Check out this week’s episode of Arrow where Nyssa and Malcolm Merlyn come to ahead! Don’t forget to check out our thoughts on this episode!
Don’t need the Arrow episode recap for Sins of the Father? Click here to jump directly to Violet’s thoughts on the episode!
To see Josh’s thoughts on this week’s Arrow episode, Sins of the Father, click here to get directly there!
Episode Recap of Arrow, Season 4 Episode 13: Sins of the Father
Picking up where last week left off, this episode of Arrow has Oliver trying to figure out how to convince Nyssa to give Thea the cure for her bloodlust. Oliver wants to play the diplomatic route, not killing anyone, but neither Nyssa nor Merlyn seem to be willing to budge. Nyssa tells Oliver about her lotus potion, the thing that will cure Thea, and demands Merlyn’s death in exchange for it.
So Oliver decides to take a diplomatic solution, despite everyone, including Team Arrow, basically agreeing the best solution to the problem is to kill Malcolm. Oliver then talks to Laurel, and says that he thinks he has a solution—ask Nyssa to trade the potion for the leadership of the League of Assassins with Merlyn.
Laurel then talks to Nyssa about this arrangement, and while she doesn’t believe that Merlyn would honor such a deal, she agrees to it, to entertain her “husband’s” whim. She warns Laurel though—if Merlyn doesn’t honor the deal, war will happen, and who ever gets in the way will be in danger.
Merlyn seems to agree to the terms as well, after seeing a sample of the lotus, provided by Nyssa to temporarily help Thea out. So, the two factions meet, along with Oliver to make the exchange. Unfortunately, as predicted, Malcolm has no intention of making the deal, and attempts to capture Nyssa. Nyssa calls for a retreat though, and escapes.
The battle between the factions spills over into the streets of Star City, and Lance is worried that this is getting out of hand. Oliver, Laurel, and Diggle take to the streets as well, trying to mitigate the damage. Then, to try to slow the carnage, Oliver tasers Nyssa and locks her in a cage she is already familiar with from last time she was locked up.
Oliver, meanwhile, is frustrated because he cannot find Merlyn—until he pops up next to Thea, who is on her last legs of life. Oliver has another idea to get the trade for the lotus complete—a trial by combat between Merlyn and Nyssa. Merlyn warns Oliver this means death for Nyssa, but he agrees to the terms.
Meeting yet again, Nyssa and Merlyn prepare for their fight. Just as it is about to begin, Oliver halts the fight, saying he wants to fight on his wife’s behalf. Merlyn does not seem pleased about this. The fight is pretty swift, and Oliver takes Merlyn down pretty handedly. But Merlyn says that for him to give up the ring, Oliver will have to kill him. Oliver disagrees though, cutting off Merlyn’s hand, and knocking Merlyn out. Oliver then gives the ring to Nyssa. Needless to say, Merlyn is pretty ticked about how this all went down.
The good news is that the lotus is given to Thea, and she seems to be doing a lot better. Nyssa, meanwhile, calls a meeting, which Oliver, Malcolm, and Laurel show up to. The reason for this meeting? She destroys the ring for the League of Assassins, and disbands the group. This makes Merlyn pretty upset, telling Oliver that he is going to pay for what he has done.
Then, the conclusion of the episode is followed up by Merlyn having a meeting—with Damien Darhk. Merlyn informs Darhk of Oliver’s son, a way for Darhk to get to Oliver…
Felicity and her Father
Throughout the episode, Felicity is dealing with her father, who we know is the Calculator. He invites her to dinner, where he tells her that he knows she is Overwatch. Felicity panics, about to leave, but he tries to convince Felicity that he was using empty threats when they were battling each other, and that he has done a bunch of good work. He tries to convince her by providing some details on the hacks he has done.
She is not sure what to do with this situation, and talks to her mother. Her mother doesn’t seem to think it is a good idea to let him back into her life. Oliver in the meantime suggests some sort of test to figure out what is going on, after learning this man is the Calculator. That is exactly what Felicity does. She invites her father to visit her lab at Palmer Tech, but does so to see if he is up to anything. It turns out he is, and she finds a device which was supposed to steal secrets from her company.
This results in Felicity having one last goodbye with her father, but not after asking him why he left her as a child. His explanation is that with him being wanted by the police, he didn’t feel it would be safe with her. With that, she has the police come in and arrest her father.
