“Unfinished Business” is episode nineteen of season one of Arrow.
The episode opens in Oliver’s club and a woman is dancing to the music and waving her hands in the air. Her vision appears to be a little off. Perhaps more than a little, for she is still waving her hands and staring at them but has now wandered into traffic. Several cars miss her, hooting. Then one hits her dead on. Literally.
At the club, Oliver asks Tommy how they are doing. Tommy relies in the black, and the green. Oliver says he likes how they have gone from throwing money at clubs to catching it. Then looks at a box and asks what sort of business has a lost and found that is full of just women’s underwear. Tommy tells him the best kind. And that having this much fun should be against the law.
Detective Lance enters to this saying that if only wishing made it so. He asks if he’s interrupting and Tommy asks if Laurel is okay. Lance replies it’s not about her, a girl was mowed down a couple of blocks from here and asks if her name rings any bells. They say no and Lance shows them a wristband showing that she was in the club. Oliver asks if someone killed her; Lance replies something, not someone. Vertigo. Lance asks them if they’ve had a problem with that in their club. Tommy replies that they haven’t that he is aware of and Oliver says that they don’t allow drugs in the club. Lance recommends that they control their clientele before anyone else wanders into traffic.
After Lance leaves, Oliver asks Tommy if there’s any chance the drugs were bought in the club. Tommy says he doubts it, as he tried not to hire too many drug dealers. Oliver asks him to go through the list of employees anyway and cross-reference any drug arrests. Tommy wonder if Oliver means check them as well. He also says that he thought that the vigilante had finished off the Count and Oliver replies that he did (in “Vertigo”). Because Oliver gave the Count a dose of unrefined Vertigo that should have killed him, but only drove him insane.
Lance is heading to talk to the Count and the institution where he is locked up. The doctor says that he doubts Lance will get anything from the Count; not because of doctor-patient privilege but because the unrefined Vertigo overdose damaged the Count’s brain. The doctor has only got word salad and a spit in the face from the Count. Oliver is also heading to see the Count, and gets there first. He asks the Count about the dead woman and is told that lots of women die. Oliver says that Vertigo is being sold again, and wants to know where the supply is coming from. As the Count kept the formula to himself. The Count says he remembers Oliver. When Lance and the doctor arrive at the Count’s room, he is shouting ‘You have failed this city!’ Lance tells the doctor he could have just said he was nuts.
Diggle is reading a news story about Senator Patterson being killed by a sniper. He is at his sister-in-law’s, although perhaps they are more than that now. Then Digg’s phone goes off; it’s a text message from Oliver and it’s an emergency. When Diggle arrives he asks Oliver if it’s about the glyph. For, in the previous episode, “Salvation”, the mysterious symbol in Oliver’s father’s book, and other places, turned out to be a map of Starling City’s old underground. Whatever is being done is being referred to as ‘the Undertaking.’ Perhaps the ‘under’ part is literal.
Oliver replies that Felicity is still working on that, but they have another problem. Vertigo. Over the last few days a new version has flooded the streets, it’s more addictive and more unstable. Digg asks if they should pay the Count a visit; Oliver replies that he did that first. And he’s out of his head. But the Count is the only one who knows the formula. Then Felicity arrives and shows them another news story. About a disturbed patient who escaped a few hours ago. Oliver comments that the Count may not have been so crazy after all.
Lance is interviewing the doctor, who says he was administering the Count his meds when he overpowered the doctor and forced him to take the Count out through the main exit. Lance says that he thought the Count was harmless, a vegetable. The doctor replies that he interviewed the Count dozens of times, and to be deceived by a patient so completely. He tells Lance that the Count is dangerous and not to underestimate him.
Detective Hilton tells Lance that there is nothing from security cameras; with the budget cuts, the cameras were the first thing to go. Hilton continues, saying that the last person the dead girl sent a text message to was Tommy Merlyn. And Tommy has two priors for possession, one with intent. Lance replies that was five years ago; Hilton suggests that maybe he got better at not being arrested. Lance says that, according to Laurel, Tommy has changed since his father cut him off. And this is a great way to get his daughter to stop talking to him again. Hilton replies that he had enough to subpoena the club’s bank accounts, and there’s ten grand missing from the operating accounts. Hilton wants to know how so much money could be replaced. When it comes to drugs, $10K is not a lot. Lance says he will speak to Tommy, rather than send another cop.
