Arrow 1.18: "Salvation"

“I don’t like someone dangerous being out there. Someone else. Because typically, they don’t show my level of restraint.”
- Oliver

This week begins with the team in the man cave watching as the DA declines to prosecute a scummy slumlord. Oli is working out and I have to say I was glad for it. I miss him shirtless when we go a week without some skin. Felicity seems to be enjoying the view, too. In a somewhat uncharacteristic move, Oli gets Felicity’s permission to go after the slumlord. We cut to the guy’s house and we see him get dragged off into a van before Oli arrives. He’s going to find this guy (not to rescue him but to put down whoever is making it dangerous for him to do his work). Diggle intervenes, not giving Oli a choice but to give it a rest of the night. On the island, Oli and Slade are negotiating with the baddie to get off the island. They’re getting a boat ASAP.

Out in the Glades, Thea and Roy are getting kind of hot and heavy when a guy knocks on the door and gives Roy a package, reminding him they are meeting at 11pm the next night. Thea is curious about the package and finds a revolver in a paper bag. He and some other guys are going to rob a liquor store. Thea is pissed (and I kind of don’t’ blame her) and she storms off. Laurel gets home to find her parents not only getting along but seeming kind of chummy. I don’t know if that bothers her more or the fact that her dad is buying into the possibility that Sara is still alive. Meanwhile, Oli and Dig are at the diner and Oli was apparently hungrier than he realized. Dig lets into him a bit about how he’s isolating himself and that he’s like scary calm of late. He makes the point that even though Oli has been back in society for 8 months he’s still on that island. So true.

Things get complicated when everyone from the Glades gets a link sent to their phone. The guy that kidnapped the slumlord is giving him a chance to admit his sins. When the guy isn’t satisfied with what the slumlord has to say, he shoots him and then promises to take out more people who are poisoning the Glades. Oli is not a fan of this guy’s work. After some digging, they learn the guy goes by the Savior and went off the grid a year ago. Another video pops up and the Savior has the ADA who wouldn’t prosecute the slumlord. And apparently this guy lost his wife in a bodega shootout and they couldn’t prosecute them. He gives the ADA ten minutes to come up with an argument as to why he should live. Oliver tasks Felicity with finding where the guy is broadcasting from. On a rooftop, Moira and Frank have a little meeting. She thinks it is a good thing that Malcolm went to her to find his would-be assassin. Frank isn’t sure. He wired the money to the Triad in such a way that it shouldn’t trace back to him but he’s sent his daughter away just to be safe. He urges Moira to do the same with Thea and Oliver. Over at the legal aid office, Thea tries to get some advice from Laurel on dating bad boys but is interrupted by a call from the Chinese embassy. Apparently the woman in the photo is now in the States.

The feed goes live again and Felicity finds generally where the IP is being broadcast from. Oli races off on his motorcycle and gets a building but finds nothing. Felicity gives him another address but it’s just a vacant lot and Felicity watches in horror as the ADA is murdered. She is obviously freaked out and Oli tries to comfort her by explaining that sometimes they do lose. I just have a feeling Roy is going to get himself mixed up with this nut job.

Back on the island, the meet goes down about the boat and the circuit board. Of course the baddie changes thing sup. He wants the tech or he kills the Archer’s daughter. Evil prick. I hope he gets blown up. Meanwhile, the Lances meet the woman in the photo and it’s not Sara. Mama Lance is pretty upset. Detective Lances gives his daughter this look somewhere between “thanks for setting it straight” and “how could you do this to your mother?” Down in the Glades, Thea is trying to talk Roy out of his life of crime when the Savior shows up and drugs him and knocks her out of the way. At Queen Consolidated, Moira gets a call from Malcolm. He’s got a high level Triad member willing to ferret out who hired them to kill Malcolm. Guess she’s not as safe as she thought. Thea shows up at the club in a panic and Oli promises to find Roy. Diggle figures out that the guy is using the old subway tunnels to get around and Oli heads off.

On the island, a big shootout ensues and the Archer gets hit in the leg (apparently his daughter is pretty badass, too). So I guess the island is going to get far more interesting. With the actor playing Slade as a season regular for next year, I am hoping we see more of him. He’s grown on me. At Laurel’s place, she and Detective Lance get home to find Mama Lance still focusing on Sara. We learn that she knew Sara was going on the boat with Oliver and tried to stop but failed. And so she feels guilty. Understandable. But Laurel is the bigger person and tells her mom she wants to hear from her in the future. So I guess all this insanity helped bridge some of the distance in the family.

As expected, Oli busts in and saves Roy. Of course, he kills the Savior in the process but I was just waiting for that. Roy and Thea have a happy reunion and Oli realizes he is more than just Thea’s friend. He and Laurel also seem to reconnect a little, agreeing to go out for coffee sometime. He’s tired of being all alone. He also tells Felicity if she needs to tell anyone about her day, she can tell him. Between the two, I think I’d like to see Oli with Felicity. At least for a while. Back on the island, the group discovers the circuit board is missing. But the Archer’s daughter knows what’s being planned so maybe they can still stop it.

As Oli, Dig and Felicity realize that whatever is going on with the Undertaking, it’s linked to the Glades (the old subway map is the same symbol on the book of names), Moira rats out Frank and the Dark Archer kills him. She’s going to have a hard time reconciling what she’s done because she literally has blood on her hands.