Well, we found out on last week’s Arrow, as we had to expect, that the offer was actually more of an edict.
Oliver says thanks very much and goes home, with Diggle and Malcolm in tow as a gesture of goodwill. Nyssa immediately calls foul and races to her father to find out that she’s been passed over for CEO of LoA. She doesn’t take it well, swinging her blade at him, which he catches bare handed.
Back in Starling City, Oliver parcels out the truth of his conundrum to Diggle, who tells Felicity, and does some soul-searching about what it all means, and what he means, before realizing it’s OK if all he does is save people one by one. A drop in the bucket is better than no bucket at all.
He also has a come to Jesus with Quentin, who tells him he doesn’t want to be in business with him anymore because he kept Sara’s death secret.
Thea grapples with whether to kill Malcolm since Oliver flubbed that and decides, eventually, not to. She’s unraveled enough, though, that she reignites things with Roy.
Oliver finds out about Ray and Felicity and it’s as awkward as you expect, especially when Felicity is kind of handsy in a friends way and he’s not having it.
Laurel and her dad are still on the outs, and he reaffirms that he’s not over it, and won’t be getting over it.
Then Laurel throws down with the latest goon of the week and her dad turns on protective mode when the station is stormed, so maybe there’s hope yet. And Nyssa comes back to Starling City because she really has nowhere else to go.
Ra’s isn’t far behind, as he dons Oliver’s Arrow getup and kills another set of goons, leaving one alive to tell the tale that Oliver is back to lethal methods.
In flashback land, Oliver was still looking for Tatsu and Maseo while trying to keep their son safe. In the present, it’s Maseo who references his son’s friendship with Oliver in the past tense as he clues him in that Ra’s wasn’t asking.
I still have a big fat don’t care reaction to the love geometry. The one piece of the Ra’s puzzle that will play out at some point, I’m sure, is that Ra’s makes the case that the healing waters inside the Nanda Parbat lair are no longer effective on him, but then we see them heal a cut, so we don’t know whether he means they’re not as effective as they were or are just no longer slowing his aging, since he’s supposed to be well into the three-digit range.
Even though I knew it was in the realm of never I kind of wanted to see Oliver give it a go as a Ra’s. He’s sort of flailing post near-death experience. I don’t buy that he’s re-motivated. I still think he needs his own purpose. Felicity tells him they all had to find theirs and now it’s his turn. I don’t believe him when he says he’s found it.
All of that sets us up for tonight for Diggle and Lyla’s elaborate second wedding, where everybody gets all pretty and then all hell breaks loose. Here’s a sneak peek of “Suicidal Tendences” (ah, the 80s).
Photo and Video Courtesy of the CW.