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"Arrow" 3.17 Recap: The Hunt For The Arrow

The ever-dwindling population of Star City is in danger once again. And Floyd Lawton returns for another suicide mission.

Previously on Arrow....Oliver Queen went through a rigorous interview process for a new job where he received multiple fatal stab wounds and plummeted off a mountain side. Having survived that against all reason, he was deemed a fit candidate and so Ra's al Ghul offered to make him the new Ghul. Oliver, never one to turn down a chance to make a bad decision, refused.

I can't believe he turned down the chance to rename the League of Assassins as "The Ghulies."

If you don't get that, just ask Snicks.

It's time for John Diggle to remarry Lyla Michaels. It's a festive occasion, so naturally Oliver looks like he's at a funeral. That is partially caused by the fact that Felicity brings along Ray Palmer as her Plus One. That turns Oliver's frown, uh, frownier.

Diggle welcomes Ray to the "family" with a hug and a dire warning that if Ray hurts Felicity no one will ever find Ray's body. Ray astutely realizes this is not a joke and it's not an idle threat either. But at least Digg has stopped trying to get Felicity to give Oliver another chance to break her heart.

But wait! The officiator got called away at the last minute to go and save the world or something so now the wedding can't happen. Disaster!

But wait! Again! Ray is a preacher—when will we get that story, I wonder? So the day is saved. Naturally, his complete awesomeness only makes Oliver more sullen. Because of course it does. Heaven forefend he actually does anything to make things better.

Laurel slinks up to him, having apparently forgiven him for all the things he's done to totally piss her off. In fact, there's a glow about her. And a cast on her arm.

"I have a new trainer. She's enthusiastic."

Oh I bet she is, Laurel. I bet you thought scissors were just something you cut paper with.

Felicity checks with Oliver to make sure he's okay with her having brought her totally awesome boyfriend along. And Oliver blatantly lies and tells her as long as she's happy he's happy. Before she has a chance to call him on his BS, they get a news alert on their phones that the Arrow is running around killing people again.

"To the Arrow pole!" Oliver says.

Well, no. But they do go to the Arrow Cave to talk over the situation. Oliver instantly determines that it's Ra's al Ghul and his minions making him look bad. Of course he's right, but it's not that farfetched in Star City that some new vigilante has decided to take up Oliver's old habits. It's happened before, after all.

Oliver sends Roy off to work the streets some more. Man, Roy has been doing that a lot lately. I hope Oliver is showing him some appreciation. In fact, I'll just assume he is.

Digg wants to know what he gets to do to help, but Oliver tells him to just go on his honeymoon. It's just one League of Assassins, after all. Oliver can totally handle it. And for once Diggle decides to let Oliver have his nutty, self-destructive plan.

On the way to the airport, though, they are interrupted by Floyd Lawton. Amanda Waller has a job for them, so the warm sands of Fiji have to be traded in for the cold, Canadian-esque climes of Kasnia. I'm not clear on how Digg just gets to invite himself along on these sensitive, top-secret black ops missions but it's nice to see him kick some ass so I'm good with it.

In addition to Floyd, the team has added Carrie Cutter, aka Cupid. She's 10 pounds of crazy in a 5 pound bag. And she's still totally hung up on Oliver. At this point, he could do worse.

Floyd Flashback!

Okay, this flashback was more or less pointless as far as the plot goes so I'm just going to skip it. Instead, I'm going to take this moment to do what the flashback was really about.

Being absolutely serious here, thank you to all our soldiers, current and retired, for your service, your bravery and your sacrifice. And to all our wounded warriors, may you find the peace and happiness you deserve.

Back in Star City, Oliver is half naked and playing with his sword. My attention is focused again! Felicity? So over it. She's too busy working on finding where those rascals from the League might strike next.

Roy returns from a long, hard night of pumping every contact he has for information. In reward for giving Oliver a lead, Oliver benches him. Sigh.... Well, the high from the abs is now officially over.

Somewhere in Star City, terrible people are stuffing very cute toy pandas with drugs. That's just wrong. So very wrong. They need to be stopped. They deserve every one of the fatal injuries the fake Arrow gives them.

Real!Arrow shows up and kicks Fake!Arrow in the face and slaps him with a copyright infringement lawsuit. But before the lawyers can get involved, more Fake!Arrows show up. Oliver gives them all a boot to the head.

Then Maseo shows up and tells him it's all pointless. "Cut off one head, two more will take its place."

