We open with McKenna and the cops closing in on a helicopter pad. Unfortunately for them, Arrow murders the dude, Guillermo Barrera (a.k.a. Brutale from the comics), before McKenna can get there. McKenna is pissed. I can promise, McKenna, Brutale is having a worse day than you.

At the lair, Felicity and Diggle are getting hot and sweaty. No, not like that. One of them is actually finally getting some elsewhere. Diggle is teaching Felicity how to fight. I approve given how Team Arrow makes them a target. Heck, Felicity was bomb collared just last week. Ollie strolls in to let them know that the assassin he fought is dead but he needs to find out the Barrera’s target to save them. Felicity is tasked with hacking the phone. Well, it’s certainly nice to see her sticking to her “Walter Only” mandate.



On the island, Ollie is hilariously bad at working out. How did he get girls like Laurel pre-island? Oh yeah, he’s a billionaire. Slade is there to show us his muscles. We admire your contribution. Ollie wants to pass on working out to fix a radio since he used to be good at airplane maintenance with his dad. (Prepare for a lot of dad bonding or lack thereof this episode).

Slade: “You’re hoping aircraft maintenance is genetic?”

At Laurel’s place, Tommy is having an awkward double date birthday party. Tommy also remembers McKenna from her wild days but Laurel knows her from the courthouse which is weird because I got the impression that Tommy, Laurel and Ollie have known each other forever? Laurel mentions that Sarah used to have a pet canary (another Black Canary shout out). Captain Jack crashes the party which makes things more awkward but I bet he would’ve been welcome if he had just belted out a few numbers with that beautiful voice of his. Instead, he invites Tommy to a gala honoring Captain Jack, himself. He does throw some pretty enticing stuff out there but Tommy is understandably unmoved. I will go with you, Captain Jack!

At The Bludhaven Apt. (Bludhaven is a city near Gotham), Deadshot is alive. Rule #2 Ollie: double tap. China White recruits Deadshot to kill Captain Jack in exchange for an eyepiece.

In the Evil League of Evil, Momma Moira tells Frank about Captain Jack’s upcoming murder. Captain Jack then tells them and two other people about The Undertaking also coming up. He actually mentions them all NOT failing the city. With this evil meeting taking place with just a handful of people in a well-lit building, it kind of takes the scary out of it.

At the lair, Ollie makes plans to have dinner at the Jade Dragon to have a run in with the Chinese Mafia. Felicity just wants Chinese food which Diggle doesn’t understand because he’s probably had Big Belly Burger for every single meal since the war.

At the Jade Dragon, Ollie actually tries to talk some of his stuff out with Tommy. Ollie says given all he’s lost and the effort Captain Jack is making, he knows the value of making up while you can and Tommy should. Tommy says his dad was gone for two years, and when he came back he was there physically but would barely talk. It was Robert who did dad things with Tommy. Ollie admits he actually holds a lot of anger towards his own father but would give anything to see him again. Tommy says for the second time this episode how happy he is to have Ollie back. It’s a really great scene honestly. Then the action kicks in. Ollie somehow makes it to the back and beats up two dudes. This gives him the information about the hit and convinces Triad members he’s Asian. Ollie pays his bill and leaves. It’s the little things, you know?



On the island, Slade has caught and killed some big hairy beast for dinner like a good strong male protector. Meanwhile, Ollie after several days has finally fixed the radio. Unfortunately, it can only receive transmissions and not radio out. Slade is pissed. In Ollie’s defense, he already fixed part of the radio. Give him time. That said, I doubt Ollie ended up getting any of that animal.

At the police station, Quentin gets a call from Arrow basically telling him to do his job. This makes Quentin hang up and remind McKenna about how they’re going to get that Arrow. Just don’t forget your actual current case there, guy.

At the docks, China White plans on forcing Captain Jack outside so Deadshot can shoot him. Lots of bad guy meetings this episode.

In a rare montage, Diggle and Felicity can’t find Deadshot’s target. Tommy contemplates being a son. Momma Moira seems to be hesitant about murdering a guy. Ollie… rubs his hands together. Truly compelling stuff.

At Laurel’s place, Tommy has decided to go to the gala to be supportive of his dad but is not forcing Laurel to go. This allows her to be sketchy about her mom calling her. She hangs up without answering her phone. Tommy and Laurel have matching sets of issues, don’t they?

At the Starling City Appreciation Gala, Momma Moira agrees to have dinner with Captain Jack on the assumption that he’ll be dead before she’ll have to do it. Meanwhile, China White is there for some murder and appears to have already murdered several busboys. It can’t be that hard to kill Captain Jack can it? Or is he also immortal on this show?

