‘Arrow’ Review: “Legacies”

‘Arrow’ lets loose another episode with its sixth outing of the series “Legacies,” as Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) confronts a family of bank robbers (The Royal Flush Gang!), while Tommy (Colin Donnell) throws a fundraiser hoping to save Laurel (Katie Cassidy)'s law firm from going under..

Last week’s ‘Arrow’ episode “Damaged” saw Oliver calling Laurel as his lawyer to prove his innocence of being the vigilante, while Walter confronted Moira about her secrets, and famous DC villain Deathstroke made an appearance in flashback.  So, what does the sixth episode of ‘Arrow’ bring?  Does it hit the same bulls-eye as the first five episodes?

Read on for your in-depth recap of everything you need to know about ‘Arrow’s sixth episode, “Legacies!”

A number of men wearing hockey masks adorned with playing card symbols burst into a bank, looking to rob it.  One woman trips the silent alarm, while an undercover cop reaches for his gun, against the advice of one of the hostages.  Noticing the man readying to strike, one of the bank robbers, Ace, shoots the man in the back, seemingly killing him.  The police arrive to the scene, as the Royal Flush Gang counter by dressing all the hostages in hockey masks, and sending them out the front door.  The police enter to find the real criminals having tunneled their way out, as on the run the leader of the gang, King, chides Ace for shooting the undercover cop.

Diggle and Oliver continue their training in his hide-out, though Oliver still refuses to reveal all the details of his time on the island.  Oliver worries about his next target Scott Morgan, though Diggle presses him to investigate the bank robberies, in spite of his indifference to street crime.  Oliver assures the man that he isn’t some hero solely trying to fight crime, as he flashes back to his time on the island, roused in the cave by an apparent vision of his dead father!

Laurel worries about the future of her legal firm after one of their largest donors pulls out, brushing off Tommy Merlyn’s attempts to whisk her away on a romantic vacation, while over at the Queen mansion Moira asks that Oliver and Thea come to her brunch with Oliver’s successful classmate Carter Bowen.  Oliver gets a call to meet Diggle at the hospital, just as Tommy arrives looking for a bit of advice about Laurel.  Misunderstanding him, Thea offers up a bit of advice on how to get the girl, thinking Tommy was actually referring to her.

Arriving at the hospital, Oliver learns that Diggle lied about his target in order to put Oliver face to face with the downed police officer’s wife, which ultimately sways him to stop the bank robbers.  Via surveillance footage, they see that Ace wore a class ring during the heist, one which Oliver breaks into the police station to get a closer look at.  Elsewhere, Tommy offers to throw Laurel’s company a fundraiser, which she reluctantly accepts.

After his investigation reveals that the class ring belonged to high schooler Kyle Reston, whose family fits the profile of the other robbers, Oliver attends the brunch with his snobby former classmate Carter Bowen.  As the man drones on about his humanitarian works, Diggle informs Oliver about the gang’s latest heist in progress, and Oliver rudely excuses himself from the gathering.

The police swarm the bank as the gang escapes through another tunnel, before Arrow confronts them underground.  In the firefight, Oliver manages to separate the gang from their loot, and escape from the pursuing police without being seen.  Later, the gang (the Reston family) realize that their heists have gotten too dangerous, though young Kyle (Ace) insists they go through with their plan of staging one last robbery.

Felicity’s investigations into the group reveal that they lost everything after Oliver’s father shut down the factory where Derek Reston worked, causing Oliver to lapse into the island flashback of seeing his own father.  Robert Queen admonishes his son for giving up, and making his sacrifice meaningless rather than right the wrongs of Starling City, but Oliver doesn’t believe himself to have the strength, and puts a gun to his head.  Back in the present, Oliver resolves to give the family one more chance if he can talk to Derek Reston himself, in spite of Diggle’s reservations about the idea.

While Tommy continues trying to win over Laurel, Oliver confronts Derek Reston at the local bar and apologizes for his father’s past misdeeds.  He offers Derek a chance to work for him, dropping a bug in Reston’s jacket, though Reston’s pride and anger with the Queen family leads him to decline the offer to go legitimate.  Later, Oliver and Diggle listen over the radio as the Restons agree to continue with their next heist.

At Tommy’s benefit, his attempts at courting Laurel go south when Carter Bowen shows up to charm her away, and Thea realizes that Tommy had been looking for advice on Laurel, not her.  Arthur apologizes to his mother for departing so suddenly earlier, but right on cue Diggle interrupts them with news of the next heist in progress.  Seriously, does no one overhear Diggle talking about this?

At the bank, Kyle and Derek take down the solitary guard, but when Arrow appears Kyle defends himself with a riot shield and attacks the hero head on.  The guard awakens, and goes to shoot Kyle, but Derek leaps into the path of the bullet.  Oliver sits over a dying Derek, whose words about turning his son into a killer launch Oliver into another flashback of his father, unsure of how to right the man’s wrongs.  Derek dies, and Oliver flees leaving Kyle unconscious.

Back at the fundraiser, Thea drunkenly throws herself on Tommy, making a scene at his polite rejection and disappearing outside.  Thea pukes it up as Tommy insists on driving her home, while Laurel admits not to have been interested in anything but Carter’s money.  Owing him a dance, Laurel watches as Tommy and Thea drive off toward home.

Diggle assures Oliver that Derek’s death wasn’t his fault, and that his father would have been proud of what he did for the city, as Oliver remembers first discovering that the pages of his father’s book were heat-sensitive, revealing their list of names close to the fire.  Back in the present, Oliver makes nice with his mother, who admits to being lonely without Walter, and the two travel to Big Belly Burger to bond like the old days.

See?  Not everything needs to be about the names on the list.  "Legacies" offers up an important new piece of the puzzle, turning Oliver's efforts toward more common criminals in the form of a wisely-scalled down Royal Flush Gang.  The gang themselves aren't given much time to develop, but we imagine they'll return as the comic versions always did.  And while Tommy's plight with Laurel doesn't seem to hold much weight, Willa Holland's characterization of Thea, for all her emotional turbulence very much redeems the sub-plot.  We're continually impressed with 'Arrow,' and "Legacies" took an important step in a new direction.

What say you?  Did you feel that ‘Arrow’ hit the mark with its sixth episode?  What did you like about “Legacies?” Join us next time for another all-new ‘Arrow’ episode recap of “Muse of Fire” on The CW!