ARROW: The Calm {Recap}

How can all the rich and famous of Starling City fail this city once again? Arrow opens up its third season and that’s the one big question on my mind as we start.

To the details of where we find our gang of vigilantes (and vigilante aids), Team Arrow is trying to take down a truck carrying RPGs and other weapons and catching the bad guy in the process. However, all that doesn’t mean that the world of Team Arrow is perfect. Mentions of Thea make Roy turn away, and Felicity no longer has a job at Queen Consolidated, and John has a baby to think about, that all means that life for our heroes is far from simple.

Even if there is love and trust between the group, it can’t be enough.

One quick flashback to Oliver running through Hong Kong and then we’re back in the present and the SCPD has finally stopped its hunt for the Arrow and will not keep up trying to kill Oliver. Laurel and Quentin are responsible for it. Horray! Oliver can do what he does best without fear of dying at the hands of the police. Too bad he has to worry about all the criminal element.

One of the new criminals in town is showing how strong he is and how much he dislikes The Arrow. Because naturally Oliver can’t get a break.

Whatever we may want to think of Oliver’s life of vigilanteism, he has the ability to ask Felicity out on a date while they are planning on how to get him back his family company, all done in the backdrop of a very defunct looking Verdant.

Felicity’s new job might as well be the Nerd Herd and she does her Team Arrow job while ducking out of her actual job. We should all frown upon that, but I don’t think we will.

Another Hong Kong flashback where Oliver sounds like a surly and miserable man who’s still not home, going so far as to say he’d rather be dead than do what she wants him to do.

Back at Felicity’s awful job, she meets a guy (Brandon Routh) who wants to do some serious hacking, but she stops him from buying some subpar model for the better model a few months out.

Who wants to applaud Oliver for wearing a suit under his Arrow outfit? Anyone with me. But this date is funny and awkward, especially when they have already gone through first date topics. Oliver does reveal that he wasn’t always on The Island, but also in Hong Kong (nice for those flashbacks to tie into the present narrative) and reveals that Felicity is the first person that Oliver say as a human. That’s not quite the sweetest thing to say, but it’s close enough.

Baddie of the week then ruins the first date with an RPG into the restaurant. Oliver wakes up to a very injured Felicity and runs to the Foundry. There’s a GPS tracker that the baddies put on him when Oliver found them earlier. Our baddie calls himself Vertigo (never good to relive previous baddies), but now Oliver’s been hit by the new concoction that brings out fear into the heart of all that are exposed. Oliver fears himself (what else would make sense) and while Captain Lance was at the scene, he’s down.

Everyone is relatively back to normal and Oliver and Felicity go off t the QC board meeting to help get Oliver back his company. Talk of their bad date go unsaid until the new Vertigo is caught.

At the board meeting, another bidder for QC comes forward – Ray Palmer – the guy who Felicity tried to help with hacking. Ray’s conversation with Felicity earlier about hacking has been used against the company. Palmer’s plan is to reinvent the city with a new name and a new mission. Without watching it happen, Oliver doesn’t win the company back, though he does get to tell Felicity that under the new Vertigo, he feared himself so maybe running QC wasn’t what he needed to do.

New Vertigo wants to take down three of his rivals – all located at a fight – but the team now has to try and stop some massive weapon from killing that many people. Roy’s put in charge of getting the bomb defused, Sara shows up for reasons unknown, and she’s very helpful while Oliver’s face with Vertigo saying that there will always been a Count Vertigo because no one can go without fear.

Palmer wants to be a creepy and have Felicity work at QC, and asks as she’s walking to see John and Lyla’s newborn baby. Rude, much?

Only one date (and not even a full one) and Oliver is rethinking his dating Felicity, but kisses her and maybe they can work this out, but Felicity won’t have the talk about what they are and leaves.

To end things, Sara and Laurel have a heart to heart about their family and after Laurel leaves, Sara’s shot dead by three arrows. Really now show? Did we need that? For what reason is an Arrow-esque person killing Sara going to be a good plan for anyone?

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