SPOILER ALERT! (stop reading if you don’t want to know what happens in this episode)
Prepare because this is going to be a thorough recap and as if that wasn’t enough there’s a bonus Glam DEETS podcast episode where I talk about this week’s winter finales. Yea ish gets real and I’m still trying to recover from what it is that the Arrow writers did to me… to everyone. Get into the recap below!
We open with snow and Oliver climbing a mountain (which flashes throughout the episode) then quickly cuts to 48 hours earlier. The police department is having a holiday party and Oliver drops off suspect. When he goes to leave he gets attacked by a group of people with arrows and tied up. He’s taken to an unidentified location and comes face to face with Nyssa. She tells him he’s failed in finding Sara’s killer and tells him he has 48 hours to find her killer or the League of Assassins will start killing the people of Starling City. Maseo, now Sarob, unmasks himself and stands in agreement with Nyssa.
Laurel is at Sara’s grave talking to Sara when she’s interrupted by Thea who was visiting Moira’s grave. Laurel tells her about Sara’s murder and Thea asks her why she didn’t tell anyone. She tells him that Sara was complicated and if her father found out it would kill him. She makes her promise not to tell Oliver. At Palmer Technologies Felicity is obviously upset about the aftermath of the kiss with Ray. He tells her he can explain but she tells him they should just go back to the way things were before she’s summoned away by Oliver.
At the lair, Oliver updates the team on Nyssa’s threat and Diggle thinks they need to have a contingency plan in place in case they don’t deliver in time but Oliver doesn’t have one. Felicity finally gets the data from tar Labs and it comes back that Oliver is the one who killed Sara. Oliver believes it’s Malcolm trying to set him up against the League of Assassins and Felicity tells him that it will take time to retrace Malcolm’s tracks.
The Flashback
Oliver returns to Maseo’s house after his first torture and Maseo asks him if he learned anything about their plan. He tells him what information he received and Maseo tells him that he did what was necessary. Oliver and Maseo break into the lab to confiscate the Omega but it’s already gone. Maseo checks the security footage and tells Oliver that there was already someone on the inside. Oliver and Maseo kidnap the person who stole the vial of Omega and threaten him for information. White China shows up at Tatsu’s house wanting to know where Maseo is. She pulls out a sword and they start to fight. Maseo and Oliver return to find Tatsu missing and his son tells him that White China took her.
The Coverup
Dinah, Laurel’s mom, is in town thanks to Quentin and she’s asking where Sara is because she’s not answering her calls but Laurel dies. Dinah and Laurel go to dinner and Dinah asks her how she’s feeling because she knows Laurel is hiding something. Dinah tells her that the feeling she had that Sara was alive is gone and asks if she’s dead. Laurel tells her she is and Dinah asks if Quentin knows. She tells him that he doesn’t because he won’t be able to take it and she can’t lose anyone else. Back at the lair Felicity gets the details from Malcolm’s flight plans and it looks suspicious so Oliver and Roy pay the pilot a visit and threatens him to give them footage from Malcolm’s flights. On the footage Oliver sees Thea get off of the plane. Diggle suggests that Thea maybe killed Sara since they’re related and it could be her DNA. Oliver doesn’t believe she did it and Felicity tells him to look at all of the facts.
Oliver isn’t budging and still believes that Malcolm set him up. Felicity gets interrupted by a call from Ray who is upstairs in the club wanting to talk to her. He tells her that he felt guilty after the kiss. He tells her about his ex fiance who died during the Mirakuru attack when they broke his leg then went after her and broke her neck. He tells her that she was supposed to be the last woman he kissed but then he kissed Felicity.
Oliver goes home and asks Thea about what she’s been doing with Malcolm and if she flew back to Starling with him. She tells him that she didn’t and if she had she would’ve told him. We get a really badass sword fight/training scene with Ra’s al Ghul and his men. He kills one of them and Nyssa returns to tell him that it’s almost time. Ra’s thinks that Oliver isn’t taking their threat seriously and he tells Nyssa to go back to Starling and be merciless.
Oliver returns and tells them that Thea didn’t kill Sara. Diggle thinks Oliver has a blind spot for his family and Felicity steps in and tells him that he shouldn’t be the one asking the questions, it should be Arrow. Oliver returns to their house as Arrow and kicks the balcony glass door in. He asks her where Malcolm Merlyn is and Thea takes him on showing off a little bit of her training and tells him to stay away from her and her father before quickly escaping over the balcony wall.
