Previously on Arrow, Oliver decided to run for mayor because he’s harder to kill than everyone else and has already been protecting it at night anyway, Lance was in cahoots with Darhk, Laurel brought Sara back from the dead, but Sara escaped and isn’t quite herself.
Speak of the unreasonably attractive devil, Sara is currently terrorizing Star City. She finds two guys mugging a girl and takes them down, but then attacks the woman herself, speaking in tongues all the while. (Well, just one tongue, technically. Just not her normal tongue.)
Meanwhile, in the campaign office, Thea introduces Oliver to a political strategist. The Strategist, as he shall henceforth be known, is here to help him win, and part of that is anticipating potential scandals and nipping them in the bud. For example, the whole cheating on his girlfriend and killing his mistress thing. Speaking of which, maybe it’s not the best idea for said ex-girlfriend and sister of said dead mistress to be hanging around so much.
Captain Lance and Laurel go to the crime scene, where the attacked woman says she was attacked by a blonde who was speaking a Middle Eastern language. Lance points out that there are three other murders that sound similar, and Laurel says okay, sure Sara is technically missing but it’s FIIIIIINE. Everything’s fiiiine. She just has to find Sara before anyone else.
At Palmer Tech, Curtis gets a visit from Felicity. She finally listened to Ray’s recording, but there’s something on it, and she needs his help to clean it up so she can hear the whole thing. He was going to go to the gym, but he can’t resist solving a puzzle, so he gets to work.
Across town, Lance goes to visit Darhk, who loves the fact that Lance comes twice as fast at his beck and call because he now has twice the number of daughters to use as blackmail. Darhk gives him his newest task: Hack a government server farm and plug this gadget into a computer there. Lance reluctantly takes the gizmo and heads out.
In the new and improved Arrow HQ, Oliver and Thea share some sibling bonding while fighting with sticks. Oliver thanks her for hiring The Strategist, and Thea agrees that he’s valuable, but points out that his advice to distance himself from Laurel might be misguided. On paper it seems like a good idea, based on how intertwined the Queens and Lances are, but off paper, that’s exactly why they shouldn’t distance themselves. Thea says the Lance family is too important to them to deny like Judas did Jesus. While Oliver thinks on this, a voice calls down to them from the heavens and says, “This is your overlord, Felicity Smoak.”
Arrow HQ has an intercom, and Felicity is the best one. She goes on to prove this by saying there’s a blonde woman going crazy at a nightclub, and since she’s in her fancy chair, it must be someone else.
When Team Arrow gets to the chaos outside the club, they find said blonde woman attacking someone who looks suspiciously like the first woman Sara attacked. Sure enough, it’s the Rabid Canary. Laurel tackles Sara, but Sara puts up a hell of a good fight (pun intended), so Oliver goes to loose an arrow at her-until he realizes who exactly it is they’re fighting.
Back at HQ, Oliver demands an explanation. He has put together that Laurel took Sara to the Lazarus Pit and that she has a bloodlust that’s even worse than Thea’s since she was hella dead, but what he doesn’t understand is why he’s just finding out about this now. Laurel explains that Sara isn’t herself right now, but she’ll be FIIIIIIIIINE. And she didn’t tell him because of the exact look he has right now on his face.
Lance finds Oliver, spiraling, spitting about Sara and Damien Darhk. Lance shows Felicity the thingamabob he’s supposed to plug into a computer, and she says it’s designed to delete specific files. Lance needs help, but he doesn’t want Laurel to know he’s being jerked around by Darhk, so Oliver sends him to Diggle instead.
Diggle doesn’t LOVE that Lance is working for Darhk, what with the whole you-killed-my-brother-prepare-to-die thing, but he understands the motivation to protect Laurel, so he agrees to help Lance. Besides, having an inside guy might be just what they need to take Darhk down.
Oliver and Felicity try to figure out what Sara’s endgame is, but all they know right now is that, feral or not, Sara has only actually killed muggers and street thugs. But Felicity is having a hard time wrapping her head around that Sara is doing anything at all besides pushing up daisies.
Felicity tells Oliver about the message she heard from Ray, and about how it might be kind of nice to have one of the gaping holes ripped out of their hearts filled in again. But Oliver says that Sara’s return won’t fill the round hole, because she came back as a square peg. With sharp edges. And trying to shove her back in might just rip them clean open.
So instead they focus at the task at hand. It seems like Sara is targeting these girls, but why? Felicity pulls up both of their pictures and the answer becomes immediately apparent. They both look like Thea.
Oliver tries to warn Thea, but she’s looking forward to a nice relaxing bubble bath with her roommate. Instead what she gets is a pretty but angry intruder.
They get into a full-on fight, breaking everything in sight, making a ruckus no one in the apartment building seems to hear. (Though they also didn’t notice the full grown woman chained to a pipe in their basement, so I guess it’s par for the course.) Thea gets Sara with a shard of glass right to her perfect face, and gets away long enough to hide and lose the littlest Lance.
At the hospital, Felicity is confused and surprised by this turn of events; Sara was one of the good ones. But Oliver explains that Sara isn’t herself. Thea says it’s a little more than that: The Pit gives you this bloodlust that you can’t control. Oliver thought Thea was just magically better on her own, but Thea confesses about how Merlyn tricked her into killing some guys at Nanda Parbat.
Laurel shows up, distraught, not pleased that her zombie sister she promised everyone was FINE tried to kill her ex-boyfriend’s sister and current roommate. Oliver takes Laurel out into the hallway and starts to scold her, but Laurel points out that he took Thea to the Pit, so he has no right to judge her for doing the same. They’re both just looking out for their sisters, why does he get to be the Good Guy while she gets yelled at? She says it’s breaking her damn heart to see her sister out of her mind, to watch her real sister attack a girl she’s known almost as long, but Oliver can only see his own pain. Laurel says she loves the Queen family, but Oliver doesn’t seem to love the Lances quite the same.
