John Diggle quotes from Arrow

Curtis

What's that, some A.R.G.U.S. fan mail?

Diggle

No, not exactly.

Curtis

Oh, this is some "I Know What You Did Last Summer" creepiness

Diggle

Curtis, Rene, you take upstairs. Me and Dinah will secure down here.

Curtis

Split up? What? Have you guys never seen a horror movie before? Wait, Rene.

Felicity

So Diaz is just walking around free right now in exchange for intel?

Diggle

He's not free, Felicity. He has a bomb in his head. If he makes one misstep... we are taking every precaution.

Felicity

Well, I understand why Curtis left.

Oliver

Hey.

Felicity

You can't really be okay with this.

Oliver

No. But I-I trust John, and I believe that he would only take a step like this if he had no other choice.

Diggle

There was no other choice. And I hate that it came to this, but Lyla and I believe that using the Ghost Initiative is the best way to take down this threat.

Felicity

You realize that this is the second time you have prioritized your job over keeping your friends safe?

Diggle

Working with A.R.G.U.S. does keep you safe, because it makes the world safe.

Felicity

You can keep telling yourself that.

Diggle

Well, Diaz will be taken back to Slabside for reneging on his side of the deal. This time, he'll stay there.

Oliver

Still need to think about Dante. He's not gonna forget what happened tonight.

Felicity

I won't, either. You could've gone after Dante, but you chose Diaz.

Diggle

Last year, I had the opportunity to catch Diaz, and I let it slip through my fingers. I wasn't gonna make the same mistake twice.

Felicity

Well, what about Dante being the greater threat?

Diggle

When I knew there was a choice between catching Diaz or Dante, all I could think about was what letting Diaz go meant to you last time, Felicity, so in that moment, I decided that sometimes the best choice is to just protect your family, and that's exactly what you two are.

Oliver

We all know that we operate better on our own. Now, I would for you to be onboard with this, but if you're not, I would just - I would ask you to stay out of our way.

Diggle

Oliver, I will always have your back. But you've giving up on this partnership before you're really giving it a chance, as if you're up against a clock I don't know about. So what don't I know about?

Felicity

We're having a baby.

Diggle

Really?

Yeah.

Felicity

It's a little early. We're not telling anybody yet.

Diggle

That's amazing! This is wonderful! It would also explain a hell of a lot.

Oliver

We don't want a child born into a city like this. Our mission is not complete.

Felicity

So we're going to go about this the only way that we know how, without politicians and without a precinct. We're going to do this the Team Arrow way.

Diggle

OK, and that would work for a while. And the, uh, then I have to say, we will be right back to where we started, Oliver. Without a team, you in prison, us on the run, and a city no closer to being saved than where we started.

Oliver

Our partnership with the force is not working.

Diggle

Then we have to find a way to make it work. Compromise, do whatever you have to do because if you want a new future for this baby of yours, it won't be come by doing the same thing we used to do. We have to - We have to be something else... Something better.

Dinah

You know what else we did tonight? We forced Pollard's hand. I leveraged her relationship with Midas to convince her to sign off on creating a special vigilante task force. We're still sanctioned by the SCPD, but we're operating as our own unit out of the Bunker in our suits.

Oliver

And the anti-vigilante law?

Dinah

It's on her desk for repeal. She's gonna sign it.

Rene

So we're like the black ops for the SCPD now? That's cool.

Diggle

I'm just glad we're all back. It feels right.

Oliver

I'll second that. It's nice to be part of a team again.

Diggle

You want to talk? Not even to the guy who found out his long-lost sibling was secretly an evil double agent?

Oliver

Being reminded that this has happened before is not... really making things better.

Diggle

I get that. But I also know that despite what Emiko's done, you're not quite ready to give up on her.

Oliver

That obvious?

Diggle

Only to someone who knows you, and who's been there. All I wanted was to bring Andy back over to the light. I don't have to remind you what having that blind spot cost us.

Oliver

No, you don't. But please, John, trust me when I tell you that I am seeing Emiko more clearly than I ever have.

Diggle

Oliver, you're still trying to save her.

Oliver

John, my family is to blame for her current situation. My-my father a-abandoned her and her mother. She was eleven! She was eleven years old. And no one's gonna convince me that... that her life wouldn't be different now if that had never happened.

Diggle

Andy tried to convince me that I was the reason for his bad choices, too. He made me feel so guilty that I was willing to trust him again even after knowing he worked for Damien Darhk. I held out hope, Oliver, so much hope that I put you, my family, my team at risk.

Oliver

John, if I abandon her now, I'm no better than my father. If I can help redeem her, selfishly, I feel like I-I help redeem my family. Just a little.

Diggle

Felicity tell you how she tracked the rifle to this apartment?

Oliver

Just call her a genius and leave it at that.

Diggle

I wasn't even sure you were keeping tabs on me. Sir, I had my reasons for leaving A.R.G.U.S.

