Arrow 'The Return' Review: Slade Al Ghul

This week’s Arrow is really special. 'The Return' is so focused and driven on getting the most mileage out of just a few plot threads that this ends up being one of the better episodes of the season. Enjoy this unique episode of the show with a recap formatted a little differently to reflect this project.

Spoilers Abound:

Thea's training and Ollie's lies.

Thea and Ollie’s training session near Deathstroke’s prison officially begins in this episode. Thea learns about Sara, and engages with Oliver head-on about the secrets that he’s been keeping. The Arrow finally makes his way towards a first conversation with the man behind the destruction of Starling last season...and finds him missing. Malcolm Merlyn was revealed to be behind Slade Wilson’s escape. His intentions are complicated, and shows how his streak of crazy continues to elevate the show. Wilson explains that if Oliver had been honest with him in the first place, maybe the entire city wouldn’t have gone to shit last season. Well put....

Seriously...can Oliver tell the truth?

The incredible amounts of lies that Ollie is spinning towards Thea is starting to get out of control. Through some broken bones, Ollie and Thea manage to break free of Slade’s confinement. Thea starts to question what happened with Sara more and more, as Oliver finally ends up telling him the truth about what happened. The fight scene with Slade that had been teased forever in the episode is strong, being one of the best battles in the show from recent memory. Thea draws a gun on Slade, and ends up shooting him season 1 Arrow-style. Wilson does a great job manipulating the rest of the cast into thinking a plethora of lies, and continues to illustrate why he made last season great.

No, these flashbacks still aren't going anywhere.

Amanda Waller recruits Maseo and Oliver to strike down various members of the Triad. This episode seems be leaning more heavily than normal on the flashback plot threads. Arrow needs to pull them together with the main plot, and there is only a little bit more time to do so. This flashbacks ultimately do show how Thea has grown as a character. Tommy’s surprise presence back into the fold of the show is a nice added bonus. The devotion towards the flashbacks with every single character so far is reassuring. More importantly, it’s something a little different to break up the flow of the season. Ollie broke bad, as he proceeded to snap the neck of the young man selling drugs to Thea. This is a tease as to how Oliver’s own morality has fleshed out over the course of the show. Ollie wants to go home, which would be a terrible idea considering Waller’s thick grasp on him. He returns to his home prior to the island visit seems a little hokey. It’s something that almost feels forced. Robert Queen really is a wildcard in the middle of the show. Reintroducing himself or some of his motives might put this season back into focus within a certain degree.

The Lance family copes with loss.

Arrow ties in the flashback with Captain Lance in an extremely confusing manner. Captain Lance’s grief over his daughter at the bar is one of the few plot threads with the Lance family that I can actually buy into. Actor Paul Blackthorne plays the scene excellently. Detective Lance and the rest of the cast are investigating what’s happened with the rest of the show. Detective Lance gives the cold shoulder to Laurel, and ends up going off the handle in the middle of the a crime scene. Lance’s alcoholism informs his poor behavior in the middle of the hour. It’s a little bit frustrating to see the cameos of Felicity and Diggle, they are virtually completely meaningless and add nothing to the show. Things start getting weird when Laurel and Tommy go out for drinks. It’s unsure if they were truly meant to be together after all. We are finally treated to Captain Lance getting second wind of what happened with Sara. The Captain tries to talk his daughter down from running around the rooftops again-and-again. The Lance family is now eternally tied to tragedy, and Laurel continuing the cycle of violence is a really dark direction for both characters. Their crossroads and complicated relationship is one of the most integral parts of the show.

Laurel's crusade is selfish, and does not serve anyone but herself.