Check out Josh’s recap of Season 3 Episode 11 of Arrow, titled Midnight City, where team Arrow seems to be breaking up. Also, Oliver is up and about finally! Check out our thoughts and recap of this episode after the jump!
Don’t need the Arrow episode recap for Midnight City? Click here to jump directly to Violet’s thoughts on the episode!
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Episode Recap of Arrow Season 3 Episode 11: Midnight City
This week’s episode of Arrow has what seems to be a flashback of Oliver and Felicity, before he goes to fight Ra’s Al Ghul. It turns out to be a nightmare though, as Oliver begins bleeding from the mouth spontaneously after professing his love for Felicity. Oliver wakes up in the cabin he has been brought to. He is still severely injured, but at least mobile. Tatsu has been taking care of him and Maseo has as well. It looks like Tatsu and Maseo aren’t currently together. Maseo also says he will be returning to the League.
Back in Starling City, Canary makes her rescue, and it isn’t Sara, it’s Laurel. It is definitely not as smooth as Sara would have done, and she needs rescued by Roy. Rendezvousing back at the Arrow Cave, Roy stitches up Laurel, and asks what she is doing. He tries to talk her down, as does Diggle when he shows up. Laurel doesn’t plan on backing down though.
Felicity, meanwhile, at work, is a stick in the mud, and still refuses to help Ray Palmer with his suit.
Meanwhile, Thea’s new DJ makes conversation with Thea, and Malcolm shows up a few minutes later. He tells her to get packed, but Thea won’t without knowing where Oliver is. Malcolm remains vague, but is insistent about leaving. Thea stands her ground on the issue though. Roy then shows up, seeing the conversation that went down.
Laurel heads to work, and meets up with her father. Lance has heard that the Canary is back in town, and thinks Sara is back. They don’t get much time to talk, as a city meeting starts. Ray and Felicity show up to the meeting, but Brick then crashes the party. Gun fighting breaks out, and some of the councilmen are kidnapped. The cops, Ray and Laurel are able to prevent too much of a massacre.
Back with Oliver, he tries to convince Tatsu to get Maseo to stay with them rather than return to the League. Apparently something happened in the past that caused Maseo to join the League.
In a flashback, Maseo gets the group caught at a club owned by Triads. Maseo wants to trade the vial they stole for Tatsu, but unfortunately the vial is a fake. Oliver and Maseo have to fight their way out. Oliver asks him if he meant to bluff them, and Maseo says no, and that Amanda must have switched it on him. Oliver seems disappointed that Maseo would risk so many other lives to save his wife.
After the fight, Felicity is asked by Lance where the Arrow is. Felicity tells him that he is gone, but she is surprised to hear that Canary is back. Meanwhile, Laurel interrogates a suspect regarding Brick, and even does some less-than-moral things to get him to talk.
Malcolm returns to his house, and Roy pays him a visit. Roy tells him to leave Thea alone. Roy tells Malcolm that Thea will figure out that Malcolm is lying. Malcolm calmly demands that Roy leaves.
Felicity and Palmer talk after the attack, and he has some enlightening views of why it is important what she does, despite his not knowing anything about it yet.
Back at the Arrow Cave, Laurel and Roy are going to try to rescue the taken Councilmen. Diggle tries to talk them down. Not happy about it, he does let the two go on their attempt. They make their move on Brick’s vans, but unfortunately it does not go well. It goes so bad in fact, that Brick kills one of the hostages as payback for their meager attempt.
Returning to the council meeting, Laurel seems banged up. The mayor gets a call from Brick, who makes demands, starting with a meeting in person. At the meeting he tells the mayor he will kill the hostages unless all cops leave the Glades.
Back with Malcolm and Thea, he tells some of the truth as to what is going on–that he is marked for death by Ra’s Al Ghul, and that they have to leave to prevent their capture/death. Thea still refuses to leave though, wanting to stand up to Ra’s.
Felicity pays a visit to Laurel in the Arrow Cave, and Laurel tells her that she is going to hang up the mask, and stop being the Canary. Felicity turns it around though–and says they need to help the people still alive. Lance then calls Felicity, asking for some backup. She says Arrow is still unavailable, but they can bring in the Canary.
Again back to Oliver, Maseo says he is leaving, and Tatsu professes her love for him. Oliver also pleads. The bad news for Maseo is that the League has found the cabin. Oliver and Tatsu hide, and Maseo tries to divert them away. Unfortunately they look around, forcing Maseo’s hand, and he kills the assassins.
