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“Arrow” recap (3.23): Fall of the Demon

Previously on Arrow, Oliver helped Barry Allen catch the Reverse Flash even after he was Al Sah-him, married Nyssa under duress, and let Ra’s release the Alpha Omega virus on his friends with the promise of releasing it on the all of Starling City in before Oliver can officially take over as Ra’s al Ghul.

Oliver and Ra’s al Ghul are in a plane. Oliver nods off for a second, and when he wakes up, he promises Ra’s he was dreaming of his rebirth. Ra’s caresses his weird golden finger claw thing and says someday everything the darkness touches will be Oliver’s. This is the hard part, destroying his whole city, but then he will be ready to ascend to Head of the Demon.

In the dungeon, Oliver’s friends lie still after having been gassed by the Alpha Omega virus. But then Felicity awakens with a gasp. One by one, Team Arrow (and Merlyn) wake up, wondering how on earth they survived that. Malcolm explains that Oliver had to earn Ra’s al Ghul’s trust, Ra’s couldn’t have a single doubt about his loyalty, so he used Malcolm has a distraction and “killed” his friends, but really Malcolm had vaccinated them all.

“I saved your lives,” he says, ever the humble gentleman. He waits for a thank you but instead Felicity just asks him what’s next in this “plan” of his. Merlyn tells them to wait for the thunder.

But really what they were waiting for was the lightning. In a streak of red, Barry Allen zips into Nanda Parbat, impressed with their “hot tub”. He peeps in the dungeon, approving its classically creepy chic vibe, and is all smiles as usual. Felicity calls him Barry, outing him to Merlyn and everyone else, but she was just so happy to see his cute little button face. Once he gets them out of their cell, Felicity tells Barry they need his help.

But Barry and his superpowers can’t stick around; he has a supervillain of his own to deal with. Barry promises that Oliver is still Oliver, and that he needs his friends, now more than ever. He wishes them luck and is gone in a flash.

On the plane, engines start failing, and it becomes clear they were tampered with. Ra’s immediately blames Nyssa, but Oliver stands up and says it was his plan.

He has no intention of letting him obliterate his city. He shouts,”My name is Oliver Queen!” and Ra’s says Oliver Queen is figuratively dead and will soon be literally dead. The other Assassins jump up to fight but Nyssa jumps in to ward them off while Oliver fights Ra’s.

They tussle and end up opening the plane’s loading dock. Ra’s tells Oliver his city will perish and dives out of the plane.

Ra’s took the only parachute, so Oliver and Nyssa go into the cockpit and buckle up. Oliver tells her what to do to be his co-pilot, and together they crash-land the plane in such a way that they both survive.

At the new makeshift Arrow HQ, Merlyn starts handing out orders like he runs the place. Team Arrow looks at him like he spoke another language until Diggle gives them the okay to take those orders. Before any of them can skedaddle, though, Oliver and Nyssa drop in. Nyssa has her arrow drawn, just in case they are perceived as a threat, but Oliver tells her to lower it. Diggle punches Oliver in the face and Nyssa puts her arrow back up.

Oliver tells her to stand down again, he expected this kind of welcome.

Ray clears the room to leave Oliver to talk to Felicity and Diggle alone for a bit. Felicity asks Oliver if this is his and Nyssa’s honeymoon, but Oliver says they have bigger things to worry about. He calls Ra’s and his men “our enemy” because he’s still on their side. He promises the only reason he kept Merlyn close was because they had to defeat the League from the inside, and he couldn’t risk too many people knowing. Diggle sees it as a breach of trust; that he trusted Malcolm Merlyn, the Merry Murderer over them, but Oliver says it wasn’t like that. He truly believes this was the only way, even though he knew he would have to sacrifice everything. Felicity studies his face and asks him how he intended on surviving the plane crash before Ra’s mucked it up and jumped out with virus, and the look on his face tells her he wasn’t planning on surviving at all. (I really hope he worked that plan out with his “wife” and wasn’t going to sacrifice Nyssa without her permission.)

