‘Arrow’ 2.13 Episode Recap and Review: Heir to the Demon

The League of Assassins is back in Starling City on this episode of Arrow!

There’s an attractive brunette coming through Starling City customs. Everything seems in order until her passport is flagged by ARGUS (yes, that ARGUS). The customs officers move to arrest her, but she takes out everyone wearing a badge and saunters merrily through the gate. Nothing about this seems like a good thing.

Across town, Laurel wakes up in the hospital. The doctors believe that she OD’ed on something, but there’s something funky going on with her eyes. She tells Papa Lance that she thought she saw Sara just before she passed out. Quentin calls Ollie on the Arrow-phone and asks to speak to Sara. He arranges to meet his daughter for coffee, but it doesn’t go well. Sara has no intention of staying in Starling City any longer than she has to. Her dramatic exit is somewhat ruined by the aforementioned brunette dropping down from an overpass like a ninja on the aerial silks. One would assume that a boss-battle is impending, but the two decide to duel with their tongues instead. As it turns out, the ninja is Nyssa al Ghul, daughter of R’as al Ghul and member of the League of Assassins, and she’s come to bring Sara back into the fold. Ollie, who’s been watching the whole time, is somewhat taken aback. Sara tells Nyssa that she isn’t in love with her anymore, and that Nyssa will have to kill her to get her back to the League. Nyssa refuses to do it.

The Arrow-team learns that Laurel was poisoned with venom from a rare snake, no doubt an attempt to draw Sara out into the open where the League could find her. Back in the hospital, River Dinah Lance is snagged by bad guys whilst visiting her eldest. The Arrow and Black Canary give chase, but to no avail. The team traces the snake venom to a break-in at the Starling City Zoo, which leads them to one of Nyssa’s minions. The captured bad guy chomps down on a cyanide implant, rather than tell them anything.

Sara palms a sample of the snake venom, then calls Dad and asks him to meet her at Nyssa’s lair. She tells him not to tell the Arrow (but he figures it out and follows anyway, otherwise this show would be about someone else). Sara and Papa Lance bust in on Nyssa and Mamma River. There are big reunion hugs before Quentin gets Dinah out of the warehouse. Sara immediately collapses, having swallowed the snake venom herself. Ollie arrives in time to keep Nyssa from killing Quentin and Dinah. Cue the Epic Ninja Battle of the episode. Sara has just enough strength to beg Oliver not to kill Nyssa. Ollie is able to save Sara with his Island Magic Juju, and now Nyssa has realized that Sara would truly rather die than go back. She releases Sara from the League and disappears. Quentin and Dinah run back in, followed by Laurel, who now knows that Sara is alive. Extremely harsh words are exchanged, because Laurel forgot to take off her b*tchface from the last few episodes.

Over on the B plot, Felicity is tracking down a large sum of money that was transferred from Mo’s old Tempest account to a random account located in Starling City. She lets Walter know about it, since he was the one who put her on the Tempest financials in the first place. Felicity does a little more digging, then goes to Mo with what she knows. The payout was to Moira’s old OB/GYN. Felicity is able to put the pieces together and guess Thea’s origins. Mo tells Felicity that neither of them can tell Ollie, because he would hate Mo for doing it and Felicity for being the messenger.

Ollie isn’t so easily put off, though. He knows something is up with Felicity and corners her at the press conference held to announce Mo’s candidacy for mayor. She tells him about being abandoned by her father and that she’s afraid of losing him when she tells him what she knows. The camera pans away to Moira, but the implication is that Felicity spills the beans to Oliver just seconds before he’s supposed to introduce his mum to the press. He manages to make it through his introduction, but tells Mo that he knows.

Once everything with Nyssa goes down, Ollie goes back home to have a heart-to-heart with his mother. He is extremely harsh, but agrees that Thea can never know. He also says that he’ll play the loving son in public and in front of Thea, but when they’re in private, he’s effectively disowning her. He then leaves for the Arrow-cave so that he and Sara can bury their sorrows in- y’know, I’m just going to leave that particular euphemism alone. Let’s just say that they decide to enjoy each other’s company. A lot.

Please oh please oh please give us more about the League of Assassins, Arrow. If you like, you can cut out large amounts of Laurel’s screen time and use it for the LoA story. No offense to Katie Cassidy, who I am sure is a lovely person and a very good actress, but I just don’t care for this plot any more. Laurel is having a bad day. Laurel does something to ensure that her day gets worse. Laurel whinges, then does something else self-destructive. Roll credits. I know (okay, I hope) that it’s all building to something larger, but I do wish that something larger would hurry up and get here.

I’m proud of Felicity for telling Ollie what she discovered about Mo and Thea. The show could so easily have gone the usual CW Drama route and had it all blow up in her face later, but going to Oliver makes a lot more sense, both with Felicity’s character and with all of the potential repercussions. Granted, maybe she should have waited until they were all back in the Arrow-cave and not, y’know, about to be on camera in front of all of Starling City. Regardless, better to tell him now than to have him find out the next time he’s locked in combat with Malcolm Merlyn.

Don’t forget, Arrow is on hiatus until February 26th. See you lot back here then. Same Arrow-time, same Arrow-station!

Best Quote:
Quentin Lance: “You know, you never did tell me how you joined up with the Arrow in the first place. Where’d you two even meet?”
Sara: “Vigilante club.”

Things to Ponder:

• Anyone else think that saying “Thea can never know” in a show like this is pretty much a guarantee that she’ll find out by the end of the season?
• We have two solid ties to the League in play now. Do you think we’ll first see Ra’s al Ghul through Sara or Malcolm?
• How is Oliver and Felicity’s relationship going to be affected by Ollie hooking back up with Sara?
• I don’t want to be the ninja who uses aerial silks, but I would love to see the ninja team who ran out to set up the rig half an hour earlier.