WOW. There’s necessary (and unnecessary) death all the time in shows like Arrow but the last 10 seconds were overkill. We’ll get to that.
The third season premiere found everybody sort of floundering with a new normalcy that’s running on financial fumes. Felicity’s doling out tech support by day as a clerk in an electronics store, Diggle is awaiting the birth of his daughter, Roy is ramping up his co-vigilante role, and Oliver is a bit lost.
On the Lance side of town, Quentin survived his heart scare from the closing moments of the finale and has been promoted to captain but he’s still working the streets at night as a secret ally to the Hood. Laurel is happily prosecuting their takedowns, although she’d rather Oliver work without her dad.
Good luck with that.
Flailing for something to do, and taking Diggle’s lead, Oliver asks Felicity out on a proper date and they’re cutely nerdy about the whole affair until a new villain (Peter Stormare) rudely launches a missile into the restaurant. He’s taken over The Count’s beat and launched a drug that reveals you worst fear, which for Oliver is … Oliver.
Diggle and Lyla have a baby girl, and Oliver is so moved that he of course turns around and blathers to Felicity that he’s not ready/worthy of a relationship with her even though she begs him NOT to have the conversation. She puts him on the spot to say he doesn’t love her, and he kisses her and says he can’t say that. She’s not happy. She’s also not happy because she’s duped by Ray Palmer (Brandon Routh), who uses her tech advice to tap the Queen Consolidated servers and make a pitch for control of the company.
In flashback land we pick up in Hong King as Oliver tries to escape, send an e-mail, and escape again until he’s assigned to Maseo Yamashiro, one of Amanda’s men, for safekeeping. The logic there is that Oliver’s pretty much already a dead men so her threats against him mean nothing, but her threats against Maseo’s wife and son hold some weight.
All those balls are in the air when Sara swoops in to help the Hood. They have a sweet two-minute reunion and then Laurel goes to see her and Sara doesn’t want their dad to know she’s there. Laurel keeps her secret and then she leaves. Somebody unseen (Ra’s al Ghul?) finds her on the roof and it’s an awkward, “how did you..” discussion until he fills her chest with arrows sand she falls backward off the roof, BOUNCES OFF THE DUMPSTER BELOW and then lands in the street, and Laurel sees all of it.
We close with her screaming into the night.
Tomorrow we dive into the dark as the murder sets the season in motion.
I’m sure TPTB will tell us they needed this for the storytelling. OK, fine but that was just beyond brutal. We didn’t need a bounce after the shooting and the fall. We get it.
I’m also assuming this will launch Laurel into the Canary (guessing/no spoilers).
Also in there Barry comes to see Oliver for advice (the scene that ended up in The Flash/out of order before they had their timleslot sorted). As for Felicity and Oliver — sweet but I’m just not feeling it. And screwing up a BFF relationship does nobody any favors.
Here’s a sneak peek of Wednesday’s new episode, “Sara.”
Photo and Video Courtesy of The CW