Arrow - S2E17 - Birds of Prey
Previously on Arrow, ‘Suicide Squad’
The episode opens with Officer Lance leading a tactical team to capture some criminal. Wasn’t he demoted at some point? Sara and Oliver watch over him from the rooftop. When the gunfire starts they head into the factory to help out. Oliver captures the guy, only to realise that it’s Bertinelli, the father of his ex-girlfriend Helena, aka the Huntress (Dracula’s Mina, if you’re one of the four of us that actually watched that show). She has been leaving a trail of dead Mafioso across the world hunting for her dad after he murdered her fiancé.
FLASHBACK Oliver is on the boat getting tortured by Slade. One of Slade’s men tells him that they need a mechanic to get the boat up and running. This does not please Slade at all.
Laurel is at an AA meeting. She gets a call from ADA Donner. He asks her to come back to work to help prosecute Bertinelli.
At Verdant, Roy gets Thea a bracelet. Oliver, Sara, Diggle, and Roy gather not-at-all-suspiciously by the bar as Felicity tells them that she’s found a lead on Helena. They head out to find her, and in the process Roy gets shot in the hand, making him almost lose control. It’s just a decoy, and the gang are back to square one.
Oliver sits Roy down in the Arrow Cave after the mission and tells him to stay away from Thea for her own protection.
Sara swings by the DA’s office to chat with Laurel. She tries to convince her to drop the Bertinelli case, but Laurel brushes off her warning.
On the island, Sara leads the surviving prisoners to the downed plane. She gets a radio call from Slade offering to trade the mechanic, Hendrick, in exchange for Oliver.
Oliver heads to the courthouse to see Laurel. They bring in Bertinelli and Helena comes in guns blazing. Oliver gets Bertinelli out but Laurel is taken hostage. She is attacked by one of Helena’s goons, but is saved by Sara as the Black Canary.
Roy tries to break up with Thea, but, as with most things he does, it is a complete failure.
Boy, the Lance family really are an oblivious bunch. Laurel has a whole conversation with the Black Canary without realizing it’s her sister.
On the island Sara tells Slade that Hendrick didn’t make it, but Slade doesn’t believe her, and gives her an hour before he kills Oliver.
Sara and the Huntress get into a fight, and Sara gets thrown out a window saving herself with a silken rope. Where was she hiding that thing? Oliver calls into the room and Helena tells him that she’ll trade Laurel for her father.
Thea walks in on Roy making out with another girl upstairs at Verdant.
Oliver, Sara, and Officer Lance kidnap Bertinelli and arrange a meeting with Helena. They are about to do a tradeoff when they are interrupted by the guy who was running the police response to the hostage situation. He has a machine gun and a hatred of vigilantes. Oliver is about to shoot him when Lance knocks him out with one punch.
Sara gets into a fight with Helena, and is going to kill her when Laurel talks her out of it. She lets her go and Helena starts freaking out because the cop had hit her dad with a stray bullet, and she was very keen on being the one to do the killing. In her distressed state Lance arrests her with ease.
Oliver goes to visit Helena in prison. They talk very candidly for a room that is surely under surveillance.
Back in Flashbackville, Slade has Oliver tattooed with Shado’s tattoo as a form of branding.
At the DA’s office, the DA tries to politely fire Laurel again. Not having any of it, Laurel threatens that she’ll go to the press with Donner’s botched handling of the Bertinelli situation, unless she gets her job back again.
Oliver goes to see his sister. She is pretty upset about Roy cheating on her. She tells Oliver that he’s the only one in her life who doesn’t lie to her. TERRIBLE judge of character, that girl. As she is walking home a car pulls up alongside her and offers her a ride. It’s Slade, and this cannot end well.
