ARROW: “Uprising” {Recap}

Oliver’s got the itch to go home to Starling City after the League tried to kill everyone in the safehouse. Seems like a poor idea if you ask me, but Oliver doesn’t normally ask before he does anything.

At least Roy and Laurel are keeping some of The Glades safe, but that also means that Sin sees Laurel as “Sara”. There’s one more person who won’t take Sara’s actual death well. Also, Quentin wants to help out Team Arrow, though it seems half-baked right now.

Merlyn and Thea have a heart-to-heart over a fight where he says that the first time he killed a man it was because that man killed his wife. Taking us back to a flashback where Merlyn’s hair is awful, but the news is even worse. However, his spy techniques have another added benefit; he finds out that he didn’t kill the man who killed his wife, and he has a murder to avenge once more. A fight between Brick and Merlyn could be grand and epic if we actually see it.

After figuring out that all of Brick’s men are communicating via walkies-talkies, Felicity cuts the power and Roy and Laurel go in for the strike. Brick starts to fire flakes but then Merlyn comes in and gets in a shot he’s been thinking about for over twenty years.

Now that Merlyn has gotten his revenge, Merlyn also wants to strike a deal with Team Arrow and partner with them to defeat Brickwell once and for all. Laurel wants to use Merlyn as Merlyn wants to use them, but Felicity isn’t a fan of this idea. Roy’s already heard from Thea about what Merlyn did for her during the Siege, yet Felicity still doesn’t agree with the plan. How close is she to leaving the group? Nevermind, Felicity’s ideas win out and Team Arrow won’t help Merlyn.

Tatsu is leaving Oliver when he finds a truck to take him home, but she’s not happy about it in the least.

Back in the horrible flashbacks of Merlyn’s ego, Merlyn is ready to leave Tommy so that Merlyn can protect himself and Tommy. That decision isn’t a poor one. Not at all.

Since there’s no help from Merlyn, Team Arrow wants to recruit everyone in the Glades to help stop Brick’s men. The citizens look like they mean business, but who knows if they can beat all of those thugs of Brick’s. Brick does a great job of kicking the crud out of someone, but it seems like most of the town is losing. Merlyn appears to get what he’s been looking for all along and while he’s doing that, Oliver arrives back in town. Merlyn’s not getting to kill Brick if Oliver has his way, even if the Butterfly Effect of what could have been is drastic.

Oliver has a triumphant return on the news and everyone that we care about is in good spirits. Quentin gets the cops back into Glades. To end on a different note, however, Sin says that Laurel obviously isn’t Sara to Quentin’s shock.

The real ending of the episode, however, is Oliver asking Merlyn’s help to finally kill R’as al Ghul. The team is going to love that. Felicity’s not taking that well, as she’s been all episode long. She even goes so far as to tell Oliver she doesn’t want to be a woman he loves, so that might properly end that relationship.

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