Posted in: Movies, TV | Tagged: arrow, Emily Bett Rickards, entertainment, john barrowman, Karl Yune, stephen amell, tv

'Those Who Stand Apart From Humanity' – Recapping Arrow 3.20: "The Fallen"

By Rich Epstein

Note to women in Starling City…if Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) ever so much as glances at you, run. It does not pay to be a woman with a relationship with Oliver. Let's go through the list…Shado, dead. Moira Queen, dead. Sara Lance, dead. Thea Queen, (Willa Holland), dying. That is where we pick up this week, with Thea lying in a pool of her own blood in her apartment. She is crawling to her phone when Oliver walks in. He calls an ambulance, and she is rushed into surgery, but it's too late. Thea is alive, but it's doubtful she will ever regain consciousness. Oliver is crying over her comatose body alone when Malcolm Merlyn (John Barrowman) arrives and joins in the tear-fest.

We switch to flashback Oliver, Maseo Yamashio (Karl Yune) and Tatsu Yamashiro (Riley Fukushima) spying on General Shrieve's men. Quick aside…who is watching their son right now? Someone is looking for them right now and trying to kill them. Who do they trust enough to watch their child? Anyway, Shrieve is preparing the bio-weapon for release and the three would-be heroes follow the transport truck.

Felicity Smoak (Emily Bett Rickards) and John Diggle (David Ramsey) arrive at the hospital to comfort Oliver when Oliver notices the purple smoke that the League uses to communicate. He goes and finds Maseo, who tells him that Ra's al Ghul (Matt Nable) can save Thea. All Oliver needs to do is surrender and agree to be Ra's' heir.

Oliver is packing when Felicity, Diggle and Malcolm arrive. Malcolm tells them of the Lazarus Pit, and the dangers. It seems the waters don't just save the body, they change the soul as well. Even if the body is revived, it won't be the same Thea. Felicity tells Oliver that they are going with him, to bring Thea back home. All they need to do is figure out how to get to Nanda Parbat. I wouldn't think that would be a problem. If Ra's is so gung-ho to have Oliver join him, wouldn't he provide transportation? I mean, he's willing to bring your Thea back to life, is a plane ride really asking too much?

Instead, Felicity goes to ask Ray Palmer (Brandon Routh), last seen noticing how Felicity really felt about Oliver. She asks for the jet for her and Oliver, and he tells her what he saw. Maybe she should have led with Thea being stabbed, rather than asking for it for Oliver? He tells her that she is in love with Oliver, and she doesn't deny it, but merely apologized. Good guy Ray tells her to take the jet anyway.

As they load up the plane, Malcolm tries to talk Oliver out of bringing Thea to Nanda Parbat. He suggests trying Star Labs instead, but Oliver is insistent. They get on the plane, where Oliver and Felicity have a tender moment.

Flashback Oliver is terrible at tailing people. He is spotted immediately, and four men with machine guns open fire. Luckily, these professional soldiers have no idea hot to shoot. Oliver and Tatsu are able to jump into the truck while Maseo takes the wheel. Too bad the bio-weapon isn't actually in there.

Oliver and crew make it to Nanda Parbat to find a welcome party in their honor. Pretty much the entire League of Assassins is waiting for them, and as Oliver approaches they kneel. Maseo approaches Oliver, and takes Thea's body from him, promising to treat her as his own family. Seeing as how we haven't seen his son since the flashbacks and his wife is estranged, I'm not sure that's so reassuring. After seeing to Thea, Maseo shows Diggle to his room. Diggle can't understand how Maseo can call himself Oliver's friend while helping Ra's. For the first time present-day Maseo talks about his son, saying that Oliver will be given an opportunity to avoid grief that he was not given. Diggle is having none of it, and points out that the entire League of Assassins is made up of cowards running away from their own lives. Maseo warns Diggle not to judge him "until you've held your dying child in your arms. Until you've told him everything would be okay so that the last words he hears are a lie. You know nothing." I think we all knew that Akio wasn't going to make it through the season, but hearing Maseo talk about it was still powerful.

Thea is lowered into the water as the League of Assassins chants along. They stop chanting, and Thea leaps from the water, like an animal, kicking Oliver and snarling. Wow, that was not what I was expecting. I thought the change would be a little more subtle. She jumps on Oliver when the others restrain and drug her. Ra's tells Oliver that he lived up to his end of the arrangement, Oliver better make peace to live up to his. Something tells me that wasn't exactly what Oliver had in mind.

Thea wakes, and seems a little more human. She doesn't recognize Oliver, and tells Malcolm that Ollie is dead. She recognizes Malcolm as her father, but thinks her mother is still live. Ra's had told Oliver that the confusion would pass. Malcolm is angry with Oliver, claiming he doesn't know what he has done. Oliver says that he knows what he did, he saved Thea's life, and Malcolm, Felicity and Diggle will take her home and make sure she recovers. Felicity throws a fit about how this is all wrong and goes to yell at Ra's al Ghul.

Really? This is the guy who beat Oliver in a fair fight and has an army of assassins at his command. And Felicity is just going to give him a piece of her mind? Didn't having Deathbolt grab her by the throat give her any sense of her own mortality?

For some reason, instead of ending her, Ra's talks with her. She threatens to go to war to get Oliver back. Ra's tells her about the woman he loved, with whom he had a son and daughter. One night a man came to his door and gave him a choice. Leave, without saying a word, or his family be butchered before his eyes. He tells Felicity that she can have the closure that he never could, give him a proper goodbye, tell him how much she loves him.

