The CW’s Arrow‘s fourth season continued with episode three which found Double Down taking on the team of Green Arrow and Diggle, Felicity showing who’s boss, and Laurel convinced Sara needed to go into the Lazarus Pit as soon as possible. Titled “Restoration,” episode three was a real game-changer and paved the way for multiple new storylines. Here’s a recap of what went down during episode three:
Diggle (David Ramsey) tracks Ghosts with Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) watching over him, but one manages to get the drop on him and get away. In comes Green Arrow (Stephen Amell) on a motorcycle to save the day but, no, a bomb explodes and knocks him off the bike. That leads to Diggle and Green Arrow joining up to take on the Ghosts with Felicity super excited to be helping from behind the keyboard, calling them the original gangstas. Diggle gets to one before he can swallow the cyanide pill, but he knocks out Diggle and gets away. Still, Diggle has the guy’s tooth which should prove to be helpful in figuring out who he is. Diggle wishes Thea (Willa Holland) was there to help them out instead of at a spa treatment, but Oliver says she wouldn’t have been much help right now anyway.
At Nanda Parbat – the “spa” Diggle referred to – Malcolm/Ra’s al Ghul (John Barrowman) and Nyssa (Katrina Law) spar and neither is taking it easy. Nyssa would take him out if she had the chance and even threatens him she’ll take his head of next time. Thea and Laurel (Katie Cassidy) show up,and Laurel demands Malcolm bring her sister back to life. Malcolm says no because Thea wasn’t dead but Sara is. Bringing Sara back this late isn’t possible. What comes out wouldn’t be Sara and his answer is an adamant and unequivocal no.
Felicity is still excited about having the original Team Arrow back together. Diggle gives her the tooth with the cyanide in it and Felicity suggests margaritas while they wait, but Diggle’s still not ready to be friends. After he leaves Oliver says he’s done waiting for him.
Flashback to the island, Oliver’s still pretending to be a guard.
Diggle heads home and finds his door open and an ARGUS member there. John’s wife had asked him for ID on whoever had hired Floyd to do a hit in 2009. ARGUS was able to identify Mina Fayad and she’s now in the States.
Mina Fayad (Carmen Moore) visits with Damien Darhk (Neal McDonough) and has Jeremy Tell (JR Bourne) with her, and Jeremy demonstrates his killing skills be slicing up a victim of Darhk’s choice with playing cards. Darhk likes it, but Jeremy tells him it will cost to take out Green Arrow and his cohorts.
Back at Ra’s, Laurel doesn’t want to give up. She thought Nyssa would support her but Nyssa doesn’t want Sara brought back this way. She could come back a monster, but Laurel thinks her spirit will come back intact.
Felicity gets the results of the tooth and has no idea why the DNA has half the genetic markers it should have. As they’re talking a notice pops up there’s a robbery underway. The police could handle it, but Oliver doesn’t think they’re very effective right now.
Diggle spies on Mina and ignores Felicity’s call. Oliver heads out alone.
On the island, Oliver’s getting instructions on how not to show restraint when dealing with prisoners. He’s also picking up info on the drugs they’re working on.
Green Arrow shows up at the robbery and it’s a setup. Jeremy is there and tosses a card at him which Green Arrow knocks away with an arrow.
Meanwhile, Diggle’s been made and is in a fight to the death of his own.
Green Arrow and Jeremy exchange cards/arrows neither seeming to get the upper hand until they engage in hand to hand combat. But just when it appears Jeremy is down, he furiously throws cards at Green Arrow who barely has time to deflect them and is forced to flee the scene with a card stuck in his bicep.
Malcolm and Thea talk and Malcolm reveals he knows Thea didn’t actually want him to help Sara because of the side effects. He knows she’s feeling the bloodlust. Malcolm says she needs to feed the impulse because the Lazarus Pit needs life for life. Thea’s not having it and wants him to try and be a normal father. Malcolm says that high in the mountains there’s a sage who can heal and might be of help. Malcolm agrees to take her there in the morning.
Felicity is patching up Oliver and tells him Jeremy is a metahuman from Central City, according to Cisco (from The Flash). Jeremy Tell, aka Double Down, is now in Star City. Diggle apologizes for not being there and Felicity yells at both of them for taking on criminals on their own without backup, and she wants them to remove their heads from their asses. (Way to take the bull by the horns, Felicity!) She demands they sit down and resolve their issues. Felicity is ready to leave so she can figure out how the meta turns tattoos into lethal playing cards. If Oliver and Diggle don’t settle their grievances, Felicity says she’ll find someone to knock some sense into both of them.
She leaves and Oliver kicks off the conversation by saying he keeps apologizing. Diggle says it’s not about apologies; he just doesn’t trust Oliver since he crossed that line and now he’s not willing to take a bullet for him. Diggle thinks Oliver could do it again, and Oliver knows he lost his trust but can’t figure out why he doesn’t get a chance to earn it back. Diggle changes the subject by asking if Jeremy is connected to Darhk. Oliver’s not sure but says Jeremy mentioned Fayad. That gets an immediate reaction from Diggle. Diggle says they’re going somewhere and he’ll try to trust Oliver again.
