ARROW Season 3×22, "This Is Your Sword" recap
Welcome back, Arrowheads! You're back in time for the wedding no one expected (and all but Ra's al Ghul didn't want): the marriage of Oliver Queen aka Al Sah-him to Nyssa! Besides getting a VERY reluctant bride, afterwards, Ollie gets to have his honeymoon in Starling, where he'll unleash the Alpha/Omega virus on his hometown! Meanwhile, Thea has found out Roy is alive, and Team Arrow is trying to move on without their fearless leader. You think they're getting wedding invites?
Broken Family. In the flashback, Ollie and the Yamashiros are trying to find some medicine for Akio. He was inoculated against the Alpha/Omega, but his immune system wasn't strong enough to completely fight it. Instead of letting Akio die, Maseo wants to attack Shrieve's HQ to get an actual cure. It's a longshot, but Ollie agrees to help him hit the place. There, they confront Shrieve, who gives him vials he claims are the cure (it takes a bullet to the shoulder to convince him to do that). They drag Shrieve with them back to the empty school where Tatsu and Akio are, only to find Akio has died. And then the kicker comes: Shrieve has no cure at all, and his men surround our trio. How is this going to turn out?
Bittersweet Reunion. While we're dealing with our antics in the present, Thea goes on a road trip to see Roy. He's working at a mechanic's shop under an assumed name, and is surprised to see Thea. We find out he's been moving around since leaving Starling, not staying in one place too long. She offers Roy a present: his Arsenal gear, stolen from the police impound, and then they make out. After that's over, Thea talks to Roy about that near-death experience and thinking about running away with Roy. Before she can make that decision, Roy makes it for her by taking off without her. He leaves her a note, saying he doesn't want her to run from what she can be anymore…and he leaves her his Arsenal gear. Sniff.
"We weren't invited…SO WE CRASHED!"
Stages of Grief. Diggle and Laurel are busting up a gang, which takes a dark turn as Dig really lays into a gang member a bit too hard. He's still a bit upset about the whole "Ollie having Lyla kidnapped" deal, which is not surprising. At Palmer's lab/temporary Arrow HQ, Ray asks about what's making Felicity so blue. Obviously it's about Ollie, but she refuses to go further into it, and plus, she has some documents Ray needs her to sign. What she doesn't see that we do is its a Transfer of Ownership document. Hmmm…
At Nanda Parbat, Ra's talks to Ollie and Maseo about the delivery plan for the Alpha/Omega virus (and here's some news, Maseo is the one who brought the virus when he joined the League!). But, time for dinner, and Nyssa's there, being the unwilling bride-to-be you would expect (especially after hearing she'll be expected to birth an heir after the wedding). Ollie excuses himself to get some alone time outside the castle, and has a brief encounter outside with…Malcolm? Yep, Ollie's not a bad guy after all!
Sending a Message Home. Ollie and Malcolm talk, and we find this has been Ollie's plan all along: to take Ra's offer and destroy the League from within. But with this rapidly moving plan to attack Starling City, he needs help from his former teammates, which Malcolm admits, won't mean anything coming from him. Ollie suggests he knows someone who might help that. Maseo appears just after Malcolm vanishes, and Ollie asks about where he got the virus from (that truck they blew up in the flashback last episode), and offers to release Maseo from the League if he wants to go back to Tatsu. He declines, maybe for the last time.
"How more simple can I put this…you are not on the wedding party list!"
The Right Motivation. Much later, Malcolm calls up Team Arrow to let them know what's up with Ollie's big plan, but really, they're there to tell him to shove off (and who would blame them). But Malcolm has someone who can help his argument: Tatsu! Yeah, send someone that no one except Diggle (and even that's a vague knowledge) would possibly know to convince your friends, Ollie. Great plan. After hearing about the Alpha/Omega virus and seeing the footage of Hong Kong, they ask the question I've been asking the last few episodes, "why haven't we heard of a massive virus outbreak in Hong Kong before?" (well, it's a "chemical spill" cover story there). Diggle and Laurel agree to go, but Felicity needs some convincing from Tatsu (like hearing how Ollie was thinking about her when he was dying on that cliff way back in the season) before they all take off to Nanda Parbat.