She takes his words to heart, and knocks on Oliver's door. Oliver tells her that he is lost, he doesn't know who he is. All that he knows is that everything that he has done has led him to this place in this moment. Felicity tells him that she knows she can't change his mind about leaving, reminds him of all the people that he has saved, and everything he's done for her. Then she says the words she could never say to Roy. Oliver takes off her glasses, kisses her, and we get the moment that Olicity shippers have been waiting for.

Flashback Oliver and crew need to find out where the weapon is. They question a soldier, but he won't talk, even when Tatsu points a sword at his heart. She lowers the sword point to just below his waist and he tells her that it's in a food cart. They split up to look for it.

Felicity and Oliver are having a tender after-moment, when she drugs him, presumably to take him someplace safe. God is she stupid in this episode. How exactly is she planning on getting him out? Are she, Malcolm, Diggle and Thea going to defeat the entire League of Assassins? Or, is she going to get everyone killed?

Malcolm and Diggle point out how stupid her plan is, but she is insistent and assumes Malcolm knows a way out. Luckily there are catacombs that they can sneak out through. They try to make their escape, with Malcolm fighting off a number of assassins. Even Felicity and Diggle get in on the act. Maseo also helps. They make it to the tunnels, but Thea begins to freak out and they are surrounded. Malcolm warns the group that they do not want to be taken alive, but luckily they won't have to worry about that.

Oliver wakes up (fortuitous timing) proclaims himself to be Sah-Him Wareth al Ghul, heir to the Demon, and instructs the assassins to lower their weapons and tell Ra's that he will return shortly. He turns to Felicity, thanks her for trying, tells her that he loves her all the more for it, but this only ends one way. He leads them out, tells them that he can go no further. There is nowhere that they can go that Ra's can't find them. He says goodbye to Thea, telling her he loves her. He tells Diggle that he is the best man he has ever known, and he will always be Oliver's brother. Then it's Felicity's turn. She will never forgive herself for leaving him there. He tells her that the only way he will survive this will be if he knows that she is out there, living her life, happy. They kiss each other, wondering whether they will ever see each other again.

Back in Starling, Thea wakes up on the couch with Malcolm looking on. She hates him again, but doesn't remember leaving Oliver in Nanda Parbat. She doesn't remember anything after Ra's attacked her. Malcolm is left to tell her that Oliver joined the League to save her. She can't take it. He tells her he will make up for everything that he did, that the League is no longer looking for him, he is free and he can take care of her. Well, "free" might be a strong word. I have to imagine that if anyone in Starling City ever recognizes him he would instantly be the most wanted person in the world.

Felicity pays a call on Laurel Lance (Katie Cassidy), who can tell something is wrong. She asks Felicity if everything is all right. Did she not know Thea was stabbed? Were the police never called by the hospital staff when a patient with multiple stab wounds was brought in? Anyway, Felicity tells Laurel what happened, crying on Laurel's shoulder as she does.

Ra's is mad that Oliver's friends injured Assassins and asks Oliver why he shouldn't go after them and kill them. Oliver tells Ra's that he stayed behind, he is honoring their agreement, but his friends are not to be harmed. Ever. Ra's wants to know who helped Oliver's friends. He doesn't know, but Maseo readily admits it and confesses to killing League members before offering Ra's a sword to take his life. Ra's does not, telling Maseo that his old life took hold for a moment, but that by kneeling and confessing he proved his loyalty. He tells Maseo that he will need to help Oliver with the transformation, before telling Oliver that he will need to extinguish Oliver Queen from his memory.

One last flashback. Oliver finds the right foodcart, and a firefight breaks out. Maseo is hit while Oliver goes after the man with the vial. As the fight, the vial breaks, spilling the bio-weapon into the air.

Ra's begins Oliver's training. He tells Oliver that the true meaning of Assassin is "those who stand apart from humanity." Oliver will need to forfeit his old life and forge his identity in something knew. He is branded with the mark of the League, adding to his tats and scars, before donning the garb of a member of the League of Assassins while Ra's al Ghul proclaims that "Oliver Queen is dead. Eventually to be reborn as Ra's al Ghul, but for now, only the Arrow, al Sa Him shall remain, Heir to the Demon."

A lot more emotion and a lot less action than a typical episode, but it mostly worked. This episode was certainly a game changer, as we begin to see what Oliver is actually giving up to be a member of the League. He will be expected to leave his life behind, become a different person. Listening to Ra's story, you can sense that he is not the same man who left his family behind to save them. The same will be expected of Oliver, he will be trained until there is no more Oliver Queen.

I wonder if we will see much more of Ray Palmer this season, with he and Felicity calling it quits. The last two episodes have really trimmed the cast; first Roy and now Ray. It's a good thing, as there have been too many plot threads at times this season. Shrinking the cast a bit should help.

There are only three episodes left, and it seems like there is a lot to do. Oliver will have to undergo his training, his "transformation", before realizing who he is. It seems like that has been his major issue this season, beginning with his failed attempt at a relationship with Felicity and him losing Queen Consolidated. Slowly, everything that was Oliver Queen has been taken away. At some point, he is going to have to learn that Oliver Queen is the Arrow, the one who fights for those who can't.

I am curious to see where they go with Malcolm Merlyn the rest of this season. The writers have gone to great pains to keep him around, but there hasn't been much point so far. Will he do something to redeem himself by the end, or will there be one more major betrayal?

Rich Epstein writes for Bleeding Cool. He can be found on twitter at @kaspe_r11.

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