BWW Recap: A Shocking Death Stuns Team ARROW

We open with Oliver Queen/ARROW (Stephen Amell) chasing a semi-truck carrying illegal fire arms. He's not alone, though. The rest of Team ARROW are with him. Felicity Smoak (Emily Bett Rickards) is at base, monitoring traffic/satellites; John Diggle (David Ramsey) is in a vehicle trailing the semi; and Roy Harper (aka Arsenal, played by Colton Haynes) shows up just in time to fire two arrows that stop the semi in its tracks. It's our first glimpse of Harper in the Arsenal costume. It's pretty sweet. The team is acting like a well-oiled machine.

The driver flees from the truck, but Harper doesn't move. He knows his job (to stop the truck). Bagging the perp is Arrow's task. Arrow shoots a net arrow towards the direction which the bad guy is running, effectively stopping him.

"Vincent Steelgrave, you have failed this city," Arrow says, before knocking him unconscious.

As the team returns to base, Felicity is monitoring the news channels and it's a PR win for Team Arrow. They've bagged another one of the city's most wanted; crime is down in Sterling City.

As the rest of the team dispatches to their day jobs, the penniless Oliver gives John a DIY gift of forged arrow heads for the baby daughter John's ex-wife is expecting.

John mentions the budding romance between Oliver and Felicity. Oliver tells him he only told Felicity he loved her to fool last season's bad guy Slade. John's retort stings: "Except now the only person you're fooling is yourself."

First flashback of the season. Five years ago in Hong Kong; Oliver is running through the streets. He stops in a Cyber Café and frantically types an email to his mom, letting her know he is alive. Before he can hit send, the bad guy chasing him puts a bullet into the computer and quickly knocks Oliver down.

Oliver is meeting Laurel Lance (Katie Cassidy) outside of the courthouse where the bad guy that they caught has copped to a plea deal. She's quite satisfied with herself. I'm thinking that it's less than a day and the guy is already booked, charged and convicted. Lady Justice sure moves fast in Sterling City.

She ushers him over to a press conference being held by her dad, Quentin Lance (Paul Blackthorne). She tells him it's a surprise. It's a public recognition of the contributions The Arrow has made to make the streets safer. The anti-vigilante task force of Season Two is now disbanned.

Various bad guys are lamenting the loss of their illegal arms. Werner Zytle (aka Count Vertigo, played by Peter Stormare) seizes the opportunity to take over the crime syndicate (the fact that he wields syringes with a drug that makes people see their greatest fears helps his ascension).

Felicity is trying to prepare Oliver to take back Queen Consolidated. He sees it as the perfect opportunity to ask her out on a date.

He's got to take down another bad guy first though. With Felicity (the Best Buy-esque computer store where she works can apparently hack into other computers) and Quentin's help, the bad guy is quickly apprehended. Arrow leaves with few words, prompting Quentin to ask the obvious: "Got a hot date or something?"

Flashback Two: Amanda Waller (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) is the one who is keeping Oliver prisoner in Hong Kong. Trouble is, he keeps trying to escape.

Felicity is visited by Ray Palmer (Brandon Routh). The electronic store setting and Routh give the whole scene a very CHUCK vibe (no coincidence; Routh played Daniel Shaw on the NBC spy series). He is offering her a job. She asks him how he knows who she is (um, you're wearing a name badge).

Oliver arrives a bit late for the date. Felicity isn't wearing glasses and the overall look is 1940s glamour. He tells her that she doesn't know everything about him and to prove it, he mentions the time he spent in Hong Kong. He recalls in vivid detail of the first time he met her. She was chewing on a red pen.

Zytle and crew are poised to attack Arrow at the restaurant (courtesy of a tracking device on Arrow's outfit that's in a duffle bag stored in a dumb waiter at the restaurant. Zytle fires a missile into the restaurant [Insert explosive first date joke here].

Back at base, Felicity is knocked out cold from the explosion with a bit of a head wound. Oliver is pissed, calls Lance and demands to know who the head of the syndicate is.

He suits up and heads to Zytle's lair. Zytle injects him with the drug. Arrow's greatest fear is himself. Lance fires a shot, stopping Zytle from killing Arrow. Lance collapses, clutching his heart.

Felicity has fully recovered and tells Oliver she's had worse first dates. Oliver dispatches Roy to gather street intel and gives John the night off. Felicity and Oliver leave for the board meeting.

Flashback Three: The Asian who keeps kicking Oliver's a$$ welcomes him into his home with a steaming bowl of miso.

Laurel visits her dad in the hospital. The staff has asked for an advanced health care directive. Prognosis of Det. Lance seeing Season Four? Not very good. He tells her if he's not a cop, he's nothing.

Felicity and Oliver arrive to the board meeting to find that Ray is also making a bid for Queen Consolidated (and this is the job he was offering Felicity in the earlier scene). The board opts for Ray's proposal.

Back at base, the team figures out Zytle's plan: take out the three remaining kingpins (who all happen to be attending a title fight). Arrow leaves Arsenal to disarm the bomb while he goes after Zytle.

Zytle injects Arrow again, he sees himself for a moment and then tells Zytle he's made his choice. The drug no longer has any effect. As another henchman rushes to his boss's aid, Black Canary (aka Sara Lance, played by Caity Lotz) appears and stops him. Arrow takes down Zytle. Arsenal disarms the bomb by freezing it.

Final flashback: If Oliver leaves, Amanda will kill Asian guy's family. Some Asian parable about a man not being able to have two lives. The show's a bit heavy-handed with the parables this week.

Back at the hospital where John's ex-wife has given birth, Oliver tries to break it off for now with Felicity. She doesn't want maybes. She leaves as Oliver gets a call from Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) it's a precursor to the scene they shared on last night's episode of THE FLASH.

Final shocking moment (which you already know about if you turned on your computer within the last couple of days): Laurel leaves her sister on the rooftop. Sara dons her Black Canary mask. Someone shoots three arrows into her and her body falls from the roof to the street below. Mask and wig have come off. Laurel clutches her dead sister's body. The canary sings no more.

Tell us what you think in the comments below and come back next Wednesday for the next ep of ARROW.

Check out a sneak peek at next week's episode titled 'Sara':

Photo Credit: The CW

To post a comment, you must register and login.