ARROW Season 3×02, “Sara” recap

16 Oct

Welcome back, Arrowheads! Are you finished scooping your jaw off the floor after last week’s shocker ending? Which one do I mean, you ask? No, not the one where it seems Ollie won’t be getting a second date with Felicity. I mean the one where Sara gets three arrows to the chest and is dead…again!

First Thing in the Morning. Ollie, Felicity, and Roy are heading downstairs to Arrow HQ talking about phone upgrades when they get a surprise: Laurel waiting with Sara’s corpse. Laurel didn’t know what to do, so she brought Sara there, and understandably, everyone’s emotional over this. Later, Laurel talks to Ollie about what to do (and this is after Ollie tries to contact Thea) and they reluctantly agree to keep this news from Quentin until they track down Sara’s killer. That night, Ollie walks the rooftop to figure out how the murder went down, and Diggle arrives, ready to help out. Of course, Diggle is worried about how Ollie is taking this (in that he’s not a blubbering mess), but Ollie says he’s focusing on finding Sara’s killer.

Ollie gets a call from Quentin to meet and talk about a string of murders happening with an arrow to the chest, but even Quentin can see that the Arrow isn’t having a good night. And seeing how lethal the masked mystery archer is at his job killing another target, this won’t be easy.

“Jeez, we got to get Google alerts every time we get someone dropped onto the table like that!’

Calling In Sick. Felicity and Roy are down in Arrow HQ reflecting on Sara, and Felicity is having to call in sick to work, but wisely doesn’t mention the dead assassin she’s next to. Later, Roy is using Felicity’s computer to search the FBI’s database for Thea, which is strange, because Thea is supposed to be on vacation. “Um, yeah,” Roy says, “she’s not so much on vacation but just not wanting to come back”, which Felicity is surprised by. She says Roy should tell Oliver this, but Roy thinks Thea leaving is his fault and is afraid Ollie won’t forgive him for that. But Felicity is distracted by some news that takes her to Ray Palmer’s offices in Queen Consolidated: he bought out the company that owns the place she works at. She’s not happy about this, even as Palmer offers a better paying job at his offices. Even he can see its not this act that is making her upset, but she leaves before saying anything about it.

Komodo. Ollie gets help from Diggle via access to ARGUS on tracking down the mystery archer, and its an assassin known as Komodo. Felicity traces Komodo’s phone to where he’s about to pick off his next target, and Arrow arrives to save the victim, but not catch Komodo. While Laurel hears this and leaves the HQ for a bit (more on that in a second) Ollie’s trying to rally Felicity out of her funk, but she’s really rattled by Sara’s death. And leave it to Ollie to make it worse by talking about seeing Sara dead making him think how all of this is going to end with him dead. “Well thanks for the pep talk, Debbie Downer,” Felicity is probably thinking. No wonder later on she takes Palmer’s job offer. And how focused Ollie is right now? Well, when Roy tells Ollie the whole truth about Thea and what happened, he doesn’t go “you did WHAT?”, but, “Sigh. Alright.” I think Roy may have picked the right time to tell him based on that reaction.

Once a Lance…. Laurel heads to the hospital where Komodo’s latest victim is recovering, and bullies her way through protective custody. Then she almost snaps the guy’s arm trying to find out why he’s being targeted. Looks like she’s making the same connection Ollie and Diggle make later: there’s a connection to all the Komodo victims, but instead of an answer, Komodo puts an arrow through his chest to finish the job. Quentin arrives and knows she wasn’t supposed to be questioning the witness, but she doesn’t say why she was there. Later at Arrow HQ, we find out the last target is a businessman appearing at Palmer’s Star City Gala at the Queen Consolidated building. Laurel wants to help Ollie take him down, but he knows she’s not thinking straight right now. He leaves with Roy, but the way Laurel looks at that extra gun in Arrow HQ says something different.

Empty Victory. Komodo avoids being subtle and crashes the gala to kill the businessman, but Roy and Ollie intercept him. After a nice archer to archer standoff, Ollie pins Komodo to the wall to get answers. But Laurel is there too, ready to shoot Komodo for killing Sara, and Ollie tries talking her down. It’s only when Laurel says Sara’s name that Komodo goes, “Wait, who? That’s not who I killed in another town two days ago.” Laurel pulls the trigger, and when nothing happens, realizes Ollie unloaded the gun while she was wrapped up in all that emotion.

Dead Again. The next morning after Komodo is arrested do Ollie and Laurel find out Komodo wasn’t lying about not killing Sara. While Ollie vows to find Sara’s killer, he tells Laurel it may be time to tell Quentin the truth. She attempts to at his office, but seeing his heart monitor makes her reconsider that for now. That night, the team and Laurel stand around Sara’s grave, made for her five years ago, and now filled with her actual body. Laurel can’t accept she’s burying her sister for real in the surrogate grave she had made for her, and that no one may know what happened to her. But hey, Diggle and Lyla’s baby will be named Sara, so that’s some small comfort.

“Being tricked into finding my presumed dead best friend in Hong Kong? Man, this is extreme, even for an fraternity prank!”

“Tommy?”. In the Hong Kong flashbacks this week, Maseo, his handler, is teaching Ollie about the fine art of sniping fools. They talk about why would Waller want Queen, and then Ollie gets pointed at his target…Tommy! Ollie’s last attempt to contact home pinged a search Tommy was running, and now Waller wants him to stop searching, and like Waller, she prefers Tommy be a corpse. To avoid an eventual paradox with Tommy’s eventual demise, Ollie cooks up a way to get Tommy safe. He sets up a fake kidnapping plot that is based on that contact that was meant to pull in someone in the Queen clan, but getting Malcolm Merlyn’s son was an unexpected bonus. With Ollie playing the kidnapper and Maseo pretending to be the cop that “saves” Tommy, it looks like Tommy may be out of harm’s way…until he dies years later. So, yay?

“John, I don’t want to die in here.” “Then don’t, Oliver.” Ollie’s alone in the HQ when Diggle visits. Ollie swears he’ll find Sara’s killer, and Diggle’s ready to help him do that. While everyone is off reflecting in a montage (Roy debating calling Thea, Sara looking at Sara’s Canary jacket, etc.), somewhere in Corto Maltese, someone is fighting three people in a training exercise. In walks Malcolm, who’s really proud of that someone…short haired Thea! She says, “Thanks, Dad.” Awwwww?

“Yes, boys. Drink in the Barrowman.”

–Comic book connections: Komodo is another DC villain, natch.

–Um, Laurel lugged a woman dressed in leather with arrows still stuck in her into probably her car and all the way downstairs the closed Verdant to Arrow HQ? Someone’s been working out.

–Oh there’s no way Laurel lying about Sara’s death to her dad isn’t going to cause a health crisis in the future. Wait, what am I saying?

–Ollie barely able to say “John.” That’s what hit the feels for me. It’s all about the Ollie/Diggle bromance, aren’t I right?

–Felicity’s been marking Palmer’s emails to work for him as spam. More like “stalker”, am I right?

–Roy’s response to Felicity talking about what he means when he suggests upgrading the phones: No, only because you weren’t speaking English just now.”

Well, that’s it for now, but leave your comments below, and come back next week for “Corto Maltese”…