It's been too long since the last episode of Arrow, but I'm pretty sure no one forgot what happened at the end of "The Climb." The superhero series' mid-season finale ended on quite the cliffhanger with Oliver losing his shirtless showdown with one of the deadliest villains in DCU. And the wait for his return has been excruciating. At least the The CW had the decency over the holidays to deliver the good, albeit unsurprising, news that Arrow will be getting a fourth season. But first, it's time to bring our hero back from the dead.
Home
Actually, before getting to the resurrection, let's start in Star(ling) and see how the city and Team Arrow are doing without him. "Left Behind" opens with Captain Lance in a squad car (for some reason) chasing down a cop killer, and we get our first look at Arsenal on Ollie's bike, and Diggle rocking the green hood for the second time. I think it's a good look but the bodyguard would rather wear a leather jacket when taking down bad guys. Or half the bad guys, as Felicity reminds us.
This is when she's still doing her Oracle thing and believing that Oliver will be back, even citing his past conquests - Lian Yu, Slade Wilson and Malcolm Merlyn - as examples of his resilience. It isn't until the latter delivers the bloody murder weapon (before telling Thea they have to get out of Dodge) that she finally accepts his death, causing her to leave Roy and Dig to fight Danny 'Brick' Brickwell and his Iron Heights recruits on their own. Well, mostly on their own. Dig does reach out to Lyla and A.R.G.U.S. for information but even they come up empty-handed.
And then there are the two burgeoning heroes trying to fill the empty hood. After cutting and running from Team Arrow, Felicity then visits Ray to try and convince the other do-gooder in her life to give up on his plan to save the city. don't think that's going to happen. Nope, Palmer's retooling of Queen Consolidated's Project O.M.A.C., or A.T.O.M. is definitely happening. Of course, the second new supersuit in Starling is, Laurel, who decides to put on Sara's Black Canary garb and go get some justice. She even cried fowl. Sorry.
Away
Right. The dead main character. Obviously, everyone knew that Oliver wasn't going to stay dead. The show is called Arrow after-all and those familiar with comics know that heroes (and villains) die all the time only to then be resurrected at a later time. In this case, most DC readers figured that the inclusion of Ra's al Ghul meant that we'd be seeing a Lazarus Pit but that wasn't the case in "Left Behind." Instead, his old pal, and current member of The League of Assassins, Maseo Yamashiro dragged his dead body to see his wife Tatsu, who apparently can do a lot more than just recall memories with a candle.
Last time we saw her, she had been kidnapped by China White after a intense sword fight, and this week's Hong Kong flashbacks show Ollie and Maseo trying to get her back even though it's not exactly Agent Waller's top priority. The A.R.G.U.S. head wants her team to find a substance called Alpha that has something to do with the scientist and his Omega experiments on the last episode. I don't know. I was more interested in seeing Oliver use a trick arrow in the past than following who had what serum. And I guess they save Tatsu since, you know, she's around to resurrect Oliver. I wanted that Lazarus Pit!
Arrow continues with Episode 11, “Midnight City,” on Wednesday, January 28 at 8:00 p.m. ET on The CW. Created by Marc Guggenheim, Andrew Kreisberg and Greg Berlanti, the DC Comics inspired series stars Stephen Amell, Katie Cassidy, David Ramsey, Emily Bett Rickards, Willa Holland, Colton Haynes, Paul Blackthorne and John Barrowman.
