Welcome back, Arrow-heads! So the proverbial crap has hit the proverbial fan. Ollie’s in a bit of a funk after Moira’s death, but gets put right by Team Arrow and…Laurel? Yeah, she gives him enough motivation to get back to the hood wearing to take down Sebastian Blood and that Mirakuru-army of his. And then Team Arrow gets sidetracked in a few ways: Ollie and Laurel being trapped in the tunnels below Starling City; Felicity getting a call from STAR Labs about that Mirakuru cure; and Diggle facing off against a really ticked off Isabel. And things get worse with Blood’s army laying siege to places like Quentin’s precinct house and the train station where Thea is, while the army makes its way into town. Ruh-Roh!
Back to the Amazo. Let’s get the island flashback out of the way first, as we discover that while Ollie and his new prison buddies have knocked that old Japanese sub loose, Sara waited on dry land only to get nabbed by Slade. And now that the Amazo seems to be moving, Ollie plans to get back onto the Amazo, rescue Sara, and cure or kill Slade (based on current psycho Slade, let’s just say either option probably didn’t go as planned). If he doesn’t do any of that in an hour, he tells Anatoli to sink the ship anyway. Anatoli offers to repay Ollie for saving his life when he gets back, and possibly learn some Russian. Ollie sneaks back onto the Amazo and frees Sara, but wants to stay to get the Mirakuru cure to fix Slade. They go to the safe to get the cure, only to find Slade there, waiting with the cure in his hand. So all Ollie has to do is convince Slade to take it and the events of this season will never happen. Oh nuts.
“Um, Ollie, why is there an arrow with a boxing glove at the end of it? That’s just weird.”
Out of the Frying Pan. Present day. Down below, Ollie and Laurel are still stuck down below in the cave-in. Ollie has crawled out, but Laurel is still stuck, but trapped with Ollie’s bow and arrow. So Ollie gets her to fire the explosive arrow in his quiver to escape, and gives her a nice bow shooting lesson to boot. Upstairs, Diggle’s about to be diced up by Isabel, when Felicity drives the van at her (which doesn’t do much but knock her out for a few seconds), and the duo escape to meet up with Ollie. There they get some kind of good news: STAR Labs has a cure for the Mirakuru, but then comes the bad news that the courier delivering it is missing in Starling City, which is in total chaos. Laurel decides to leave Team Arrow to meet up with Quentin at the precinct house, while the team goes to grab the courier before Slade does. Too bad Slade is listening to cell phone traffic, because he sends someone to nab the courier.
Into the Flame. Team Arrow is tear-assing through town when a couple of super-thugs crash their van. They manage to flee their pursuers, albeit with a lot of bangs and bruises, but get to the courier far too late. The cure is gone, grabbed by one of Slade’s thugs, and this is bad because STAR Labs used all the material to make the cure. While the team heals up at Sara’s clock hideout, Ollie’s all mopey for failing the city, and then, (wait for it Olicity shippers) Felicity tells Ollie she still believes in him being able to stop Slade and they hug. Awww, jeez. Before you can say “KISS, you fools!”, Diggle arrives with unconscious Roy and Ollie’s phone is ringing. Who’s calling him right now?
Aw, this episode is making Felicity cry. How could you? Sniff. I’m not angry, I’m just frustrated with you doing that. Sniff.
The Family Lance. Quentin manages to retake the station by introducing super-thug to a few grenades (the grenades win). Thanks to the chaos, jerkwad detective who got him arrested a few episodes back offers him his detective shield back, seeing as how he’s done better at handling the super-thugs than the entire department has (sorry, jerkwad detective, you still need your ticket punched). Laurel gets some help getting through town from Sara in costume, which doesn’t matter too much because Laurel figures out who she is too. Sara still has some issues about being a hero over all the wrongs she’s committed, and Laurel’s able to snap her out of it with some good words of comfort and letting her save some people from a burning building. Jeez, Laurel’s just fixing everyone’s crap these last couple of episodes. How things have turned.
