Arrow - S3E16 - The Offer
I have to apologize in advance, because I am so not here for this Ra’s Al Ghul wanting Oliver as his heir storyline.
Oliver sits down for a drink with Ra’s Al Ghul and boy, does that guy love his monologues. Putting it out there, Matt Nable gives off more of a security guard vibe than a leader of an army of international assassins vibe (or maybe Australian accents just sound more impressive to non-Australians, who knows).
His daughter, on the other hand, is both badass and regal, refusing to kill Thea after she lets her out of the cage. She very nearly beats the crap out of both Laurel and Roy at the same time, but is taken down by a pesky tranquilizer gun.
Ra’s tells Oliver he is free to leave whenever he wants with Diggle and Merlyn, and so he does just that. How long is the trip from Nanda Parbat to Starling City anyway?
Oliver takes Merlyn to Thea’s place and pretty much forces her to take him on as a house guest, which is seriously not a good thing to do to your sister.
He really is trying to piss off everyone in his life, letting Nysssa go without talking to anyone and refusing to tell anyone what happened in Nanda Parbat. He orders them off to hunt for diamond smugglers, but they are only able to capture half of them.
Oliver takes the captured men to Captain Lance, who is rightly pissed off that Oliver didn’t tell him Sara was dead, and tells him he doesn’t want to work together anymore.
Oliver stops by Palmer Industries and Felicity jumps back a meter or so from Ray when he walks in, which does nothing to defuse the palpable awkwardness. She helps him find the name of one of the bad guys of the week, and tries - and fails - to get him to talk about feelings.
Laurel stops by to see how Thea is going. Suffice it to say she is not a huge fan of her father right now. Nyssa is also having some (totally understandable) daddy issues, after finding out he has chosen Oliver to take over from her as his heir. He gives her a whole ‘love is weakness’ spiel (and if that phrase means nothing to you, you should really start watching The 100) and basically kicks her out of The League.
Oliver is feeling bad about himself because Felicity has a new boyfriend and Lance doesn’t like him anymore, and of course comes to the conclusion that he’ll feel better as Ra’s Al Ghul. Diggle is his usual sensible self and pretty much tells him to get over himself. One of these days Oliver is gonna listen to Diggle straight away, but today is not that day.
It turns out the bad guy of the week is stealing diamonds to make armor-piercing bullets to kill some dirty cops who beat a false confession out of him, which may well be the most convoluted plot I have heard in a long while. Captain Lance ignores the phone call from Felicity that would have warned him of the impending attack on the station in favor of chewing out his daughter. Their argument is interrupted by armed men storming the station, but luckily Nyssa turns up in the nick of time. I hope this means she’ll be staying in Starling.
Oliver saves the day and sets off into the night on a zip line that really doesn’t seem to be attached to anything. He has a change of heart and realizes what everyone else was telling him all along: being The Arrow is a better thing to do than becoming the leader of a horde of assassins, which, duh.
In a pleasant surprise, which is sure to end badly, past Oliver runs into Shado in Hong Kong. Please let her stay alive for slightly longer this time.
Nyssa stops by for some bonding time with Laurel, and offers to help her train to be The Canary. At last, someone training Laurel rather than just yelling at her for not having any training.
Maseo warns Oliver that Ra’s Al Ghul is not keen on being refused. Of course, Ra’s Al Ghul’s idea of payback seems to involve dressing up as The Arrow and murdering a bunch of bad guys, which honestly is a little bit of a let down in terms of vengeance.
Oh, and Thea and Roy are getting it on again. Good for them!
