With Oliver (Stepehn Amell) seemingly fatally wounded on the mountainside, Team ARROW has to pick up the pieces and fight crime themselves. Let's grab the bow and arrow and get you up to speed on what went down on tonight's action-packed episode of ARROW, "Left Behind."
The criminal element in Starling City have wasted no time in ARROW's absence. We begin with a car chase (moving van and squad car; back doors are open and a perp is firing a semi automatic at the police). Oliver's motorcycle appears on the scene. Criminal #1 says to #2 "I thought he was supposed to wear green." The driver of the bike is clearly wearing red. It's Arsenal (aka Roy Harper, played by Colton Haynes). Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) is back at the compound surveying satellite footage of the scene and guiding Roy via radio communication.
On an overpass, Diggle (David Ramsey) is dressed as ARROW and fires a shot at the van. Roy shoots an arrow with rope at the crimnal in the back of the moving van, pulling him onto the street. The driver gets away, partly because Diggle is a lousy shot.
Back at the compound, Felicity tries to cheer the team up by telling them even Oliver bats .500 sometimes. Oh, and she still hasn't found him.
Back at Queen Consolidated, Ray Palmer (Brandon Routh) continues to test his A.T.O.M. suit, but it isn't going well. The glove he is wearing sparks and he curses. Felicity arrives to tell him she thinks his desire to be a crime fighter is stupid and dangerous. Maybe not in those exact words, but the gist is there.
Again, I marvel at how quickly lady justice moves in Starling City. The bandit from last night is already having his initial day in court. His attorney moves to dismiss all charges as the ARROW has not appeared in court. Laurel Lance (Katie Cassidy) produces the semi-automatic used by the perp as evidence. The judge rules in her favor. No bond for the bad guy.
Back at the compound, Felicity remains optomistic. Diggle, on the other hand has (correctly) assumed the worst: Oliver has challenged Ra's al Ghul to a dual and lost. He tells her that she needs to prepare herself for that possibility.
On the mountainside, the camera pans down to the body of Oliver. Snow has begun to collect on his chest and abs. A figure approaches the body.
In an abandon warehouse back in Starling City, the criminal from the heist at the beginning of the show is getting the snot beaten out of him. Apparently, he disobeyed an order to lay low from criminal mastermind Danny "Brick: Brickwell (Vinnie Jones). In the comics, Brick is a metahuman who possesses superhuman strength. His television counterpart has yet to show any super strength, though.
It would appear the Ollie's warning to stay away from Malcom Merlyn (John Barrowman) has fallen on Thea's deaf ears as Ollie's sister Thea (Willa Holland) has opted to continue her training with her father. Oh, Thea. you are in for the mother of all guilt trips when you find out your brother took the fall for you killing Black Canary and risked his life to battle Ra's.
Brick has also been keeping tabs on the incarcerated buddy to make sure he hasn't sung. Laurel relays the info to team Arrow and Felicity easily pings the location of the burner phone (a warehouse in the Glades). Diggle and Roy arrive, but the evidence has already been destroyed.
The meet Felicity back at the entrance to the compound to find an open door. Felicity rushes in thinking it is Oliver. It's Merlyn there to taunt the team. If Ollie were alive, they would have heard from him. So, yeah. A social call.
Laurel arrives to rally the team. This isn't the first time someone has told her Ollie was dead and no one should ever believe a single word that slips out of Merlyn's mouth.
Merlyn later returns to the compound. He's been to the site of the battle and returned with Ra's sword. Ollie's blood is all over it.
And yet, in the very next scene, Ollie's body is being carried away on a crude stretcher by a still unknown person.
But they don't know that back at the compound. Felicity ran an analysis on the blood on the blade. It's Oliver's. She is now convinced Ollie is dead. She leaves to go to her day job. Diggle digs in and reviews the evidence of the case. Roy doesn't understand the point since Oliver and the ARROW are both dead. Just then, Diggle notices a pattern on the list of numbers from a slip of paper found in Brick's warehouse. The numbers are inmate numbers.
Ray Palmer wins the best line of the night when Felicity tells him his plans won't work: "You make it sound like using and enhanced exoskeleton suit to fight crime and save the city is a looney tune idea." Of course, he is doing it to avenge the death of his fiance and of course it won't bring her back. There wouldn't be a super hero genre if characters came to realistic conclusions like Felicity.
Felicity finally picks up Diggle's call. Brick is planning to break into the policy warehouse and steal all the evidance against everyone team ARROW has captured. No evidence, no conviction. And it's not like the ARROW can testify.
Roy and Diggle head to the police warehouse. Diggle is sucker punched from behind by Brick. Diggle shoots Brick in the head. It doesn't phase Brick (apparently, he does have some super human powers). Felicity calls off the search just as Roy nails Brick with an arrow (bullets don't hurt him but arrows do...interesting). Brick gets away with evidence.
Back at the compound, Felicity tells them she pulled the plug on the operation as she doesn't want any more of her friends die. She ascends the stairs, telling Roy and Diggle she is done. Felicity isn't done with the bad news, though. She later tells Ray she will not help him with his suit.
In the mountains, our good samaritan is finally revealed. It's Maseo (Karl Yune). He knocks on a door and tells the person who answers that he "had no one else to turn to and he [Oliver] needs your help."
And things go from bad to worse. Diggle tells Laurel it took team ARROW eight months to bring all the bad guys to justice and a mere eight minutes to have all the evidence stolen and for them all to be released. Diggle is lost without Ollie and isn't sure he'll be back to fight crime.
Laurel is left alone in the compound. She eyes the blond wig, gloves and mask her sister wore as Black Canary before she was killed.
But we're not quite done yet. Merlyn shows up at Thea's loft. He tells her they are both in danger (half-right; the League of Assasins wants him dead). They need to leave Starling City and never come back.
Brick, meanwhile, tells all the freed criminals that he made all the evidence go away, but not disappear. They all work for him now or the evidence finds itself back in police hands. Two of the criminals leave the meeting with one telling the other he's all in.
We hear Black Canary's screaching device. The windows of the criminal's car shatter. The new Black Canary kicks the one criminal and then approaches the other. He asks her who she is. "I'm the justice you can't run from," she says, before she smacks him with her baton.
Back in the mountainside cabin, Ollie's wounds are bandanged and he wakes up with a gasp. His healing angel? Maseo's wife Tatsu whom we all thought was dead. Maseo asked her to come there so she could bring Oliver back to life. I did not see this one coming. Did you? Comment below and follow me @triggercric and follow @BWWTVWorld for all the latest updates, scoops and recaps.
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