does want to make a change. The latter could be interesting if Dinah ends up getting killed this season. She’d be the only one to hold a grudge about Vince’s death.

Doppelgänger had some good moments, but I wanted something to get excited about especially with the show taking another extended break until March 29.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10

Photo Credit: The CW