ARROW: “The Fallen” Recap

This weeks opens where we left off last week: with Thea stabbed on the floor of the apartment before Oliver rushes in to get her to the hospital. Early on it doesn’t look good for her chances of survival – and that’s what Oliver needs is another dead female support – but she doesn’t pull through, or at least she won’t be alive long once Oliver fills out mindless paperwork.

Oliver and Maseo have a fight (if you can call it one when Oliver just punches Maseo around) before Maseo lets the bomb we all expected: that Oliver can save Thea if he becomes the new R’as al Ghul.

Merlyn and Oliver are off to go find Lazarus and save Thea, even if Diggle and Felicity have strong objections. Merlyn also goes on to say that the Thea that’ll return if Oliver follows through will be different. Felicity won’t leave Thea in only Oliver and Merlyn’s hands and so she has to go off and bring Thea back.

While Felicity goes to ask Ray for his jet, he also realizes that she and Oliver aren’t over (SHOCKER!), and that doesn’t help her asking for the jet to run off with Oliver. On the plane over to Lararus, Oliver tells Felicity some of what happened when he came back to Starling City when he killed Thea’s old drug dealer and like any good friend, she listens and doesn’t respond until after he’s said everything. Maybe that story won’t mean anything if R’as’ army is waiting for Oliver when he arrives.

Nothing’s ever good for anyone when someone is revived from the dead and immediately goes into knocking someone to the ground. Just Oliver’s luck that Thea did that to him when she rose from Lazarus. Thea also can’t recognize Oliver and thinks her mother is still alive. Wonderful news.

Thankfully while Oliver’s confused by Thea’s forgetfulness, Felicity takes her ire out on R’as, but it doesn’t seem to sway his opinion of what he’s doing to Oliver. R’as does tell Felicity that she should tell him she loves him before he’s lost forever, but it doesn’t seem like the best course of action right now.

Rather than worry about what he’s doing, however, he and Felicity finally get going on what fandom’s been asking for for nearly three years, but the timing seems far too sad and final than I’d really like. And the sex took a turn from being great to being slightly off, if only because Felicity drugs Oliver to get him away from R’as al Ghul.

In a not shocking move, given that she’s drugged Oliver, Felicity gets everyone to get Oliver out of the temple, but just as they’re almost free and clear, Oliver takes his name as R’as’ replacement and sends a very confused Thea and Felicity home with Merlyn and Diggle. With one last parting kiss, Felicity leaves Oliver and hopefully there’s a way for the two of them to have something more like a real relationship when he does return.

Back in Starling City, Thea’s being pissed off at Merlyn but wanting to know here Oliver is before Merlyn explains that Oliver just joined to League of Assassins to save her. Rightly so, she’s upset and so is Felicity – and she looks for solace in Laurel.

Maseo admits that he was the one who helped everyone but Oliver escape and he accepts that he will die because of it. Saved because it was Maseo and not R’as’ minion who helped, Oliver has to undergo a transformation so that he too will have two different identities: the one who is the new head of the League of Assassins and Oliver Queen where neither the two shall meet. But until he’s R’as al Ghul, the Arrow lives.

Arrow airs on Wednesdays at 8 PM Eastern / 7 PM Central on the CW.