ARROW Season 3×10, “Left Behind” recap

21 Jan

Welcome back, Arrowheads! Hope you enjoyed the hiatus over the last month or so, but I have some bad news for you…Oliver Queen is dead. Yeah, the titular Arrow was killed in a mountain duel by Ra’s al Ghul (or possibly killed by that drop of that cliff, but let’s not dwell on that yet), protecting Thea, who got brainwashed by Malcolm Merlyn to kill Sara. Add to this, Ollie discovers Thea got some mad fighting skills, his mentor in Hong Kong years ago, Maseo, just got his membership in the League of Assassins, and if he doesn’t fight Ra’s, the evidence that Thea killed Sara will be released, sentencing her to death by the League (because that’s what dads do for their kids, I guess). And Felicity is discovering her new boss has a super-secret supersuit program he wants her to help in. So I guess the show’s over, which begs the question: if the show’s minus Arrow, shouldn’t we rename this show Diggle and Company? I mean Ollie’s dead, right? RIGHT?

Alpha. Well, it seems pointless to do a flashback for a dead character, but here we go. Talking with Waller, Ollie and Maseo get a new mission, and its not to rescue Tatsu from China White. The Omega chemical stolen needs a brother component called (wait for it, wait for it) Alpha in order to work. So they have to steal the only vial of it from a lab, which gets interrupted by a shootout with Triad thugs who want the same thing. Ollie spares two of the thugs fleeing the scene, but Waller has the Alpha vial so all’s good there. Maseo knows Ollie didn’t let them go without a reason, and finds out Ollie put a tag on one of them to find China White and Tatsu. Maseo says he will be indebted to Oliver forever for this. Put that in your pocket for later, I think.

Three Days Later. Its been a few days since Ollie left for his death duel with Ra’s, and Team Arrow has been doing their best to cover things (like Diggle dressed up as Arrow). They are chasing down a duo of guys involved in a cop shooting, and manage to catch one of the baddies. While Diggle and Roy seem to be handling this long absence with some concern, Felicity is either too busy handling two hero technical support jobs or too confident to take in the possibility Ollie may not have survived. Also, Thea is wondering where her big step-bro is and Malcolm volunteers to help find him. “Maybe he’s in that place where I sent him to die to protect you from something I made you do”, he does not add.

Diggle and Company: the spinoff I’m sure more than one of you asked for.

Brick Wall. Team Arrow and by some coincidence, Laurel, are trying to find the other guy from that cop shooting and find a connection in a big-time criminal known as Brick. He was in prison until the witnesses and evidence on his case vanished, and we see him at his hideout, dealing with that missing thug via a game of “you shoot me, you live”. Diggle and Roy arrive at that hideout to find a torched corpse (their target) and torched cell phones. Before you can say “something big is happening”, Malcolm visits Arrow HQ to ask where Ollie is. He plans to look for him, but his prognosis is bad. Really, Malcolm. Really.

Denial and Discovery. While Team Arrow is trying to figure out what a burned list of numbers at Brick’s former hideout means, Laurel visits Arrow HQ and hears about what Malcolm said about Ollie. Her response is, give or take: “Really, you’re listening to the self-obsessed mass murderer for what’s going on?” She’s convinced Ollie will come back (he’s been dead before), as Felicity seems to be letting that grim possibility sink in. Meanwhile, Malcolm travels up to that mountaintop to find Ra’s blood soaked blade, but no Ollie. But hold on, then who’s dragging Ollie’s body across the hillside?

“Guy Ritchie didn’t need me for his next film, so ‘ere I am!”

Bad Bearer of Bad News. Malcolm once again invites himself into Arrow HQ to let them know, that if Ra’s left that blade behind, it means Oliver’s dead. And instead of doing what I would do hearing that, which is introduce him to the business end of Diggle’s Glock, Felicity chews Malcolm out. He’s seems all torn up about it (although that’s probably more because now that Ollie failed, that death warrant on him is still there), and really, JUST KILL HIM! HE’S RIGHT THERE! Ahem. Anyway, he leaves, and after confirming Ollie’s blood on that blade, Felicity heads back to Palmer’s lab, barely keeping the feels in.