You left to protect your wife. I know you better than you think. And I'm sorry to say you lost your way.

Diggle

I didn't leave A.R.G.U.S. for my career. I left to protect my family. And that's not something you would understand, is it, sir?

Oliver

John, we should probably go. Again, thank you for your time, General.

I always have time for my family.

Oliver

Excuse me?

Oh, John didn't tell you. I'm his stepfather.

Diggle

Oliver, when I first met the General, he was a lieutenant, my father's CO on a covert military op to quell an insurgency in Vlatava. The op went bad. The unit was pinned down with heavy gunfire from insurgents. My dad stayed behind to hold them off. Saved the whole unit. Stewart made it out. My father didn't.

Oliver

So do you blame him for your father's death?

Diggle

It was his op. He should have stayed behind. Six months later, he's coming by the house for dinner. Six months, Oliver.

Oliver

I didn't know.

Diggle

It was bad enough that, uh, he just appeared in our lives, but... once he and my mom got married, he had me and Andy running Spartan survival drills he learned as a recon Marine. I mean, how long could we be out in the cold trying to find our way out of the woods without a compass. He called it tough love. Said he didn't care how we felt about him as long as it made us strong. I don't know. If he was so strong, how could he just abandon the first rule of the Corps and leave my father behind?

Diggle

Hey, I, um... wanted to say thank you. I know, this... I know I haven't made it easy for you.

This is the most time we've spent together since you turned 18. As hard as it may be to believe, I'm grateful for it. Yeah, I'd prefer a round of golf to kidnapping and... and torture. I know you might not feel the same way, but you will always be a son to me.

Diggle

Oliver told me the truth about Vlatava, about my father. Why did you let me believe a lie? You let me hate you.

Every child deserves to believe that his father is a hero. And believing it, you became one. If he could see you today, I know he would be so proud of you.

Diggle

If I'm a hero... it was all because of you... sir.

[getting on the elevator] John?

Diggle

Yes, sir.

Call your mother.

Felicity

Oh, thank god. Please tell me the news that you are bringing is about Emiko and her Ninth Circle buddies because I have had no luck with my "typity-type finding anything" thing.

Dinah

Oh, well, you're in luck now. Dante, not so much. A couple SCPD beat cops found his body this morning.

Rene

Let me guess, not from natural causes.

Dinah

Not unless you call three arrows and a knife to the chest natural.

Diggle

This was after you told Emiko that Dante killed her mother. Can't be a coincidence.

Oliver

No. She went ahead and killed the only father figure she had left.

Felicity

Right. So that's a "no" on the evil sister redeeming herself, then.

Dinah

Two innocent people are dead, and we're covering it up.

Oliver

Dinah, if someone on this team goes down, this entire team goes down.

Diggle

He's absolutely right. And if Pollard knew the truth, we would be sitting in lockup while the city rehashes whether vigilantes are a threat or not.

Felicity

Which would free Emiko up for evil plan B.

Rene

But Roy is not a part of this team. He's been gone for months doing who knows what.

Oliver

With due respect, you don't know what he's been through. Roy is and always will be as much a part of this team as the rest of us.

Felicity

Well, since we're on the subject of good-byes, we have an announcement, too. Hmm?

Oliver

We're stepping back. We're leaving Star City. Not forever, but, uh, for now.

Rene

You just saved the city. You don't want to take a victory lap?

Oliver

I didn't do anything. Our team did.

Felicity

The fact that the city if safe is the reason we can leave.

Oliver

I've spent a long time thinking about my legacy as the Green Arrow. I always hoped it would be saving the city. But now I know that my greatest legacy is this team. I started this mission alone. I was certain that I would end it alone, but the truth of the matter is that every bit of success that I've had along the way is because of all of you. The city if safe because of your courage, your compassion, your selflessness, and your loyalty.

Diggle

Courage, compassion, selflessness, loyalty. Oliver, that sounds like the 4 pillars of heroism to me.

Dinah

We should find a way to remember them to symbolize we will al be there for each other always no matter what.

Felicity

Ooh, like a signal, you know. One of us is in trouble, we'll all come running, including you, Roy.

Oliver

We should just call it the Mark of Four, right?

Felicity

That's brilliant.

Oliver

Man, I really hope this isn't the last time we're all in this bunker together.

Diggle

Hear! Hear! But does feel like the end of an era.

Felicity

OK, well, let's just try to think of it as the beginning of a new one.

Diggle

You know, Oliver, it's interesting that we're revisiting where we first met. You going at it alone is like deja vu. I thought you and I were past that.

Oliver

This is new. It's bigger. And I'm not going to ask you to take the risk it involves.

Diggle

Oliver, that's the thing about being brothers. You never, ever have to ask.

Oliver

Can you just believe me when I you tell this is different?

Diggle

Yeah. Felicity told me. Some godlike being talking about the end of the universe? What didn't she tell me, Oliver?

Oliver

A crisis is coming, John. He's seen what happens. He's watched me die.