Arrow Recap: Alliance, a Tiger, a Mayor, Oh My!
This week on The CW’s Arrow, Oliver labored to hone Roy into a useful ally, Moira fielded a surprising proposal and Laurel made a beeline for rock bottom.
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The biggish bad this week was Ben Turner aka Bronze Tiger (though tigers are never bronze, Felicity notes), who gets busted out of the clink to steal a prototype earthquake device from Malcolm Merlyn’s home. The Arrow, with super-strong Roy Harper in tow, intercepts Ben, but because of Roy’s propensity to pummel goons ad nauseum, Ben winds up getting away, with the quake-maker.
At the Arrowcave, Oliver frets to Dig and Felicity that he saw Slade Wilson in Roy’s eyes. Oliver says that if he can somehow learn from his past mistakes with Slade to reach Roy, his five-year island nightmare will have been worth it. Later, when Roy indicates that he clued Thea into the earthquake threat, Arrow chastises the lad and urges him to learn to control himself. Roy, though, seems unable to, and questions Arrow on how he can keep secrets. The fellas tussle a bit, ending with Roy lobbing Arrow across a room.
Toward episode’s end, Oliver interrupts the hand-off of the earthquake machine, only to get Bronze Tiger’s blades in his back. Roy appears from the shadows to whale on the wannabe Wolverine, except the Would-Be Buyer of Vague Ethnicity triggers the device inside a shipping container. Oliver needs Roy’s strength to access and destroy the machine before it activates, so, taking a cue from his island days — how he invoked Shado’s name to stop Slade from sinking their only way home — he reveals himself to Roy and urges him to save the day, to save the city, to save Thea. And after Roy does just that, he seems relieved-slash-delighted that Oliver is Arrow. When Roy remarks on how Oliver saved his life and has now given him purpose, Oliver notes, “We’re just getting started.”
Oliver then introduces Roy to the Arrowcave and the rest of Team Arrow (stop calling it that, Felicity!), and they welcome him aboard. Meanwhile, Amanda Waller visits Ben in prison to invite him to work off his sentence as a member of a “squad” she is forming….
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Elsewhere in the hour:
* Moira meets Walter for a dinner date only to realize they have company — a friend of Walter’s, Mark Francis (played by Nicholas Lea), who feels her out for a mayoral run against Sebastian Blood. Walter cites Moira’s 43.6 percent forgiveness rating with the people of Starling City and how folks love “redemption stories,” but it’s words from Thea — that it’s time to stop lamenting how she destroyed the city and start saving it — that push Moira to go for it. Now, what to do about OBGYN Dr. Gill, the only one who knows Thea’s damning paternity secret…?
* Quentin tries to trick Laurel into attending a something anonymous meeting, but she is having none of it. Later, she reconnects with her old CNRI pal Joanna, hoping to land a job, only to realize that she is damaged goods, her legal career destined to be deep-sized. That news sends Laurel to Verdant and into many martini glasses, but Oliver shows up to stop her sloshing sesh, hustle her into a cab… and then phone someone, saying: “She needs you.” Stumbling into her home, Laurel passes out briefly, then sees (or “sees”?) her sister Sara. Question: Did I see a creepy guy eyeballing Laurel at the club? Will he, like, try to attack her, Sara swings into Canary mode but dies, spurring aimless Laurel to carry the baton? Is she headed for a very “special” rehab?
* In island flashbacks, we saw Oliver resolve to tell Slade about his role in Shado’s death, but Sara advises him not to. Instead, to waylay Slade’s aforementioned mission to launch a missile at the freighter, Ollie spins a yarn about how Shado loved him (though perhaps not in that way) and wanted Slade to get back home to his son — and the ploy worked. For now.
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Notable quotables:
“Do you have one of your hoodies?”
“Do you have to ask?”
“When I found out who you really were, I ‘processed’ my way through a pint of mint chip.”
“Does this group have a name, like ‘Team Arrow’?”
“We don’t call ourselves that.”
“I do! Occasionally.”
“Stop.”
What did you think of “Tremors”?
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