Arrow Episode 3.07 Recap, Plus Promo for The Flash Crossover Episode

The episode starts with a flashback, but not one of THOSE flashbacks, this time we’re flashing back to just six months ago when Slade Wilson and his goons were burning Starling City to the ground. Oliver, Felicity, and Diggle are driving through and make a pit stop to save a group from some of Slade’s soldiers. One woman in particular who Oliver saves picks up his left over arrow and clutches it to her chest. Back in the present, we pick up where the other episode left off with Captain Lance and Oliver standing at a crime scene, Isaac from last week’s episode has been killed by an arrow and dressed in Oliver’s outfit. We pop into another flashback, this time five years ago and in Hong Kong, and Tatsu is giving Oliver the business about doing his own laundry. Maseo leaves for a special assignment and Oliver wants to come along like a lost puppy, but Maseo tells him to stay.

Felicity enters Ray’s office where she finds him practicing on the salmon ladder, just like old Ollie. She reminds him he has an important announcement he’s late for and as he gets dressed, he asks her to join him for a business dinner the next night, strictly platonic. He even bought her a dress for the occasion. As Oliver investigates the “spade shaped arrows” from the crime scene, and Diggle shows up for support, Palmer and Felicity show up on TV where Ray announced the company is no longer “Queen Consolidated” but “Palmer Technologies” (the P featuring it’s own floating electron, just like an atom, wink-wink). In a fit of rage Oliver smashes the arrow open with a hammer and discovers a note inside, leading them to an apartment where a Helga Pataki-like shrine has been built in honor of Oliver. From across the way “Cupid” calls Oliver and professes her love for him and reveals she’s already got another target.

At the Arrow Cave, Roy looks up an article on the police officer he killed, and Oliver tries to console him that he had no control over his actions at the time. Roy doesn’t want to hear it though. Felicity enters just in time to help and learns that Cupid’s next target is Joe Gavano. She also applies the appropriate nickname of “Crazy pants” to the latest archer. Back in Hong Kong, Tatsu tries calling Maseo on his phone since he’s been gone for nine hours. She tells Oliver she’s going to the docks to find him but Oliver protests, saying he should go. They eventually compromise and decide to work together.

Thea is getting ready to open Verdant and she’s auditioning DJs, and it’s clearly not going well when a magnificent blowhard enters and claims he has the job without auditioning. When told he’ll have to audition, he leaves, not letting the door hit him on the way out. Downstairs, Felicity learns the identity of Cupid as one Carrie Cutter, former SCPD Officer and the first female SWAT member in the city. They learn some more details about her target and track her down to the Sherwood Florist (a reference within a reference as it’s both a play on Robin Hood’s base of operations but is the same name Black Canary used for her own floral shop in the comics).

Oliver and Roy split up to find Cupid, but she finds Roy first and dispatches him. She calls Oliver and continues to profess her love to him. Oliver rounds a corner and finds her, holding a cupcake, Roy unconscious on the ground, and Joe Gavano suspended from the air. Oliver tries to talk her down but as Felciity put it, she’s a crazy pants – luckily Oliver isn’t having any of her nonsense. Cupid darts out of the room to leave Gavano to die but Olive leaps into action and saves him.

Roy beats up on their Mu ren zhuang out of frustration, he and Oliver both know he’s not doing his best after what happened. Diggle reads off some more info on Cupid, who they learn was let go from the police force, sent to a psychiatrist, and then put inside the Saint Walker’s Hospital (a very clever nod to the blue lantern of the same name). Just before Oliver heads off to talk to the psychiatrist that was assigned Cupid’s case, he and Diggle talk about Felicity being gone which is clearly bothering Oliver, though he won’t admit it. With that in mind, Diggle goes to visit Felicity and tells her about Oliver acting like a selfish boyfriend. Felicity drops the mic after telling Diggle there’s nothing between her and Ray and that if Oliver wants to express his feelings he should do it himself.

The psychiatrist that Cupid visited opens her office door and tries to turn on the light, which doesn’t work because Oliver Queen is standing in the corner. He asks her about Cutter, but she won’t divulge anything, until Oliver mentions that she’s killed someone and probably will again. Carrie suffers from an attachment disorder, she’s unable to form lasting attachments as she puts all her focus on one person. Who would have guessed that? She tells Oliver to give her a connection, and also he should seek therapy of his own.

Flashback time! Tatsu and Oliver sit in a car watching the docks and Oliver mentions that Maseo called him a name, the Japanese word for “Outsider.” He and Tatsu talk about how she is also an Outsider (a very covert and incredible nod to the character’s roots as a member of Batman’s The Outsiders) being a Japanese person in Hong Kong. The pair spy on a gang, rivals to the Triads, who run the port. Oliver hops out to get some answers and is promptly clobbered in the face.

