BWW Recap: ARROW and a Flashback-Filled 'Return'

Malcolm (John Barrowman) sends Ollie (Stephen Amell) and Thea (Willa Holland) to train on the island where Deathstroke (Manu Bennett) is being held in tonight's ep "The Return." Keep your eye on the target. We'll get you caught up.

We open with Ollie and Thea using bambo stikes to spare with each other. Thea is holding her own. Ollie is surprised she learned all her skills in just nine months. I can see the late night infomercial right now: Learn martial arts the Merlyn way in just nine months.

They share a meal of mystery meat around a campfire ("If I told you what it was you probably wouldn't eat it," he tells his sis).

The flashbacks are a bit extended tonight in honor of this being the 60th episode and all. They include Ollie and Maseo (Karl Yune) in Ollie's pre-ARROW days returning to Starling City to stop a woman from selling a biological weapon, Quentin Lance (Paul Blackthorne) drinking away his grief over the death of his daughter Sarah the first time (when she really wasn't dead), a pre-district attorney office Laurel (Katie Cassidy) watching over him and Thea rocking a private school uniform (because she is still in high school).

Back in the now, Thea wakes Ollie out of a nightmare. He keeps saying Sarah's name. Thea confronts him about Sarah's death. He avoids telling Thea that she was mesmerized by her father Malcolm to kill Sarah and Sarah's death was at her hands. He takes a walk to clear his head.

In actuallity, he's going to check in on Deathstroke and make sure he is still behind bars on the island. He enters the cell and pulls the blanket over the body there. It is that of a guard. Deathstroke --who vowed to kill Ollie and always keeps his promises-- has escaped.

Malcolm calls Ollie (apparently there is a cell phone tower somewhere on the island) to inform him that he let Deathstroke out so that Ollie could regain his killer instincts.

Flashback 2: Ollie drags Maseo with him as he follows Thea (whom he hasn't seen in many years and who thinks he is dead). She visits his grave. And buys some drugs from her dealer. Tommy Merlyn (Colin Donnell --his character hasn't been killed yet) threatens the dealer to stay away from Thea.

Back on the island, they pay a visit to their father's actual grave. Ollie has hidden a gun beneath the stones. He retrieves it for Thea. Ollie notices some of the foliage is disturbed and realizes Deathstroke has been there. Correction: is still there. He knocks out both Ollie and Thea. They later awake in the prison cell that was so recently his home. Deathstroke plans to plant two burned bodies in Starling City and leave Thea and Ollie locked up on the island.

Flashback 3: Ollie has broken into his family's company. The computer uses a fingerprint scanner. Ollie's print is still on file (while remove the fingerprint of someone whom you think is dead). It lets him in and he hacks the computer. While there, he notices a file from his father addressed to him. He grabs a flashdrive and copies it, too. An elevator door opens. It's pre-Team ARROW Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards). Talking to herself, she mentions that she finds the picture of Ollie cute (too bad he's dead). Ollie is hiding around the corner and hears the confession. He smiles.

Maseo combs through the data that Ollie has swiped while Amanda Waller (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) keeps a watchful eye on him. Ollie uses the distriction to slip from her sight.

Tommy's birthday party looks to be a rager. Pre-Team Arrow Diggle (David Ramsey) hands a handkerchief to a vomitting partygoer. The partygoer cleans his mouth and then hands it back to Diggle. He's there to work security at the party. Ollie sneaks past him and into the party (wearing a green hoodie). He watches as Tommy uses a bad pick up line on a women. Laurel arrives to scare the gal off. Thea arrives despite Tommy having told her earlier that it is strictly 21 and over.

Ollie watches as she catches up with her drug dealer and makes another purchase. Ollie follows the drug dealer upstairs. He tells the lowlife to stay away from Thea. The lowlife recognizes him. Ollie snaps his neck and throws the body over the railing to the floor below.

Back on the island, Thea confronts her brother about the secrets he is keeping. She pushes again on Sarah. "What is it going to take for you to stop treating me like a tiny, fragile, little object," she asks. He realizes the cells were created for full-grown men. She tries to reach the button to open the cell door. She almost reaches it. He dislocates her arm. She reaches the button and opens the cell door.

