Unfinished Business

"Looks like I’m the last one standing... sitting... spinning... something to do... what was I going to do? Memory not what it once was. Nothing what it once was. Is there a name on the gravestone? No, it's new, and clean, and waiting..."

—The Count

"Unfinished Business"
Information
Season 1 » Episode 19
Episode number	19 of 170
Original airdate	April 3, 2013
Written by	Bryan Q. Miller Lindsey Allen
Directed by	Michael Offer
Chronology
Preceded by	"Salvation"
Followed by	"Home Invasion"

"Unfinished Business" is the nineteenth episode of the first season of Arrow, and the nineteenth episode overall. It aired on April 3, 2013.

Synopsis

When a young woman meets a violent death after partying at Verdant, Detective Lance and his new partner, Detective Hilton inform Oliver and Tommy that she was on the drug Vertigo. Oliver immediately pays a visit to the mental institution where The Count is locked up, but finds he is in no condition to deal drugs. However, when The Count escapes and Starling City is flooded with even more Vertigo-related violence, Oliver and Diggle make it their mission to track him down. After Detective Lance uncovers incriminating evidence against him, Tommy goes to great lengths to clear his name, and the fallout from his actions leads Tommy down a new, unexpected path. In a flashback to the island, Oliver recalls the lessons he learned from Slade and Shado.[src]

Cast

Starring

• Stephen Amell as Oliver Queen/Hood
• Katie Cassidy as Laurel Lance
• Colin Donnell as Tommy Merlyn
• David Ramsey as John Diggle
• Willa Holland (credit only)
• Susanna Thompson (credit only)
• Paul Blackthorne as Detective Quentin Lance

Guest starring

• Manu Bennett as Slade Wilson
• Celina Jade as Shado
• Roger Cross as Detective Lucas Hilton
• Audrey Marie Anderson as Lyla Michaels
• Darren Dolynski as Dr. Webb
• Christie Laing as Carly Diggle
• Nelson Leis as a junkie
• Emily Bett Rickards as Felicity Smoak
• Seth Gabel as Cecil Adams/Count
• John Barrowman as Malcolm Merlyn

Co-starring

• Justin Doran as Lieutenant
• Cassandra Ebner as Veronica
• Julius Fair as Andy Jr.
• Steven Jeays as Dance Partner
• Mi-Jung Lee as Field Reporter
• Kevin O'Grady as Security Guard
• Flux Pavilion as DJ
• Mike Roselli as Orderly
• Christian Sloan as Dealer
• Robyn Westcott as Maddie

Plot

A woman named Veronica Sparks is run over by a car due to an overdose of Vertigo. After a recent party, Quentin comes in to question Oliver and Tommy concerning Veronica. Oliver decides to pay the Count a visit but gets nothing and leaves.

In flashback, Oliver watches as Shado and Slade spar.

Quentin is informed that Veronica was texting someone before her death, and that someone was Tommy. Message. "Can you hook me up?" Tommy says he receives many messages like that and Veronica was only a client.

In another flashback, Shado begins to train Oliver by having him hit water in a jug multiple times.

When Quentin came to search the club, Tommy told him he will only search when there is a search warrant, which Quentin actually gets later. When Quentin wanted the locked door to the basement opened, Oliver was reluctant but still opened it and realized Tommy had covered it for him by filling items filled with what was supposed to be at the club's storage room, though later, Tommy expressed his unhappiness with Oliver about not trusting him and thinks that he became a killer, which is why he had not been telling him things.

In another flashback, Oliver asks Shado why Fryers wanted Yao Fei to help him. She filled him in on what she knew about how she had spent years searching for him. She said how she had let her guard down and was tased before being taken to the island.

Meanwhile, Oliver is about to uncover the new Vertigo. Oliver arrives and finds a strapped up Count and is knocked out. He is soon strapped up.

Dr. Webb reveals he took the original formula and wrapped up something new. The Hood reveals that's how he realized that the drug's home base had to be the asylum, because of the large doses of a medical drug in the new batch of Vertigo. When he realized that people would come looking for the Count if Vertigo was in play again, he faked the Count's escape. He takes the new Vertigo, turns it into liquid form, and forces it down Oliver's throat. But Oliver detonates an incendiary arrow, destroying the rest of the Vertigo and managing to free his hand and inject himself with an antidote he developed in his lab directly into his heart. John comes in and takes down the last two guards. Oliver heads out to finish Dr. Webb off by drawing three arrows at once. Dr. Webb arrogantly taunts Oliver, telling him that he'll miss for sure. Oliver fires three arrows. Two miss but one lands straight in Dr. Webb's heart. Oliver doesn't kill the Count after going back.

Tommy quits working for Oliver. In another flashback, Oliver questions why he spent hours hitting water in the barrel. Shado then explained why she was having him do so and then handed him the bow. She had him draw the bow, and he asked what was next. Shado said they would teach him to shoot.

Quentin goes to a bar and Laurel meets him there. Quentin reveals that Veronica got her Vertigo from a co-worker, and acknowledges that he owes Tommy an apology. 

Later, Oliver revealed their next target will be Deadshot. 

Tommy later visits a mystery man saying he wants a new job. The mystery man is later revealed to be Malcolm. Malcolm hugs his son.

Production

Preparation ran from February 12 until February 20, 2013. Shooting ran from February 21 until March 4, 2013.

Trivia

• This is the first episode of the series to not feature Susanna Thompson (Moira Queen) (and the only episode of Season 1 where she doesn't appear).
  • This leaves only three cast members to appear in every episode: Stephen Amell (Oliver Queen), Katie Cassidy (Laurel Lance), and David Ramsey (John Diggle).
• The title's episode is a reference to Oliver and the Count's past together, though Oliver himself uses it later in the episode when referring to Diggle and Floyd Lawton.
• The book that A.J. Diggle asks his uncle to read is the children's book Catalina Magdalena Hoopensteiner Wallendiner Hogan Logan Bogan Was Her Name by Tedd Arnold.
• The coordinates that Felicity gives Oliver (47.6097°N, 122.3331°W) are actually located within Seattle, Washington.
  • During Mike Grell's run on the comics, Green Arrow and Black Canary actually lived in Seattle.
• The episode's plot is in many ways similar to an episode of the animated series Batman Beyond titled "The Winning Edge". In the episode, the Venom formula that gave the Batman villain Bane his super strength was being sold to teenagers as a steroid, which was manufactured by Bane's doctor, Chapel. Bane himself is found to be in terrible health and in a near-vegetative state, similar to the way Oliver discovers the Count.
• When The Count appears, he is mumbling dialog from the classic Hitchcock film Vertigo.
• After Diggle kills Dr. Webb's accomplice with the defibrillator, he says "clear". This is likely a tongue-in-cheek reference to "The Odyssey", where he saves Oliver's life using a defibrillator and Felicity tells him he has to say "clear" when using the machine. 
• When Tommy is showing his text history to Quentin Lance, several names referring to Arrow's crew members who worked on the episode are seen in his phone:

  

  Tommy's text history.

  • Todd Pittson: Todd Pittson - production manager  
  • M. Bunting: Mark Bunting - assistant director 
  • B. McGuire: Bridget McGuire - art director 
  • Michael Offer: Michael Offer - director 
• Felicity Smoak's name is seen in Tommy's text history. However, Felicity and Tommy never met on-screen.
  • Given how Oliver informed Tommy that Felicity would cross-check Verdant's employees for any affiliation with Vertigo, it's possible that Tommy became acquainted with her off-screen after learning Oliver's secret.
  • Marc Guggenheim stated that this was most likely a vestige of a deleted scene.