ARROW Season 3×23, “My Name Is Oliver Queen” recap

13 May

Welcome back, Arrowheads, to the end of season three of Arrow! It’s been a long road of twists and turns, but here we are, as the Heir to the Demon, aka Al-Sah-him, aka The Arrow, aka Oliver Queen, is about to cement his place in the League of Assassins. He’s already been married off to a reluctant Nyssa, seemingly gassed his former teammates with a deadly virus, the same virus he fought to stop being unleashed in Hong Kong years ago, and now that he has to unleash on Starling City! Can all the lunacy, betrayals, and tragedy that have happened all season be solved in this season finale? Probably not, but let’s see what happens anyway…

“He failed this city.”. In this week’s flashback, our trio of Maseo, Tatsu, and Ollie take out Shrieve’s men, and hogtie Shrieve for later. It’s been about a day, or at least long enough to cremate Akio and share his ashes among the three of them. While Akio’s parents mourn their son’s death, Ollie wanders back into the store where Shrieve is. It’s when the grieving parents wander back in hours later that they find Shrieve barely alive, arrows through him and beaten with a bloody hammer in Ollie’s hand. It looks like the start of “kill all bad guys” Ollie here, and Tatsu is horrified. Maseo however, notes Shrieve is still breathing, and pumps a few bullets into him to correct that. Maseo wanders away, feeling he can’t stay with his wife anymore, and heads off to a place her and Ollie can’t follow, but will end up in years later.

The next morning, Ollie and Tatsu head to the harbor to say their goodbyes. She’s heading off to parts unknown, but Ollie is not going home. At least, not yet. He plans on honoring his father’s wishes to protect Starling, but he knows he’s not ready yet. So he catches a ride on a Coast City based freighter to…well, that’s the question for next season, isn’t it?

Considering all the Felicity crying moments this season, she’ll really value this sleep time.

Awakenings. Oliver, Ra’s, Nyssa, and some League goons are on a flight to Starling, as Oliver wakes up from a mid-flight siesta. Ra’s talks about dreams being important in revealing one’s destiny, and–hold on, what’s with that turbulence outside?

Hold on to that thought, because back at Nanda Parbat, Ollie’s dead teammates are revealed to be not dead and waking up. Malcolm had given each of them inoculation based from Ollie’s blood, and now comes the next part of Ollie’s plan thundering through. It’s the Flash, and he incapacitates the whole lair of baddies and frees our team. They all aren’t sure what to think of Ollie, but Barry tells them no matter what he thinks, Ollie needs their help. BUT Barry can’t because he’s got other things to do (like have a chat with the former Harrison Wells) and Tatsu can’t because, hey, her family is now truly gone. So, that’s two less bits of help in whatever Ra’s is going to do. So let’s get back to that plane…

Plane Trouble. Two of the plane’s engines go out, and Ra’s immediately accuses Nyssa of this sabotage, but Ollie cuts in and says, “nope, that was me”. And then a fight breaks out, and a League goon or two are sent out the cargo doors of the plane minus parachutes. Ra’s gets the only parachute onboard and leaves this party with the vial of virus, assuring Ollie was a dead man, but will be alive to see Starling fall. Ollie and Nyssa crash land the plane outside of town, while our Team is just arriving in town from their flight. Synergy!

Shattered Circle. At Ray’s lab, the team gets orders from Malcolm to intercept any League members before they spread the virus. But if they’re not listening to Malcolm, maybe they will to a just arrived Ollie and Nyssa. Oh but first, Diggle punches his buddy, because, really, trusting Malcolm over everyone else, Ollie? Everyone leaves as our original trio talk things out.

Ollie reveals he had to infiltrate the League to destroy it from within, and that meant isolating his friends to keep them safe from Ra’s. Oh, and he didn’t plan on that surviving that plane sabotage if it meant Ra’s was stopped. Cue Felicity cry. But Diggle reminds us we should handle this virus thing first before ironing out everything, and Felicity’s search for out of the ordinary stuff happening in town, brings an unexpected lead: a hotel floor being bought out by Damien Darhk. So Ra’s had another intention in mind by destroying Starling, by killing Ra’s former friend. Ollie thinks giving Darhk to Ra’s for the virus might stop things. Yeah, sure.