Father (Doesn’t) Know Best. Thea’s dealing with chaos at the train station and then, hey, Malcolm Merlyn just showed up to kill the super-thug! He offers to help her to safety through this chaos, and considering her options, she reluctantly accepts it. Malcolm gets assaulted by another super-thug, and is barely past that beating when Thea points a gun at him. And as Malcolm talks about how they lost people, and how she still has him, she fires a few rounds and we hear a body drop. Probably not the best idea to suggest Thea still has her mass-murdering psycho dad around, Malcolm.
Malcolm: “Your dad’s here.” Thea: “My dad’s Captain Jack Harkness?” Malcolm: “No, Malcolm Merlyn, mass murderer.” Thea: “Jack Harkness is a mass murderer?” Malcolm: “I…well, actually yes, he is.”
Blood Like Me. Sebastian Blood is preaching calm and control during this insanity to the D.A., but one of the super-thugs kills the D.A. in front of him, he has to finally ask Slade, “Um, you are planning to let me rebuild this city like we talked about, right?” Slade’s response: “Well, Ollie likes this city, so the answer is ‘no’”. So, now that Sebastian feels like a complete tool for believing Slade, he gets in touch with Ollie and offers to give him the cure to stop Slade. When Ollie and Diggle arrive at the mayor’s office, Sebastian spins some spiel about his mask being what he imagined his father to be, wanting to save the city, blah blah. When Sebastian suggests he will help rebuild the city once Slade’s dealt with, Ollie says “yeah, that’s not going to happen, nutjob who killed your own parents”. Then, Sebastian says “if you tell them I’m Brother Blood, I’ll tell the press you’re the Arrow”. Ollie calls his bluff and walks out with the cure, which is too bad, because he misses Blood meeting the business end of two swords minutes later by Isabel. We start the season with a mayor dead, and end it with another one dead.
Lockdown. As they’re setting up giving some of the cure to fix Roy, Team Arrow and the police get some welcome news: the army’s here! But, they’re covering every way in and out of the city and shouldn’t have arrived as quickly as they have. If you guessed ARGUS and Amanda Waller sent them, you’d be correct. If you thought they were the cavalry to help out, you’d be wrong. In a few hours, Waller’s going to take care of the Mirakuru-army the only way she seems to know how: by leveling Starling City and killing everyone in it with a drone strike! Does Waller solve all her problems with drone strikes now (I feel bad for her boyfriends)? Um, everyone’s boned, I guess. So see you next week for the season finale when everyone dies. Bring snacks.
More psycho girlfriend behavior from Isabel: after being resurrected with super strength, kill the mayor of a town under siege. I’d recommend therapy, but I think we may have to bring back frontal lobotomies to deal with this.
–Comic book connections: An obvious connection I didn’t make earlier is the D.A., Kate Spencer, is the civilian identity of the DCU’s current Manhunter. So, no vigilante night job for her based on what happens here.
–Felicity laments colored serums and why they can’t be clear. She doesn’t know about the Crystal Pepsi debacle, does she?
–Love how that phone call with Waller solves Ollie’s concern about shooting up Roy with the cure and he injects him super fast. Maybe Ollie doesn’t want Roy to miss the city being blown to hell.
–Really, Isabel couldn’t see that van coming at her? Probably good she ditched the mask, because depth perception is important for super-powered psychos.
–I love Anatoli now. Bring him back for season three!
–“If you’re going to use that, you’ll want to click the safety off.”
–“I’m discovering capacity to do many things I never thought I would do.”
–“I’m just saying if you guys don’t come back alive, I’m gonna be really pissed.”
So, you as insanely revved up for the season finale like I am? Who’s going to be dead and what ‘s going to happen? We’ll return one more time next week for the season finale, “Unthinkable”…
dee2henry
intellichick
ladydethpool
magnitudev1
natashanerdlush
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elizabeth ann
Billy
stewartmoncure
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NerdLush 
What do you think?