Arrow Review: Restoration (Season 4 Episode 3)

SHE LIVESSSSS!

If you guys were worried we’d have to wait until Legends of Tomorrow premiered to see Sara Lance again, then I hope you’re pleasantly surprised.

We got to see Sarah herself rise out of the Lazarus Pit, restored to her good old self — kind of. I hate to see Sara all grunting and insane, but something tells me we’ll get the real her back soon. It’s a good thing Constantine has a visit already scheduled to Arrow this season!

Laurel and Thea’s little trip to Nanda Parbat turns out to be a success in more way than one. Malcolm Merlyn, the new Ra’s Al Ghul, takes the time to explain to Thea why her urge to kill is growing stronger and angrier. Until she relieves the urge to hurt the one to hurt her, she’ll be plagued with a murderous rage.

Too bad the one who hurt her is already dead.

As an alternative, Merlyn pretty much feeds her a couple of assassins to kill in order to suppress the urge. Father of the year, folks.

Thank goodness Nyssa decided to sabotage that Lazarus Pit. Otherwise, whoever turns out to be in that grave at the end of the season wouldn’t be staying there long…

Back in Star City, Diggle and Oliver’s tense partnership continues to be a problem.

Felicity: You’re supposed to be more evolved than him.
Oliver: Hmm?
Felicity: Sorry, but he is.

Instead of working together as a team, Oliver and Diggle flounder as they try to take on a meta human hired by HIVE. If you recognized ‘Double Down,’ it might be because his day job is over on Teen Wolf, as Papa Argent!

The one major bump in tonight’s episode comes when Oliver and Diggle try to explain away Diggle’s two year vendetta against HIVE. You’ll remember that he’s known about HIVE ever since Floyd Lawton revealed their existence way back in Season 2. Unfortunately, that little bit of plot got pushed to the back burner in favor of other, more interesting storylines, and it’s only now being picked back up.

Diggle keeping HIVE a secret from Oliver now? Totally believable. Keeping it a secret from Oliver, Felicity, Roy, Laurel, and Thea for the past two years? Not so much…

In all other respects, Double Down and his card-wielding ways provide a great opportunity for Oliver and Diggle to hash it out. While I understand Diggle’s feelings of betrayal, I do have to side with Ollie on this one. He’s holding onto that anger so hard that he’s not even allowing Oliver the opportunity to repair the damage.

It’s a good think Oliver manages to take a metaphorical bullet for Diggle, allowing the two to let bygones be bygones.

FINALLY!

Elsewhere, Felicity and her new techy BFF get into a bit of a scrape that clues Curtis into her Green Arrow secret. That was fast! It’s actually a bit of a relief to see him in the know so early on. We’ve had enough of the ‘discovering the Arrow’s secret identity’ storylines, don’t you think?

Moving forward, I imagine Mr. Terrific is going to join Team Arrow sooner rather than later. (Fingers crossed for sooner!)

Other Thoughts:

• The weird phone glitches are Ray! They’re totally Ray, right?
• Diggle’s mask is still stupid. I’m sorry, I just can’t.
• I just now noticed Oliver’s mask has a little arrow above the bridge of his nose. How cute!
• Cheers to OTA: Original Team Arrow!
• No Queen of Hearts or Royal Flush jokes? For shame!

Reviewer Rating:

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Arrow airs Wednesdays on the CW at 8/7c.