A man arrives at a dealer’s place and gets some pills for money. The man is Digg and when he returns he tells Oliver and Felicity that the person of colour successfully purchased the drugs. Felicity states that she did offer. Not that she seems like a terribly plausible person to do that. Felicity had placed some monofilament strips in the bills Digg used to track the money. Oliver leaves and Felicity asks Diggle what he wants to do with the pills. He asks if she wants to party; however, the only drugs that Felicity ever had was a pot brownie in her freshman year. By mistake. Which could have been fun – if she wasn’t allergic to nuts. Digg wants to know how Felicity is doing tracking Deadshot. Not very far – but she has linked him to an Alberto Garcia. An underworld talent scout who books all of Deadshot’s hits. Felicity asks if Oliver knows, giving Digg a flash drive, and he replies that it’s personal.
Lance arrives at Laurel and Tommy’s. He tells them that it’s business, not personal, a follow up to the girl’s death. That the last person she sent a message to was Tommy, and he said he didn’t know her. Tommy checks his phone and she had, asking him to hook her up. He gets a hundred messages like that a day from people wanting him to get them into the club. Lance asks about the $10K that went missing and asks what he spent the money on. Things do not go well, but Lance really didn’t expect them to. He tells Laurel that he didn’t want to look like the disapproving father again; he came down personally so that another cop wouldn’t.
Felicity contacts Oliver and says she’s got the end of the money trail, and is sending him the location. A couple of cars pull up on and a man gets out to start dealing drugs. One of the customers has no money but someone unseen in one of the cars tells the seller to give him some anyway – it’s good business. One has a fair bit of cash and the seller says that’s good for a brick and throws it. Then Oliver shoots the brick with an arrow and pills go everywhere. Oliver shoots an arrow into one car, which explodes, but the other gets away.
At the Starling Aquarium, a man says he doesn’t feel so good. He’s hassling a woman and a guard comes over and asks if everything is okay – turning his back to the man who draws his gun. When Oliver arrives back, Felicity tells him about the incident, and that the man who has the gun was seen popping green and purple pills. Then asks Oliver why he is making tea. Oliver says that they are medicinal herbs from the island that can counterbalance the effect of some drugs and poisons. Felicity says he isn’t going to kill the man anyway. He replies that Thea took Vertigo, and she didn’t deserve an arrow to the heart. Neither does this man. He didn’t fail the city; the city failed him. Felicity says that no-one forced him to take drugs; Oliver says it’s his fault for not putting the Count in a really deep grave.
Oliver says as he leaves that he will need backup, so asks Felicity to contact Diggle. Diggle isn’t answering, though, as he’s meeting a woman, one he knows. She thinks he wants a favour – well, it seemed like she thought Digg wanted something else first – but Diggle says that he has something for her. He says he assumes that Deadshot is on A.R.G.U.S.’s most wanted list (the first time the organisation has been mentioned perhaps) and she asks what he knows about the assassin. Digg replies his name for starters. Which is more than they know. She wants to know where Diggle found this; he replies the same place he got the flash drive Felicity gave him, handing it over. Diggle says that has the details of the person paying Deadshot, and that he is a very dangerous man and her people are the most qualified to take him down.
Lance turns up at the club and mentions a name to Tommy. A zoning commissioner who is notoriously corrupt. Who Tommy paid $10K to skip the inspection of the nightclub. Lance wants to know why Tommy did that. And that if he has nothing to hide, why not take a look around. Tommy says sure. If he has a warrant. As to what he’s got to hide – well the secret lair of the vigilante for one. Lance does return with a warrant, which Laurel says is valid, and wants to take a look at the sublevel below the club. Where said lair is. That could be awkward. More awkwardness ensues, straining Oliver’s relationship with Tommy and Oliver isn’t happy about Digg not turning up at the aquarium.
The flashback from the island has Slade sparring with Shado, Yao Fei’s daughter who they rescued. But not Yao Fei. Shado knocks Slade down and pulls a knife on him. He has a knife on her as well. Slade asks her to teach him the move; she replies she will – if he shows her where the knife was. Shado’s father taught her to fight; he apparently wanted a son.
Oliver wants to know how they are going to stop Fyers and save Yao Fei. Shado asks Slade if Oliver always whines this much; he replies that this is one of his good days. She also wants to know if Oliver can fight. Slade replies he tried, but with limited success. So Shado decides to try. Which involves hitting water in a bow until it’s empty. Then refilling it and doing it again. Shado had said she knew what Fyers wanted. This is not precisely true; she knows Fyers wants her father to be the public face of it. The fall guy. Yao Fei was a general in the PLA but was sent to the island as the scapegoat for a PLA massacre.