Violet recaps the Season 3 Episode 2 of Arrow, titled Sara, where the Arrow team tries to catch the archer who murdered Sara! Following the recap, both Violet and Josh share their thoughts about the episode.
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Episode Recap of Arrow, Season 3 Episode 2: Sara
Oliver, Felicity, and Roy return to the Arrow Cave to find that Laurel has brought Sara’s dead body there. They are all distraught. Laurel wants to wait until they catch the killer before she tells her dad. Oliver tries to reach Thea, but just gets her voice mail.
Oliver goes to the scene of the crime, and tries to re-enact what happened. Diggle meets him there and says he’s there for Oliver, and will help go after who did this.
Detective Lance calls and sets up a meeting with Arrow. Lance gives Arrow a file with a picture of a guy who has been shot by an arrow.
We see a guy running through an abandoned warehouse, and an archer shoots him dead.
Oliver and Diggle return to the Arrow Cave. Oliver assures Diggle that the archer who killed Sara couldn’t have been a member of the League of Assassins, because they don’t target their own. Felicity informs Oliver about the archer’s latest hit. Oliver asks Diggle to get from Lyla ARGUS’s list of everyone on their radar who uses a bow. Oliver is worried about the fact that Thea hasn’t called back yet.
Later, Felicity catches Roy using the FBI database to look for Thea. He tells Felicity he doesn’t think Thea’s where she says she is, and shows Felicity the note that Thea left him. Felicity tells Roy that he needs to show the note to Oliver.
Just then, Felicity gets a text from Ray Palmer, so she heads over to Queen Consolidated to confront him. Apparently, he’s been calling her, sending her texts, emails, and flowers, trying to get her to work for him. It turns out that he has bought the holding company that owns the chain of stores she works for, so either way, he’s her boss. It’s just a matter of where she wants to work for him, and how much money she wants to make. However, she tells him that she quits. She begins to cry on her way out, and he tries to sympathize, recognizing that something else is bothering her.
Arrow investigates the abandoned warehouse where the archer made his latest hit, and questions a potential witness. He beats up the guy to find out that the archer wore a mask. Oliver calls Diggle, who checks the ARGUS database, and there’s only one archer who wears a mask: Simon LaCroix, a mercenary who goes by Komodo. Diggle sends the info to Felicity, and she is able to pinpoint his location.
Just then, LaCroix, on his motorcycle, is about to take out his next victim, when Arrow, on his own motorcycle, finds LaCroix, and shoots an arrow at him, preventing the arrow from hitting the victim. LaCroix drives off, and Oliver gives chase. Upon playing chicken with each other, LaCroix manages to hit Oliver with an arrow, knocking him off his motorcycle, and LaCroix gets away.
Back at the Arrow Cave, Felicity tries to find a connection with LaCroix’s victims. Oliver begins to get frustrated when it takes too long. Felicity starts to break down, and comments on Oliver’s coldness toward the situation. However, he says he has to keep it together for everyone else’s sake. Oliver confesses that he thinks he’ll end up like Sara one of these days, but Felicity says she’s not going to sit down there and wait to die, she wants more out of life.
Laurel lies her way into the hospital room of LaCroix’s most recent attempted victim, Kelso. She questions him, and after hurting Kelso’s wounded arm, he tells her that he and the other victims were working on a secret deal to build an oil pipeline for Ameritech. But just then, an arrow flies through the window and lands in Kelso’s heart, killing him. Laurel runs to the window and sees the archer on a nearby rooftop.
Oliver leaves another voice mail for Thea. Roy tells Oliver she won’t call him back, and shows him Thea’s letter. He apologizes for not saying anything sooner.
Detective Lance confronts Laurel at the hospital for lying to his officers, and tells her she shouldn’t be taking these kinds of risks. She then goes to the Arrow Cave to inform the team what she found out. They figure out who the next target is: Tom Weston, the board member of Ameritech who authorized the payments to the victims, and find out he is at Queen Consolidated. Laurel insists on coming with Oliver to go after LaCroix , but Oliver tells her to stay put.
LaCroix busts into Ray’s party through the window, and goes after Weston, but Arrow and Roy show up, and fight him. LaCroix jumps out the window, and goes in through the window of a lower floor. Arrow follows, and they meet face to face. They shoot at each other, but Arrow is able to get an arrow into LaCroix first. But then, Laurel shows up with a gun, pointing it at LaCroix. However, he doesn’t seem to know who Sara is, and claims to have an alibi for 2 nights ago when Sara was killed. Oliver tries to talk Laurel out of it, but she pulls the trigger. However, nothing happens, and she realizes that Oliver took the bullets out.
The next day, Oliver tells Laurel that LaCroix’s alibi checks out. He encourages Laurel to tell her father about Sara, so she heads over to the police station to tell him everything. She’s just about to tell him the truth, when his alarm goes off for him to take his pills. She loses her nerve, and plays off her visit as apologizing for lying at the hospital.
The Arrow team and Laurel bury Sara at her 2007 gravestone. Oliver comforts Laurel, while Roy comforts Felicity. Diggle tells Laurel that he and Lyla are naming their baby Sara.
Back at the Arrow Cave, Diggle says he’s back on the team until Oliver finds Sara’s killer. Oliver says he wants to go bring Thea home. He also tells Diggle he doesn’t want to die down there. Diggle tells him not to.
Felicity stops by Queen Consolidated to tell Ray Palmer she changed her mind, because she decided she wants more out of life.
In Corto Maltese, we see three people stick fighting. One of them takes down the other two. Malcolm Merlyn applauds, and the fighter takes off their mask — it’s Thea. She tells him, “Thanks, Dad.”
In the flashback to Hong Kong 5 years ago, Oliver’s handler brings him to the top of a roof and hands him a sniper rifle to shoot a target designated by Amanda Waller. But then Oliver realizes that the target is Tommy, so he refuses. The handler explains that when Oliver logged into his email, it set off an alert, which caused Tommy to come to Hong Kong to look for Oliver, so Waller wants him dead. However, Oliver still refuses. In Tommy’s hotel room, someone sneaks in and injects him with something, knocking him out. Tommy awakens tied to a chair. Behind him, a man in a mask paces back and forth. We see that the man is Oliver, who tells Tommy that he is the one who logged into Oliver’s email, trying to lure someone to come looking for him so that he could ransom them, and that Oliver is dead. The “police” (Oliver’s handler) show up and rescue Tommy, as Oliver slips away.
Violet’s Thoughts on Season 3 Episode 2 of Arrow: Sara
This episode was very sad, as everyone learns of Sara’s death. I mean, I didn’t like Sara personally, but it was heartbreaking to see everyone go through all this grief. Even if it seems like some of them didn’t really know her all that well. Like Felicity, who also didn’t like her. I guess they ended up getting along, but it’s not like they were besties. Maybe Felicity’s dramatic reaction was more about the fact that this death hit so close to home. That could have been her. One day, it very well might be. Even Oliver realizes that about himself. It was also quite sad to see Oliver’s reaction, and how it led him to want to hear from his own sister, Thea.
Laurel, as I predicted, wanted to seek revenge against Sara’s killer. She went on quite an unexpected rampage, going so far as to physically abuse the guy in the hospital. Didn’t see that coming. I guess that’s part of the show continuing to hint at Laurel eventually becoming the Canary, here showing that she has some strength to draw upon, when she wants to. Albeit, it was against an injured guy in a hospital bed, but still. Again, at the end of the episode, Laurel takes a look at Sara’s black jacket. Ugh, I dread the day when she wears it and becomes Canary. Hopefully that’s a long way off. It has to be, considering that Oliver blatantly reminded Laurel this episode that Sara was highly trained by some of the best fighters in the world. When you put it that way, how will Laurel ever become Canary? She seems so weak, not only physically, but emotionally as well.
As for Roy, does anyone else feel like he’s kind of the odd man out? To me, he just seemed really awkward this episode, like he felt out of place. Maybe it’ll take awhile before he really starts to mesh well with the rest of the team. I don’t think he really knew Sara all that well, so he probably feels kind of weird being around everyone else who was really friends with her. And then Felicity was crying to him like the whole episode, since she couldn’t use Oliver’s shoulder to cry on. Nope, that shoulder was taken by Laurel. But I suppose that was to be expected.
