Full Episode Spoilers ahead!
The show kicks off with Team Arrow picking up right where they left off. The are chasing down a stolen Shipment of RPGs in what is most likely s stolen truck. As Arrow rids on top of the truck He radio’s ahead to Roy that the truck is heading his way. Roy in full “Red Arrow/Arsenal” garb flips over a car and puts an arrow in each tire. The person in the truck runs away, but gets tripped up by a trip line set by Arrow. In classic Arrow fashion, Oliver tells the driver that he failed this city and almost takes his head off with a right hook. An epic start to this season. The team’s cohesion seems to be at its peak. We have all been waiting with baited breath to see Roy in his costume. Colton Haynes pulls the look off extremely well. It will be interesting to see if he moves from the bow and arrow, to guns an such, like his comic counterpart. Time will tell.
Later, team Arrow is shown walking in broad daylight into the Foundry, which is a bit of a head scratcher, but lets just go with it. Felicity quips that the city should be thanking team Arrow for cleaning up the streets, instead of arguing on TV if the Arrow is still a in J. Jonah Jamerson’s voice “A menace”. There is clearly some romantic tension between Felicity and Oli, but Oli is still a bit standoffish. Diggle tells Oli that he should fully open up to Felicity because he deserves it to be happy just like everyone else.
Next up we have a flashback, which has become a staple in every episode of Arrow since it’s premiere in 2012. Oli is running through the streets of what looks like Shanghai. He runs to a computer and before he could finish what he was doing a Asian man knocks him down. He says something to Oli in Chinese, Oli tells him he has told him before, he doesn’t speak Chinese. The mystery man retorts that he has told Oli before, If he tries to escape again, he will kill him.
While walking out of the police station, Laurel tells Oli that she has a surprise for him. Detective Lance, or Captain Lance at this point, gets on TV and tells the city that he is disbanding the Arrow task force. Captain Lance is fully onboard with team Arrow at this point. This is a stark contrast to his position in previous seasons. Clearly Captain Lance has realized that Arrow is the cities only hope. He can do things that the police never could. It will be interesting to see if that sentiment last.
A group of baddies are watching the broadcast. Since their boss is in jail, a “common street dealer” puts his name in the ring to become the new leader. He dubs himself Count Vertigo. You know, because coming up with a unique villain name is way too hard.
At the end of last season Oli lost Queen Consolidated after being duped by Isabel Rochev. Oli has a chance to get the company back, but he is unsure if the board will be accepting of him given his past. Felicity tells Oli that the board will see that he should run the company based on the fact that he has heart and cares about the people who work there. Clearly Felicity knows nothing about how business works. Oli finally asks her out on a date. The writers have been building towards this for a long time. Granted, the romance has been a bit one-sided (Felicity pining for Oli) but we all knew it could eventually get to this point.
Next we see Arrow in pursuit of another suspect. He calls Diggle who calls Felicity, who is apparently working at the Starling city version of Best Buy as tech support. Boy how the mighty have fallen. Arrow easily takes out the bad guy but a visibly shaken Captain Lance trails him. His health issue is clearly more severe then we though.
Felicity is back at work and Superman… err… Ray Palmer comes up to her counter. He is looking for a gadget to hack a very well guarded network. He knows who Felicity is and offers her a job. She declines and helps him find what he needs to hack the signal he is trying to. Even money says this will come back to bite Felicity in the butt.
In preparation for his date the Arrow goes through a Superman like transformation form costume to suit and tie. He is at the restaurant for his date with Felicity, who looks simply ravishing in her red dress. Seriously, this writer can’t stress enough how hot Emily Bett Rickards is when they allow her to ditch the glasses and wear her hair down. They go through a very awkward exchange and joke about the fact that at this point they shouldn’t have anything to be nervous about. Oliver opens up to Felicity about not being on the island the whole five years he was lost at sea.
Looks like he Arrow was tracked to the restaurant. The villain is on the roof next door aiming an RPG at the restaurant. Oli sees it coming (apparently he has Superman’s hearing as well) and dives on top of Felicity.
The RPG laid waste to the restaurant. Oli brings the knocked out Felicity back to the Foundry. Roy finds a bug on Oli’s coat. Oli thinks the fact that someone was able to plant a tracer on him is because he is distracted. This shouldn’t surprise anyone watching. This is standard hero mumbo jumbo. The “I can never be happy because I am a hero thing” might be the most overused cliché in superherodum. Given the fact that it seemingly works every time, we can’t really fault the writers for rehashing it.
Arrow enlists Captain Lance for help finding the new head of the Steelgrave crime syndicate. Arrow comes face to face with the newly dubbed Count Vertigo. The Count manages to throw a dart into Arrow neck laced with the new version of Vertigo. This Count Vertigo can actually fight which is a stark contrast from the last Count. Arrow beats him back, but the effects of the drug kick in and Vertigo morphs into Oliver Queen. Arrow is discombobulated and gets his but kicked. Before Oliver (Count Vertigo) can land the killing blow, Captain Lance fires a shot and tells the Count to get away from the Arrow. The Captain’s health issue bares it’s ugly head again and he collapses. The Count steps closer to Captain Lance, Arrow shoots The Count in the back with an arrow but the Count gets away.
