Arrow – The Return

• Title: Arrow – The Return
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In an episode that flips the format of the show’s First Season Oliver (Stephen Amell) returns to the island in the present along with Thea (Willa Holland) while we see lengthy flashbacks to Ollie working in Starling City for Amanda Waller (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) during his missing years. The island storyline allows for the return of Deathstroke (Manu Bennett), who was freed from the A.R.G.U.S. cell by Malcolm Merlyn (John Barrowman) to teach Ollie and Thea a lesson, and another secret falling by the wayside as Thea learns just what a bastard her biological father truly is.

The flashbacks allow several callbacks including Tommy (Colin Donnell) and far more self-destructive versions of both Thea and Detective Lance (Paul Blackthorne). Given what we’ve already been told of each’s trouble during those missing years nothing we see here is all that surprising although the current state of the cop’s relationship to his sole remaining daughter seemed a tad bit too harsh for me. The sequences also allowed Oliver a first look at how those he loved coped, or failed to cope, with the shipwreck that changed his life forever.

“The Return” feels a bit rushed, particularly the Deathstroke storyline which could easily have been its own full storyline rather than a B-story. Even if Malcolm didn’t get the desired result from the pair’s brief stay on the island the season continues to develop as Thea and Oliver return with their bond stronger than ever and with one less lie between them (which is, thankfully, become a recent trend). Oliver is also left with Deathstroke’s words of wisdom about Oliver’s loved ones falling into darkness, although the villain isn’t quite smart enough to realize that he has played no real role in that revenge or that Thea, like Oliver, might eventually find her way back out of the shadows and into the sunlight.