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“Arrow” recap (4.13): Daughter(s) of the Demon(s)

Previously on Arrow, Felicity went up against an evil genius called the Calculator, Thea was sick from ignoring her bloodlust, and Nyssa went all the way to Japan to get the cure so she could use it as leverage.

We actually pick up right there, with Nyssa telling Oliver that she’ll give him the cure if he kills Merlyn. He doesn’t know why saving Thea has conditions, but she says she’s at war with Merlyn, and this is the only option. Oliver tries to explain that this is a terrible idea, but Nyssa is sure on her path.

Also, throughout the episode, Nyssa calls Oliver “husband” almost exclusively. But not in the same loving way she calls Sara “beloved.” In fact, it’s dripping with resentment. It rather grew on me.

Across town, in what seems at first a wildly unrelated storyline, Felicity has coffee with her father. She hasn’t seen him in 18 years, and he says he’s been wanted by the police, and was just trying to protect her. She wants to know why now, and he surprises her by calling her Overwatch.

She’s ready to roll on out of there, but he tries to tell her that they’re the same. Hacktivists, Vigilantes. He swears he would never have killed 8,000 people like he said; he just wants the chance to prove he’s one of the good guys. He wants to prove that he’s changed and make up for past mistakes.

Oliver goes back to the team and explains Nyssa’s terms, and Laurel thinks the solution is obvious. Let’s kill Merlyn. Oliver is suddenly feeling sentimental and says that Merlyn is Thea’s family; there has to be another way. Oliver thinks that maybe if he just asks nicely, Merlyn will give up the ring and Nyssa will give up the lotus. To ensure it goes well, he sends Laurel to Nyssa to woo her with milkshakes while he goes to talk to Malcolm.

Oliver and Malcolm meet on a roof. Merlyn doesn’t believe a single word that Nyssa said and calls Oliver a big dumb dumb for believing her. He assures Oliver he’d do anything for his daughter if he thought it would actually save her, though. Except blindly believe Nyssa al Ghul.

Laurel hopes to have better luck with Nyssa.

Nyssa tells her people that Laurel was her friend until she “defiled” her beloved. Which isn’t as wanky as it sounds; she just exhumed her head body, dragged her to Nanda Parbat, and threw her into a magical pit to bring her back to life. Nyssa asks how Sara is, and Laurel insists she’s whole and happy. Luckily Nyssa didn’t ask where she was, because the answer would have been, “I think you mean WHEN.” Anyway, Nyssa is protecting her birthright; she wants to be Ra’s, and she’s justifying her actions by saying that even if Thea dies, it’s fine because technically Sara died at her hands. However, Nyssa would much prefer Merlyn dies, because he’s the root of all evil.

Laurel understands and also hates Merlyn, but says that Oliver wants to try to do this all without bloodshed. Nyssa would be down but highly doubts Merlyn will, and is fully prepared with an army just in case.

When Laurel leaves, Oliver shows up to visit Nyssa himself. He asks for some way to prove to Merlyn that Nyssa’s leverage is legit. She gives Oliver a sample of the Lotus and says Oliver is being naive trying to end this with niceties. (This isn’t Supergirl, it’s Arrow.) She says someone is going to die, even though she hopes it’s not Thea.

Thea, now in the Arrow Cave, is given the little bit of Lotus, and it closes up her wound, proving to Merlyn that the cure is legit. So now, Merlyn is ready to give up his ring to Nyssa in exchange for the rest.

At the meeting spot, Laurel assures Nyssa that she’s doing the right thing, but Nyssa says she’s only trying it the nice way out of respect for her marriage to Oliver. Because that’s all it is to her, a contract she unwittingly signed but is too loyal to her League and honor-bound to break. He does call her husband naive, though, and by the tone of her voice you know that’s Nyssa for stupid. Merlyn comes in and starts to hand over the ring, but just kidding! He brought an army.

After a bit of a skirmish, Nyssa calls for her people to retreat, and retreat they do.

Oliver, Diggle and Laurel block Merlyn’s path, despite his pleas to let him do this, for Thea. “We already fridged one queer woman on this show, and we had to resort to resurrection to fix it. They’ll never forgive us if we do it again!”

When all is said and done, Laurel isn’t surprised. Oliver is, though. Because I dunno, he hit his head or something. Laurel says that just because he changed, doesn’t mean everyone else did. One thing they can all agree on is that they can’t have Nyssa and Merlyn’s people fighting each other.

So Oliver goes to find Captain Lance, who is wading through the bodies of the collateral damage of this civil war. Diggle tells Oliver to use all the hatred he’s built up for Malcolm over the years and channel it into killing Merlyn. It would be legit. “Revenge is an act of passion, vengeance of justice”- Samuel Johnson, as quoted on the most recent episode of Criminal Minds, weirdly relevant.)

Laurel finds Nyssa and asks her to stop the fighting, dressed as the Canary just in case.

Nyssa asks her to step aside, but when Merlyn’s men come, Laurel drops in to fight by her side. There’s a full-out war on the streets, and Nyssa is not holding back.

Merlyn’s men end up retreating when the rest of Team Arrow joins, and once they’ve cleared out, Diggle shoots Nyssa with a tranq.

