'Arrow' Recap: Sara Is Back from the Dead... Again

Warning: Spoilers ahead for this week’s episode of Arrow.

Oliver and Diggle settle their differences, Laurel and Thea make some very bad decisions, Sara is alive again, and we lose a beloved (inanimate) friend on tonight’s Arrow.

The Plot

H.I.V.E. doesn’t like that Green Arrow is preventing them from moving on to Phase 3 of Genesis (they’re launching the bomb from Star Trek III?), so their agent, Mina Fayad, brings in the metahuman Double Down. Diggle is tracking Fayad — who ordered his brother’s death — and Double Down is tracking Oliver. Realizing that they need each other, Diggle finally agrees to bury the hatchet with Oliver.

Meanwhile, Laurel and Thea return to Nanda Parbat: Thea, to talk to her father about her bloodlust — which doesn’t go well — and Laurel, to use the Lazarus Pit to bring back her sister, Sara — which does go well.

Related: Get Caught Up With Our ‘Arrow’ Recaps

Bye Bye, Magic Hot Tub

Sara is back from the dead — we’ve known she would be, since she’s all over the promotions for DC’s Legends of Tomorrow — and it looks like she’ll be the last person to do so.

The problem with the Lazarus Pit on a scriptwriting level is: How can you create a sense of danger when characters can be resurrected at the drop of a hat? Before the season began, the show’s executive producers promised they would bring stakes back to the show by destroying the Pit. Bet Malcolm feels pretty dumb for taking out that huge mortgage on Nanda Parbat now that its best feature is gone.

Ollie and Digg

This feels like about the correct length of time for these two to settle their differences. On the one hand, it’s hugely annoying to watch a team constantly bickering while they’re fighting baddies. On the other hand, Oliver did kidnap Diggle’s baby and, reasons or no, that’s not a thing you can just get past. What do you think? Did Digg give in too easily? Or are you glad Ollie took a bullet — okay, fine, “metahuman tattoo playing cards” — for him?

Felicity and Curtis

This show should always have these two running from a metahuman. From Felicity’s coy and easily-dismantled lies about a poker tournament to the classic, “You know how to use that thing?” “No!”, their interactions were the most fun part of the episode. It’s a good thing Curtis is in on her secret, too: Every time a new member gets added to Team Arrow, it just gets more fun — despite Felicity’s rousing cry of “OTA: Original Team Arrow.”

Laurel and Thea

Both of these women are 100 percent in the wrong. Thea expects Malcolm to be a normal dad, seemingly unaware that he’s wearing the Death’s Head ring and controls an international cabal of assassins. Laurel ignores repeated, repeated, repeated warnings to not bring her months-dead sister back with cursed magic.

At the same time, it was Malcolm who first reached out to Thea, and if anybody has been trying to have a “normal” father/daughter relationship, it’s him. And Laurel nearly drove her father to drink himself to death because she kept Sara’s death from him; in her mind, bringing her sister back will fix her family. Mistakes are being made, sure. But who hasn’t made a few mistakes when it comes to family? We all have; they just tend to be less ninja and/or mystical in nature.

Inside Comics Moment

“This is an autonomous communications device.” Notice that “T” in the ball Curtis is working on? In the comics, Mr. Terrific designs a number of these balls that assist him in his crime-fighting. They float around him like tiny protectors; think of it like Daenerys Targaryen surrounded by her dragons. Somewhere, deep within the Arrow writers’ room, there’s must be a list of every possible “balls” joke ready to be made as soon as they give him a costume.

Line of the Night

“This is where I talk and you listen!” If there’s any doubt who’s the boss in the Arrow Bunker, doubt no more. Hell hath no fury like Felicity Smoak scorned.

Arrow airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on The CW.