Oliver is glad he survived though, because now he can grovel for their forgiveness. Diggle isn’t sure any amount of apologizing will help at this point, but they can talk about their feelings later. Right now they have to stop the virus from killing everyone from here to Central City.

Felicity heads back to her computers, clickity clacking and trying to find anything suspicious going on in the city. One weird thing is a blackout on an entire top floor of a hotel, but Nyssa points out that doesn’t sound much like her father’s style.

They should be looking in sewers and caves for him. But it isn’t Ra’s in the hotel, it’s Damien Darhk, Ra’s al Ghul’s archnemisis.

Ra’s didn’t want to drop the virus on Starling City for Oliver, he wanted to kill Damian. Oliver decides they should go get Damian first and use him as collateral, a plan Merlyn likes, which is red flag #1 that maybe your plan is not the best.

Team Arrow goes to the hotel, but the man they find is a) not at all afraid of the vigilantes threatening him and b) not actually Mr. Darhk at all. He is about to pull out his phone when an arrow with a cell phone taped to it flies through the window and into his chest. Oliver listens and Ra’s gives his Villain’s Soliloquy, in which he reveals his plan: He released the virus using four vessels, four instruments of death, four horsemen of the apocalypse. He’s nothing if not a keeper of promises, so Starling City will perish at his hand.

Laurel goes to see her father at the precinct, and though he’s none too pleased to see her, she tells him that the city is in danger. Lance points out that the city is literally always in danger, but Laurel says it’s different this time. She can also tell he’s back on the bottle. She tells him that she loves him, no matter what happens between them, and it’s so heartbreakingly backwards, because that should be the parent’s line. Laurel tells Lance he can hate her or blame her for Sara’s death all he wants, but falling off the wagon is all on him. Lance shrugs and says he has it under control, he’s only having two drinks a day, but Laurel says for alcoholics like them there’s no such thing as two drinks a day. Because one day it will be “Oh, a third won’t hurt,” and then next thing you know you’re pouring whiskey from your hip flask into your morning coffee. Laurel tells him he has two choices: Keep drinking and being angry and generally just the worst, or make both of his daughters proud by not failing this city.

Despite having once promised she’d never bring Oliver Queen a cup of coffee again, Felicity makes an exception today, the world being in peril and all. Felicity wants to talk about this suicide mission Oliver went on, and instead of a direct response, Oliver tells Felicity about a recurring dream he’s been having. Every time, Felicity tells him not to go to Nanda Parbat, like she did in real life, but this time he listens. Sometimes it still results in his death, but sometimes it doesn’t, and they’re happy and safe like a normal couple. Felicity tells him that she knows he can’t see this, but he’s not being faced with an impossible task. Oliver once said neither Oliver Queen nor the Arrow can defeat Ra’s, and that’s true, but Oliver isn’t either of those people. She quotes the voiceover from the beginning of every episode, saying he has become someone else. He has become something else. She puts his hand on his chest and says his heart shows no sign of weakness. The love he feels, the emotions stirring inside him, that’s his advantage over Ra’s. “Don’t fight to die,” she says. “Fight to live.”

Oliver thanks Felicity and heads out, ready to beat Ra’s al Ghul once and for all. When everyone is in place, in the most likely places Ra’s would release the virus, they realize they’re not entirely sure what they’re looking for, since Ra’s probably didn’t send people in full League garb strolling down the street. A man meets Oliver in his assigned location and invites him to tea with Ra’s.

Diggle sees a man acting shady and carrying a metal briefcase and decides to chase him. The man almost shoots Diggle, but is soon taken down by arrows. The arrows turn out to have been loosed by Thea, dressed in Roy’s old outfit.

