Arrow has done such a marvelous job of slowly tightening the noose around Oliver Queen. The road has been occasionally bumpy, but I can’t recall the last time I felt such immediate stakes. What the show has done this season is more ambitious than season one’s Undertaking, probably because we know the characters better, and the show is threatening to kill them all off. For comparison, the Flash just fought a gorilla (I kid, I really enjoy The Flash).
The gang is still going out and stopping crime without Oliver, but on a decidedly smaller scale. Diggle and Canary beat up some gang members – Diggle a little too enthusiastically – and are setting their sights on a meth dealer. I like the ground-level crime-fighting they’re doing; it helps keep the show realistic, or as realistic as it can get. Things change when Malcolm shows up, saying that Oliver’s commitment to the League is a charade, and he needs their help.
Ra’s is ready to give Oliver the mantle way sooner than anticipated, as soon as Oliver marries Nyssa and deploys the Alpha and Omega in Starling, so, yeah, time is of the essence. The gang heads out to Nanda Parbat, with Tatsu in tow, to put a stop to everything.
The battle at Nanda Parbat is frankly amazing, and wonderfully directed by series vet Wendey Stanzler. We finally get to see Tatsu suit up as Katana, and it’s worth the wait. Rila Fukushima handles the physicality of the role well, and looks more than natural holding the sword. The most heartbreaking moment of “This Is Your Sword” – as in, I actually teared up – comes when Tatsu and Maseo find themselves pitted against each other. Maseo gets the upper hand, and as he’s about to kill Tatsu, she rises up and stabs him through the chest. This is bad enough, but then he whispers “Thank you” and she starts singing to him, and I just lost it. Not enough has been written about the great chemistry between Fukushima and Karl Yune, and even if I wasn’t crazy about this season’s Hong Kong flashbacks, it was worth it just to get his perfect, human scene. Of course, all this effort ended up being for naught; Ray manages to bring down the League’s plane (in an exhilarating sequence), but it turned out to be a decoy. The Alpha and Omega never left Nanda Parbat, and Ra’s takes everyone prisoner.
Thea goes to track down Roy, who’s living a quiet life as a mechanic named Jason. A mechanic with a gorgeous apartment, mind you, because Arrow‘s production design staff has a serious hard-on for interior design. Anyway, not a whole lot comes of this plot, but Willa Holland and Colton Haynes are so good together that you don’t mind spending time with them. I’m rooting for these crazy kids, so it’s more than a little saddening when Roy takes off without telling Thea where he’s going. He does, however, leave her his Arsenal outfit, and a little tease for season four: “I always thought red was your color anyway.” If that’s truly the last we see of Roy Harper, I’ll miss him, but it’s a pretty graceful exit. On a show this violent, you only expect characters to leave in bodybags.
In Nanda Parbat, Malcolm rats out Oliver to Ra’s almost immediately. Of course, Ra’s doesn’t believe him, and in the episode’s best, most chilling sequence, Ra’s throws the Alpha and Omega into the cell holding Diggle, Laurel, Malcolm, Felicity, and Ray. The door is sealed, and as they pass out one by one, we cut back and forth to Oliver’s wedding to Nyssa. “The union is sealed,” says the officiant, and we cut to black.
“This Is Your Sword” wasn’t perfect, but it was damn good. As I suspected, Oliver’s commitment to the League was a feint, but that’s okay because everything went to shit in this hour. I find myself wondering where the show can go from here, and that’s an exciting feeling.
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