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“Arrow” recap (3.4): Back with a Vengeance

Previously on Arrow, Sara Lance was brutally murdered by some black arrows, Thea found out Malcolm Merlyn was her father and went to train with him on a remote island, and Nyssa showed up in Starling City looking for her ex-girlfriend. (I say ex-girlfriend, and will throughout, only because we never got any confirmation that they got back together. I’d like to believe they did, though.)

We pick up where we left off, in Team Arrow’s Headquarters, with Nyssa demanding to know where Sara is. She tells Oliver that Sara left on a mission for the League of Assassins two weeks ago, and when she never so much as reported back, Nyssa got worried and came after her. Oliver tells Nyssa that there’s something she needs to know, but he doesn’t have to say the words; she understands instantly. Nyssa’s hands tremble ever so slightly as she puts down her bow and arrow. Her voice catches in her throat as she asks where Sara’s body is. He tells Nyssa that they buried Sara in her old grave, and Nyssa stalks off. Oliver tells Roy to follow Nyssa, carefully, because she might know something they don’t that will help them find who did this.

The reason Oliver can’t do the Nyssa-stalking himself is because he’s meeting Thea for dinner. Oliver offers to pay to make up for being late, but Thea says that Starling City missed their singular dance club and she has investors willing to help her open Verdant back up again. Oliver tells Thea that she seems stronger, and asks if she’s been seeing anyone, because heaven forbid she just got stronger on her own. To his credit, though, he didn’t ask if she had a boyfriend. He kept it gender neutral. I appreciate that, Ollie. Sara taught you well. Thea tells him to quit playing detective and stick to her big brother. Laurel is visiting Sara’s grave when Nyssa appears in the shadows as silently as darkness itself. Nyssa gets down on one knee and pays her respects before turning to Laurel and offering her condolences. Laurel, having recovered from the shock of seeing her sister’s ex, throws the condolences back in Nyssa’s face. She blames Nyssa for bringing out the part of Sara that made her join the League of Assassins, the killer in her. Nyssa tells Laurel she loved Sara, with all her heart and all her soul. She did everything she could to protect her. She even gave her the jacket Laurel is wearing, a jacket Nyssa says she is not worthy of.

Nyssa leaves a fuming Laurel in the graveyard and goes to a hideaway to cry. Even though her emotional walls are down, her defenses are still up, so when Oliver shows up, she’s on her feet faster than most people can blink away a tear. Oliver asks Nyssa for help in finding Sara’s killer, and she informs him that she doesn’t need his help. He tells her they have evidence, that she’s not doing anyone any good hiding out in a safehouse. She all but rolls her eyes and tells him that they’re standing in Sara’s safehouse. She wasn’t avoiding dealing with Sara’s murder, she was sitting on a couch that probably smelled like Sara, she was taking a moment to miss her. Nyssa tells Oliver that Sara was in town investigating whispers that Merlyn is alive and in Starling City before she got killed.

Nyssa tells Oliver that Malcolm Merlyn was too assassin-y even for the League of Assassins, so they released him on certain terms. When they heard the Arrow killed the Dark Archer, they left it be. But Mama Queen told Nyssa Merlyn was still alive, and Sara had proof in pictures she took two weeks ago. When Roy tells Nyssa Sara had a blank piece of paper in her boot, she smirks a little and tell them to hold it up to a flame. The ghost ink reveals itself and they read Sara’s surveillance notes, including two important clues: A name, Janson, and a note suggesting Sara asked her father for help.

Oliver sends Laurel to the police station to find out what Sara learned from Detective Lance. With an unspeakable pain behind her eyes, she lies right to her father’s face, saying she just talked to Sara on the phone, and got the information about Janson that he gave Sara. As she’s leaving, Laurel sees Nyssa at the station and pulls her aside to tell her to get out. Nyssa realizes from her panic that Lance doesn’t know Sara’s dead, and says he has a right to know. Laurel says it’s none of her business, but Nyssa says Sara was everything to her. Fortunately for Laurel, when Lance comes out to greet his daughter’s ex-girlfriend, Nyssa tells him that Sara misses him. He jokes about her causing trouble in Starling City and Nyssa assures him she’s only here to seek justice. Team Arrow – Felicity + Nyssa goes to Janson’s house and split up to find the man who can hopefully give them answers. Diggle and Oliver spot Janson at the same time, but Diggle is looking at a headstone, so Oliver has a different man. Before Oliver can stop her, Nyssa approaches the man she calls Janson and threatens him, but when he turns around, it’s Merlyn, who addresses her by name. She looses her arrow, but he dodges out of its way. Oliver appears next, but only knicks Merlyn’s shoulder with an arrow before the Magician disappears.

Back in the Arrow Cave, Oliver fills Laurel in; Merlyn is alive, most likely killed Sara, and totally got away just now. But don’t fret, Felicity might be MIA but she left behind a few tricks, including an arrow laced with nano-tracers operated on idiot-proof tech. Laurel is PISSED that Oliver didn’t gut Merlyn on the spot and storms off, and Nyssa offers to go talk to her.

Nyssa catches up with Laurel and says that she loved Sara too, and Laurel says she’s sorry for her loss. And honestly, Laurel is teeming with so many emotions, I can’t tell if she’s being sarcastic or if she’s finally starting to get it. Nyssa promises Laurel that she has every intention of finding Merlyn, and Laurel tells her to do whatever it takes to take him down. Diggle helps Oliver track Merlyn, but when Oliver reaches an empty warehouse, he gets a call from Malcolm himself saying that he tricked the tracer, and that he wants to meet in a public place. Oliver agrees and meets him in front of the most happening staircase in all of Starling City. When Oliver tells him that he is being accused of Sara Lance’s murder, Merlyn pinky promises he had nothing to do with it. He was part of the League of Assassins, he knows what Ra’s al Ghul is capable of; killing the love of his daughter’s life would have been suicide. He quite literally calls it “illogical.”

