by Chelsea Dee, Editor-At-Large

It’s strange to me that Team Arrow was missing Oliver so much and thinking he was basically dead to them, but once they get a glimmer that he might still be him, now they’re angry at him for being deceitful. Hello people who made him think Roy was dead in order to sell a con. I keep trying to put my finger on why this season doesn’t work for me, but there do seem to be a lot of them. One is I feel the characters aren’t acting like themselves so much as changing to suit the plot. They wanted things to happen a certain way so they pushed characters into those positions, but it doesn’t always feel natural. There’s more to quibble over, but first things first. Previously on Arrow, Oliver agreed to become the next Ra’s, and everyone thought he turned to the dark side for good. Just kidding! He did kidnap Diggle’s wife though to sell it. Merlyn got Sara killed which basically started all of this, but everyone just bitches at him instead of doing anything about it. Roy faked his death and he is on the run. We met Maseo and Tatsu in the very boring flashbacks.

I guess all of the flashbacks have led to this one singular point, which is that they ran across a biological weapon. There was no cure, and it killed little Akio. They thought there was a cure, briefly, but nope. There was a vaccine of some kind, however, which I believe will become important soon. Akio died in his mother’s arms as she sang to him. That was heart wrenching. While I haven’t liked the flashbacks, I really do like Tatsu and Maseo, so this episode was a painful one. Anyway, in the show, it is revealed that Oliver has been faking it. Merlyn warned him that Ra’s would try to get him to destroy the city. I guess he’s not brainwashed? Or he never took the drugs? Eh. He sends Tatsu with Merlyn to try and convince his team to come and get him, because he’s getting married and the time table is moving up. Obviously they’re all like “who the hell is that” which made me laugh. But she did manage to persuade them to go. Felicity refused at first, but Tatsu said she didn’t fight hard enough to save Maseo, and not to make her mistake. The team gets to the League area and blows up a jet they think has all the poison on it. For some reason I honestly cannot explain, they all seem to have no problem fighting the assassins. Like Tatsu and Merlyn I buy. Diggle I buy, but these people have been training as assassins their whole lives, so he probably should’ve tired before they did. Laurel, no way at all. She’s barely out of training. These assassins are the worst assassins ever if they are barely on the same level as street thugs. Tatsu and Maseo face off, and she is forced to kill him. He thanks her before he dies, and she sings to him the same way she did Akio. You poor woman. 🙁 We see her in her Katana garb at least. That was very emotional to watch, and well acted on both of their parts.

The gang gets captured. Oh wait Ray helped them blow it up, so he’s there too. I barely remember when he’s around, sad to say, but he’s pretty fun this episode. Just misplaced. Oliver does reveal to them that he’s basically him, but that he has to pretend not to be. That’s why it’s ridiculous Felicity looks so upset about him marrying Nyssa. Come on, Felicity. You know there is no way either of them are doing this out of choice or want to be together. Oliver does apologize to Diggle, but he’s angry and will have none of that. I don’t blame him, that was somewhat of a low blow. Then again he was saying he would do anything to save his city, so why is he blaming Oliver for doing the same thing? It’s all serving the purpose of saving Starling City. Sigh. Merlyn gives Oliver up to Ra’s, but then Oliver proves he doesn’t care by letting Ra’s poison all of them. This is clearly all part of the plan too. They all seem to be “dying,” but it’s fairly obvious they’re not actually hit by the weapon. We all know they would be bleeding out of their mouths if so. This looks more like a knock out, or they didn’t realize they had the vaccine already.

Or this was all part of the plan. Maybe Merlyn gave it to them on the way there. That would be cool.

Oliver and Nyssa get married. She tries to murder him, and he stops her. One would hope that she’d try to murder her father instead. Seriously, Nyssa, he’s the dbag here, Oliver isn’t interested in you either. Oh well, they’re married. Maybe? Is this legal? It’s not like they signed any documents. They ruin any suspense in this episode by clearly showing everyone alive in the preview for next week. Obviously we knew they’d live, but they didn’t even try to keep us guessing a little. Also Thea finds Roy and they have an adorable reunion, but he leaves her and tells her she needs to find her own path instead of running. There’s a hint that she will be taking over the Arsenal role, aka as Speedy. I guess the finale will have them trying to kill Ra’s and save Starling City (again). Like season one, killing Merlyn and saving the city. Like season two, killing Slade and saving the city. Of course neither of those men ended up dead. Maybe they’ll kill him and Nyssa can take over. Who knows. Honestly, I find myself feeling “meh” about it. I usually feel like there are some stakes, but I know Oliver is going to win. The only thing I am definitely interested in seeing is what they will be doing next season. Who can he be if not the Arrow?

Rating:
ComicsOnline gives Arrow Season 3 Episode 22 4 out of 5 Not Really Shocking Twists

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