[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOHkm-uUTXw]
Arrow: Three Ghosts (2×09)
Synopsis: After Oliver barely escapes death he starts to see the ghosts of his dead friends
Rating: ★★★★★
Here I am, finally, with my recap of Arrow’s mid-season finale ‘Three Ghosts’. Yes I know this aired weeks and weeks ago but alas and I’ve only just managed to get around to watching it. Regrettably university is kind of a big thing which takes up a lot of your time (who knew?). Anyway the wait was completely worth it as this episode was brilliant.
After being launched into a box of Mirakuru and being injected with the serum Oliver’s life is put in danger but its Barry Allen to the rescue with a handy box of rat poison. And Barry’s quick thinking can’t come soon enough as, worryingly, Oliver sees a vision of Shado, who reaches out for him and tells him to not fight it.
Fortunately Oliver doesn’t listen and wakes up, unfortunately he is less than impressed to find out that Felicity let Barry know his secret. Oliver blows up in her face, which is not cool seeing as he’s alive because of what she did. Barry (the sweetie) steps in to defend Felicity but it’s like a kitten going up against a lion and Barry would probably have been chewed up if Oliver hadn’t gotten a phone call from home.
At the Queen mansion Moira’s worried about Thea, who’s locked herself in her room, and when Oliver goes up to check on her she lets him in and shows him an injured Roy who’s lying on her bed. Oliver pulls out the arrow and tells Thea, Roy and Sin, who’s also there, to stop whatever it is they were doing. Of course that is precisely not what Thea is planning on doing as she is a Queen after all and those Queens certainly do love getting into trouble.
Oliver has another hallucination of Shado and this time she tells him that he “can’t fight what’s coming” and that he should “live” (is that ironic coming from a ghost?). But there’s no time for Oliver to chit-chat with dead people as Brother Blood is almost ready to distribute the serum.
Back at Arrow HQ Oliver asks Barry about the side effects of the rat poison and Barry, who despite the earlier altercation, is more than happy to help test whether it’s the rat poison causing Oliver’s hallucinations. He’s even more eager to learn more about Oliver’s vigilante alter ego, asking about why he wears no mask. Felicity, on the other hand, is not so happy to hear that there was more than one girl on the island with Oliver.
Speaking of the island things are not going so well. Ivo and his men storm the submarine and find the Mirakuru. They force Oliver, Shado and Sara off the boat and Ivo forces Oliver to choose which of the girls he doesn’t kill. When time’s up Oliver quickly shields Sara and Shado is shot instead. Slade comes back to life and kills all of Ivo’s men, while the Dr manages to get away. When he finds Shado’s dead body he’s tormented, and Sara lies about why Shado died.
With Barry’s help team Arrow find Cyrus Gold, the man who attacked Oliver the other night, and the motel he’s staying at. Oliver is eager to go after him but as he’s not quite stable right now Diggle, smartly, suggests that he handles this instead. Oliver agrees but still demands to be there as back-up.
In the DA’s office Laurel receives some flowers and an invitation to go out from Sebastian. Thea and Sin also drop by and they ask for her help with finding Sin’s friend, Max, who went to Sebastian’s blood drive. But there’s isn’t much about the scheme that Laurel can find out.
At the motel Diggle runs into some trouble with Cyrus and is badly injured but manages to make a quick getaway down a fire escape and into the car which Oliver drives away.
The Hood goes to Officer Lance for help since he is in no fit condition to go after Cyrus again. This time he sees the ghost of Slade.
Back in Arrow HQ there’s a flirty moment between Barry and Felicity as they wait for Oliver’s blood results to come in. Barry brings up the question he asked before about Felicity liking Oliver and she denies it again. He tells her that he understands why she would like him and then laughs when she says that it sounds as if he wants to date Oliver instead (but note how he doesn’t deny It, hmmm interesting). Together they watch the TV report on the Star Labs accelerator that’s soon to launch and Barry bemoans about probably missing it.
Quentin talks to his former police partner, Lucas, about the information that the Hood told him. After a little pleading Lucas agrees to get a squad together to find Cyrus. Unfortunately Blood has a man on the inside who opts into being part of that squad.
When Oliver returns to Arrow HQ he not too subtly kicks Felicity and Barry out so that he can be alone, though his solitude doesn’t last long as he’s visited again by Slade’s ghost. Slade throws Oliver around a bit before disappearing and when the others return the place is wrecked. Mysteriously though when Oliver’s blood test finally comes through it says that his blood is clean.
The police storm the building that Cyrus is said to be lurking in but they are no match for his super-human strength and he kills many of the officers including Lucas. I love this show and all but the amount of POC they have brought in only to kill off or that leave and are never seen again (like Laurel’s friend in season 1 and Walter Steele) is not okay. This show started off so well with its diversity and now I’m starting to get scared that it’s going to slowly become like other CW shows where POC are rare and far in-between.
Laurel’s date with Sebastian is cut short when she gets a call about her father and rushes off to the hospital. The Hood also pays Quentin a visit and apologises for putting Quentin and the rest of the police in the position they were in. Quentin reassures him that the deaths weren’t his fault, and he also gives him a key that he managed to get off Cyrus.
When Oliver talks to Diggle about Slade and about seeing his ghost, Diggle tells him about his similar experience seeing ghost after he came back from Afghanistan. Diggle advices Oliver that the way to get rid of them is by finding out what they are trying to tell him. Shortly afterwards Felicity and Barry find what building the key belongs to and Oliver is ready to go battle much to Felicity’s distress. They share an intense moment before Oliver leaves, and Barry sees the whole thing.
Meanwhile Roy breaks into an office building to find Max’s document and attached to the files is Miles’ picture with the word Mirakuru on it. The room is almost set on fire with Roy still in it but before he can finish his escape he’s captured and taken to Brother Blood who injects him with Mirakuru. Oliver flies in and fights Cyrus. Just as it’s beginning to look like the end for Oliver he gets a visit from Tommy’s ghost who empowers him to keep fighting. Eventually he manages to defeat Cyrus and destroy all of the centrifuge with the Mirakuru in it. It’s a close call but Roy doesn’t die and Oliver takes him away to the safety of Thea’s room.
Blood, who managed to escape, returns to his benefactor, so that he can make some more Mirakuru. And surprise! It’s Slade, who’s actually not as dead as Oliver thought. Slade’s a bit angry with his former island buddy- turned vigilante and it doesn’t look like we’ll be getting a friendly reunion between the two.
But as one man enters another leaves and unfortunately that’s Barry who has to return to Central City. Though he leaves a little gift for Oliver and some romantic words for Felicity, and for any other character this is where thing will end, with a parting that leaves us thing “woah this character is cool”. But this is Barry Allen and so instead he gets struck by lightning.
For a mid-season finale this episode ticked all the boxes for me, it was exciting, funny with a well- paced plot. I am sorry to see Barry leave because he was such a fun character to watch and I want to see more of his dynamic with the Arrow characters. That being said I am excited that he has his own spin-off. My only issue with the episode is the fact that they’re brought Slade back. Haven’t the writers brought back enough supposedly dead characters? Repeating this trope is beginning to loses its dramatic effect and soon it’ll just become a gimmick and Arrow is too good of a show for that. But apart from that wonderful episode and I look forward to rest of the season.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHysUjBIAyo]
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