This week’s episode of Arrow took a break from all the high-intensity action we’ve been seeing the past couple episodes to create a slow burn for a dramatic last few minutes. At the end of the last episode, Sara and Oliver, each dealing with family backlash, come together in a flurry of emotion, and this week examines the consequences.
“Time of Death” kicks off with a heist at Kord Enterprises, orchestrated by a man with an uncanny sense of time - everything is measured in exact seconds, down to their walking pace. Everything runs smoothly until one of the men decides to go against orders and shots a guard, instigating a chase through the building from the police. The two men escape into a crowd of protestors, blending in easily.
Down in the foundry, however, Sara seems to have no problem blending in herself. Enjoying a little sparring of her own, she proves she can handle herself against both Diggle and Oliver. When she accidentally gets hurt, the three continue bonding over their numerous scars. Felicity, feeling left out, tries to jump in with her own scar story but is quickly shot down as Oliver reminds Sara she needs to leave for her welcome back party.
The party, though, is hardly the welcome home Sara was expecting. Laurel bails, even after Oliver tries calling her, and Sara’s not sure how to deal with it. On Oliver’s side, his tension with his mother is at an all-time high; even Thea, preoccupied with the party, notices something’s wrong even if her mother tries to brush it off. Sara and Oliver get a chance to escape, however, when Officer Lance receives a phone call about a homicide in the Glades. The three meet back up in an alleyway where Lance informs them about the victim’s involvement in stealing a high-tech project from Kord Enterprises. Oliver-as-Arrow informs the Lances that the “gizmo” is actually a skeleton key, a project intended to help the military with codebreaking, but was discontinued when Oliver discovered it could be modified to break into any bank vault.
While trying to find the missing skeleton key, Felicity is angrily punching one of Oliver’s many training tools. Though Sara tries to help her, Oliver quickly reminds Felicity that what she’s good at is computers. However, this is tested as their mysterious villain hacks into their network during a mission. Felicity can’t find a way over a virus planted on their system and the men escape - but not after Sara gets a him on the head with her staff. When they get the staff down to the foundry, Felicity’s feelings of failure kick in once more as Sara goes to analyze the blood herself, refusing Felicity’s offer to send it to a lab. Cross-referencing the info from their blood sample with what they know of his computer hacking skills, Felicity finds out the name of the man and Oliver and Sara follow the lead.
When they find nothing, Felicity is confused - until it’s revealed Tockman is still in their system and blows up all of their computers. Oliver, frustrated, decides to use himself as bait. However, though they want to wait out Tockman until he tries to attack, Felicity reminds Sara of her family dinner, telling her it’s more important. As Sara and Oliver stalk off, Diggle tries to confront Felicity on her feelings of jealousy, though Felicity says it’s not about Sara and Oliver, it’s about her and the fact that she can’t seem to do anything remarkable lately. It’s a touching moment; the writers successfully pointed out their friendship while proving this team is more than just their relationship with Oliver, but with each other as well.
Dinner, unsurprisingly, goes poorly. Though Quentin is obviously trying to get their family back together, he’s upset by Dinah’s revelation that she’s not coming back to Starling and Laurel gets annoyed when she realizes Sara and Oliver are having a thing. In easily one of the best scenes all season, Oliver confronts Laurel after she walks out on them. He tells her that she’s being selfish and her destructive behavior is no one else’s fault but hers. “I’ve loved you for half my life but I’m done chasing after you,” a teary-eyed Oliver says as he walks away.
When he and Sara return to the foundry, they find that Felicity has been missing. When they get a call from her, she’s at the bank...where Tockman is currently breaking into. They run to get her but when Tockman escapes, Felicity and Sara run after him. He’s desperate and dying and when he aims his gun, Felicity quickly pushes Sara out of the way as she activates his own device to explode the way he did to hers, knocking him unconscious.
In the basement once more, Sara patches up a wounded and drugged up Felicity. As Oliver comes up to her, Felicity admits to being slightly jealous but the two share a touching moment where he reminds her just how important she is to the team. Upstairs, Laurel and Sara have their own moment where Laurel apologizes for her behavior and admits she’s happy her sister is back and alive because it’s putting things in perspective for her.
But, the episode’s slow burn becomes a full-on fire at the end. Sara’s (and Roy’s) friend Sin is revealed to be the daughter of a pilot that died on the island and made his dying wish for Sara to make sure his daughter was okay. Laurel, after a confrontation with everyone but herself, finally shows up at AA with her father.
The biggest shocker comes in the last two minutes, however, when Oliver rushes back into the mansion after a “911” text from Thea. Though his mother is confused by his rash behavior, she introduces him to the man she’s having a meeting with. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Queen,” Slade Wilson says as he and Oliver grip each other’s hands.
Arrow airs on The CW Wednesdays at 8/7c.
Photo courtesy of The CW.