At the Arrow Cave, Roy is broken up about the councilman’s death. Diggle tries to cheer him up with a drink. They also have a drink to Oliver, and Roy feels they can’t do this without Oliver. Laurel and Felicity arrive though, and try to put the band back together. Felicity decides the best course of attack would be via helicopter, which she is able to borrow from Ray Palmer.
Meanwhile, the mayor is going to give into the demands, but Lance wants no part of it. After their discussion, “Sara” gives Lance a call, but it is actually Laurel disguising her voice. Lance provides some information which helps Laurel locate the councilmen.
Team Arrow makes its move, and heads into the building Brick is holding up in. Roy and Laurel head in while Diggle pilots the helicopter, and Felicity works from base as usual. They retrieve the Councilmen, and Laurel plays decoy, distracting Brick. They hit the helicopter and fly away.
The episode wraps up with Laurel as Canary/Sara speaking with Lance again. They have a heartfelt conversation. Meanwhile, back with Oliver, Maseo heads back to the League, leaving Oliver to head back to Starling City eventually.
Josh’s Thoughts: Arrow, Season 3 Episode 11: Midnight City
I was almost against this episode, because of Laurel taking up the mantle of Canary. I was thinking how silly it would be for her to take up Sara’s weapons and costume, and for her to succeed at being a vigilante. Thankfully, while still not a big fan of Laurel, the show handled her slow transition to Canary well. She clearly is not anywhere near the same caliber as any of the other members of Team Arrow, and it showed really well this episode. I was really happy with how that was handled. The next best thing would be to completely remove Canary has a character, but I will take this as a good alternative road to take. I just hope the writers don’t advance her too quickly. Arrow has worked for years to be as good as he is, and for Laurel to improve in the matter of weeks/months to be on par with him would be silly.
I also enjoyed the struggle that Team Arrow is going through without Oliver. I like that everyone comes together to keep Oliver’s mission going, and while it is heartbreaking to watch, I really like seeing them scrape by on their own. The way the end was handled with Brick was done really well, with them completing their mission, but in a very precarious way.
I am ready for Oliver to make it home though. He can certainly still be wounded, but I would like to see him back with the group, but too weak too fight quite yet. I think that could be a great dynamic, even if we seem him try to be the Arrow, but he struggles due to his injuries.
I also can’t wait to see what happens with Ray Palmer and his new suit. I think that would be an interesting addition to the show, so hopefully he and Felicity get their act together to figure out the roadblock Palmer is at!
So far, still jazzed about Arrow. Both The Flash and Arrow have really solidified their awesomeness as comic book TV shows. They are both the best on TV so far.
Violet’s Thoughts on Season 3 Episode 11 of Arrow: Midnight City
I wasn’t looking forward to this episode because I knew what was coming: Laurel as Canary. As some of you already know, I’m not a fan of Laurel, much less Laurel as Canary. It’s just, not plausible. She lacks the training that Sara had. From how the show has treated Laurel in the past when she dressed up as Canary, I assumed they were going to keep going down that same path: that Laurel was actually a competent fighter because of her training at the boxing gym. So at the the beginning of this episode when Laurel attacks the guy, but almost gets herself killed and has to have Roy bail her out, I was pleasantly surprised.
I felt a little bad that I had assumed the worst about the show’s writers, when they have done such a great job all these seasons. I thought Laurel’s performance as Canary was actually handled fairly well, at least in the beginning, by portraying her as largely unskilled and inexperienced. However, she seemed a little too good there at the end, as if going out once or twice suddenly made her almost as good as Sara now, which is obviously not the case. If Canary remains in the Arrow Team mix once Oliver comes back (though I would prefer she didn’t, but it’s probably inevitable, unfortunately), I would hope that the show would continue to portray her as learning, rather than to miraculously be good all of a sudden. I also have to admit that I literally cheered when Laurel said she wasn’t going to dress up as Canary anymore — even though as I cheered, I knew it wasn’t true. One can hope, right?
In any case, this was a pretty good, action-filled episode, despite the inclusion of Laurel as Canary. I did find it a bit weird how Ray Palmer is all of a sudden inserting himself into city politics and even talking with the bad guys. Can’t that wait until he has his ATOM suit finished? But anyway, it looks like Oliver is back in Starling City next episode! How will the team react? Will he be back to 100%? Can’t wait to see what happens!
Scenes from Arrow, Season 3 Episode 12: Uprising
Here are scenes from the next episode of Arrow, titled Uprising:
