I Have Become Someone Else
Ra’s talks to Oliver and Maseo a little more about his plans for Starling City. He starts by revealing to Oliver that Maseo was the one that gave Ra’s the Omega virus in exchange for membership into the League (much to Oliver’s and my surprise) and that he will distribute the Omega by plane. He’s also kind enough to remind Oliver of his wedding with Nyssa, which like last week he is none too happy about. To be fair though, Nyssa’s no more thrilled with the arrangement than Oliver and will spend all of her scenes in this episode telling Ra’s she would rather die than marry Al Sah-him.
Back in Starling City, Team Arrow continues to go through the crime fighting motions (someone has to do I guess since Captain Lance hasn’t been seen since Roy’s “death”). Diggle and Laurel are able to take out a random gang of thugs by themselves, though a still angry Diggle nearly beats one of them to death. Felicity confronts him with this but he’s understandably in no mood to hear it.
Meanwhile, in Nanda Parbat, Oliver goes to have a secret meeting with none other than Merlyn to inform him of Ra’s plan to distribute the Omega by plane. As it turns out, Oliver has been faking his turn as Al Sah-him the whole time and accepted Ra’s offer as part of an undercover mission to destroy the League from within. Unfortunately, Oliver’s plan have hit a snag since Ra’s plans are going by much faster than Oliver or Merlyn were hoping for, so Oliver says that it’s time to bring Team Arrow in on the plan. When Merlyn rightfully points out that Team Arrow has no reason to trust either one of them, Oliver tells him that he knows someone they’ll believe.
Meanwhile, at Palmer Technologies, Ray notices something off about Felicity. She doesn’t go into specifics about it but he says she can talk to him as a friend if she wants to. He then has Felicity sign a couple of papers that Ray calls “little corporate stuff”, which Felicity doesn’t question. I would call Felicity an idiot for signing a paper without reading it first but since it’s actually a Transfer of Ownership contract, I’ll let it slide.
Merlyn goes to meet with Diggle, Felicity and Laurel to fill them in on Oliver’s situation. Just as Merlyn predicted, the team is skeptical to say the least, especially considering Merlyn of all people was the only person in on the plan (though Merlyn reminds them that he’s much better at keeping a secret than them). With that in mind, Merlyn brings in Tatsu to corroborate his story and to warn them that Ra’s plans to destroy Starling City with the Omega. Unfortunately, since nobody on Team Arrow aside from Oliver has even met Tatsu before, Merlyn’s credibility doesn’t improve that much. To further prove the dangers of the Omega, Merlyn leaves them with a computer and tells him that a plane will be leaving for Nanda Parbat in the morning. The computer contains footage of all the death and mayhem the Omega caused in Hong Kong (which the authorities wrote off as a chemical spill), and while the team still has some understandable trust issues with Oliver, they decide to go with Merlyn and Tatsu to Nanda Parbat.
Trust Me
Once the team makes it to Nanda Parbat, Felicity tries to hack into the League’s plane, while everyone else attempts to fight off several League members, including Maseo. The resulting fight scene is actually pretty well done, including a particularly emotional duel between Maseo and Tatsu. In the end, Tatsu is forced to kill Maseo, who is thankful to have his emotional finally pain come to an end. Unfortunately, Felicity’s hacking doesn’t go as planned but it turns out she brought Ray along for backup, who manages to destroy the plane thanks to his A.T.O.M. suit (this bit borrows pretty heavily from a fight scene in the first Iron Man movie but it’s pretty awesome regardless). Unfortunately, Ra’s shows up to tell the team his plan with the plane had been a ruse and our heroes are surrounded by the League, with Oliver ordering them to “surrender or die.”
Team Arrow (Diggle, Felicity, Laurel, Merlyn, Ray and Tatsu in case you’re having a hard time keeping track) are taken to Ra’s temple and asks them how they knew about the Omega and the plane. Tatsu pins it on Maseo, which Ra’s finds believable enough considering Maseo’s brief betrayal a month ago. He also mentions Oliver’s wedding with Nyssa, which devastates Felicity (I found this fairly odd since she barely showed any emotion over Starling City being targeted by terrorists for the umpteenth time. Way to prioritize). Now that that bombshell has been dropped on the team, they are all taken to a jail cell.
Oliver tries to convince Diggle to trust him but the the pleas fall on deaf ears and Diggle tells Oliver that when he kidnapped Lyla he not only lost his friendship but his trust and his respect as well. Meanwhile, Merlyn, always the double-crosser, tries to rat Oliver out to Ra’s in a desperate attempt to save himself, though Oliver makes a pretty convincing case in his defense. Ra’s then goes to Team Arrow’s cell and releases a sample of the Omega and leaving them to die (save for the immune Tatsu who is moved elsewhere).
Cliffhanger
The wedding goes as scheduled (aside from Nyssa’s failed attempt to stab Oliver), while Team Arrow seemingly succumbs to the virus.
Thea and Roy
Thea pays a visit to Roy, who is now going by the name of Jason and working as a mechanic in another city. They go by his apartment, where Thea gives him his old Arsenal uniform in case he decides to fight crime again. Their relationship mostly picks up where it left off and afterward Thea tells Roy about Oliver handing himself over to the League. She also expresses interest in leaving Starling City for good and starting a new life with Roy.
The next day, Thea wakes up to find that Roy has gone again and left behind a note. He says that Thea deserves better than to spend her life running from the police just to be with him and that she should live her own life. He also leaves for her his Arsenal uniform saying that red was always more her color.
Flashback Time
Amidst the chaos in Hong Kong, Akio’s condition is getting worse. Oliver, Maseo and Tatsu go into a nearby pharmacy in the desperate hope of finding something to help him (and oddly enough the pharmacy seems to be in pretty good shape for being in the middle of a plague infested riot). A desperate Maseo decides to raid General Shrieve’s compound again hoping to a find a cure. By Maseo’s own admission it’s not a very good plan but Oliver decides to go with him anyway.
As usual, they infiltrate the compound pretty easily and have no trouble finding Shrieve. Shrieve tries to justify his actions but Maseo quickly puts an end to that by shooting him in the shoulder and demanding a cure. Shrieve gives them a few vials of the supposed cure and Oliver and Maseo take Shrieve along so that he can administer it to Akio. Sadly, by the time they get there, Akio is already dead and Shrieve tells them the cure was a fake. To make matters worse, Shrieve had the Army follow them to the pharmacy and has them all captured.
Analysis
While I was a little disappointed that Oliver ends up showing his hand so quickly, him going undercover with the League certainly makes enough sense. It’s also not that surprising that he would do this plan behind Team Arrow’s back not only from a “cone of silence” aspect but also I’m sure Oliver was still a little annoyed at them for faking Roy’s death without telling him.
I also really enjoyed Maseo’s death scene. All season we’ve seen him as a man trying to run away from his pain and his mistakes and it seemed only fitting that Tatsu would relieve him of his suffering and that she would try to comfort him in death the same way she did for Akio.
The big problem for me this week though is the cliffhanger. No one is actually going to believe that pretty much the entire cast is going to die with one episode to go in the season. Even if they did, the promo has already shown us that the whole thing was blatant false tension. I won’t get too mad about this though since the cliffhangers are one thing the writers have consistently done right this season.
Tune in next week for the season 3 finale, ‘My Name is Oliver Queen.’