When Diggle finds the briefcase empty, he thinks the man is a decoy, and tries to threaten him into revealing the real location of the virus. But then the man starts bleeding through the mouth and it’s clear that he was the vessel himself. The man slits his own throat to expose the virus. Luckily, both Diggle and Thea are inoculated, so they try to get everyone to get inside and away from the dead body oozing virus fumes.

Team Arrow has its order: Find the men, contain them, do not let them shed blood. Laurel is worried about Nyssa, since she wasn’t inoculated like the rest of them.

But Nyssa will stop her father, no matter the cost.

Oliver meets up with Ra’s and they fight, far too close to a waterfall for anyone’s liking. (I actually think it’s a dam? Whatever it is, it’s not something you want to fall off of.)

Merlyn takes down a man and Felicity scolds him, telling him to hide the body in an airtight space and stop killing people. Felicity rushes to Ray and asks him if he can make his nanotech airborne to save the people who have already been infected and/or to inoculate everyone.

Meanwhile, the Starling City Police Department got word of the fight on the dam and are out trying to stop it, and have direct orders to take down Oliver Queen.

Ra’s is enjoying his fight with Oliver, saying Oliver’s new will to live is so bright and shiny it’s making this whole dance rather fun. But he doesn’t know what happened, he could have lived, as head of the League. Oliver says that life, away from everything he knows and loves, wouldn’t have been living, not really.

Felicity gets a call from Lance, who warns her about the men out for Oliver’s blood. He doesn’t love the guy, and he’s not about to take up archery or anything, but he also doesn’t want the kid dead. Felicity, frantic, turns to Ray and says he needs to suit up and save Oliver, pronto. Ray points out that he’s not done with the nanotech yet, he has to stay put. Felicity says, “But Oliver!” and Ray says she has to choose between Oliver and Starling City. What would Oliver do?

But that’s the wrong question. The real question is, what would Peggy Carter do?

On the dam, Ra’s and Oliver’s fight ends with Oliver stabbing Ra’s in the chest like he was once stabbed. Then he stabs him again for good measure. Ra’s confirms that he made the right choice when he picked Al Sah-him to be his successor before collapsing. But before Oliver can throw his fist up in celebration of his win, the SCPD shoots him and he flies over the waterfall.

But before his bones are crushed from the impact, the Atom suit flies in and saves him. But it’s not Ray Palmer in that suit, it’s the one and only Felicity Smoak.

She wants to kiss Oliver, but she has no idea how to get out of the suit. Oliver honest-to-goodness SMILES for the first time in forever.

So the day is saved. Ray released his airborne inoculant. Ra’s is dead. Though Nyssa’s a little miffed about that; not because she feels sentimental about it, but because she wanted to be the one to take away his life like he took away hers. Nyssa says that Oliver is lucky he was wearing the League’s armor, or he would have been dead. Felicity points out that she was pretty vital to that whole him-not-being-dead thing, too.

Oliver calls his friends around and says that he had tried to keep the people he loved far away from this fight, but now he knows that the only reason they won is because they all worked together. He knows now that Team Arrow isn’t a group of people who serve the Arrow, but a unit, a core group of humans dedicated to doing what’s right, with or without Oliver Queen and his green hood.

Laurel says it’s true, Starling City has more masks than Rosewood, PA but Oliver corrects her – the city has heroes. So many, in fact, that Oliver can’t take a break from the whole saving-the-world thing.

He told Felicity once that he couldn’t be a boyfriend and a vigilante, so now he’s choosing Felicity. He has to figure out who he is now, and he wants to do it with her by her side, and far, far away.

He spent years protecting this city, but that responsibility doesn’t rest squarely on his shoulders anymore. It’s a burden shared by many very capable people.

Felicity tells Ray that she truly hopes he finds someone to make him happy, and apologizes for not being able to be VP anymore, and though he maybe should have, he doesn’t respond with, “That’s fine, because you own the company now, anyway. You can do what you want.”