Flash: “I’d love to help, but I got my own season finale problems to worry about!”

Finding the Darhk. So, the Team raids the hotel, and Ollie bursts into the floor to find…well, not Damien Darhk. It’s just a loyal employee, who’s there to let Ollie know Damien’s not there, and then get a lethal arrow from a building away. Ra’s calls the dead man’s phone and shares Ollie’s disappointment in Darhk not being there, and that he’s set his plan to poison the city into motion with four agents sent into the city. Time to get some more help.

Become Someone Else. Laurel goes to meet her dad, who’s ready to blow off his daughter’s warning of mass death. But Laurel lets Quentin know what she’s sussed out by his behavior: he’s been drinking for a while. He says he has it under control, but a former addict knows what a colossal lie that is. She tells him to stop blaming everyone for his pain, and do his freaking job and help save the city. How things change…

At Ray’s lab, Felicity has a chat with Ollie about the whole failed suicide plan. He tells her about the dream he had about avoiding Ra’s duel on the mountain, and rare cases where that dream involves him running away with her. But he’s afraid he has to face Ra’s again in order to stop him, and he knows the Arrow and Oliver Queen failed at that. Leave it to Felicity to tell him he’s not either, and that he’s been fighting with death on his mind. Now, he needs to fight to stay alive. Felicity Smoak, Philosophy Jedi.

Four Points. After Felicity nails down where those agents are, the team splits up to take them out, while Felicity and Ray work up a way to spread a vaccine if things get bad. Well, they get bad as Diggle takes on one of the couriers, and then he gets help from…Thea, in Roy’s old Arsenal garb! As great as this moment is, there’s a surprise that ruins that: the courier isn’t carrying the virus, he’s carrying the virus inside him! He cuts himself open to spread the virus, and Diggle and Thea (daddy inoculated her) are fine among the people starting to drop. Malcolm kills one courier, and Laurel and Nyssa (who didn’t get any inoculate, which I’m sure she’s wondering why no one got around to giving her some protection) take out the other two. And Quentin seems to be finally unlodging the wedge in his ass and helping contain the situation.

Ollie is keeping an eye on things when a League messenger tells him Ra’s is waiting to meet him at the local dam to watch the city die, oh, and let Ra’s fight him to the death. Ring ring! Fight!

Ollie: “I’m sorry, this season has been so twisty…am I supposed to kill you or you kill me? How about a coin toss?”

Fight to Live. Ollie arrives at the dam, bringing the sword that almost killed him at the mountain in that first battle with Ra’s, and Ra’s is ready to finish off his heir. They fight, and the cops are watching, ready to fire against Quentin’s orders not to. Destroy the Arrow, don’t destroy the Arrow, make up your mind, will you, Quentin? Well he does make up his mind, and rings Felicity to let her know Ollie needs help because he’s trying to save the city (as opposed to the other times before you went on your drunken witch hunt. I’m just saying, you need to apologize. BIG TIME.). Ray’s busy trying to finish using the nanobots to spread the cure, so he can’t fly over there in the ATOM suit to help. What to do now?

It looks like Ollie’s about to lose this second bout with Ra’s until he pulls really the same move Ra’s did in almost finishing Ollie off at the mountain. Only this time, he makes sure Ra’s isn’t going to live to make it to a Lazarus Pit, but before Ra’s expires, he takes the ring that I guess is the League’s leadership ring, and Ra’s dies happy. If he only knew…

With Ra’s dead, things are looking great until some overzealous sharpshooters hit Ollie in the chest, sending him off the dam towards the waters below. But, the ATOM swoops in and takes Ollie away, who is lucky the armor in his suit took most of that shooting. He’s about to thank Ray, but its not Ray in the suit. It’s Felicity! Yay!

