Arrow Season 7: 4 Ups & 0 Downs From 'Past Sins'

3. Genuine Twists

Despite its emphasis on the emotional pull of the past, 'Past Sins' still highlighted how important the present was. So, as Oliver and Laurel dealt with their demons, there were a number of unrelated twists throughout the episode that genuinely took us by surprise. The first was Curtis' apparent death.

When it comes to superhero shows, death is almost a formality. However, given Arrow's checkered history with the subject, it's understandable that we'd consider all current characters on the show safe as houses. So when Ricardo Diaz randomly snapped the neck of one of the main characters mid-way through the season, you can rest assured that it got our attention.

Of course, it would all turn out to be a rouse, orchestrated by Curtis himself as he had crafted his very own virtual reality program to trick Diaz into playing his game. But that doesn't change the fact that our jaws truly dropped and, for a few moments, we genuinely thought he was a goner.

This wasn't the only twist either, as Laurel's issues with the Earth-1 version of Collins led everyone to believe that he was the person sending her threatening notes and stalking her, until the episode's closing moments saw Dinah also find a threatening note in her car, suggesting that we have a vigilante slayer headed for Star City.

While understandably being drawn to the episode's main storylines involving Oliver and Laurel, the Arrow writers pulled out some expert-level trolling to keep us interested in the other storylines and, to be quite honest, it made it all the more thrilling.