Felicity and Oli go to the board meeting to try to get the board to give Oli back his company. Once they arrive, they are shocked to learn there is another bidder for the company. Superman! Err… Ray Palmer. Oli makes a heart felt presentation, but Palmer gives a presentation that is routing in data he stole from Queen Consolidated computers… See, told you Felicity’s actions earlier would come back to bite her. Palmer wins the bid.
After the fact, Oli tells Felicity that he thinks he might be scared of what would happen if he tried to be Oliver Queen. Again, standard hero mumbo jumbo.
Oli decides he can’t have Diggle in the field anymore. He tells Diggle his risk can’t be can’t be Diggles. Oli says that this is his crusade and it’s his decision. Diggle is understandably upset at Oli for benching him. Diggle storms off and is never to be seen again. He gets a spin off show called NCIWVST: Crime Unit. Ok, that didn’t happen, but if Dig was going to get a spinoff show, that would have been the time to give it to him.
Team Arrow figures out that Count Vertigo is going to try to take out all of Starling City’s crime bosses at once. The crime bosses are all going to be congregated at boxing match later that night... you know, because that what crime bosses do on a Friday night. Easter egg alert: one of the fighters is representing the Wild Cat Gym! Arsenal goes after the bomb Count Vertigo planted, and Oli goes after Vertigo himself. On the roof Vertigo hits Arrow with another vertigo dart, but the effects don’t work on him this time. As Arrow fights Vertigo, his sidekick is about to get away, but Canary appears and takes him out.
Felicity tells Roy to cut the yellow wire, but there isn’t one. In what was a bit of a stretch, she has Roy freeze the bomb with freon to stop it from killing everyone.
After the fight Canary tells Oli “A word of advice, we aren’t our mask. We need people in our life’s that don’t wear them.” The writers dropped the ball a bit here. How does Sara know that Oli is currently struggling with that specific issue? The line was delivered well, it just seems totally out of place seeing as how one would assume while Sara is off assassinating people she hasn’t been able to Facebook messenger Oli about his problems being a real boy.
Ray Palmer finds Felicity while she is at the hospital to visit Diggle, Lyla and their newborn daughter and apologizes to her. Felicity hacked all of Palmer’s personal devices and replaced his data with videos featuring porcupine flatulence. Now that is how you get revenge. Later, Oli comes to visit as well. Diggle tells Oli that he was right about everything he said.
During another flashback Oli tells the Asian man he is leaving. The man tells Oli he can’t leave because Waller threatened his family if Oli gets away.
While at the hospital, Oli apologizes to Felicity. He tells her that he thought he could be himself and the Arrow but he can’t. Oli kisses Felicity, but she walks away from him. Before Oli can react, Barry Allen calls Oli to tell him he woke up and needs some advice.
Laurel and Sara meet and talk about the fact that she doesn’t want Laurel to tell their dad she is in town. Laurel gets a call from her boss so she has to leave. They tell each other that they love one another and Laurel leaves. As Laurel is walking on the street below, Canary is about to leave the rooftop. A voice says, “Hello Sara”. Sara turns around and gets shot with three arrows in the stomach. Sara falls off the roof and lands on the street below, right in front of Laurel. Sara, The Canary, has been murdered.
This episode of Arrow had many highly entertaining moments. Watching Oli and Roy work together in costume has been something we have all been waiting to see since Roy debuted in the Arrowverse. All of the fight scenes were very well done, which is something we have all come to expect from this show. As interesting as seeing both Arrows work together was, Roy seemed to be a bit out of place when he wasn’t in costume. The only thing he got to do out of costume was get upset when Oli mentioned he had gotten a message from Thea. It would have been intriguing to see a bit of background on the leaps and bounds Roy has come as a hero.
The “shocking” death of Sara Lance really wasn’t that shocking. They have been laying the groundwork for this since day one. Conventional wisdom here is that Laurel will take her natural place as the new Canary. Laurel is one of, if not the most polarizing character on the show. Some hate her and some tolerate her (seriously, when has anyone ever said they love her?) so having her take up the Canary mantel could prove a bit problematic. With the brief cameo tonight by the Wildcat gym, the seeds have essentially been planted for Laurel to start he training. In the comics, Ted “Wildcat” Grant trained Black Canary in the art of boxing.
Who killed Sara Lance is most likely going to be the major plotline this season. It would be easy to jump to the conclusion that it was another member of the League of Assassins, but that almost seems too easy.
This was a pretty good way to kickoff season three of Arrow. We have a ton of questions that need answering and hopefully the momentum created in this episode will carry over to each subsequent episode this season.
Grade: 8 out of 10