Wedding Crashers. The team arrives at Nanda Parbat and find the aircraft that is going to transport the virus. While Felicity leaves to take control of it, everyone else fights the League goons guarding it. She can't hack the guidance system in time, but she has backup: in Ray flying in to destroy the plane, albeit through damaging his suit. Maseo pops up, and ends up fighting Tatsu, who is unable to stop her estranged husband before she has no choice but to kill him. Rough call right there.
Too bad for everyone that Ra's has the team surrounded, and reveals he still has the virus. And this is why you double check these things before destroying an aircraft, people.
Play Along. While being led to see Ra's, Ollie takes a brief moment to tell everyone to play along so he can keep them alive. In Ra's chamber, we hear Maseo being used as the scapegoat for why the Team knew about the intended virus plan, and everyone else hears about the wedding plans. The Team is put in prison (this makes trip number three for Diggle and Malcolm, two for Felicity, and one for Ray, Tatsu, and Laurel this season, for those keeping score), and Diggle is taken to Ollie, who tries to apologize for not letting him in on the whole "lying about his plan to infiltrate the League and kidnapping Lyla" deal, but Dig's gonna need some time to forgive him for that. Meanwhile, Malcolm requests time with Ra's, where he offers to serve him again, and to ensure that, sells out Oliver! People, why do you keep trusting this guy?
Here comes the bride…while the groom's friends are being exposed to a fatal virus…
You Are Cordially Held Prisoner For… Ra's confronts Ollie about this information from Malcolm, and flat out denies it. Well, Ra's decides to handle Malcolm and the rest of the Team (except Tatsu, who's moved because of her immunity to the virus) by closing them in with a vial of the Alpha/Omega virus! Ollie leaves them without doing anything to stop it, and as his Team seems to be dying (or falling asleep, since they're not bleeding out), the wedding of Ollie to Nyssa goes off without a hitch (unless you count Nyssa's failed attempt to stab Ollie a hitch).
So, the Team's not dead, right? Seriously, we know they didn't get exposed to the virus, so how are they going to help save Ollie, and how is he going to stop Ra's destruction of Starling City? Is Thea really going to be the last hope anyone has? Well, we got one more episode to find out!
–Comic book connections: Nyssa was betrothed to someone else in the comics that wasn't Oliver Queen: namely Bruce Wayne, the Batman! Also, Tatsu starts wearing an outfit resembling Katana from the DCU.
–So, really, NOW can we kill Malcolm? We had the laundry list of crap he's done throughout the last few seasons reminded to us and now him snitching on Ollie just to kiss Ra's ass. Please, with sugar on top?
–No Quentin this week, which is good, because I'm almost done forgiving him.
–Hopefully you've avoided the promos for the season finale, because one big turn is spoiled. Well, it's an obvious plot turn, but the details of who's involved isn't.
–Ollie's on the Flash next week, which I'm sure is going to need a lot of exposition to make that crossover make sense.
–Great moment when Felicity's supposed tablet kill toss into a League goon's throat is revealed to be Malcolm killing him: "Oh, that makes more sense."
–"Is it Oliver related stuff? Yeah, it's Oliver related stuff."
–"I really don't like that he can summon us."
–"I got 40 minutes on a elliptical I have to make up for."
That's it for now, but please leave your comments below and come back next week for the season three finale, "My Name Is Oliver Queen"…
Tags: Arrow, ATOM, Black Canary, Brandon Routh, Colton Haynes, Comics, Dark Archer, David Ramsey, Diggle, Emily Bett Rickards, FanGirl Squee, Felicity Smoak, Geekery, Green Arrow, John Barrowman, Malcolm Merlyn, Olicity, Oliver Queen, Paul Blackthorne, Reviews, Stephen Amell, Stewart, Television, Thea Queen, Willa Holland
Categories FanGirl Squee, Television
Author stewartmoncure
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