Nyssa wakes up, VERY DISPLEASED to find out she’s back in a cage in Arrow HQ. Laurel asks her about Lotus, saying that it’s not a game, but Nyssa can’t give up her leverage. Laurel calls her selfish, and says she knows Nyssa is better than this. This is the kind of BS her father would have pulled, but Nyssa can be free of all that now.

Laurel leaves her with that thought, even though what she really should have left was a plate of french fries.

Felicity finds Oliver, hesitant to tell him what’s going on with her, because her problems seem to pale in comparison to his. But he tells her to spill, so she explains that she invited her father to Palmer Tech to test him, and he failed profoundly when he tried to steal information from the lab. She tells Oliver that her mother said people don’t change, but Oliver doesn’t want to believe that. He says there might be hope for some people. And I agree; I think the problem is, people have to really, truly want to change, and be willing to work long and hard for it. Something it doesn’t seem Mr. Calculator is interested in.

Relieved they’re back to talking about him, Oliver asks Felicity’s opinion about whether or not he should kill Merlyn. Felicity reminds him that Merlyn used Thea as a puppet to kill Sara “Salmon Ladder” Lance, so chyeah of course we should kill him. Oliver is still hesitant to take Thea’s father away from her, but before they can discuss it further, they realize that Malcolm is in the Arrow Cave, downstairs with Thea, right this very second.

Merlyn’s actually there to say his last goodbyes. Oliver starts yelling; he can end this! All he has to do is give up his stupid ring! Why does power matter so much?! But Merlyn says it’s bigger than that, bigger than Oliver could know. And to prove he means business, he reminds us all that Oliver has a secret son out there somewhere. Defiance, maybe? Or Central City. Oliver has an idea though, a third option. He suggests trial by combat. Merlyn is down, because he assumes this can only end one way: In Nyssa’s death. Oliver says that’s fine by him and my face gets as close to Grumpy Cat’s as it ever will.

Up on the roof, where the combat will take place, Merlyn makes a joke about skipping the tradition of removing their shirts. Nyssa is not amused.

But what she is is ready to fight. She gets into fighting stance, but Oliver steps in, saying that it’s his right, as her husband, to fight on behalf of her. Her knee-jerk reaction is to resist; no one fights her battles for her, especially not under this BS pretense of them being married. But Oliver says he’d much rather Merlyn die than risk Nyssa’s life, and Nyssa actually appreciates that. Plus, if she had to choose between Oliver’s life and her own, she’d choose her own, too.

Merlyn’s disappointed, but Oliver’s determined to make him regret not playing nice.

Oliver bests Merlyn awful quickly, and Merlyn all but dares Oliver to kill him. Oliver gets an approving nod from Felicity, then swings his sword. Sadly, it’s not a killshot, and only Merlyn’s hand goes thumping to the ground. Oliver knocks him out, and this turn of events surprises everyone.

Nyssa isn’t entirely sure she wants the ring off a severed hand, but she trades Oliver anyway, the ring for the Lotus. He dubs her Ra’s al Ghul and she thanks her husband, a little less bitterness in her voice. Now it has a similar tone she might take with a brother she doesn’t always get along with. (Though I still don’t understand why everyone was so sure she couldn’t beat Merlyn herself-it didn’t look all that hard.)

As soon as the ring is on her finger, everyone kneels to her. Oliver even bows his head.

Oliver brings the lotus to Thea, who is tired and confused but alive and not ripping anyone’s throat open with her teeth. Laurel immediately says she wants to dress Thea, despite the fact that Thea is in comfy-looking pajamas, so I think they went to have a little celebratory make-out sesh.

Laurel and Oliver go to meet Nyssa at her behest, and she makes sure Thea is okay. Nyssa explains that it was Laurel’s speech that gave her a change of heart, and she realizes she doesn’t have to be her father. When Merlyn finally joins them, handless and grumpy but otherwise fine, Nyssa takes off the ring and tosses it into the fire, melting it.

She has disbanded the League of Assassins, setting everyone free. She sets off, hopefully, to find a certain bisexual, time traveling, ex-assassin, and Laurel is proud.

Merlyn, on the other hand, is not. He assures Oliver that terror and destruction will come to him, and as much of it will be at his own hands…er, sorry, hand as possible.

Meanwhile, at Palmer Tech, Felicity asks her dad to come see her, and as soon as he does, she tells him that she doesn’t believe a word he said, and surprise, the SCPD is here for him.

When she gets back to the loft, Felicity tells Oliver that she knows she did the right thing, but she feels squicky. Oliver knows the feeling all too well and is experiencing it right now. Oliver smiles at Felicity and asks her to marry him. She says she’s having deja vu, but he says he means right now; it’s the perfect time. They just wrapped up like three storylines in one fell swoop. Felicity is totally down with that-what could possibly go wrong with planning a wedding right now in Star City?

Speaking of Star City, somewhere in a dark, dark corner of a dark, dark street, there is a dark Darhk man waiting for Malcolm Merlyn. Merlyn tells Darhk that there’s someone Oliver cares about even more than Felicity, and that’s his son, William. Darhk is hella intrigued. I, however, am not.

What did you think of “Sins of the Father”? You don’t think that’s the last we’ve seen of Nyssa this season, do you?

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