At the server farm, Captain Lance plugs the whatsit into a computer and files start being erased one by one-files with names attached to them. Diggle sees his brother’s name flash on the screen and starts hitting buttons to try to recover the file, but he sets off alarms and sends guards running. Lance knocks him out and tells the guards he’s SCPD and that he caught a hacker and not to worry.
Later, Thea wakes up in her hospital room to find Laurel by her side. Laurel apologizes, but Thea understands. She also understands more about Sara’s motives than she let on earlier. Sara is hunting her specifically because Thea technically killed her. Sara’s instincts are telling her that if she kills Thea, she’ll be okay again.
Laurel steps out to talk to Oliver again, and as soon as Thea’s alone, Sara sneaks into the room, slower now, but just as crazy-eyed.
Thea tries to talk to Sara, to tell her that it’s okay, that maybe if Sara kills Thea they’ll both be at peace. But being undead is clumsy business and Sara knocks something over while she tries to do the deed, sending Oliver and Laurel running in and Sara flying out the window.
Oliver decides he doesn’t think Sara’s soul came back with her body because she’s almost acting like Angel when he killed Jenny Carpenter, but with less one-liners. He then says probably the stupidest thing he’s ever said: “The Pit it not supposed to be used on the dead.” And I mean, while clearly it’s not the best idea based on what’s happening, that can’t be technically true. Otherwise it would have been called the Cure-all Pit, or the Back From The Brink Of Death Pit. It wouldn’t have been named after the Bible story where Jesus brought a dude back to life four days after he died.
ANYWAY, Oliver is pretty sure Sara has Thea’s scent now, probably from the club, because otherwise how would she have found her at Laurel’s apartment or in the hospital. Thea says maybe the Pit connects them, and maybe they can use that to their advantage.
Thea goes to her club (Verdant! Remember Verdant?) while her team lies in wait, and before long, Sara comes flying through the window, all teeth and venom.
The team launches at Sara but can’t stop her; she’s too strong. Eventually Laurel gets a gun to her and starts yelling about how there’s nothing inside her, that her sister is gone. But Oliver tranqs Sara and says that just because her soul is gone doesn’t mean there’s no hope. He knows a way to get it back.
Or rather, he knows a person who can get it back. Cue: Constantine. According to the flashbacks, Constantine is a magician of sorts who Oliver saved from the Cave of Wonders after he stole the big red treasure. According to IMDb, Constantine had his own whole show that lasted only 13 episodes before getting axed. So I apologize for not having any background context to this magician aside from what Arrow gave me, but I have a feeling I’ll get along just fine.
So Constantine shows up to Arrow HQ lickity split for the restitutionism (the opposite of an exorcism) with a list of things he’ll need. He’s kind of a creep, the way he mentions that all of Oliver’s lady friends are unreasonably attractive, but he’s also not wrong. I think it was the leering. Felicity somewhat shared his observation, being glad there isn’t one more gorgeous lady to distract her.
Felicity brings Constantine everything he asked for, and he says he can take two others on the Quest of Sara’s Soul. Thea can’t come because she’s like Canary catnip right now, so it’s Oliver and Laurel. Constantine tells them to prepare for battle, lights a fire, and starts chanting.
And Sara’s eyes go white.
Laurel and Oliver are (thankfully) in full gear when they get to the Place Where Souls Are Held Captive, which looks remarkably like Nanda Parbat. They hear Sara scream and try to run toward her, but are looped right back where they started like some kind of nightmare. Constantine pulls out a lighter that acts as a compass, and they quickly find the Lazarus Pit’s doppelganger, where Sara is being dragged under by some of Hades’ minions. Guards are fought, Sara is pulled, and poof, they’re back in the real world again.
Then, Sara wakes up. And she is calm.
Laurel hugs her and Sara lets it happen, then Lance hugs her and still she stays calm. Then, heaven help us, Sara Lance SMILES.
Constantine says they’re square now, but Oliver tells him that since his show was cancelled he can come borrow Oliver’s any time. Constantine asks why his whole city gives him the heebie jeebies, and Oliver says that Damien Darhk is lurking. Constantine tells him he’s screwed, then bounces.
Thea calls him yummy and all of us squinch our noses at her. Oliver tells her he’s not mad she lied about Nanda Parbat, because he used to be a big fat liar himself. But he wants to change and be the kind of big brother-and mayor-that no one wants to lie to.
The next day, while getting ready to make a speech, Oliver takes all of The Strategist’s advice…well, everything except avoiding Laurel. Thea is proud of her big brother for finally not pushing someone away for once just because it would be the easier thing.
Laurel tells Oliver that Sara is resting, but that she’s so, so grateful to him for helping her save her sister. Oliver tells Laurel that he wants to be a better friend, and Laurel is willing to let him try.
Captain Lance goes back to Darhk and asks him why he was erasing those names, specifically Sgt. Diggle. Damien says they were people he had assassinated, Diggle in particular because he was a competing crime lord. Lance takes this news to Diggle, and even though it wasn’t the news he was hoping for, Diggle says at least it’s an answer. Closure.
At Palmer Tech, Curtis is on energy drink 72 and greets Felicity practically from the ceiling. He fixed the message and can’t wait to play it back for her. When they do listen to the message, however, it says something neither of them could have predicted: “I’m alive and I’m in trouble.”
What did you think of “Haunted”?
FYI: A few of us AE/lady-lovin’ folks tweet about Arrow using the hashtag #cawcawmfs (our own version of the Canary Cry) if you want to join us. If enough people start tweeting along, maybe I can start including tweets in these recaps!