Oliver is back at Verdant when Malcolm shows up and asks him about attacking Thea. Oliver is pissed and grabs Malcolm threatening to kill him but is interrupted by a text to his phone. It’s a video that shows that Thea is the one who killed Sara and Malcolm had her put under some drug so that she would be under the influence and not remember anything. He blackmailed Oliver so that he would tell Ra’s that he’s the one who killed Sara so that he would do a one on one combat and kill him erasing everyone’s debt, including Thea’s (and Malcolm’s).
Oliver goes to meet Nyssa and he asks for Ra’s al Ghul. He’s taken to him and he tells him that he’s the one who killed Sara; that she begged him to. Nyssa asks him why and he tells them that she chose death over being in the League. Ra’s tells him that he should cut his head off right there but Oliver tells him he has a right to challenge him in combat and Ra’s accepts. Oliver then turns to Maseo and tells him that a man cannot live by two names alone. Maseo tells him that he knows he didn’t kill Sara. He tells him he has 12 hours to settle his affairs and then he has to climb a mountain to the location of the fight, if he survives. Oliver takes the paper and tells him he’ll see him there.
Laurel and Dinah are at Sara’s grave reminiscing and Laurel promises her that she will find out who killed her and Dinah tells her to make them pay. Oliver returns home and tells Thea that she doesn’t really know who Malcolm is. She asks him not to make her choose and he tells her that he’d never do that; that he would do whatever it takes to protect her. She asks what that means and he tells her it means he loves her.
Felicity goes to Palmer Technologies and demands Ray tell her why he bought Queens Consolidated and what he’s doing. He tells her about technology that can make things smaller and shows her the blueprint for the A.T.O.M. suit and that he plans to use it to protect the people of the city and he wants Felicity’s help. Oliver is getting ready to leave but Diggle doesn’t want him to go alone. He tells him that he has to and he tells Roy to watch over Thea before hugging him and shaking Diggle’s hand as Felicity enters. They leave them alone and she tells him that she’s not going to stop him but asks that he kills Ra’s al Ghul. She tells him that she’s terrified that he won’t kill him and Ra’s will use his humanity against him. He tells her that he doesn’t know if he’s a killer but he knows that he’ll do whatever it takes to save his sister. He kisses her on the forehead and tells her that he loves her before leaving.
Oliver finally gets to the top of this ridiculously large mountain and Maseo tells him to remove his shirt. He tells Oliver that Ra’s is not known to be merciful but if he was this would be his final chance. He tells him to choose his weapon and Ra’s starts talking about when he first killed someone when he was eleven and what the League exists to do. Oliver tells him he’s taken his last life and Ra’s tells him he’s lived his last day. Nyssa tells him she’s envious of him because he’ll see Sara before him. Oliver has two swords and Ra’s has nothing and tells him that he’ll take his swords from him when he’s finished with him. They start fighting and it’s not looking good for Oliver. Ra’s gets one of his swords and Ra’s gets the upper hand. It then looks like Oliver overtakes him but Ra’s punches him in the throat then stabs him in the side. He then tells him to let go and thrusts the sword through his stomach, chest area (it looked like between the ribs). He recites a saying about him being pardoned for his sins, moments from Oliver’s life flash before his eyes, Ra’s pulls out the sword and then kicks him off the mountain. What. The. Fuck.
Some takeaways…
– It took me about 30 minutes to stop screaming out WTF… no joke. I read other people’s theories about how this could happen and if it did Oliver would be put in the Lazarus Pit but I was like, “Yea they’d never do that.” Mind literally blown, like I never thought I’d see the day that Oliver would get a sword through the torso. And it’s only the WINTER finale.
– I can even focus on anything else that happened. This totally overshadows everything else… Ray showing Felicity the ATOM suit, Thea’s skills being revealed and even Laurel finally telling people about Sara’s death. It’s like that doesn’t even matter because Oliver Queen is fucking dead… at least for now.
– Honestly, I see Arrow going on for at least six season, at least and they could totally go for more. So there is no way that Oliver is dead and I’m going to have to go with the theories about him going into the Lazarus Pit. I just can’t believe that the writers were bold enough to go there.
Arrow returns January 21.
Photos: The CW
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