Diggle storms off and Oliver follows. Diggle is happy Oliver’s happy and all, but he’s not a superhero, he was only doing this for Oliver, and then Oliver lied. A lot. Oliver tells Diggle that he doesn’t need his love, he just needs his promise, to protect Starling City in his absence. He also brings up, not for the first time, that Diggle will need a suit sooner or later.

At Thea’s apartment, Merlyn tells Thea he’s leaving, and she literally could not care less. He tells her that he still loves her, his daughter, and will always be there for her. Thea rolls her eyes and says good riddance; but at least one good thing came out of him coming into her life. He promised to make her strong, and darlin’ she’s strong as hell.

Thea begs Oliver not to leave, because he just got back, but this is something he needs to be. He tells her to be safe, and she runs an idea for her vigilante name by him: Red Arrow. Oliver thinks that’s cute but he’ll be calling her Speedy.

Oliver shakes Merlyn’s hand, slipping him something he says is repayment for helping him. Oliver says he will never be forgiven for drugging Thea and making her kill Sara, but a deal is a deal. Merlyn asks if they’re enemies now, if he has to go back to being the Big Bad on the show, but Oliver says that entirely depends on Malcolm’s next steps.

Meanwhile at Palmer Tech, Ray Palmer is making adjustments to his suit when it explodes, blowing out the entire top floor of the huge building.

The thing Oliver slipped Merlyn ended up being Ra’s al Ghul’s finger claw thing, which I guess is akin to a crown? It’s how people know he’s in charge. I’m like 80% sure it doesn’t have supernatural powers of control, but Thea got drowned back to life, so who knows.

Nyssa stands before him and hisses at him, trying to make him admit that this was his motivation all along, to be in charge of an entire League of Assassins. Merlyn swears he just wanted freedom, to not be running from the League all his life, but Nyssa doesn’t believe him.

She says she will not show him mercy. She will have JUSTICE FOR SARA or she will die trying. Merlyn gives the command to kneel, and all of the Assassins drop to a knee instantly. But Nyssa sneers, the hint of a smile on her face while she imagines all the ways she could murder this man, before she drops to her knees.

Oliver and Felicity are in a car, driving away from the city they almost die to protect on the regular. Oliver saved the city all right, but now it’s time for him to be someone else. To be something else.

Felicity asks where they’re going, and whether one of their stops is to annul his marriage to Nyssa, for everyone’s sake. Oliver doesn’t answer, maybe because he doesn’t know. All he knows is that he IS something else now, something he hasn’t been in a good long while, if ever: He’s happy.

Then they drive off into the sunset, with a sociopath in charge of a well-trained army and Ray potentially blown to bits, and Team Arrow without their tech guru. And it’s not like I think Felicity and Oliver are going to be gone forever, but I’m a little scarred from that one time Peyton and Lucas drove away from Tree Hill just like this, because they were never seen again.

This might be an unpopular opinion, but I liked this finale. Badass women ruled the day; Laurel is coming into her own, Thea has found her identity, Felicity literally saved the day. But I know it pissed a lot of people off. I was seeing tweets about Sara’s killer being rewarded and Nyssa having to kneel before her true love’s killer. And while yes, she should have been the next Demon’s Head, being Heir to the Demon and all, Oliver had to promise Merlyn something to get him to help, and if this was it, so be it. But Nyssa doesn’t have to be there, in Nanda Parbat. She left when her father was in charge, she could leave now. I think she wants to be there, because she wants to destroy Malcolm Merlyn. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. So she’ll play along for a bit. Lull him into thinking he can control her. Then kill him dead. I personally am excited to watch Nyssa al Ghul, demon’s blood coursing through her veins, wreak havoc next season. But it’s possible I’m just drunk with optimism because Nyssa survived this far.

What did you think of “My Name is Oliver Queen”? Will you be tuning in next season? Will you be watching the spinoff, which will somehow feature Caity Lotz as the White Canary?

Thanks so much for tweeting with me and chatting with me about this show in the comments-recapping Arrow has been a lot of fun! See you in the fall!

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