Flashbacks
While being held in the prison cell on the island, Oliver reluctantly tells Taiana about him killing her brother. Taiana is none too happy about this, and lets Oliver know. Oliver tells her he has a plan to get them out, which involves the marked stone thing he has. Taiana snatches it from him though, and offers it to Baron Reiter in exchange for her release. Baron takes the stone, but refuses to let her out. He also says that Oliver is still needed in his plans, and that Oliver must be kept alive. Taiana is forced to take care of Oliver.
By the end of the episode, Taiana is calmer, and tells Oliver that she noticed a sense of loss in Oliver. Oliver then tells her about his loss of his father while lost at sea. Taiana then tells Oliver that he needs to figure out a way to save them and the rest of the people on the island.
Josh’s Thoughts: Arrow, Season 4 Episode 13: Sins of the Father
This was a pretty interesting episode of Arrow. Nyssa is probably my favorite female character of the show, and it is too bad she is not on it very often. She is the character that comes off as a strong woman without seeming cheesy or unbelievable (that is, aside from Felicity, who displays strength in her abilities that she has a hacker/”Oracle”-like character). I guess that is a little overstated though, as I think Thea does a pretty good job as well. It is mainly Laurel I have had a problem with. But lately she has been less “unbelievable” as a hero, primarily because now she actually has shown to have some experience as a crime-fighter, and the action scenes she is in, I believe she can hold her own now. But anyway, back to this episode.
I appreciate Oliver’s attempt to reduce bloodshed. I find it kind of crazy that most of Team Arrow is like, “yeah, kill that dude, he is bad anyway”. Basically making it sound like bad people deserve to die. It seems like they really had no care as to how Oliver felt about it, and he was at odds with everybody this episode. Luckily, most seemed to be willing to listen to Oliver at least, and he was able to come up with a pretty good solution to the problem. Unfortunately, he has brought the wrath of Malcolm Merlyn down on him now, so we will have to see where this goes. I am curious to know though—is Merlyn hoping Darhk can restore his hand?
As for Nyssa, I am curious as to why she destroyed the ring. I guess she agrees with Team Arrow about the inherent evilness of this group. What makes me even more perplexed is that this ring is all that binds these Assassins to whoever the leader is? Or was this ring just symbolic in nature? The other thing I wondered about—all these Assassins had purpose when working under Merlyn/Ra’s Al Ghul—what do they do now? Likely join up with some other radical organization, which could be Darhk’s people.
But moving forward, it looks like Oliver’s son might be the target of Darhk in the future, which can cause all sorts of havoc. I was wondering if Merlyn was going to spill the identity of the Arrow to Darhk, but curiously, Merlyn did not do that. We will have to see what Merlyn’s plan turns out to be in the future…
Violet’s Thoughts on Season 4 Episode 13 of Arrow: Sins of the Father
Well, looks like Oliver is really trying to stick to this whole “no killing” thing. If there was ever a person that he might want to kill, and a reason that he would kill for, it would be Malcolm Merlyn in order to save his sister, Thea. But then again, he and Merlyn seemed to have established a bit of a bond lately, so maybe he didn’t hate him at this point as much as he once did. If this came up a few years ago, he’d go for it in a heartbeat — like all of the other Arrow Team members, though I was a bit surprised that they all jumped to that conclusion so quickly. Oliver was the only one really looking for another solution. Though it was a bit unfair for Nyssa to put forth such an ultimatum to her “husband” if she was so concerned about her “sister-in-law.”
Speaking of which, how does one “divorce” once married within the League of Assassins? How legally binding is such a marriage? Can Oliver be married to Nyssa and still marry Felicity? I suppose Nyssa disbanding the League of Assassins may have also dissolved her and Oliver’s marriage though. I’m not sure why Nyssa necessarily had to disband the League of Assassins, because as the new leader, she could have used them for good, rather than evil. But then again, she would probably have to worry about always looking over her shoulder for Malcolm Merlyn or someone else vying for the ring. I think she’ll still have to worry about that anyway, because Merlyn’s probably pretty angry about what she did.
Well, assuming Oliver and Nyssa’s “marriage” is no longer an obstacle to him and Felicity getting married, there still remains one more that will soon rear its ugly head: Oliver’s son. Which Felicity doesn’t know about. If the guy I was getting married to had a kid and didn’t tell me about it, I’d be pretty upset. This is the person you’re supposed to share your life, share everything with. Yet, he kept it a secret from her. And we saw how that went in the alternate timeline when Felicity found out. Now even more time has passed since he’s found out, and I’m sure this will not go well, because the truth will definitely come out. I imagine it might be a deal breaker between Oliver and Felicity, which would be quite sad.
Scenes from Arrow, Season 4 Episode 14: Code of Silence
Here are scenes from the next Arrow episode, titled Code of Silence:
