ARROW Season 2×15, “The Promise” recap

Welcome back, Arrow-heads!  What you need to know: on the island, the trio of Ollie, Sara, and Slade have figured out a way onto the freighter.  In the present, Ollie comes home to see his mom meeting an old friend…Slade!  Something tells me there’s not going to be much talk between those two about how things have been over the last few years.

Returning to the Freighter.  Our trio preps to make an attack on the freighter, when they get the idea to destroy the Mirakuru they already have (too bad neither Ollie or Sara seem to check on the contents of that crate its in, because…).  Both of them argue over whether to kill Ivo before Slade gets to him for fear he’ll snap and attack them as well.  Then, they think they know a way to get onto Ivo’s freighter, but they can’t get everyone on it with just one parachute.  So, Ollie comes up with a solution to that: set off a bonfire (like the one in the pilot) that leads Ivo’s men to the shore to capture Ollie.  Once on board, Ivo pumps some truth serum into him, and Ollie lets him know the others have sneaked onboard thanks to his bonfire “distraction”.  But that turns out to be a lie, because Sarah put a chemical in Ollie to disrupt any truth serum.  While Ollie escapes Ivo’s men, Sara and Slade paraglide down onto the freighter.  They meet up and Slade wants Ivo spared so he can deal with him personally.  Well good thing Ollie won’t let that happen, because if he did, Ivo might spill the beans over what happened to Shado and who knows what he’ll do.  Oh yeah, he will know eventually.  Um…

“Time to put my numerous times watching Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves to good use!”

Chaos On Board.  Ollie fights more of Ivo’s men while Sara breaks out the prisoners, like Anatoli and some reverend guy (I’m sure we’ll know more about the latter person later).  Ollie finds Ivo at the bridge, and plans to kill him when he makes the mistake of letting Ivo talk about what happened when Shado was killed.  This is bad because Slade happens in on that conversation, and either with grief or with that mirakuru screwing up his brain, decides to start attacking Ollie.  Ivo and Ollie manage to escape a dazed Slade, with Ollie letting Sara in on the bad news.  The freighter seems to be seriously damaged, and Sara suggests making it back to the beach.  She and some of the remaining prisoners ditch the Amazo and as morning breaks, they hit the shore…minus Ollie.

A New Captain.  Before Ollie could get off the Amazo, Slade grabbed him and locked him in up in the cells.  Slade then murders the captain with a headcrushing, and declares himself the new captain.  Later on, he brings Ollie out to see a captured Ivo, and despite Ollie’s attempts to talk him down, really doesn’t care what either Ollie or Ivo have to say.  And then, we see Slade never burned the Mirakuru, but stashed it away on him.  Slade then asks Ivo to show him how he killed Shado, which he does just before Ivo gets his gun hand chopped off.  Ivo gets dragged away, and Ollie gets a preview of things to come when Slade tells his former friend he will suffer long and horribly before he dies.

“(singing) Because I only have an eye…forrrrrr youuuuuuuu…”

A Stranger (and a Friend) At The House.  This brings us to now, as Ollie has run into his former friend Slade at the Queen mansion, talking to Moira.  So he puts up the impression of being respectable to this guest who Moira thinks he’s never seen, albeit cagey about him being there.  He attempts at one point to stab Slade while Moira’s oput of the room, but um, remember Slade’s full of that super-serum, Ollie?  Well, clearly you didn’t.  Thea comes into the house, and Slade lets Ollie know, “we’ll get to the killing part once I’ve gotten to know your family.”  Um, suppose it wouldn’t make any difference to Slade if he’s told Thea’s a half-sister, right?  Yeah, probably not.

A Trip Through The Gallery.  So, Slade gets to meet Thea, who Moira offers as a guide through the Queen’s art collection.  It seems Thea, besides knowing how to run a nightclub, has a lot of knowledge into the Queen’s artwork, because…well, look, let’s just keep going, OK?  So Slade really likes one particular painting called “The Promise” (meta hint), and while he’s chatting with the Queen women, Ollie dials the phone under his jacket pocket.  At Arrow HQ, shirtless Roy practices with a bow (thus fulfilling the requisite shirtless scene for an Arrow episode) with Sara helping, and ignoring the cell phone ringing.  Leave it to Felicity (back with Diggle and some groceries) to pick up the phone, and think Ollie turned it on by accident.  But when she pipes the call into the speakers, Sara goes cold hearing Slade’s voice.  Then she lets the team know who that is, and why they need to get to the Queen mansion RIGHT NOW.

The Promise Made.  While Diggle is setting up to take down Slade with a big ass sniper rifle once he leaves the mansion, Roy and Sara arrive apart from each other, and seem to catch Slade a bit off guard, both with Sara being alive and Roy being quite strong in the handshake.  Slade decides to call it a night, but Ollie wants to walk him out the door.  As both are leaving, Ollie tells him he’s figured out his involvement with Cyrus Gold and the mystery masked villain he doesn’t know is Sebastian Blood, and then Slade lets Ollie know about him expecting Diggle.  One of Slade’s goons knocks out Diggle, but Slade assures him he won’t die…yet, as he drives off, reminding Ollie about that promise he made all those years ago.  And as we see at the end, he’s putting that plan into motion, because he came to that house to not kill the Queen family, but to bug their house with surveillance cameras.  Also, you think he would’ve done something about that hole where his eye used to be.  That can’t be healthy looking, can it?  Maybe next episode.

Slade, you’re never going to find another woman by using that picture on your Match.com profile page.

–Comic book connections: Here I thought the Reverend Flynn, like Anatoli AKA the KGBeast, had a link to comics.  Sadly, did not find a connection.

–And hey, props to the makers of this episode for that epic fight on the freighter.  When early reports said this was a big episode, they weren’t kidding.

–Moira’s not too happy with Ollie’s behavior toward Slade and suggests not coming over with that attitude again.  To which if I was Ollie, I would’ve said: “Yes, mother of me and a half-sister whose father is a mass murderer.  I’ll take that under advisement.”

–Now come on Felicity, I think you would’ve known by now Ollie never “butt-dials”.

–I like that creepy Shado dream Ollie has.  Just guilt-driven enough to make Ollie hesitate when he has the chance to kill Ivo.  Bad for him.

–Speaking of guilt, we get a bit of backstory on Ivo, that he has a loved one dying and probably needing the Mirakuru to survive.  I take it from what’s happened now that doesn’t happen.

–Despite Diggle’s role of being knocked out this episode, the next episode promises a  Diggle-rific good time with…well, the title of next week’s show should give you an idea.

–At least Sara’s smart to ask for what’s the biggest gun you got for killing Slade.  Even then, a sniper rifle that fires rounds tough enough to punch into tank armor may not be everything needed to take down Mr. Wilson.

–“There’s a breeze!”

–“Well, what do you want to do…Mr. Wilson?”

So, what did you think?  Leave your thoughts and theories below as we come back in two weeks for “Suicide Squad”…

Tags: Action, Arrow, Comics, Green Arrow, Reviews, Stephen Amell, Stewart, Television