Let It Set In. Thea’s at Verdant, and asks Roy (who’s still stinging from the news) if he could ask the Arrow to find Ollie. Before he can say, “ask your psycho dad”, he goes, “sure”. Felicity is doing worse, lashing out at Ray for his ATOM suit plans as being a quick way to kill himself and not what his dead wife would’ve wanted. He, in a less than jovial manner, reminds her, “you didn’t know my wife”, and she decides to take the night off. But, Diggle calls with some news: those numbers are case files for evidence, connected to a lot of the criminals Team Arrow has taken down in the last few months. If that evidence goes missing, those criminals could get out, which would destroy all them and Ollie strived to do.

All In The Numbers. At the evidence warehouse, Brick and his boys arrive in a truck to steal the evidence boxes, and Team Arrow and the cops right behind them. Diggle and Roy take on the bad guys, barely surviving, and when it seems Brick is escaping with the truck full of evidence, both heroes get stopped by a closing warehouse door. Back at HQ later, Diggle tells Felicity that the door didn’t close on its own, that she did it. She doesn’t deny it, seeing that they could have (and almost) died continuing to pursue Brick, and she couldn’t handle that. While Diggle is saying they can go on without Ollie, she’s convinced otherwise and quits.

Moving On. Malcolm is waiting for Thea, and announces they’re in danger and need to leave the city. He does not add, “yeah, I got your brother killed and you set up for murder, so we should go.” Felicity sees Palmer and apologizes for unloading on him earlier, but she still won’t help him on the ATOM project. Laurel arrives at the HQ, and Diggle is still there, trying to figure out how to handle the ten being fractured like this. She’s sorry for all those criminals who had to be let go based on that evidence being stolen, and finds Diggle’s not sure what to do. As he leaves, Laurel notices a lot of her dead sister’s Canary gear lying around, and, do I see an idea forming here?

“No one’s thought of this before, Felicity! A glove you can play video games on!” “Ummmmm…”

Sound and Fury. At a meeting place with most of these freed criminals, Brick lays out what he wants from them in return for their freedom: to take over the Glades, or get that evidence sent back to the cops. Later on, two of the thugs there are talking about this proposal when — a loud sonic scream knocks them senseless–and Laurel appears, in full on Canary dress-up to hand them a side of ass-kicking. Well, it’s not Ollie, but it’ll seem to handle things right now. Hey, where is Ollie now?

Omega. Back at that snowy mountain region, the mystery man dragging Oliver is revealed to be Maseo, and he arrives at a cabin, pleading for help. Later on, Ollie miraculously wakes up (hey he got stabbed and fell off a mountain, so that qualifies as “miraculously”) and sees Tatsu there. Maseo let’s his friend know that she brought him back to life. And like that, apparently we can cancel calling this show Diggle and Company now. Sigh, I don’t know how to think about that. Give me next week to think on that.

–Comic book connections: Mr. Brickwell (“Brick”) is another DC villain who yes, is slightly bulletproof. Either that, or Vinnie Jones is unable to be hurt by bullets.

–Speaking of being shot, that’s a great moment of villainy when Brick takes that bullet graze to the head by Diggle with some surprise and glee.

–Jeez people, watching Felicity in that scene with Diggle, letting him know this whole crusade is done was rough. You know you’ve hit a bad spot emotionally when you quit both your hero assistance gigs in the same day.

–Maseo and Tatsu seem to have hit a rough patch in the time between the past and present. Could this be because we don’t see their son in that cabin?

–“You’re a smart man. No one ever goes for the head.”

–“You have that look that Oliver has before he says something…sagely.”

–“This suit is too tight.”

–“We really need to change the locks.” No ***t.

Well, that’s it for now, but hey, leave some comments below and come back next week for “Midnight City”…