No Need For An Arrow. At Ray’s lab, we hear that airborne nanobot plan saved a lot of lives, but not all of them (hey, it could have been worse). Ollie talks to the team about how he’s been schooled on trusting his friends, because without them, he wouldn’t have been able to stop Ra’s. And now he feels that because of what they’ve become, maybe its time for him to stop since the Arrow is no more. So yeah, he wants to run off with Felicity (which she’s more than happy to do), but first, he has some house cleaning to do. One, he apologizes to Diggle, but Dig’s still a little rough from all that crap of this season, but maybe he’ll be around to help Team non-Arrow eventually.

At the apartment, Malcolm tells Thea that he’ll be around whenever she needs him. Oh, and she asks if the Red Arrow is not a bad code name. “Oops, I told everyone to call you Speedy, so too late there, little sis”, Ollie says in jest. Then, Ollie talks to Malcolm about not forgetting he’s been the cause of all the crap this season before slipping him something in a handshake. Malcolm asks if this’ll be a problem, and Ollie says, “not unless you don’t hold up your end of our agreement”. What end, you say?

Happy Endings? At Ray’s lab (along with filing off Felicity’s resignation paper), he’s working on a new tech for his ATOM suit that will allow him to shrink stuff. It doesn’t seem to quite work, but then a blue flash, along with a huge explosion takes out the entire floor Ray’s on! I’m sure he’ll be fine, hint hint…

At Nanda Parbat, Nyssa and the League are there to welcome (well, not Nyssa) the new Ra’s al Ghul…Malcolm Merlyn! So Ollie gave Malcolm the League leadership ring and i guess he’s in charge now? Really, Ollie, you couldn’t have just shafted your deal and given Nyssa the job? She vows to kill Malcolm for Sara’s death, and all I have to say to that is: SEASON 4, MAKE THAT DREAM COME TRUE.

We get some voiceover of Ollie like he gives at the start of every episode as we look at the empty Arrow HQ, articles of it being taken out in police evidence, telling us he had a mission to save the city, and now that he succeeded, its time to move on. We see him driving up the coast in a sportscar with Felicity, admitting for the first time in a very long time, he’s happy.

So, I guess we’ll be back in the fall to see how that happy ending gets spoiled.

–Comic book connections: Adams and O’Neill is another nod to Neal Adams & Denny O’Neill, who were responsible for the pivotal 70’s team-up book starring Green Arrow and Green Lantern, which had topical issues, like a drug-addicted Speedy, for instance. And finally, Ray’s experimenting with shrinking technology, which…well, Ray in the comics survives, so that’s good for TV’s Ray Palmer, right? RIGHT?

–I’m getting the impression from the last appearance in the flashbacks and her appearance in the present of this show, Ollie will run into Amanda Waller again before long. Hell, he still has to join up with the Russian mob in the next two odd years of flashbacks.

–It looks like Thea had some time to tailor that Arsenal outfit to fit her…and get inoculated. Busy bee, indeed.

–I get the feeling Damien Darhk may be the villain for next season, with the HIVE and Diggle’s interest in it being the organization that killed his brother.

–You think Nyssa’s going to be pissed or SUPER PISSED when finding out her husband (or did they get that annulled via mail or something?) gave the job she wanted to the killer of her lover?

–So, the city’s been left in the protection of Thea, Laurel, maybe Diggle, and maybe not dead Ray. Yep, Ollie may have his vacation cut short before long.

–“My name…is Oliver Queen!”

–“Why can’t anything work on the first try, huh?”

–“If I could figure out how to get this thing off, I’d kiss you right now.”

–“You guys have a hot tub?”

–“This is like a real dungeon!”

–“I believe the words you’re looking for are ‘thank’ and ‘you’.”

–Great meta-comment line: “Oh, the city’s in danger. Must be May.”

–“I’m happy.”

Well, that’s it for the recaps of season three of Arrow, and except for a season recap in a few weeks, ends things until season four. But hey, leave your thoughts on this season and theories for next season below, and I’ll see you in the fall…and thanks for reading, all of you. It’s been a blast.