Felicity enters Ray’s office as they prepare for his dinner meeting where he reveals a brand new necklace he got for her to wear, and it only cost $10 million! Cupid pops in to meet with an old hacker friend who says a lot of words that amount to “I tracked down the Arrow’s headquarters,” which he puts in the vicinity of Verdant. Having no other use for her buddy, Cupid stabs him in the neck with one of her arrows. Captain Lance calls Oliver and tells him that Cutter visited one of her old Confidential Informants from when she was a cop, they don’t know what info she got out of him but he’s definitely dead now. Oliver tells Diggle to bring Felicity in because they need her which prompts Diggle to call out Oliver for acting childish, and Oliver stomps away proving his point.

Back in Hong Kong Oliver is in over his head, as he is want to do, but no worries, we finally get to see Tatsu become “Katana” as she dispatches most of the group in a few easy steps. She interrogates the final surviving member about where her husband is and he mentions that three ARGUS agents were killed that day by the Triads, leading them to believe Maseo was among them.

We pop in to Ray’s dinner meeting with the owners of a Nevada mining company, The Gardners (Green Lantern Guy Gardners’ parents?). Felicity quickly gets a text from Diggle just as things get started. At the grand re-opening of Verdant, music is playing but no one likes it. Thea goes over and fires the current DJ just in time for DJ Blowhard to swoop in an get the job. Felicity joins the dinner once again after helping Diggle and Oliver hack the dead CI’s computer, and starts to make a case to the Gardners for Ray buying their mine. “He wants to make he world a better place.”

As Oliver drives aimlessly on his motorcycle, Diggle tells him what Felicity found on the computer – they were tracking the movements of the arrow and narrowed it down to Verdant, where we see Cupid getting a drink from Thea. Oliver calls Carrie and promises to meet her wherever she wants as long as she leaves Verdant. Carrie, being the dignified woman she is, says if he doesn’t show up she’ll kill everyone at Verdant. What a peach.

As Felicity comes back to the Arrow Cave, Oliver meets Cupid at the spot they first met during Slade Wilson’s takeover, as seen at the start of the episode. She’s clearly infatuated with him, but Oliver talks her down, saying he knows what it’s like to want someone that you can’t be with, which is when the punching starts. Finally it seems like Oliver comes out on top (literally), but Cupid has other plans, sending the two of them falling down into the subway system where she handcuffs Oliver to the tracks just as a train is barreling down on them. They finally get to be together! Oliver quickly dislocates some of his fingers and slides his hand through the cuffs, saving both of them in the knick of time.

Oliver nurses his hand at the Arrow Cave as Diggle reveals that they handed over Cupid to ARGUS for the Suicide Squad (they also make a brief reference to Harley Quinn!). The two talk about Felicity once again and Diggle tells Oliver to man up and tell her how he feels. Back in Hong Kong, Oliver and Tatsu try and think of how to tell Akio that his father is dead. Luckily when they open the door, Maseo is there and is alive and well. In the present, Thea counts down a register from their opening night and DJ Blowhard approaches, not knowing the word subtlety. Thea tries to pay him but instead he plants one on her and accepts that as his payment, which isn’t weird at all.

At Palmer Technologies, Ray enters Felicity’s office and tells her the Gardners are going to sell and he’s got her to thank for it. He takes back the necklace he gave her, since he didn’t actually buy it, and then also plants one on Felicity (the metaphorical cupid is out in the air) just as Oliver walks in to profess his love. He leaves just as quickly as he entered, and is quickly followed by Ray, who thinks he went too far that night (unlike DJ Blowhard). Oliver starts breaking stuff at the Arrow Cave and Roy jolts awake and asks him what’s going on. Oliver invites him to come with him and they go to Diggle’s to have dinner with he and Lyla.

Ray talks to one of his lawyers on the phone about getting started on work on the mine as soon as they can. Then he opens his computer and looks at models for his A.T.O.M. Exo-suit (it’s happening!) and then a holographic projection of it appears on his floor and Ray steps into it. Meanwhile in a seedy part of town, a man walks down an alley where he’s followed by none other than Captain Boomerang, who kills him with one of his signature weapons. 

You can check out a promo for the “Arrow” and “The Flash” crossover in the player below.  The “Arrow” half of the crossover is titled “The Brave and The Bold,” and is officially described as follows:

“Oliver, Arsenal and Diggle track down the location of a boomerang-wielding killer named Digger Harkness (guest star Nick Tarabay) but are surprised when they come face to face with an A.R.G.U.S. team. Diggle asks Lyla why A.R.G.U.S. is involved but she defers until Harkness attacks the building, killing several agents and targeting Lyla. The Arrow joins the fight and gets help from an old friend – The Flash. Harkness manages to get away and Oliver teams up with Barry again to find him before he can get to Lyla. When Harkness plants five bombs in the city that are timed to explode at the same time, both teams must come together to save the city.”

“The Brave and The Bold” is set to air December 3. “Arrow” airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on The CW.