Team GATV Roundtable: Looking Back At Arrow Season 6 & Forward To Season 7

Was there a point in the “fractured team” arc where you said to yourself “I am done with this character?”

CRAIG: There was a period there where, as I mentioned, it ruined Dinah for me, but I’m hoping we’ve moved on from that by Season 7.

STEPHANIE: I’ve been done with Wild Dog for a while now. Seeing more of his interactions with his daughter made him more tolerable, but he’s still too cocky and stubborn for my taste. I did almost turn on Dinah this season when she was (understandably) so hell-bent on killing Laurel, but she pulled herself back just in time.

MATT: No, not really. Though, it was a bit tiresome at points to hear a lot of the same conflicts. And things with Vigilante were pretty anticlimactic.

MELISSA: Was there a point where I said to myself “I’m done with this character?” Repeatedly.

Let’s go down the line.

I found Curtis’s initial reason for leaving the team extraordinarily weak but hey, if he wanted to throw himself a pity party and leave, fine, he has free will. My respect went down another notch when he nurtured his feelings of betrayal toward OTA but freely forgave and put his trust in the guy that actually had betrayed the team. It was strained nearly to the breaking point when he again was willing to put a tracker on OTA when they wanted to find Black Siren for Dinah’s revenge plot. But the moment I was totally done with the weak-willed, two-faced, hypocrite was when he hacked Diggle’s chip to find OTA knowing full well that it would cause him great pain and possible major, permanent damage. And why, again, was he hacking Diggle’s chip? In order to help Dinah find someone she wanted to kill.

Dinah left the team in a snit because she refused to explain or justify why she was meeting with Vigilante, aka the guy that spent the previous season trying to kill the team if he crossed paths with them. She wanted blind faith and no accountability, and when she didn’t get it, she was pissed. And then she too, mind-bogglingly put more trust in the guy that was currently betraying the whole team than the ones that tried to swiftly root him out, actions that made me think Dinah was a baby and an idiot but still, sure if she wants to leave the team, fine, again, free will.

I came close to washing my hands of her when the OTA revealed that Vince was working for Cayden James and Dinah basically accused them of lying but gave her a pass because it was more about denial of Vince’s betrayal than anything else. Also gave her a pass for walking away to go save Vince rather than help the team finally get the bomb and save the city (I give Rene and Curtis less of a pass). But I was done with her when she got her team to track and attack the OTA so she could then get her revenge by killing BS.

I probably will get over Curtis and Dinah’s actions. And by get over, I mean be able to tolerate them on screen. Liking them again is a much longer road and one that doesn’t come with a guarantee, but sure, they still have a chance to win me back.

That’s not the case with Rene.

I disagree that Oliver should have forgiven him in the first place when Rene decided to trade Oliver’s life, freedom and relationship with his family for Rene’s relationship with his daughter. It showed a complete lack of faith in the very people that had always had his back, the very people that had been helping him have a shot at getting his daughter back in the first place. But fine, I was willing to let bygones be bygones if Oliver was willing to give him a second chance, undeserved as it may have been.

Rene blew his second chance.

I was done with Rene the moment he got testy and disobeyed Oliver’s orders during his first mission back. Oliver rightly got rid of someone he clearly couldn’t trust or depend upon. And yet Rene was the one that acted the hurt party. Then I was done with him all over again each and every time he said, “This doesn’t change anything” (usually followed by “Hoss”) or when he dismissed repeated overtures by the OTA to again let bygones be bygones. Trash talking Oliver, firing a gun at Felicity, supporting Curtis’s hack on Diggle, and swinging an ax at Oliver only added more reasons why I’m done with Wild Dog. Permanently.

I honestly can’t even begin to imagine what the show could do to bring Wild Dog back into my good graces. I can’t even speculate because his character still being on ANYONE’s team after he’s repeatedly shown his willingness to crumble under pressure makes no sense. Add to that, the show’s repeated reminders that he is all that his daughter, Zoe, has and not only do I find him untrustworthy, unreliable and a complete jackass for harping on how awful Oliver was, I also find him selfish, disloyal and hypocritical over his willingness to remain a vigilante despite the real risk of his daughter ending up an orphan and back in foster care. Rene has proved to me he doesn’t have what it takes as a father or a teammate, so that dog is dead to me.