We open on Nanda Parbat, where Ra’s al Ghul is having a bath. Nyssa enters and begins yelling about Oliver Queen still being alive, but Ra’s is already aware. She wants him to see vengeance for killing Sara but Ra’s knows he didn’t do it. Oliver defied you she tells her father, that’s why he needs to die.
On the other side of the world, in the Arrow Cave, Thea and Oliver train with Merlyn, who is much better than them at fighting even when they’re together. When the training concludes, Diggle reveals he’s fortified the building with ARGUS tech. Merlyn tries to convince Oliver to stay in the club with Thea, but she’s made up her mind and wants to stay in their loft. Laurel, who was apparently there too, approaches Thea with admiration for her fighting style, which begins to eat away at Thea’s conscious. Diggle talks to Ollie, at first wanting to ask him something, but then telling him that he’s concerned about him.
We flashback to Hong Kong where Oliver relays the events of the past few episodes to an Army clerk. General Shrieve enters, dismissing the clerk, and thanks Oliver for everything he’s done telling him that Amanda Waller is off the case, the Yamashiros are headed back to Japan, and he can go wherever he wants. Back in the present, Roy enters Verdant and admires the lockdown Diggle has put in place, though Thea is a little preoccupied. He asks her about it and he talks about killing Sara, which Roy already knows. He breaks it down to her about when he killed a cop under the effects of mirakuru (way back in Season 2 kids!). Thea seems to think that it won’t get easier for her, and it shouldn’t.
Over at Palmer Tech, Ray works on his suit, only for Felicity to enter and reveal that he’s been MIA for a week. When Brick took over The Glades, it lit a fire in him and inspired him to really work on his ATOM suit, but he’s been awake so long he’s not able to focus. At Laurel’s office, she tries to contact her father but he doesn’t answer his phone. Thea enters and confesses to Laurel that, under the influence of a drug concoction form Merlyn, she killed Sara. Laurel takes it pretty well all things considered, but asks Thea why she continues to work with Merlyn knowing what he did to her? Citing their trouble with the League, Thea makes an excuse about needing him but Laurel posits that by maintaining that stance Merlyn is still controlling her.
Oliver continues his training at the Arrow Cave, where Laurel enters saying she can’t remember Sara’s laugh, and asks Oliver about her killer. He promises her they’ll find who did it, and she immediately confronts him about lying to her face. You can’t blame him for not wanting to tell her though, given how many people she tried to kill beforehand. Laurel doesn’t blame Thea given the circumstances, but Oliver won’t be convinced otherwise, still under the impression that he needs Merlyn in his fight against the league. With the mic drop of the episode, Laurel says she can’t remember a time she loved Ollie.
At the loft, Thea stares at a candle and Oliver enters, ready to yell at her for telling folks their secrets. But Thea made a move all on her own, and they’re not in anymore danger. Down at a dimly-lit alley, Merlyn walks alone only to be confronted by Laurel in her Canary costume. She attacks him but he manages to deflect all of her blows. He takes her weapon, but she draws a gun on him, only for the League ninjas to swoop in and surround them. Nyssa approaches and attacks Merlyn, taking him down with precision, and the league takes him away as Laurel watches.
Oliver enters the Arrow Cave where he confronts Laurel about attacking Merlyn, and makes the claim they have to rescue him from the League. This raises a lot of eyebrows. “It’s for the sake of Thea” says Oliver! He wants to save her soul – ah yes, the old soul saving technique. Felicity reveals that the security cameras at Starling Aviation went dark.
We return to Hong Kong five years ago where Oliver meets up with the Yamashiros at the docks. Akio wants Oliver to stay with them in Japan for a few days before leaves for Starling. The three of them head to their boat but are ambushed by men in jumpsuits and guns. Back in the present, Nyssa talks to Merlyn on the air strip where he drops the bomb that her relationship from Sara is why she’ll never be the leader of The League. Then on cue Oliver appears, he fights Nyssa as her goons wrestle Merlyn onto the helicopter. Ollie gets the drop on Nyssa and wrangles her up with a trick arrow, but it’s too late, the helicopter with Merlyn is in the air and just like that they’re gone.
At the Arrow Cave, Oliver has Nyssa in a steel cage where she meditates. He’s at an impasse since Ra’s won’t trade Merlyn for her, so he asks for everyone to leave the room. They all assume he’ll torture her, but he doesn’t have to, as she gives up the location of Nanda Parbat freely, knowing it will lead to Oliver’s death. Upstairs at Verdant, they’re prepped and ready for a League attack. Oliver enters and reveals Nanda Parbat is under the Hindu Kush mountain range. Everyone thinks Oliver is wacky for wanting to risk his life, again, but Diggle is the one with the truth bomb, he knows that Oliver has an ulterior motive.