At the club, Ollie and McKenna talk about how they’re both busy. McKenna suggests solving problems with honesty. On the one hand, yes totally. That’s how normal people solve problems. On the other hand, does that relate to their problems at all?

Downstairs, Felicity cracks the phone’s code. Diggle is shocked, probably both by the contents and that Felicity finally accomplished it. She was shocking nonchalant about someone’s life being in danger this whole time.

Ollie sends McKenna home with Diggle (a risky move if you’ve seen Diggle’s muscles recently) and then calls Quentin to tell him what we already know.

At the gala, Captain Jack makes a speech about his wife’s murder that makes Tommy weirdly happy and proud. Momma Moira feels guilty when she notices Tommy there. Captain Jack immediately notices what’s up when the attack begins and tries to take Tommy upstairs. Arrow defends them and Captain Jack is all affronted but wants to save his son so he keeps going. They make it upstairs with Captain Jack committing a murder along the way when someone points a gun at Tommy. Tommy is basically, WTF? It turns out Captain Jack’s whole office is basically a panic room. Now, that they’re safe, he wants to show off his bows and arrows. Men and their sticks, am I right? Even I am embarrassed of that joke. Also, that removable display with the arrows reminds me of the Green Arrow on “Smallville” and his secret compartment. Anyway, Deadshot has anticipated all this and shoots Captain Jack in the chest.



Downstairs, Arrow gets in a fight with China White and hesitates to kill her, allowing McKenna to come up behind him with a gun. Arrow gets away without killing China. He goes upstairs and finds Captain Jack. He learns from the bullet that it was Deadshot. He tells Tommy how to cure his father via blood transfusion and proves he is trustworthy by revealing his identity.



Outside, Captain Jack will be fine. Tommy lies to the police about Arrow’s identity.

Back on the island, Slade has tuned the radio to the soldier’s frequency. Fyers makes reference to a monster from The Odyssey on the radio. Slade and Ollie go off to find it. Not what I would’ve done but I guess the boredom gets to you.

At the lair, Ollie breaks the news to Diggle and Felicity that Deadshot is alive. Diggle takes a timeout.

Back on the island, Slade and Ollie find out the monster is a missile launcher. On the upside, Ollie has a fountain of knowledge from the one book he read in college. He must have read the hell out of it.

At the hospital, Ollie apologizes to McKenna for ending their date early. There he goes apologizing to her again. She says she wants to keep seeing him.

In Captain Jack’s room, Tommy tells Captain Jack that the vigilante saved him. Captain Jack launches into a story about meeting a guy after Tommy’s mom died. It seemed hopeful for a minute this would lead into a sexy Captain Jack story but it was actually about the mass murder he is a part of. Momma Moira comes in and Captain Jack tells her to find the traitor. How does he not know it’s her? Is he that awful to everybody? A note: In the comics, Nanda Parbat is a Shangri-La that keeps people from aging. There’s also some resurrection ability. Another thing was that evil people who went there were able to be good.

Let’s take a minute to talk about this. I don’t know how this will tie into the show because so far every supernatural ability has been made natural and I have not personally read these comics. If we see it as what it is for a moment, it’s the parallel journeys of Captain Jack and Ollie. Both went through something traumatic. Both went away for a long time and trained for a new life. Both were led by someone to fix Starling City. They are both hindered by the feelings of those they came home to. In a way, it is just happenstance that they’re in direct opposition of each other. A violent act triggered Captain Jack to “fix the Glades” (with mass murder) to save the city. A violent act has made Ollie the best person to stop him and to also save the city. Ollie’s lair is in the Glades. From what we’ve seen he hates people who cause trouble for The Glades like the maker of Vertigo. And in that way it’s not a coincidence. Ollie is not one of the people wronged by the Glades. His loyalty cannot be won easily as seen in the way he protected Yao when it cost him so much. In this way, he’s not ruled by a list or Slade’s agenda or Yao’s directions. Maybe not right now, but soon as The Undertaking is brought more into the light, Ollie will have to discover his values, his limits and what he stands for. Then we’ll get our hero.

In the hospital hallway, Tommy has processed that his BFF is a total murderer but now he’s more mad about the secrets. Really dude?



At Laurel’s place, Laurel is about to be with Tommy at the hospital when she opens the door and sees her mom. RIVER SONG IS HER MOM a.k.a. the original Black Canary. While Tommy’s dad might leave and not say things, she leaves and does say things. Laurel’s sister Sarah might still be alive.



Tell me your thoughts if you have any.

Tags: arrow, tv:wednesday