So last week Ra’s took off the kiddie gloves in his bid to get Arrow to take his place as the head of the League of Assassins. After a brief fight, Thea was left to bleed out.
It’s pretty much checkmate for Ra’s here. Oliver is left with no choice but to accept his demands in exchange for Thea being brought back to life with the Lazarus Pit. While the overall mysteries of the pit are not explored, its effects are at least better explained. Meanwhile, in the land of flashbacks, we see Oliver and c.o attempting to stop the U.S military from unleashing a virus on Hong Kong.
This episode’s main draw is the drama, something the show is becoming increasingly adept at handling. Of course it revolves around Oliver giving up everything to save Thea, and how this affects everyone else. Surprisingly it’s Malcolm telling Oliver not to go through with it. ‘The pit changes who you are’ he says cryptically. Granted, any major effects appear to be gone by the end of the episode, but what’s more surprising is Malcolm being truthful for once.
Felicity and Oliver is a ship that needs to be sunk. The pairing has been like a rather resilient yo-yo for the entire season now. I’m to understand the writers and such take note of what the fans are saying, but if this is the case they really need to stop. Just this week in the Flash, Felicity was gushing over Ray/Barry and now all of a sudden she’s head over feet in love with Oliver again?
Diggle and Maseo get a nice scene together where two very similar and dissimilar people talk shop about honour and pride. It’s certainly a better scene that an angry Felicity confronting an unimpressed Ra’s about how what he’s doing is wrong? It feels very similar to the casual ignoring that Nyssa provide Captain Lance with at the end of season 2 when he queried taking Sara away from a family that loved her.
There’s some impressive set pieces to be seen this week, I personally loved the setting for the Lazarus pit. We see more of Nanda Parbat (lots of candles by the way, who’s keeping any eye on that?). Also we saw the League of Assassins assembled, and it’s quite daunting to think there are that many. Having said that, they seem very unable to take out named characters, as demonstrated during one of the few actions scenes in the episode, where a desperate Team Arrow tries to get Oliver out of Nanda Parbat.
The flashback scenes finally hit their stride too, with an impressive car-chase scene.
Ray Palmer and Laurel are relegated to one scene each this week. I can understand Oliver not speaking to Ray before leaving, but for him to not say goodbye to Laurel is a little confusing given their history together. Given that the transformation Oliver is expected to through to become Ra’s al Ghul, you’d think he would have at least given her a call. Plus, someone’s going to need to tell Roy at some point.
All things considered, season 3 is building considerable momentum. Let’s hope it can hold up long enough to deliver a blistering finale. The question ultimately is whether or not Oliver becoming head of the league is going to stick. Will he find a way to disband them? Or is there some other loophole. The episode leaves him as the Arrow, meaning there is technically a little wiggle room until his training is complete. Ra’s spare Maseo’s betrayal over the fact that it was his previous self acting, could this happen for Oliver too?
Do you think Thea is back to her old self? Is Oliver Queen truly dead? Let us know what you think in the comments below…