Over at Palmer Tech, Ray continues to work, but he’s been locked out of his computer. Felicity enters and reveals she locked him out. She has one friend that’s about to let his work kill him, which she can’t change, but she can change him. Ray agrees to eat, shower, and sleep. Diggle plays with baby Sara and Lyla enters, asking if he had a chance to talk to Oliver. He reveals that Oliver is headed to another suicide mission and she encourages him to go. Oliver preps to leave but is confronted by Thea. He tells her that what she’s done will result in her losing a piece of herself, he’d know since both of their parents died because of him. She begs him not to go but he doesn’t listen. As he leaves, Ollie meets Diggle in the alley who is going to take him to Nanda Parbat with the ARGUS jet.
Speaking of Nanda Parbat, they bring Merlyn in front of Ra’s where he makes a sly reference to being wicked old. Merlyn tries to make a deal to escape the inevitable, but Ra’s says he must pay for his crimes. Back at Palmer Tech, Felicity walks around Ray’s office and sees a number of priceless paintings. He enters towel clad and he tells her how much he values her judgement. Felicity seizes the opportunity and plants a kiss on him, which he liked, so they keep smoochin’.
Outside Nanda Parbat, Oliver and Diggle scout the area only to have a slew of burning arrows shot in their direction. They trade fire with the League’s forces, but manage to kill a number of them, only for one to turn tail and head to warn the others. We switch back to Hong Kong just as things get good, where Maseo and Oliver fire back at the ARGUS agents. Shifting to the present, Laurel goes to see Nyssa in her cage (so much for all that security Diggle put in place), where she laments that having Malcolm Merlyn around to hate was actually good for her. The two of them have a heart to heart about their memories of Sara, with Nyssa revealing the origin of Sara’s induction into The League.
Oliver and Diggle chase the coward ninja into Nanda Parbat, dispatching him along with a number of other ninjas. Using the Nanites he tagged Malcolm Merlyn with months ago, he is able to track in the building, where they find him beaten and suspended over burning coals. He’s able to let out a whisper of “trap” just as a large gate closes down on them. Ra’s enters, welcoming them to his home. Ollie wakes up chained to the floor with Diggle where he laments coming to this place and reminds Diggle he wanted to ask him something the other day, which is that he wants Oliver to be his best man. He is his brother after all. Maseo enters with a grim expression.
We return to Hong Kong a final time where Oliver and the Yamashiros run from the ARGUS agents, but they get separated. A hail of gunfire keeps Maseo and Tatsu on one side with Oliver and their son Akio on the other. Maseo yells for Oliver to run and take their son with them, he complies, but Tatsu nor Akio like this plan. Roy takes Thea with him to watch the family of the police officer he killed last year, whom he watches over. Thea doesn’t see the similarities in what he did and she she did, Roy reminds her they weren’t in control of their bodies, but she corrects him that she knew what she was getting into when she teamed up with Merlyn in the first place.
Felicity and Ray lay in bed, but he’s still awake. He starts scribbling down equations and goes back to his lab to finish tinkering with the ATOM suit. He gets it all sorted and puts it on, standing on the roof of Palmer Tech. Then he takes off into the sky, rivaling old Firestorm on The Flash with his flight ability. He even passes the room where Felicity sleeps. Now it’s Thea’s turn to go visit Nyssa, where she confesses to killing Sara. She even opens the steel cage and hands her a sword, for the vengeance she was promised.
Back in Nanda Parbat, Oliver is thrown in front of Ra’s, who asks if he’s ready for another taste of death. Ollie asks him to kill him but spare John Diggle, but Ra’s has other plans. He admires Oliver, his strength, his fortitude, and his power. No he doesn’t want Oliver to die, he wants Oliver to take his place as The Demon’s Head. I guess Bruce Wayne was busy.
You can check out the promo for the next episode of “Arrow” in the player below. Titled “The Offer,” the episode is officially described as follows:
Still weighed down by his last meeting with Ra’s al Ghul (guest star Matt Nable), Oliver (Stephen Amell) returns home to find a new villain and his crew have started terrorizing Starling City – Michael Amar AKA Murmur (guest star Adrian Glynn McMorran), a man whose mouth has been sewn shut. Meanwhile, Laurel (Katie Cassidy) and Nyssa (guest star Katrina Law) bond over their issues with their fathers and Nyssa make Laurel an offer. Thea (Willa Holland) is forced to come to terms with her father after Oliver brings Malcolm (John Barrowman) to the loft to recover, and Lance (Paul Blackthorne) shuts out both Laurel and the Arrow.
Dermott Downs directed the episode, written by Beth Schwartz & Brian Ford Sullivan. “The Offer” is set to air on Wednesday, March 18 on The CW.
