ARROW Season 2×20, “Seeing Red” recap

23 Apr

Welcome back, Arrow-heads! What we need to know so far is Moira’s still running for mayor, Thea’s still angry with Moira and Ollie lying to her about…pretty much everything, and Roy’s still comatose. On the plus side, Felicity is getting some help from STAR Labs to make a cure and Isabel is dead (at least as far as Team Arrow knows), so things are looking up, right? Well, this episode reminds us: nope, it’s going to get worse.

The Patient’s Up. At Arrow HQ, its been a week since they retrieved Roy and he’s still unconscious. While Felicity and Diggle talk about current events, like Isabel not showing up in the obituaries since Diggle put the killshot to her, they wonder how long Roy is going to stay unconscious. Well that answer comes as Diggle is about to go grab some munchies as Roy is awake, carrying a thousand mile stare, and unresponsive to Felicity or Diggle. He is tossing them and some of HQ’s gear around though, and he goes from Arrow HQ into Verdant, where he disappears into the night. Meanwhile, Ollie and Sara are having some bedside talk in a hotel room about Roy (and moving in together) when Felicity calls about their missing ward. So much for some quiet time.

Walkabout. Ollie and Sara are looking for Roy, and get a lead from Sin, who just ran into Roy, and watched him destroy a bunch of punks who attacked him. Sin also finds Roy again later on, but at the clocktower hangout, which shows he’s going to familiar places even in his state. Ollie and Sara arrive there to talk him down, but get beaten up, Ollie gets a knee broken, and a poor cop gets run through with an arrow in Roy’s hand meant for him. Things are bad enough where Sara suggests killing Roy, and Ollie’s not for that, which means little now that he can barely walk at the moment. And we also get a clue to what’s going on in Roy’s head: he’s seeing Thea apologizing for leaving him, and pleading for him to kill her.

“(gasping) I really should’ve come up with a Plan B!”

Luring Out Roy. While the hunt for Roy’s going on, there’s a rally for Moira’s mayoral campaign at Verdant that Thea’s really not for at all. Even when she’s reminded by Moira, “hey, we got a contract with you and you’re not offering to pay us back to cancel the deal”, Thea’s even less happy, if that’s possible right now. She also has to deal with Diggle shadowing her, because Ollie thinks Roy may come looking for her, and during all of this, she sees on the news Roy is running around beating up people. She chats with Sin and finally learns about Roy getting drugged up a few months ago, and uses the rally to make a brief positive speech about her mom, which is meant to bring Roy to the club. Too bad her plan only involved trying to reason with him, because after he tears through the security and Diggle, her pleas are met with him trying to choke her out. Sara’s ready to put a bullet through his head, but leave it to Ollie in Arrow gear to put a few venom tipped arrows into Roy, knocking him out. He promises Thea he’ll help Roy, but they don’t have that much venom to keep him subdued, and since there’s no way to know when STAR Labs will have the Mirakuru cure ready, Team Arrow’s back at square one. This also causes Sara to doubt she can actually change her killer training, and she leaves Ollie and town to see an “old friend”.

A Mother’s Love. It’s best before we get to the big turning point in this episode, nay the series so far, we talk about the flashback to before Ollie ends up on that island. He’s talking to Laurel, and she offers to help Sara on her math homework while he rests up from a long night with Tommy. After she leaves, Moira drops by to see what’s bothering Ollie, and it has nothing to do with that story about being with Tommy last night. Ollie thinks he knocked up a girl…that isn’t Laurel. Ollie’s scared what this might do to his relationship with Laurel, so Moira decides to handle it on her own. Moira meets the prospective mother of her grandchild, and gives her an offer: 2 million dollars to tell Ollie the child’s been lost and to leave town. Well, the girl takes it, and Ollie’s none the wiser, if slightly disappointed the baby’s been lost. Let’s pocket this little revelation for later…much, MUCH later…

“Just thinking about you, Laurel…and your younger sister…and that girl I met that I just knocked up…but mostly about you.”

What You’ll Give Up. Moira’s had some time to consider what damage she’s done to Thea, and she wants to make amends. But, in order to do that, she thinks she should end her campaign to focus on Thea (and tells Sebastian Blood that much). Ollie meets with her to talk about that (as well as that “motorcycle accident” that messed up his knee), and tells her to keep going and make her campaign a good thing for Thea to see. Then, she drops a bombshell to Ollie, that she knows he’s the Arrow! And that she’s proud of him! Awwwww…oh wait, something bad’s about to happen, isn’t it? Before that “something bad”, Moira has her speech recommitting to her campaign (along with that awkward fake vote of confidence/luring Roy to Verdant speech from Thea), and mother and siblings leave Verdant in a limo. There, Thea says she knows why Ollie had Diggle follow her: because he knew what was going on with Roy and didn’t tell her. Thea makes the astute observation that all their lies to protect her are doing the exact opposite, and Moira agrees. She offers to tell her and Ollie everything, like Malcolm Merlyn being…OH CRAP, SOMETHING JUST CRASHED INTO THEIR LIMO!

A Mother’s Sacrifice. Ollie wakes up to see Moira and Thea, with Slade behind them in a familiar configuration: like that night on the island where Ivo had him decide whether Sara or Shado should die. Only now, Slade wants Ollie to decide if Moira or Thea should be killed. Ollie offers himself up, trying to remind him Shado chose him, and Slade offers up his hallucination of Shado as evidence that’s not the case (once again, Ollie: Slade. Is. Crazy.). But Moira makes that call for Ollie, and offers herself up to be the sacrificial lamb in this sick game. As much as Slade is impressed by Moira’s courage, he still runs her through with his sword, and promises someone else will die before this is over (Thea, perhaps?) as he leaves. And we end with Moira dead, Thea curled up next to her, and Ollie in complete shock. I think I’m going to need a hug after this.

RIP Moira Queen.

–Comic book connections: I’m wondering if this kid of Ollie’s will be called Connor, after Connor Hawke of the DCU, who is the son of Oliver Queen and at one point, was running around as the Green Arrow. Of course, he’d be eight or so at this point, so I don’t expect a kid in tights fighting crime anytime next season.

–Ollie swears to kill Slade if he hurts his family, which he just did. Well, here’s hoping he goes through with that vow before the end of the season, because as much as I love the element Deathstroke has been bringing to this season, I also want him to die a horrible death SOON.

–So thanks to Moira being dead, her kids don’t know about Malcolm Merlyn being alive and Ollie being a dad. And I’m sure Thea’s going to have her own set of questions for Ollie about Slade and his time on that island. Way to really cement a legacy of awkward conversations for the future of the show.

–Who is Sara’s “old friend”? Not Nyssa, I hope.

–A nice reminder of the season of far with that clinic doctor agreeing to help the Arrow recover thanks to earlier this season with him stopping the Triad stealing those medical supplies.

–So, the Mirakuru causes anyone to have hallucinations. Here I was thinking Slade was just crazy, which wait, he was and still is. So what does that mean for Roy once, or if, he ever wakes up?

–“I’m not supposed to let you out of my sight. Since you’re sick of seeing me, I figured “lurking” was a good compromise.” Good one, soon to be unemployed Ollie bodyguard Diggle.

–“How can you be unconscious and freak me out at the same time?”

–“Anyone else crave dim sum after fisticuffs? Dumplings for one, then.”

–“Mopey’s your default, Ollie.”

So, what did you think? Is it about time Ollie puts Slade down for good? What do you think is going down for the last three episodes of the season? Leave your thoughts and theories below as we return next week for “City of Blood”…