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“Arrow” recap (3.10): Long Live the Queen

Previously on Arrow, Oliver found out that Malcolm Merlyn hypnotized Thea into killing Sara, and to save his sister from certain death, confessed to the crime himself in front of the League of Assassins, asking Ra’s al Ghul for trial by combat as payment for the brutal murder of his daughter’s girlfriend. Oliver lost the fight spectacularly, and ended up getting pushed off the top of a very tall mountain, after getting a swift sword through the chest.

We return to Starling City mid-police chase, with Roy and his red hood on Oliver’s motorcycle, Felicity in his ear, and Diggle in Oliver’s green hood. It turns out Diggle is better suited for leather and guns, because he doesn’t quite fit the green costume and his bow and arrow game is off. After the mission, we learn that Oliver has been gone for three days without so much as a peep on whether or not he was okay, which they might have been able to write off as typical brooding Oliver Queen, if he hadn’t left them for a fight to the death.

Meanwhile, Ray McSkeevy is in his office testing out part of his new megasuit, starting with a megahand. It is theoretically supposed to shoot something at punchy clowns, but instead it just sparks everywhere. Felicity comes in just in time to see this failure and warns McSkeevy that just because Tony Stark makes it look easy doesn’t mean everyone can be Iron Man.

Ray doesn’t look much like he takes her reminder of his fragile human life very seriously.

Across town, one of the men from the earlier police chase is brought in to face a sassy Laurel Lance and her Lawyer Face. She demands he be held without bail and without the Arrow coming in to be an eye witness, because she has evidence to tie him to the case.

Team Arrow Minus The Arrow does more research on the case and learn that it’s all tied to a man who got out of prison when all of his eye witnesses died rather suddenly and mysteriously. Roy knows him from his days on The Streets and says he goes by the cuddly nickname, Brick.

Before they head out on the case again, Diggle brings up Oliver. Felicity is so very sure that Oliver survived, that he’s just fine out there somewhere. Diggle tries to tell her that she should consider preparing for the worst, but Felicity stands firmly in the Relentless Optimism camp.

And maybe Diggle was right, because right now Oliver is quite literally hanging out, shirtless, unconscious, half-buried in the snow on the side of the mountain he fell off of. A hooded figure finds him there and uses a cart to drag him away, slowly and with a sort of care.

In a warehouse in Starling City, we meet Brick. Brick finds the man from the police chase that DIDN’T get caught by the SCPD, and hands him a gun. As punishment for getting tangled up with the 5-0, he has to try to take Brick down faster than Brick can kill him dead. But bullets can’t break brick, so in a matter of seconds the poor kid’s face is punched so many times it’s a miracle his head stays attached to the rest of him.

Malcolm and Thea are training; he’s talking about the sea and she’s moving as gracefully as water.

However, Thea’s a little distracted today, because Oliver hasn’t returned her last few messages, which is very unlike her doting brother. Malcolm offers to use his “connections” to see if he can find Oliver, and Thea (who is either still very naive and trusting or playing Merlyn like a fiddle, jury’s still out) thanks him for his kindness.

Roy and Diggle break into a warehouse where, according to Felicity’s research, Brick – or at least his phone – was hiding out. However, when the boys get inside, they find only makeshift fireplaces made out of metal barrels. One contains charred human remains and the other has a pile of burner phones quite literally burnt. They do, however, find part of a blueprint and a string of numbers that they hope Felicity can work her voodoo magic on.

When Team Arrow Minus the Arrow gets back to the Arrow Cave, they see the door open slightly and rush in, hoping Oliver will be there to meet them. Unfortunately, it’s just Merlyn, asking after Mr. Queen. Felicity tells him he’s alive, and when Merlyn more specifically asks if any of them have heard from Oliver since he challenged Ra’s al Ghul, Felicity simply repeats, “He’s alive,” though whether it’s for his sake or her own is anyone’s guess.

Diggle and Roy are keen to take Merlyn’s inquisition as proof Oliver is dead, but Felicity wants none of that. Luckily, before she can totally spaz on them, Laurel shows up with the ME report for the warehouse body. She sees the stricken look on all their faces and asks where Oliver is. Roy and Diggle tell her about the fight with the Demon’s Head and Laurel pretty much laughs in their face and is like, “Right, so he’s like Alison DiLaurentis dead. Cool, he’ll be back soon then.” She’s definitely on Felicity’s team re: optimism.

Merlyn proves he would go to the ends of the earth for Thea (when he’s not making her kill her friends for him) and goes to the mountain where the death match took place. He sees the blood-soaked sword stuck in the ground and knows this does not bode well for the Green Arrow.

He brings the sword back to Arrow HQ and tells the team where he found it, and that it fits with the way Ra’s al Ghul works. He says Oliver’s body fell off a ravine, so he doesn’t have a body, but they can test the blood. Merlyn doesn’t think they’ll even believe that much evidence, but he can’t do anything about that. Felicity, sadness and anger fighting for dominance in her eyes, tells Merlyn that if Oliver Queen is dead, it’s all his fault.

