Arrow: Easter Eggs and DC Comics References in "Streets of Fire"

Tonight's episode of Arrow, titled "Streets of Fire," was the second in what amounts to a three-part finale, with the story unfolding more or less in real time from the third act of last week's "City of Blood" up through the end of next week's "Unthinkable." It saw the return of a long-running character and implied much more chaos to come next week and beyond. So in honor of that frantic pace, let's move right on into the Easter eggs for the night...

Okay, so right off the bat. "Streets of Fire." The episode's title comes from a 1978 Bruce Springsteen song, which also gave its name to a movie from Walter Hill, the director behind last year's comic book adaptation Bullet to the Head. [Ed. note: That movie stars Sylvester Stallone, and I used to think as a kid that he was the same person as Bruce Springsteen because he wore a sweatshirt that said "BOSS" in big letters in Rocky IV.] This marks the second year in a row that the show's penultimate episode has been named after a Bruce Springsteen song — specifically, songs from the same album. Last year, the penultimate episode of Arrow's first season was titled "Darkness on the Edge of Town," the title track of Springsteen's 1978 follow-up to Born to Run. "Streets of Fire" first appeared on that same album. We discuss this at significantly more length here. The season's fifteenth episode, "The Promise," shares a name with an unused track from the Darkness on the Edge of Town recording sessions which later was used as the title track on a CD of outtakes.

This is, of course, fairly covered in the episode so we'll be brief. Merlyn, a member of the League of Assassins currently on the run from Ra's al Ghul, was the father of Oliver's best friend, who died as a result of Malcolm's own machinations during last year's finale. He's also (unbeknownst to him until very recently) the father of Thea Queen, the product of an affair with Moira. With Moira dead, the threat of someone calling him into Ra's al Ghul seemed to have been nullified, so he came when he realized his daughter was in danger. Interviews with the producers have suggested that both he and Thea will likely survive the finale and leave together for an as-yet-unclear future in Season Three and beyond. The Amazo When Knyazev tells Oliver that the Amazo is moving, it's the first time we can remember that the name of the freighter -- the name of Dr. Ivo's robot in the comics -- is spoken. Oliver follows it up not long after. Obviously, the name of the freighter has been clearly visible in a number of episodes, but the word itself coming up is what we're talking about. Friend for life When Oliver said good-bye to Anatoli, Knyazev told him that he'd made a friend for life and that if he ever needed anything, he needed only to ask. Ollie has taken him up on that once or twice since the series started, including the episode when they went to Russia to rescue Deadshot and Harbinger from a gulag.

5th and Adams, 2nd and Kingsley, 55th and Alfred The addresses tossed out in the middle of expository dialogue or when things are chaotic often have meaning. Kingsley is a bit of a mystery (there are several comics creators known by that name but nobody we can find who has a solid connection to Green Arrow) and it's hard to search "Alfred" with regard to comics for obvious reasons, but Adams? Well, that's pretty obvious, no? Neal Adams, artist behind Green Lantern/Green Arrow, is by extension one of the most-read and most-loved Green Arrow artists in the character's history.

Ta-er al Sah-fer Just for continuity's sake, we'll mention that, yes, this is the same name that they used for Sara in the episode "League of Assassins." Cisco Ramon We get another name-drop for the man who would be Vibe, as Felicity reiterates that last week he called to tell them they had the Mirakuru cure. Delta Charlie 52 It's been a while since we heard Quentin Lance's "DC-52" callsign, so it's worth mentioning (partially because if we don't, somebody in the comments will). Lessons of Man of Steel - "That's the Canary" It's hard not to imagine that the criticisms leveled at Man of Steel played a role in the ongoing "killer versus hero" motif and the decision to have Canary stop mid-battle to go save a kid from a burning building. And if it didn't, then good for the writers; clearly there's a segment of the audience that feels very strongly that scenes like that need to be inserted. I have failed this city Hey, look! It's the Arrow's Season One catch-phrase! Played much more seriously and less bad-ass, of course.