ARROW Season 2×05, “League of Assassins” recap

8 Nov

Welcome back, Arrow-heads! So, in case you missed last episode (and really, reading this recap before doing that is on you), Sara, Laurel’s sister who supposedly died five odd years ago is very much alive, and fighting crime in Starling City! This would be shocking news for us and for Oliver, except for that little thing he neglected to mention about Sara being on the island and thinking after a fatal encounter, she was for reals dead. She doesn’t want to reveal herself to her family, but with Laurel turning into a pill popper and that pesky mystery league of killers wanting to bring her back into their club, its good money that plan probably won’t last. So, let’s get into it…

Six Years and a lot of Ocean Ago. We flashback to that night the Queen’s Gambit sunk, and we see that Sara did survive the thing, but was pushed too far out by the storm to get back to Oliver. She manages to survive the night, and gets picked up by the Amazo freighter. She gets dumped in one of those holding cells Ollie will be occupying later on, and is about to be dragged off to a nasty fate when a mystery man pops up: a doctor Ivo, who takes her away to supposedly keep her safe. Well, whatever we thought safety she was heading off to get kicked in the teeth like Ollie does when we return to that flashback last episode, where he’s dumped in front of her. Instead of a chit-chat about how their lives have been for the past year, she kicks him and says “prisoners don’t talk”. I think that was supposed to be a “hello”.

“Great. Tom Hanks gets a soccerball for Cast Away, I get a canary that can fly away?”

Assassin Telegram. After a rather tense meeting regarding Moira (more on that later), Ollie heads home where Sara is staying for the time being. She’s having second thoughts about revealing herself to her family, especially when it comes to those missing years when she was doing some pretty awful and conveniently non-discussed things. I say conveniently, because they get interrupted by a guy in one of those League of Assassins getups, which Ollie recognizes as the “obviously-dead, right?” Malcolm Merlyn’s getup. After a three way fight with the guy, he’s revealed to be Abu Nazir from Homeland. But he’s dead! Oh, sorry, I had a flashback to season two of that show, and sorry for the spoilers to that season, BTW. No, actually we find out after he escapes, that he’s Al-Owal, one of the League’s big reps. And she reveals she’s been connected to the League to Team Arrow, which is met by “oh, that’s why you don’t want to come out” (Ollie), “they’re not a myth” (Diggle), and “um, wait, a group of super-killers?” (Felicity). Ollie’s no fan of people crashing his house or trying to kill people in it either, so he wants to take down Al-Owal.

Returning to Sender. Felicity finds Al-Owal’s hiding place and Ollie thinks he’s got the upper hand on him bringing Sara as backup, until he reveals his backup of killers too. The duo take off to nurse their wounds, and deal with the threat left for them: if Sara doesn’t return with Al-Owal, he’ll kill her family. While Ollie tries to shadow Laurel, Felicity tries to warn Quentin, who doesn’t take her warning. So, Sara decides to get her father safe, she reveals herself to him, and obviously, he’s shocked. She takes him to have a little coffee and talk about things, and he figures out she’s the lady vigilante and connected to the League. She takes him to her clocktower lair to check out things and talk a bit more, and once again, Al-Owal and his buddies are just happy to see her so they can kill Quentin in front of her.

“Next time we do this, Ollie, we really need to recon the whole place to avoid people dropping in like this.”

“You should be mindful of your surroundings.” Thanks to Ollie’s spotting and quick hiding of the Assassin knife in Laurel’s apartment, he figures out that the League is going after Quentin. He crashes the party at the clocktower as some of Sara’s booby traps in the place slow down the assassins. Sara kills Al-Owal, and sends one of the not dead killers off to tell Ra’s to keep clear of her family. She then decides to go into hiding for the time being, but makes Quentin promise not to tell her mom or Laurel for fear of future retaliation from the League. Quentin’s broken up about her daughter disappearing again, but he agrees.

The Truth May Set You Free. That whole detour to see Moira over that plea deal gets another awkward meeting when it seems Moira is willing to accept it, even with the possibility she can go free based on the evidence. Thea can’t accept that her mother would take life in prison, and Ollie knows it’s because she’s afraid of coming clean with them about what she knows. So, both Ollie and Thea confront Moira and tell her to just come clean with them and reject the plea deal. And Ollie decides to start telling Diggle about what happened on the island. More importantly than that, is something we all suspected for a while, is that he wasn’t always on the island those five years. Want to let Felicity on that too, huh, since you didn’t invite her to the casual drink session?

“What is so wrong with me that everyone leaves?” In another installment of Laurel makes questionable calls, she is assigned to the prosecution of Moira, if only to get that life in prison plea deal on the table. But she’s clearly not well, and not from the pills she’s taking like tic-tacs. While Ollie is shadowing her, she warns him away, because considering how many people have died or left her, she thinks the same will happen to Ollie eventually. And the news that Sara is alive that you think would snap Laurel to her senses? Well, Quentin has been sworn to secrecy on that. But at least he tells her things are going to get better. So according to many TV dramas, that’s a good omen, right?

–Comic book connections: did you know Dr. Ivo created a super-android called Amazo in the comics? Oh, now you do. And “the child of Ra’s al Ghul”? Um, do I sense another addition to the attractive women about to encircle Ollie soon?

–Um, “the prophet of Ra’s al Ghul” is Sara? So that’s really bad, isn’t it?

–Aww, even Sara thinks Felicity’s cute. Speaking of which, in another one of those weird cross-promotion/kinda sorta related to Arrow things the CW has been known to do, did you see the ad for headphones which had Felicity hum along and chair dance? I’m sure it’s online, but it’s a cute minute or so of awkward exchanges with Roy. Also the only Roy you’ll see this week since he’s not in this episode, so put that into account.

–I just wanted to note, its kind of nice to see Thea a bit more responsible and level headed, even if her boyfriend and brother are lying about what else they do.

–Just when I thought Quentin was going to have a relatively stress-less season, he has one daughter return from the dead only to go into hiding and another dropping pills because of psychological trauma. Almost enough to make a man drink.

–“Have you found someone for me to hit yet?”

–“What’s the League of Assassins? And please don’t say it’s a league made up of assassins.”

–“What are you without your sidearm?” “A man with a spare.” BOOM!

So, what do ya think? Leave your comments, theories, and other Felicity related chatter below, and come back again next time for “Keep Your Enemies Closer”…