Oliver is still AWOL, though he’s making his way back, and Team Arrow is doing pretty well in his absence, considering. Malcolm Merlyn wants to team up. He’s pretty adamant about it. Roy’s reluctantly for it, but Felicity’s like, hell no. Merlyn learns that Brick is the one who actually killed his wife way back when. He finds this out from spying on Team Arrow; there’s literally a camera attached to one of the computers and somehow not one person noticed it. Okay. Not even Felicity saw the camera attached to the computer she was currently using. Sure. Okay. That’s fine. Anyway.
We get a lot of Malcolm Merlyn flashbacks in this episode. When his wife was killed, he went after the killer- or who he thought was the killer- and murdered for the first time. Wrong person, but oh well, that’s life. Afterwards, Merlyn leaves his son- his poor son who’s just lost his mother- in order to go learn how to protect his family or whatever. Maybe the flashbacks are meant to garner sympathy for Merlyn, but they really just show what a terrible person he is.
Back to present-day. Oliver is still gone, but Team Arrow is going strong. Laurel is getting better at the Canary gig. We also get a glimpse of Sin! Who I missed dearly. It took Sin about two seconds to realize the Canary wasn’t Sara, but Detective Lance still doesn’t have a clue. At least, not until Sin confronts him about it. Looks like he’ll finally get to the truth of it, and about time. That plot line was really frustrating, and I’m glad it’s coming to a head.
There’s an all-out battle between Brick’s men and the people of the Glades, spearheaded by Team Arrow, of course, and it’s a really satisfying scene. And right toward the end, just in time, in swoops Ollie like the big ol’ drama queen he is. He makes a big speech about how he won’t leave them again, and then he swings away. Classic Ollie.
Not a bad episode- I really loved seeing Sin again, and I thoroughly enjoyed the big fight at the end- but it was pretty heavily focused on Merlyn. Bit too many flashbacks for me. Also, a bit ridiculous that Detective Lance immediately knew Arsenal was Roy, but has never placed the Arrow and can’t tell that Canary isn’t Sara. Though probably the most frustrating part of this episode was Oliver’s “triumphant” return. He’s already back in fighting form. He only needed a few weeks of penicillin tea to recuperate? Yeah, yeah, I’ll just go with it. This episode was decent, entertaining in parts, but it had to wrap up one storyline while starting another, and that’s not easily done. Oliver’s beginning to train with Merlyn, and that’s sure to make for some excitement. Surely Thea will find out the Arrow’s identity soon, right? Right?
Score: 3/5
Arrow 3.12, directed by Jesse Warn. Watch Arrow on the CW, Wednesdays at 8/7c.