Oliver Queen is finally stepping up to become the Demon’s Head. Thea is on the brink of death, but she can be saved if Oliver agrees to be the next Ra’s. It’s a good trade, Oliver thinks, so he takes the barely-alive Thea along with Merlyn, Felicity, and Diggle, to the League of Assassins. First order of business is to bring Thea back via the Lazarus Pit. Malcolm warns Oliver against this; the Pit changes you, and the Thea they bring back won’t be the one they lost, he says. But Thea alive is worth the risk to Ollie, so in a creepy candlelit ritual, Thea is brought back to life.
She pops out of the Pit like something feral, but the next time she regains consciousness she’s disoriented, thinking Moira’s still alive but Ollie isn’t. She sounds she’s reverted to being a little girl again, and it’s heartbreaking, especially seeing Oliver helplessly looking on. I know a lot of you really dislike Thea, and I get it, but I’m holding out hope that she’ll become interesting. If the Pit really does change her, I might get the Thea I was hoping for back when she went off with Merlyn. Thea has so much potential to be a solid character, and she just consistently isn’t. If even the Pit won’t do it, then maybe- maybe- I’ll give up on her.
The next order of business is Felicity and Oliver getting it on. It’s both a “finally” and a “don’t go,” as they both know they’ll have to say goodbye soon. Felicity orchestrates an escape attempt- drugging Ollie since he won’t go willingly- but it doesn’t work. In the end, Team Arrow-minus the Arrow- leave and Oliver begins the transformation process. The first step, apparently, is branding. The second is posing.
They certainly managed to pack a lot of melodrama into one episode. There were some moments that should have been wonderfully dramatic but felt forced or awkward. But overall I felt this episode did a decent job wrapping up one chapter to begin another.
I’m so curious as to how this’ll turn out. I doubt Team Arrow is going to give up so easily, but Oliver seems determined to follow through, and there’s really no way they can fight the League. Assuming Laurel is still training with Nyssa, she has a bit of an in, but not even Nyssa has sway here. So I just have no idea where this is going to go, and that unpredictability is exciting. I’d love to see Oliver actually step up as Ra’s, and since we’ve come this far, it’d be pretty disappointing to get him out of that too soon.
Score: 3/5
Arrow 3.20 - "The Fallen" Watch Arrow on the CW, Wednesdays at 8/7c.