Dead to Rights

"Why should I trust you!?"

—Tommy threatens Oliver as the vigilante

"Dead to Rights"
Information
Season 1 » Episode 16
Episode number	16 of 170
Original airdate	February 27, 2013
Written by	Geoff Johns
Directed by	Glen Winter
Guest stars
Kelly Hu as China White Manu Bennett as Slade Wilson Janina Gavankar as McKenna Hall Chin Han as Frank Chen Adrian Holmes as Frank Pike Emily Bett Rickards as Felicity Smoak Michael Rowe as Floyd Lawton/Deadshot George Tchortov as Guillermo Barrera Alex Kingston as Dinah Lance John Barrowman as Malcolm Merlyn
Chronology
Preceded by	"Dodger"
Followed by	"The Huntress Returns"

"Dead to Rights" is the sixteenth episode of the first season of Arrow, and the sixteenth episode overall. It aired on February 27, 2013.

Synopsis

Oliver and John learn that Deadshot is still alive and his next target is Malcolm Merlyn. Malcolm invites Tommy to attend a benefit honoring Malcolm for his work with Starling City but Tommy refuses to attend. Oliver encourages his friend to mend his relationship with his father while he can. Meanwhile, Oliver struggles to balance his new relationship with McKenna and his duties as the Hood. 

Plot

The episode opens with an assassin named Guillermo Barrera arriving in town via helicopter. Once Guillermo exits the helicopter onto the roof, the Arrow leaves the shadows to intercept him, and the two proceed to fight. The Hood eventually kills him with an arrow to the chest.

John trains with Felicity in the Arrow Cave, so she can handle herself in tough spots. Oliver then returns and asks Felicity to hack Guillermo's phone in order to discover his target in Starling City.

In a flashback to his time on Lian Yu, Oliver succeeds in fixing the airplane radio. He and Slade attempt to call for rescue, but they realize that the radio is one-sided: they can hear the crew, but the potential rescuers cannot hear them.

Back in the present day, Oliver calls Quentin disguised as the Hood with word about the hit happening the next day. Quentin tells the Hood to call him back with a name.

Oliver and McKenna go to Tommy's birthday party at Laurel's apartment. Malcolm Merlyn shows up to give Tommy a present and invite him to a ceremony where he is being awarded Humanitarian of the Year. Tommy brushes him off.

Meanwhile, the Chinese Triad and Deadshot organize the murder of Malcolm Merlyn at the award ceremony. Moira and Frank go to a meeting of the secret organization, where Malcolm presents good news on the progress of The Undertaking, and proclaims "We won't fail this city." Moira assures him they are all behind him.

Tommy tells Laurel he has decided to go to his father's award presentation.

Before the ceremony, Malcolm asks Moira if they can talk afterwards. Malcolm is then introduced as the city's Humanitarian of the Year. Chinese Triad members pose as waiters.

Oliver and McKenna are on a date and talk about fitting a possible relationship into their already busy lives.

Felicity finally hacks into Guillermo's phone, and John relays the message to Oliver. Oliver bails on his date and calls Quentin with the name.

During his speech, Malcolm admits to failing his city thus far but promises to be better. The Chinese Triad turn off the power, and the crowd begins to exit. Malcolm realizes what is happening and heads to the second floor with Tommy. The Hood fights off the Chinese Triad gunmen as Malcolm and Tommy move to the panic room. The Hood then commences into a fight with China White, the new leader of the Chinese Triad. Malcolm fights off a few would-be attackers, and his son is stunned by his father's skills. The Hood manages to overcome China, but as he stands over her with his arrow drawn, McKenna comes up from behind him with a gun. Deadshot manages to hit Malcolm several times in the chest through the panic room's window, but Malcolm was wearing a vest. The Hood is able to escape McKenna by shooting a fire extinguisher, and he continues up to the second floor. There, he finds that Malcolm has been nicked by Deadshot's trademark curare bullets. The Hood tries to explain to Tommy the procedure to save his father, but Tommy does not trust the vigilante. Oliver is consequently forced to reveal his true identity to his best friend and helps him perform with a life-saving blood transfusion on his father.

Later, Quentin and McKenna ask Tommy why he listened to the vigilante and if he knew him. Tommy says he has no idea the masked man's true identity is.

In the flashback, Slade realizes that Oliver has the radio tuned to the soldier's channel. They hear Edward Fyers talking to his off-island benefactor and hear a reference to Scylla, a monster from the Odyssey. Slade wishes to meet this monster.

In Starling City, Oliver tells John that Deadshot is the reason Malcolm is in the hospital. John is upset that his brother's killer is still alive.

Back to the flashback, Slade and Oliver see that Scylla is an anti-aircraft missile launcher.

In present day, Oliver arrives at the hospital. He runs into McKenna, who says she's willing to give their relationship a try, and Oliver happily agrees.

Malcolm wakes up and Tommy tells him what happened in the building including the Hood's involvement in saving his life. Malcolm proceeds to tell Tommy that after his wife died, he found a man who helped him make sense of his life. Malcolm says his plan is to help make the city a better place for everyone. Moira arrives at the door and, Tommy exits the room to leave them alone. Malcolm tells Oliver's mother he wants to find "the traitor in our midst".

Outside, Tommy asks if Oliver was ever going to tell him the truth about his alter ego, and Oliver says no.

In Laurel's apartment, Dinah arrives at her door saying she needs to talk to her daughter, but Laurel refuses. Her mother proceeds to tell her that it's important because that she thinks Sara may still be alive.

Trivia

• Assuming the episode takes place in real time, McKenna's line that Fall Out Boy "broke up" may or may not have been true. At the time of filming (January 17 – January 28), the band had been dispersed for over 3 years. However, on February 4, Fall Out Boy announced they would begin to form again as a whole, 23 days before the episode aired (February 27).
• Laurel mentions that Sara owned a pet canary as a child. This is a reference to Laurel's alter-ego in the comics, Black Canary. It also foreshadows Laurel and Sara's future Canary vigilante identities.

Production

Preparation ran from January 8 until January 16, 2013. Filming ran from January 17 until January 28, 2013.