The next morning, Oliver meets up with Thea and, on account of them having no more secrets or lies between them, tells her that he found out last night that Malcolm Merlyn is alive. Thea breaks her own “no secrets and lies” policy and plays dumb, saying he hasn’t contacted her at all. Nyssa storms into Arrow HQ, furious that she wasn’t greeted at the door with Merlyn’s head on a pike. Oliver says he believes Merlyn is telling the truth when he says he didn’t kill Sara, mostly because he swore on his daughter’s life. Nyssa’s eyes light up and asks about this daughter. Oliver admits that it’s Thea, and Nyssa goes tearing right back out of the Arrow Cave again. Oliver moves to go after her, but Diggle stops him; sure the Arrow doesn’t kill anymore, but maybe he can turn a blind eye to Nyssa taking care of their little Merlyn problem. It’s letting the spider go so it can kill the wasp. Or something.

Roy and Thea are having a cute little non-flirting flirting session as they walk out of the club, when Nyssa shows up. Roy does an unnecessary barrel roll over the hood of a car that wasn’t remotely in his way, and Nyssa knocks him out with a tranq dart. Nyssa moves to grab Thea and Thea assesses the situation; she could probably take this chick, or at least put up a good fight, and risk Roy knowing what she had really been up to on Corto Maltese, or she could give in and go with the pretty lady. Thea chooses option B and Nyssa takes her away.

Merlyn is having a hard time getting in touch with Thea, and when he sees purple smoke signals floating into the Starling City sky, he knows exactly why.

After Roy puts Team Arrow on the case, Oliver quickly debriefs Laurel about Merlyn being alive and also being Thea’s father, thus explaining why his sister was kidnapped by her sister’s ex-girlfriend. When everyone’s head stops spinning, Laurel figures out where the smoke signals are coming from.

Laurel apologizes to Oliver for maybe accidentally kind of giving Nyssa the idea to kidnap Thea, but also tells him to remember that Malcolm Merlyn is a Murderous Magician and that he is responsible for the death of his own son, as well as many, many other people.

Across town, Nyssa has Thea hanging upside down and taunts her about her father being evil. Thea plays dumb and pretends she thinks Nyssa is talking about Robert Queen, but Nyssa doesn’t mince words. She tells Thea her father is the devil, but before she can use Thea against said devil, Oliver swoops in, cuts Thea down, and tells her to run. Oliver and Nyssa start fighting, and soon Merlyn shows up and joins in. It’s three hoods, three archers, three fighters, all fighting for revenge, for justice, for love. Merlyn eventually hits Nyssa with a triple-arrow that only hits her outfit but effectively pins her to the wall. Oliver bests Merlyn and has his arrow trained on him, but his hesitance to kill him gives Merlyn time to plead his case. He promises Nyssa that he did not kill “her beloved” and that he had an idea of who might have; he tells her to think of her own father, about the things he’s done before, and whether it’s really such a crazy idea to think that maybe Ra’s Al Ghul is the one who shot an arrow through the heart of the “degenerate” who stole his daughter’s.

Merlyn reminds Oliver that he has two options: Break his own vow and kill Merlyn dead, or let him go. Oliver, truly believing now that Merlyn is innocent of this particular crime, lowers his bow and watches as Merlyn runs off, much to Nyssa’s dismay.

Back at Arrow HQ, Nyssa punches Ollie and calls him an insult to Sara’s memory. YOU HAD ONE JOB, OLIVER. He says he’s not through finding justice for Sara, but he believes Merlyn to be innocent, making the Dark Archer officially off-limits to the League. Nyssa hisses that he has made an enemy tonight and storms off. On her way out, she brushes shoulders with Felicity, who has just arrived from her adventures with The Flash in Central City, and is very confused as to what exactly is going on here. Laurel is at the boxing ring, punching out her feelings, when Nyssa shows up to say goodbye. There’s still tension between them, but when it comes down to it, they both are irked by the fact that Merlyn and Sara’s killer are out there somewhere, and neither plan to rest until that’s no longer the case. Nyssa sees Laurel’s armporn muscles and is very much impressed by her training. On her way out the door she gives Laurel advice I like to think she once gave Sara and says, “Don’t forget to turn your hips, it’s where the power comes from.” At the Starling City precinct, Detective Lance leaves Sara a message telling her that he’s worried about her, and that he loves her. He knows she might not be able to call back, he just wanted to hear her voice. It’s almost like when someone gets impaled and they have no idea something is wrong at all at first; they might feel a little off, but they don’t know the severity of the wound, and they have no idea how much unbearable pain they’re about to be in.

Oliver goes to Thea’s club to check on her, but she’s feeling rather nonchalant about the whole ordeal. Thea casually asks Oliver who the woman was and why she took her, but Oliver claims to not know, but that he’s sure she’s not coming back. So much for that not-lying thing. When Merlyn calls her, she tells him that she doesn’t think Oliver knows anything. So much for that no-secrets thing.

Nyssa goes to her father and tells him that Merlyn is indeed alive and in Sterling City. She tells him that Sara Lance is dead, which surprises him. He’s also surprised to hear sadness in her voice. Nyssa vows to avenge her, but, as if she wasn’t having a shitty enough day as it was, Ra’s al Ghul says that Sara never truly belonged to the League of Assassins, was never one of them. Nyssa tells him that Oliver plans to protect Merlyn from them, so Ra’s declares war with one Oliver Queen.

What did you think of “The Magician“? Anyone else beyond thrilled, albeit a little surprised, that Nyssa survived the episode? Do you think this war means Nyssa will be back soon?

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