Things are looking bleak for the heroes of Starling City. Green Arrow (Stephen Amell) and Laurel (Katie Cassidy) are buried alive, the cure from Star Labs falls into Slade Wilson‘s (Manu Bennett) hands, Isabel Rochev (Summer Glau) is alive and deadlier than ever, the city is on fire, Deathstroke’s super-powered insane army is killing indiscriminately, and Sebastian Blood (Kevin Alejandro), naively believing he can still salvage the situation, refuses to call in for help leaving the city’s police force the only thing standing between Starling City and utter destruction.
After extricating themselves from the tunnels, Laurel reconnects with Sara (Caity Lotz) and her newly reinstated father Detective Lance (Paul Blackthorne) leaving Diggle (David Ramsey) and Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) to motivate a defeated Oliver Queen. Making a tough choice which will cost him his life, the city’s mayor delivers the cure to Oliver after finally understanding nothing will stop Deathstroke until the city is leveled to the ground – something the A.R.G.U.S. military unit surrounding the city has come to hasten as Amanda Waller (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) cannot let any of the crazed super-soldiers escape Starling City alive. Now Oliver only has until dawn to save the city from exactly the fate Slade Wilson has had planned all along.
Along with offering a slim hope of victory the recovery of the cure also means Roy Harper (Colton Haynes) has a chance to be of more use than as a human paperweight in next week’s season finale. “Streets of Fire” also offers a B-story involving the return of Malcolm Merlyn (John Barrowman) who saves Thea (Willa Holland) life from Deathstroke’s minions on two separate occassions but doesn’t get the warmest of responses from his daughter and more flashbacks setting up Ollie and Slade’s final confrontation on the barge.
“Streets of Fire” is certainly one of the show’s bleaker episodes but it also produces some hopeful moments as the city’s police force finally embrace the vigilante, Sara returns and finally sees herself as a hero through other’s eyes, and Roy’s cure offers the opportunity for the team to be at full strength for next week’s finale. I’m also looking forward to the end of the barge plotline of the flashbacks and looking forward to seeing where the younger version of Oliver goes from here after Wilson’s “death,” perhaps filling in some of the gaps involving his knowledge of the Russian mob and past connection with Waller.