‘Arrow’ 4.15 Episode Recap and Review: The Promise

We saw an interesting reversal of the Starling-Island scene ratio this week. Most of the episode took place on the island (and the Amazo), with only a handful of scenes happening in Starling City. Tons of fighting, too, which means that this is a rather short recap, plot-wise. We open up with what appears to be a bit of a montage (yes, I recorded it my notes as “We need a monta-age!”) of Ollie becoming more and more proficient with the bow. Well done, sir.

Ollie, Slade, and Sara are getting ready to take over the ship, as it’s their only way off the island. Sara warns Ollie that he’s going to have to kill Ivo before he’s able to talk, otherwise Ivo will be able to turn the tables. Once they’re all prepped, Ollie puts on the hood for the first time, while Slade gets out his Deathstroke mask. They set the plan in motion by lighting a bonfire on the beach. Slade and Sara disappear into the woods, but Ollie trips over a root and is captured and thrown back into one of the cells on the Amazo.

Ivo interrogates Ollie with sodium pentathol. Under its influence, Ollie reveals the whole of their somewhat elaborate plan to infiltrate the ship. Sara and Slade are armed, dangerous, and hiding in the engine room, so of course Ivo sends all of his men down there. And it would have worked too, if not for that pesky counter-agent that Sara whipped up. Slade and Sara parachute down onto the boat, then release Ollie and all of Ivo’s prisoners. Tons of fighting ensues. Ollie manages to get Ivo at arrow-point, but fails to release before Ivo spills everything about Shado’s death in Slade’s hearing. Ivo isn’t an issue anymore, but Slade sure as hell is.

Sara and a few of the prisoners abandon ship and swim back to the island, but Slade still has both Ollie and Ivo. He throws his new prisoners into cells, then makes Oliver watch as he slices off Ivo’s hand. For his role in Shado’s death, Slade promises that Oliver will know “complete despair.”

Back in the Starling City B-plot, Mo introduces Slade as a major contributor to her mayoral campaign. Ollie is somewhat less than polite, much to Mo’s consternation. Oliver and Slade speak mostly in subtext for the majority of the episode. Thea comes home, inadvertently joining Mo in the line of fire. Ollie surreptitiously dials Felicity so that she can listen in and discover what’s going down at Casa del Queen.

Felicity puts the call on speaker, allowing Sara to identify Slade’s voice and mobilize the entire Arrow-team. Digg sets up as a sniper inside the mansion, Felicity stays behind to do her Oracle thing, and Roy and Sara head into the house openly in order to put themselves between Slade and the rest of the Queen family. Things get incredibly, if politely, tense, and Slade agrees that it’s time for him to head home for the night. As Oliver walks him to the car, Slade makes a point of mentioning that Digg hasn’t been able to take his shot. Mostly because Digg has been kidnapped by someone else entirely. What Slade doesn’t mention to Ollie is that he now has eyes and ears all over the Queen mansion, as he took the opportunity to plant cameras everywhere during his tour. None of this sounds like a good thing.

Well, now we certainly know how Slade went to the bad. I like that we get the occasional island-centric episode. There’s certainly too much story there to be told just in the 5 minutes of flashbacks that we get each episode.  I’m looking forward to seeing how Slade changes his plans now that he knows that Sara is in Starling City and working with Ollie. Will he still go after the Queens first, or will he switch his target to her, as she is the one who lived because Shado died?

Not a lot of episodes left this season! Arrow is taking a very brief hiatus, but will be back on March 19^th!

Best Quote:

Slade: “I’ll see you around, kid.”

Things to Ponder:

• Was Slade every actually planning to hurt Ollie’s family this time, or is he playing a longer game?
• Will Slade reveal Ollie’s double life to his family?