Arrow season 7, episode 17, “Inheritance”, told the tale of two daughters - Black Siren and Emiko Queen - who both turned to crime while desperately seeking their father’s approval. Ironically, the story pit these two characters against each other, despite their having so much in common.
The lion’s share of “Inheritance” was devoted to Emiko Queen, whom Black Siren suspected had a much darker past than she let on before she became the new Green Arrow. A skeptical Oliver Queen investigated, finding that Emiko was working with Dante and his criminal organization, which Oliver also discovered was called the Ninth Circle. Emiko claimed to have been recruited into the Ninth Circle at a young age and owed them too much to ever be allowed to leave their service. This was a half-truth, for while Emiko was trained in combat by Dante himself since the age of 11, she was hardly an unwitting pawn and was ultimately exposed as the head of Ninth Circle.
A series of flashbacks showed the truth of Emiko’s past and how she made herself known to Dante at a young age. The flashbacks also revealed that Emiko made a choice in her past, attempting to win over her father, Robert Queen, by showing that she had the skills necessary to be a top-notch businesswoman and heir to his financial empire. Unfortunately, Queen still refused to acknowledge his illegitimate daughter, ultimately pushing her to embrace the Ninth Circle while sowing the seeds of his own destruction.
The subplot centered on Black Siren spun a different story, regarding how the supervillain turned district attorney was starting to blow cases due to her inability to keep her temper in check. Shortly after an intense encounter with one gangster who wanted to work out a plea deal to flip on his boss, the gangster turned up dead and the finger of guilt was pointed at Black Siren. This coincided with a series of photos of Black Siren with crime boss Ricardo Diaz being released to the press. This was all ultimately explained to be the work of Emiko Queen, leaving fans wondering how the hot-blooded Black Siren will retaliate in the next episode. Yet there are still questions regarding the events of “Inheritance.”
7. What Do We Know About The Arrowverse’s Ninth Circle?
Despite not being formally named until “Inheritance”, many comic book fans suspected that the Ninth Circle would ultimately be introduced before the end of Arrow season 7. First introduced in Green Arrow: Rebirth, the Ninth Circle was a secretive criminal bank led by a mystery man known only as Dante, who financed slavers, terrorists, despots, and supervillains around the world. One major subplot of Arrow season 7 involved John Diggle’s search for a similar sinister financial organization, which he eventually learned was led by a man called Dante.
“Inheritance” reveals something of the Arrowverse’s version of the Ninth Circle’s history, which dates back to the 14th century. It’s explained that the Ninth Circle have a symbol engraved into all of their weapons and that these weapons have been found on the battlegrounds of many major political insurrections, including the Russian Revolution and the War of the Roses. “Inheritance” also offers the first look at the foot-soldiers of the Ninth Circle, who all wear black robes with face-concealing cowls and masks that completely hide their faces. Amusingly these costumes, coupled with this history, invites comparison between the Ninth Circle and the Assassins of Assassin’s Creed, though the Ninth Circle is certainly a less benevolent group.
6. How Did Black Siren Last This Long Posing As Laurel?
“Inheritance” sees SCPD Captain Dinah Drake confronting Black Siren over her behavior in the interrogation room and how she has destroyed multiple efforts at flipping various criminals with her violent temper. This is treated as not being a sudden problem but something that has been an issue for some time. This isn’t surprising, however, given that Black Siren’s training as a lawyer before becoming Star City’s District Attorney was limited to several months flipping through the real Laurel Lance’s old law books.
Taking that into account, fans have to wonder just how Black Siren has maintained this charade for so long without anyone in Star City’s local government asking questions about her competence. Presumably it may have had something to do Mayor Pollard being more concerned about the city’s vigilantes and a new Green Arrow running around than a DA threatening confessions out of career criminals. Of course this begs the question of why Mayor Pollard would appoint a woman she thought was a former vigilante to the position of the city’s chief prosecutor in the first place.
5. Why Should We Feel Any Sympathy For Black Siren?
By the end of “Inheritance,” Dinah Drake is all but convinced that Black Siren killed a local gang leader, who was found dead an hour after being released from jail, shortly after Black Siren threatened to kill the gangster after he insulted Quentin Lance. From there, it didn’t take long for photos from Black Siren’s time as Ricardo Diaz’s right-hand to be released to the press. Near the end of “Inheritance”, Emiko Queen confesses to being responsible for it all and to have done it in retaliation for Black Siren spying on her.