"Oh crap, I'm on S.H.I.E.L.D. now?"

Maseo tries to reason with Oliver. Why he thinks that will have any effect I just don't know. He has met Oliver before. He does know him and his "unique" reasoning skills. But I guess he wanted to give his old friend/guy he owes his life to one more chance to surrender.

On the upside, no more fluffy toy pandas were harmed.

The Atom flies by and does a high-tech scan thingy which is a lot like X-Ray vision. At this point, I'm basically assuming that Berlanti believes that Brandon Routh got a raw deal and should be Superman and is doing what he can to make him that in all but name.

Now that he knows Oliver is the Arrow, he confronts Felicity. He's pissed that she didn't tell him about her secret relationship with Oliver. And he doesn't want to hear her excuses or how Oliver is being framed.

I can practically hear the triumphant cheers of the Olicity fandom.

Felicity goes to Oliver to tell him about the super suit and the fact that Ray knows his secret. Oliver reacts in his typical Oliver fashion. "How dare you have any secrets at all from me?" But Felicity tries to get him to focus on the big picture—like how Ray is going to tattle on them all.

Roy, meanwhile, is all, "Ray built a super suit? That's kinda awesome."

And Oliver gives him a glare that means, "Just wait until I get you home."

So Roy adds, "And reckless...."

Ray decides to take his intel to Laurel instead of, say, Captain Lance. Or the Mayor. Or, well, anyone else who would clearly be a better choice. She does her best to stonewall him, which only helps him figure out that she's the Black Canary. He still doesn't go to the cops, though, because he figures he and Oliver should settle this man to man.

As long as there's oil involved, I'm all for it.

Meanwhile, in Kasnia, the mission does not go as planned. The senator they were sent to retrieve turned out to be a complete d-bag. The hostage situation was a total set up. He was going to use it to make himself President. But since the Suicide Squad showed up and ruined his fun, he's decided to kill everyone instead.

Lyla and Digg totally give up and lament that their child will have to grow up without them. But Deadshot ain't having it. He's getting them back to their baby and that's all there is to it. So they rally and go to stop the jerkface senator and his crazy, mass-murdering plan.

The one part Floyd didn't tell them was that his plan involves him sacrificing himself. And if I really believed that was the end of him, I would be sad. And if it was the end of him, what an awesome end for him.

Back in Star City, Oliver goes to talk to Ray. He tells Ray he's being framed and when Ray doesn't believe him, Oliver storms off. Our special little hero doesn't like people questioning him.

Oliver returns to the Arrow Cave where Felicity smacks him a few times with the Stick of Truth. She calls him on his BS that he never really wanted her to be happy. Oliver argues that no, he does, it's just that Ray's unstable.

Pardon me, I need to wipe the tears of laughter from my eyes.

Felicity lets him have it. She says Ray wants her as a partner in every way, but Oliver reminds her that goes against the Hero Code of Misery. She reminds him that he totally made that up and no one but him believes in it.

This? This is the Felicity I love so dearly.

Their fight is interrupted by trouble in the city. This time, Oliver decides to bring Roy along since apparently the League isn't playing fair and only sending one assassin at a time. The two arrive on scene and there is no one there.

Until the Atom arrives.

Roy gets blasted into unconsciousness. Oliver gets roughed up, but then he realizes that the genius designer/inventor put the battery pack in a conveniently unarmored location. So the battle royale fizzles as Oliver shuts down the super suit.

Then he proves his innocence by not killing Ray. Victorious, he stomps off into the night, leaving an unconscious Roy laying in a heap somewhere for wild raccoons to gnaw on. But he needed to make a dramatic exit, I guess.

Felicity and Ray talk like the emotionally healthy and mature people they are and get back together with a kiss and hints of things getting serious between them.

Looks like it was a bit too early to buy the streamers and the cake for your party, Olicity fans. Sorry/Not Sorry.

Digg and Lyla have a discussion about the wisdom of doing the work they do with a baby in their lives. Now, I have to say, they did this well. The relationship stuff on these shows bores me to tears, but I did like that Digg offered to quit Team Arrow and never once suggested Lyla quit A.R.G.U.S. She came up with that on her own, for the very solid reason that working for the lunatic, amoral Waller was maybe not good for her soul.

We end with Ray now trying to convince everyone to just leave Oliver alone. Captain Lance is once again committed to being tedious and obsessive so he refuses to hear any theories on why he shouldn't declare war on the guy that has saved the city like a thousand times.

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