Arrow - S2E5 - League of Assassins
The episode opens 6 years earlier. Oliver and Sara are out on the boat as a storm rages around them. They feel bad about what they’re doing to Laurel, for about two seconds, before moving on to their sexy times. The storm hits the boat and Sara is dragged out to sea, in her underwear, of course. She flails about in the water for a bit before waking up in bed. It was all a dream. Kinda.
Sara heads downstairs. It turns out that she’s crashing at Oliver’s house while his mum is in prison and his sister is off with her boytoy. Oliver tries to get her to tell her family that she’s alive, but Sara is really not keen on the idea.
Oliver arrives late at a meeting with his mum and the sexy DA. You’d think he could lay off his whole ‘party boy who’s always late’ schtick for meetings about his mum possibly getting the death penalty, but no. He is pretty upset to find out that Laurel will be helping run the prosecution. They offer her a plea deal where she can take life in prison in exchange for pleading guilty. She wants some time to mull it over. Laurel and the DA leave, and Oliver chases after them. He asks Laurel why she’s doing this and she says she didn’t have a choice.
Sara is chilling at the Queen mansion. She sees a picture of the boat and flashes back to her ocean fun times. Floating on a piece of the wreckage, she is distracted by a terribly animated canary (lucky it wasn’t a different bird, the Black Duck is a MUCH less cool superhero name). Watching it fly of she sees a ship coming out of the mist. Oliver coming home disrupts her recollections. They’re casually chatting when they are interrupted by a ninja crashing through the window. Dude picked the wrong house to break into. They beat him, but he manages to distract them with a chandelier and gets out of there before Oliver can question him.
Oliver takes Sara to the lair to meet Felicity and Diggle. He is getting Felicity to track down the home invader when Sara reveals that she knows the guy. They met in the awesome sounding League of Assassins. Apparently that’s where she’s been for the last couple of years. They are trying to hunt her down because she quit.
Yet another flashback! A young Sara is being dragged down a hallway by her ‘rescuers’. They put her in a particularly dank prison cell, without telling her anything.
Oliver meets up with mummy dearest in a slightly nicer prison cell. She tells him that she wants to take the deal. Shocker.
Sara, Diggle, and Felicity are hanging out. Sara thanks Felicity for being so nice. Screw Oliver, I want to watch the blonde gal pal show!
The Assassin is in his very poorly lit lair, sharpening his sword. Without turning around, he catches an arrow that Oliver has fired at his head. This guy is good. Also, what the hell happened to Oliver’s not murdering people thing? That was in no way a warning shot! Oliver warns him to leave Sara alone, and she concurs. He tells them that he has orders to bring her back, dead or alive. After some fighting they run off to patch up their wounds.
Back on the pirate ship, Sara is ripped from her cell by some mean mean men who presumably don’t have the best intentions. They are stopped by some rich white dude, much to their displeasure.
Detective Lance is on the phone to Laurel’s answering machine when Felicity comes up. She warns him that he is in danger from the League of Assassins, and that he needs to get out of town. He, being the alpha male cop that he is, does not take her advice.
Sara heads out to look after her dad. Diggle tries to go with her, but she doesn’t let him.
Lance is going to his car when he gets spooked by a sound behind him. Holy shit it’s Sara. She couldn’t have just followed him in secret?! They head out for some Chinese food. He figures out that she is the masked chick. Rather than be proud of what a badass daughter he produced, he is upset that she has been in town so long without telling him.
Back on the ship, rich white dude takes Sara to his room. His name is Dr. Anthony Ivo. He tells her that the people are downstairs in cages because he needs them to save the human race. He seems super sane…
Oliver is walking Laurel home. She goes to kiss him but he pushes her off. This triggers a conversation about her massive abandonment complex. They are distracted from their intense convo when they see that her door is ajar. He goes to check it out and finds a knife stabbed into the wall. He grabs it before Laurel can see it, and immediately leaves her alone to pop pills in the dark. Apparently he took the knife as a sign that the Assassins are after daddy Lance.
Sara takes him to see her clock tower home. They are having a nice moment when the bad guys appear. They get their fight scene on and things aren’t looking good, when Oliver arrives to help out. They kill two of the baddies, and Sara sends the third guy off as a warning for Ra’s al Ghul.
Lance wants to take Sara home, but she refuses, and disappears into the night telling him to keep her secret. How the hell does Lance not know that it’s Oliver standing next to him? Seriously, no wonder he lost his job as a detective.
Oliver and Thea head over to meet their mother. They tell her that no matter what secrets come out in the trial, they will always love her. I’d wait and see about that one kiddies. She tells her lawyer not to take the deal.
Lance goes to see his daughter, and tells her that things get better.
Oliver and Diggle share some vodka and feelings together. He tells him (via flashback) about being kept prisoner on the ship by Sara. It wasn’t a very nice experience.