I don’t really get Felicity’s attitude about “wanting more out of life.” What, helping a superhero defend the city and save lives isn’t good enough for you Felicity? That seems like the ultimate in “getting more out of life” to me. Maybe she’s just afraid of dying. I’m not sure how working for a guy that she didn’t really want to work for fulfills her need to get more out of life, only the need to feel safe. So, does her little speech to Oliver mean that she has quit the Arrow team? Or that she’s working for Ray Palmer in addition to her Arrow duties? How’s Oliver going to react when he finds out that Felicity’s gone to work for the guy who essentially stole his company from him? I’m not sure what to think about Ray Palmer yet. At first, it seemed like the show was trying to push us away from liking him, since he was the jerk who tricked Felicity into helping him take over Queen Consolidated. But then the way he comforted Felicity, he actually seemed like a genuinely good guy. I’m conflicted.
One great surprise in this episode was seeing Tommy! I miss Tommy. I never thought we’d see him again. So yay for that.
And finally, the return of Malcolm Merlyn! He wasn’t on the last episode, and then we didn’t see him all throughout this episode, so I was wondering where he was, considering that he had been upgraded to a series regular this season. We now see that he’s been off in Corto Maltese (wherever that is) training Thea to be a fighter. She’s actually gotten pretty good already too! (If Thea can get that good that fast, I guess Laurel will eventually do the same. Sigh.) Will Oliver be able to bring Thea home? Guess we’ll find out next episode! As for who actually killed Sara? I guess that will remain a mystery for a little while longer. My initial thought that it was Ra’s al Ghul, since he’s suppose to make an appearance sometime this season, but Oliver is pretty adamant that the League of Assassins doesn’t kill their own. He could be wrong though. Hopefully we’ll get answers soon!
Josh’s Thoughts: Arrow, Season 3 Episode 2: Sara
The big question I have this episode is, why is Laurel keeping this secret from her father? I sort of understand the wanting to not ruin your dad’s health angle, but I really don’t think it should be kept a secret this long. It will be even worse when Lance finds out on his own. But this leads to the next question–who is Sara’s killer? So far, I am still wondering if Merlyn has something to do with it, but Ra’s Al Ghul is not a bad guess either. Hopefully we get some more answers on this soon. My theory of someone using Sara’s death against Arrow didn’t pan out unfortunately, since Sara’s body was taken care of quietly. That is too bad, I thought it would have been an interesting way to handle it.
I am glad that Diggle is back in the mix, although I couldn’t imagine him being gone for very long. He is one of my favorite characters of the show, and it is great to see that he isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. He certainly has come a long way from just being Oliver’s body guard.
But speaking of favorite characters, I can’t believe Felicity took that job from Ray Palmer. From a logical perspective it makes sense–she might as well get paid more if she is going to work for the man, but from a loyalty perspective it kind of feels a little dirty. Ray Palmer will likely end up being a good idea, but the tactics he used to get Queen Consolidated felt underhanded, and then to swoop in to steal Felicity rubbed me the wrong way.
Speaking of being rubbed the wrong way, Laurel is determined to annoy me every episode. Who does she think she is trying to play hero? I get the whole wanting revenge bit, but Sara was taken down, who is supposed to be a professional assassin. Laurel doesn’t even have training with firearms. What could she hope to accomplish? I have a feeling the show is setting her up to take the place of Sara as Canary, but I think she needs to get some training done first.
Speaking of training…(see what I am doing here?), Thea seems to be on a training kick. What could she possibly be training for? This seems more than just a self defense class. Is Merlyn going to convince her to turn on Starling City? I am curious when we will see her back in town….
Overall, I am still really enjoying the show. The writers have set up a good story so far. Let’s hope the awesomeness continues. When is our Flash and Arrow crossover happening? That will be exciting when it happens!
Scenes from Arrow, Season 3 Episode 3: Corto Maltese
Here are scenes from the next episode of Arrow, titled Corto Maltese:
I really don’t have anything to say about this, my husband gets into this show but I don’t.
Not really getting the whole ‘hide it from my father’ angle myself. Things are going to be so much worse when she finally tells him.
I was stunned when Sara was killed im still baffled as to who did it lol
Laurel is an idiot. Boxing? Seriously? So everyone on Arrow is a crime fighter now.