This feels like a very special episode of Arrow where the topic was gun control. The focus was a man that decided to open fire on Star City City Hall with an AR15 assault rifle.

There are a lot of casualties including Adrian Chase. But Chase is going ot be fine. Team Arrow thinks it is tied to someone with a bone to pick with the ACU. However, when the Green Arrow goes to confront a bad guy, he denies shooting up City Hall and going after the ACU. The Green Arrow stands down but Vigilante finishes the guy off.

Felicity alerts Oliver to the ID of the shooter and it is James Edlin, a 44-year-old systems analyst. Edlin lost his family in a mall mass shooting and was angry at the past administration for shooting down a gun registry.

We see Team Arrow divided on the subject. Curtis is for gun control while Rene is for the right to bare arms.

Oliver gives a statement and when pressed on his own views on gun control, he shuts down the press conference. In private, Oliver doesn’t know how to solve the problem as he is used to fighting violence with violence. Quentin says the Green Arrow can’t and Oliver has to has mayor. So Oliver calls in one of the councilwoman that were part of the gun registry committee.

Oliver meets with Councilwoman Pollard (Laara Sadiq), one of the council members that killed the Star City Gun Registry. Pollard defends her decision to Oliver and he offers his point of view and wants to work with her to come up with a new ordinance that respects both of their views. [Side Note: Back in the early 90s, I saw Sadiq in a UBC production of Romeo and Juliet, my first ever theatre production and totally fell in love with the play and Shakespeare. Her Juliet was amazing (until I saw Hailey Gillis’ Juliet at Bard on the Beach’s 2016 production) and she repeated the role in a Richmond Gateway production a few years later that I also went mostly because of her UBC Juliet].

Felicity finds out about a support group that Edlin goes to. Rene and Curtis go and gets Edlin’s address from the support group leader. At the address, Curtis and Rene find plans for Star CIiy General and determine it is his next target.

Oliver interrupts his strategy session with Pollard to deal with Edlin. Oliver in his role as mayor talks to Edlin saying that the gun registry wouldn’t have saved his family as the shooter acquired his guns legally. Edlin feels like he has failed his family and is about to kill himself into Oliver talks him down and Edlin is arrested.

The next day, Oliver, with the help of Rene, presents Pollard with a gun control ordinance that she agrees to and says that Oliver will owe her a political favour down the road.

At a vigil to honor those that died in the City Hall shooting, Oliver announces the Star City Firearms Freedom Act

Wild Dog Origin Story

Rene is on his way to a Wild Dog hockey game with his daughter, Zoe. Both are wearing the Wild Dog jersey. Rene wants to bring his gun as the game is in the Glades. But Rene’s wife, Laura (Samaire Armstrong) doesn’t want to. Rene gets suspicious when Laura says she isn’t going to the game. Rene then accuses Laura of using drugs again. Laura denies this but Rene shows her stash that she found. The two get into an argument. Rene goes to the game with Zoe and threatens to kick Laura out if he finds more drugs when he comes back.

When the two return home from the game, they see the place turned upside down. Rene finds Laura being held at gun point by her drug dealer looking for money owed. Rene says he has the money in their safe. Rene goes to the safe to retrieve his gun but Zoe goes startling the drug dealer. Rene gets shot but he manages to shoot the drug dealer dead. However, the drug dealer’s gun still goes off and Laura is dead.

Many months later, Rene is not in good shape. Rene is drinking and angry. Rene is speaking to someone at CPS in hopes of getting his daughter back but to no avail. Just when Rene thinks he has hit rock bottom, he sees the news report about the Green Arrow killing Damien Darhk that gives him inspiration to be a vigilante.

Elsewhere…

• Felicity is using the Pandora USB to find the identity of Prometheus’ mom
• Rene is now Quentin’s assistant at City Hall
• Thea is back and not happy at how serious Oliver’s relationship with Susan has gotten. Chase wants to leverage the relationship to cover up Detective Malone’s murder in the media, Oliver doesn’t want to
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  Arrow — “Spectre of the Gun” — Image AR513b_0121b.jpg — Pictured (L-R): Juliana Harkavy as Tina Boland and David Ramsey as John Diggle — Photo: Katie Yu/The CW — © 2017 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

  Diggle and Dinah are bonding. First training with bow sticks and later Dinah confides in having fear in applying for a apartment as it makes her feel normal and not sure if she should feel that way. Diggle gives Dinah the confidence to do so. We find out that Dinah did get the apartment and applied to be detective at SCPD.