Merlyn doesn’t disagree, and starts to apologize, but Team Arrow is not interested in his sympathy. Merlyn swears this isn’t what he wanted, and that in fact, Oliver’s death means his head was on the chopping block as well. Felicity is not even the tiniest bit sad to hear it.

Sure enough, when Felicity tests the blood on the sword, it comes back as undoubtedly Oliver’s. And then sweet Felicity experiences the downside to optimism: when reality proves your hopes impossible. That’s the thing about being an optimist. Most of the time, life is bright and shiny; there’s a pretty silver lining to just about anything. But the problem with living in the light most of the time is that when reality comes in and takes that light away, the dark is darker than anything you’ve ever experienced. Because not only is there this terrible thing that you had hoped against hope wouldn’t happen, but there’s also the pain of being so wrong. It’s there in the darkness that you start to wonder if it’s worth going back out into the light at all.

But even though Felicity is there in that dark, dark place, she doesn’t let Diggle see it. She holds her head high like she can still see just fine and says she’s just glad they know for sure. She chokes back tears and tries not to fall as she makes her way through the dark to her job at Palmer Tech.

Up at Verdant, Roy pours one out (into his mouth) for Oliver. Thea finds him and asks if he’s okay, and if a little midriff will help him feel better.

Thea knows Roy is the red hood who hangs out with the Arrow all the time and asks him to ask the green vigilante to help her look for Oliver. Roy doesn’t know what to do, so he agrees, then goes to Diggle and asks why they’re still assembling as Team Arrow. He says it was one thing to be playing while they waited for their quarterback to return, but what even is the point if they’re never going to be a full lineup again? But Diggle needs to focus on something, so he chooses the case, and realizes that the list of numbers they found in Brick’s warehouse links directly to men that were put away in the past eight months.

At Palmer Tech, McSkeevy asks Felicity if she fixed the chip for his megahand yet, and she launches into a diatribe about how fleeting life is and how stupid his plan is and that no amount of vigilante-ism is going to bring his dead fiance back, and surely she wouldn’t want him going on this suicide mission anyway. Ray stops her there and says he can tell she’s hurting, but even so, she’s not allowed to speak for his fiance. Ever. Felicity realizes she shouldn’t be interacting with her boss just yet and excuses herself.

On the way out of the office, she gets a phone call from Diggle and Roy, because they have to at least finish out this case, for Oliver.

Felicity helps the boys find and infiltrate the police evidence warehouse Brick and his men are targeting, and together Diggle and Roy avoid getting fist-murdered by Brick. But at the last minute, Brick and his men get away with a truck full of evidence thanks to an ill-timed garage door.

When they return to Arrow HQ, Diggle can read Felicity’s face like a book and knows that it was her that let down the barrier between her boys and the baddies. She has no regrets; she wasn’t in the mood to lose anyone else she cared about today, thank you very much. But it doesn’t matter anyway because that was it. She’s done. There’s no Team Arrow without the Arrow himself. If Oliver is gone, she’s done trying to save Starling City.

Felicity goes back to Palmer Tech and apologizes to Ray, explaining that she lost someone she loved. In fact, she’s 25 years old and in the past few months, she has lost the two people she loved most in the world.

Felicity explains that this is why she can’t help him be the hero, because she knows first hand how very mortal even the bravest of us all are. She gives him back the chip and says she just can’t help him with this one thing.

Laurel goes to the Arrow Cave and Diggle tries to tell her again that Oliver isn’t coming back. She ignores that point and asks instead if Diggle will be back. He doesn’t know; their whole operation revolved around Oliver Queen. After he leaves, Laurel eyes Sara’s old Canary suit and puts her hand on it, as if she could feel traces of power her sister left behind.

Brick gives his new crew a pep talk, saying that he has hand-selected them to help him make money and make history; to help him rule the Glades. Oh and PS they don’t actually have a choice because he has evidence on each of them as collateral. Some of the thugs leave the Bad Guy Orientation, psyched about their new gig, when a familiar noise stops them dead in their tracks. Frantic, they ask the shadow descending upon them, “Who are you?”

The response? “Justice you can’t run from.”

Somewhere in the middle of the snowy mountains, the body of Oliver Queen comes to life with a gasp. He hears a voice tell him not to move and turns to see Katsu sitting at his side. Confused, he starts to ask a question, but Maseo steps forward and explains that, since Oliver once went out of his way to reunite Maseo and Katsu back in Hong Kong, he brought Oliver to Katsu so she could bring him back to life.

Next week, we finally have another female ass-kicker in Starling City. (Literal ass-kicker anyway; Felicity kicks ass in a different way.) I could have been hallucinating, but I’m almost positive the CW promo said, “Laurel is the New Black” and I refuse to look it up because I really want it to be true.

What did you think of “Left Behind”?

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