Flashback 4: Quentin has sobered up enough to conduct an investigation into the murder of the drug dealer at Tommy's party. He notices Thea and Laurel are in attendance and he is not happy. He still blames Ollie for Sarah's death (though neither are dead at this point) and doesn't want Laurel associating with playboy billionaires. He confronts her about her decision to leave Starling City for a corporate law firm in San Francisco.

Maseo, meanwhile has tracked down Ollie and retrieved him from the party. Maseo tells him the hood wouldn't work as a disguise if he smeared grease paint over his face (inside joke for those of us who have been watching for all 60 eps). Ollie wants out. Maseo warns him that Waller will have him killed. Ollie mentions the fact that his family has billions and there has to be away to escape from her. Despite the threat of a biological weapon being used on millions, Ollie quits Waller's team.

Back on the island, Ollie has to push Thea out of the way of one of his own booby traps. One of the spears of the trap has hit his shoulder. He pulls it out. Thea presses again about Sarah. She tells him she can't focus knowing he is keeping something about Sarah from her. He spills the beans that Malcolm used someone under the influence of a drug so she wouldn't know what she was doing. The pronoun use is a big clue for Thea. Thea freaks out.

Deathstroke sneaks up behind her during the meltdown and puts a gun to her head. She quickly disarms him. Ollie tackles him and they both fall down an incline. Thea and Ollie spar with Deathstroke. Thea finally pulls the gun on him.

Flashback 5: Queen Manor and Olliie returns home to take a seat in the parlor. There's a tablet sitting on the table. He pulls out the flashdrive and hits up the file from his father. It's a video confessional about how he failed the city. He mentions the book of bad people he worked with (that Ollie would use as his hitlist through season one). He challenges Ollie to save the city and right all of his wrongs.

Maseo is taking pictures at the auction for the weapon. China White (Kelly Hu) opens the bid at $50 million. Maseo opens fire along with some of Waller's other men. They are hopelessly outnumbered and when Maseo is the last of the heros left standing, he puts down his guns and surrenders. Maseo is about to be killed when Ollie arrives to shoot the guy with a gun pointed at him.

China White flees, but Ollie runs after her, shooting at her car as her driver tries to get away. It crashes. She tries to flee and he knocks her out. He tells her accomplice with a briefcase containing the weapon chained to him he has two choices (to keep his arm or not).

Back on the island, Ollie talks Thea out of killing Deathstroke. Once his back behind bars, he declares that Thea has been "touched by darkeness" and is lost. Ollie has lost his father, his mother and now his sister. He asks about the girl with the glasses, basically threatening Felicity.

Flashback 6: Ollie tells Waller he is out. She tells him it isn't up to her. Enter General Shrieve (Marc Singer), who tells Ollie he has to come to China for a debriefing and then he will personally see to it that Ollie can go whereever he would like.

In the comics, Shrieve is the leader of the Creature Commandos --a group of metahumans. Given THE FLASH has already introduced the idea of metahumans to their shared world, I can only assume we're going to be seeing the CC shortly.

Tommy meets up with Laurel (who has decided to stay in Starling City afterall) and asks her to dinner. Thea, meanwhile, drops flowers off to the graves of her father and Ollie (who isn't dead).

Back in real time. Laurel confronts her father Quentin at Sarah's grave. He is still mad at her for keeping Sarah's death from him and also for picking up the mantle of Black Canary. He hands her a bottle of unopened booze and tells her to go to a different AA meeting than the one he is going to. She pours the booze out at her sister's grave.

At the loft, Thea and Ollie arrive home. Malcolm is there. She confronts him for making her kill Sarah. Malcolm's defense is that Ollie shouldn't have told her that. She tells Merlyn she will work with him to take down Ra's al Ghul, but she will never again be his daughter.

And with that, a flashback-filled ep comes to a close. Comment below and follow me @triggercric and follow @BWWTVWorld for all the latest updates, scoops and recaps.

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