While this is all done to establish Emiko’s villainy and is meant to spawn some sympathy for Black Siren, the effort falls flat. While Black Siren may not be guilty of this murder, she still killed multiple innocents, including Dinah Drake’s boyfriend, Vince, in the service of three different supervillains, on two Earths, and plotted to kill millions alongside hacktivist Cayden James. Even her one effort at making up for her past crimes was born more from her need to deal with her daddy issues and do right by the deceased Quentin Lance than an honest desire for redemption. As such, Arrow-heads should be thankful that karma is finally catching up with the villain from Earth 2, for while she may look like Laurel Lance, she is, as Oliver Queen stated on multiple occasions, “not our Laurel.”
4. Why Couldn’t Robert Queen Secretly Sponsor Emiko’s Proposal?
The flashback scenes of “Inheritance” showed that Emiko Queen once tried to win Robert Queen over with a business proposal to start a new company. While admitting that the proposal looked good and wishing that his son showed Emiko’s interest in finance (to say nothing of her aptitude), Robert declined to give Emiko the money she needed to start up her company, still apparently fearful of his wife Moira’s threat to destroy him publicly and financially if he didn’t cut all ties with his lover and their daughter. This rejection ultimately pushed Emiko to fully embrace the Ninth Circle and a life of villainy.
Granting that Moira was very well connected, it’s somewhat unbelievable that Robert Queen couldn’t find some way to help Emiko indirectly if he wasn’t afraid of being seen having lunch with her in a public restaurant. Particularly since, based on the events of Arrow season 2, Robert Queen was also having an affair with Isabel Rochev during this time and that apparently didn’t upset Moira enough to summon her lawyers and threaten divorce. While establishing Queen Materials Inc. under that name would be an obvious no-go, Robert could probably have referred Emiko to another businessman anonymously, even if he couldn’t get her the money secretly from his personal accounts.
Page 2 of 2: Even More Questions From Arrow Season 7 Episode 17
3. How Did Emiko Become Leader Of The Ninth Circle?
The final scene of “Inheritance” that’s set in the present-day features Emiko threatening Dante and telling him never to question her authority ever again. This leads to the shocking revelation that Emiko is now the leader of the Ninth Circle (not an unwilling pawn in the system), with Dante serving as her right-hand. Exactly how this came to pass is left unexplained by the flashbacks, though this new story detail will be most likely be further explored before the end of Arrow season 7. Or it could become a factor in Arrow season 8.
2. What Was The Ninth Circle’s Gift To Emiko?
The flashbacks detailing how Emiko was recruited by the Ninth Circle show that, at one time, Emiko was slacking-off in her combat training under Dante while she was working on her business proposal to Robert Queen. Dante admonished her for returning to the father who abandoned her and revealed that the Ninth Circle had a gift to show how she was valued. This gift, a piece of paper in an envelope, was revealed to be a blueprint for Robert Queen’s personal ship, the Queen’s Gambit, invoiced by Malcolm Merlyn, which showed where the explosives that would trigger the ship’s destruction were hidden.
It’s unclear if the bombing plot, which was enacted by Merlyn to kill Robert Queen after he started getting cold feet regarding Merlyn’s Undertaking project, was also also the work of the Ninth Circle in some respect. What is clear is that Emiko was given a chance to warn her father of the plot and that she had the blueprint with her when she met with Robert Queen to deliver her business proposal. She ultimately decided against it, however, after Queen callously dismissed her ideas and affirmed his commitment to leaving his company to Oliver Queen, despite Emiko being far better suited to running it. When Robert asked Emiko if she had anything else to say to him before he left on his business trip, she tucked the envelope away and said she did not.
1. Was Malcolm Merlyn Part Of The Ninth Circle?
Given their similar tactics and the fact that the Ninth Circle had an invoice for his plan to bomb the Queen’s Gambit, many fans are wondering if Malcolm Merlyn was part of the Ninth Circle. This isn’t as unlikely as it may seem, given how many secret societies Merlyn was already a part of, being a former member of the League of Assassins and the founder of the Thanatos Guild. The tie-in comic, Arrow: The Dark Archer, also revealed that Merlyn had once been part of a secret organization called the Hidden, who tried to prevent ancient temples and holy sites from being discovered by tomb raiders. Given that, it’s entirely possible Merlyn was also part of the Ninth Circle, though one wonders where he found the time to be part of all of these groups before he joined the Legion of Doom and gained access to time travel technology.
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