This week on Arrow, the girls go on a road trip to see Nyssa and the familiar, but new, Ra’s Al Ghul; and the original Team Arrow combats a meta-human while Oliver and Diggle are forced to hug things out.
Season four of Arrow is getting itself into a habit of starting every week with a scene where our heroes get to do some action-eering, and it’s hardly anything to complain about, because throughout the lumber mill chase sequence in this week’s opener, we get some motorcycle action, and Oliver totally brushing off a wipe out like it was nothing. To set the tone for the episode to come, Felicity gets all nostalgic for working as the original trio, but when it comes time to celebrate a victory, Diggle just isn’t feeling the whole “margaritas” thing and goes off to investigate HIVE solo again.
Most of the episode revolves around an excuse to have Oliver and Diggle talk things out and get into action together, but before we get there, each of them needs to try to solve their larger than life problems on their own, only to have Felicity yell exactly what the audience has been thinking about them since the show has returned. It’s pretty obvious that between this moment, running things at PlamerTech and taking on the bad guy with a gun with just her wit, will, and Holt knocked out on the ground, we see that Ms. Smoak is the person getting shit done in Star City this year.
Speaking of Holt, he’s now in on the fact that his job is paying for the Green Arrow’s vigilantism, so expect to have him and his magic orbs around more often! However, as someone who is entirely uneducated on the character of Mr. Terrific, I can’t stop trying to figure out what these metadata communications are that have continued to appear on Felicity’s devices. If anyone feels like schooling me on my DC knowledge go ahead, or I can just continue to be surprised by the turns Season 4 will be making.
Keeping with the show’s newfound confidence in its humorous side, the Arrow writers must have felt we didn’t get enough puns this week out of a new Captain Cold plot on The Flash, because Arrow tries to use its puns under the table when it comes to this week’s villain: a Central City meta-human called Double Down. Yes, this is an excuse for poker jokes, as it’s a villain with playing card tattoos that literally can be peeled off and thrown like ninja stars. It’s a bit absurd to swallow, but is definitely more fun than villains like Captain Boomerang when you boil a character down to their power concepts. I have to admit that Double Down was enjoyable for his greasy fighting style and set up good gags between Damien Darhk snakily asking if they have a “Deal” and the Oliver and Diggle conflict being resolved with snappy dialogue.
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“You took a bullet for me.”
“They were meta-human tattoo playing cards.”
“Still counts, Oliver. Still Counts.”
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In a side plot that, truthfully, could have been it’s own entire episode, Thea and Laurel show up to Island I-won’t-dare-try-to-spell-the-name that Maclom Merlyn has been residing, while under the title of Ra’s Al Ghul commanding a really pissed off Nyssa and the League of Shadows. As expected, Laurel’s attempt to bring back Sara is not only shot down, but is condemned by Nyssa and even Merlyn as he exposes all our mysteries about the Lazarus Pit, particularly that reviving someone for death has never truly been achieved outside of legends. Only from flesh wounds. Nyssa especially is against the idea, knowing full 
well how the Pit changes a person’s spirit. In her words, she “would never wish it upon her worst enemy, let alone her beloved.” The purpose for being here, and Sara’s eventual revival, is entirely based out of Laurel’s desperate and childish efforts, but the real meat of this secondary plot is for Thea receiving the answers she needs from her son-of-a-bitch murderer father, Malcolm. Sadly, it’s about as messed up and manipulated as you can expect anything that comes from Malcolm Merlyn’s mouth. Evidently, the rage in Thea is the bloodlust of all souls who have entered the pit before, inciting this vampiric need to kill within her. However, knowing Malcolm for being manipulative, I wouldn’t doubt there was some Lucile Bluth levels of information being withheld here…
–> FLASHBACK NOTES 4.3 <–
→) Oliver doesn’t want people to die, but Mira Kuru soldiers are violent and really really dumb.
→) Oliver uses the excuse that he was tortured to, once again, torture people. Oh well, pinched nerves are better than dying.
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→) Oliver know’s where literally every land mine on this island is, I guess. Also, he takes the woman who’s had the most screen time in this subplot away from the camp to an unknown destination.
Arrow 4×03 “Restoration” (7/10)
Are you a fan of Arrow, The Flash, and Supergirl? Check out Ally’s review of this week’s other episode in the DCTV Universe!
The Flash 2×03
At the end of every week, Evan and Allyson meet up to chat about the weekly happenings on our podcast TYF DC Debrief! Available on several platforms! You can join the conversation with us every week on Twitter @EvGriff42 @AllysonAJ and @TYFOfficial
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