Back on the island, trust is the main issue. The bad guys want to know who stole the product and shoot people until one confesses. Oliver thinks he has another way of getting the info.
At Palmer Tech, Curtis is working on contact lenses with built in HD displays. Felicity gets jumbled junk on her phone and then gives him the playing card to analyze. She needs all the info he can get off the card.
At Diggle’s, he’s finally coming clean with his investigation of HIVE. Oliver recalls how Diggle reacted when Darhk used the word HIVE, and Diggle shows him his research which includes Mina Fayad. Three years of investigations and he’s just now showing it to Oliver. Diggle says he must find Fayad. It’s imperative.
Jeremy failed his mission, Mina Fayad is compromised, and Darhk is not happy. He wants Jeremy to try and kill him, but Damien stops the card in mid-flight. Showing off his powers, he flings the card at Fayad, slicing her throat.
Thea’s having a bad dream when she’s attacked in bed. She kills her attackers while Malcolm watches. He asks her how she feels and she says, “There is no sage. There is no cure. There never was.” Malcolm apologizes and tells her she’s going to have to kill until she takes out the one who hurt her. But, Ra’s is already dead. Now that she just killed, she won’t need to kill again for weeks. Malcolm tells her he would do anything to help her, including sacrificing his men.
Felicity hopes they both learned their lessons. She attempts to find Mina but can only locate her cell phone.
On the island, Oliver is torturing people to get the answer. A woman confesses to taking the drugs because she wanted to give the prisoners something to ease their pain. Oliver stops the guard from killing her there, volunteering to take her somewhere where they’ll never find the body.
Laurel’s in bed and Thea wakes her up, telling her they have to leave. Malcolm’s not going to help her or Sara. She doesn’t want to kill people, but Malcolm says they’re bound together forever. He says he’s responsible for Sara’s death and he’ll try to make it right. He offers to try and bring Sara back in order to help Thea’s conscious.
Felicity’s pinging the cell phone while Diggle and Green Arrow find Mina Fayad tied to a chair, dead, with a card in her mouth. Green Arrow apologizes but Diggle says it’s his fault because he should have told Oliver earlier. Oliver promises they will get answers now that they’re working together.
Back at Palmer Tech, Curtis explains the playing card’s makeup and Felicity wants to know if they can track the owner. Theoretically, yes they can. And that’s when Jeremy shows up, slinging cards. The first one to say where the Green Arrow is lives. Curtis doesn’t know Green Arrow and Felicity says to run. They escape in a secret elevator. Curtis calls her a bad ass and Felicity confesses she works with Green Arrow and she’s taking them to Team Arrow’s headquarters below the lobby. Jeremy follows them and now knows where Green Arrow hangs out. Felicity grabs a gun and shoots without knowing how to. Her aim is horrible – actually she doesn’t aim but she does get lucky and wounds Jeremy. However, during the fighting Curtis gets knocked out by a falling light.
Diggle and Oliver show up immediately after the fight, and Oliver’s surprised she could fend him off. Felicity says Curtis is off to the hospital and the tracking shows Jeremy is heading back to Central City.
Thea and Laurel lower Sara into the pit while Nyssa begs them not to. Boil and bubble, toil and trouble…and nothing seems to be happening. Then, suddenly, Sara emerges. She’s back but wild and uncontrollable. Malcolm knocks her out with a shot.
Diggle and Green Arrow stand in the middle of the street and stop Jeremy’s car. He calls them a “special kind of stupid” because he was leaving town. Green Arrow wants to know about his employer – and here come the cards. Diggle gets him wrapped up in ropes, but Jeremy says they don’t scare him as much as his employer does. Jeremy manages to toss one final card which Green Arrow jumps in front of to save Diggle. It sticks in his Kevlar. “You took a bullet for me,” says Diggle. “They were metahuman tattoo playing cards,” replies Green Arrow. “Still counts, Oliver,’ says Diggle. “Still counts.” And they’re friends once again.
Diggle, Felicity, and Oliver toast to the OTA: Original Team Arrow. They discuss moving the hideout to Lair 3.0 and Oliver says he’s been working on something…a surprise, not a secret.
Back on the island, Oliver escorts the woman prisoner. A land mine blows up the guard who was assigned to come with them, and Oliver assures the woman he’s not going to kill her and she needs to trust him.
Felicity goes back to Palmer Tech and Curtis is picking up the shattered pieces of his work space. Felicity thanks him for not telling anyone about the lair in the basement. He’s happy to be working for a woman who’s making the city safer.
The final scene of the episode finds Sara locked in a cage. She’s like an animal. Malcolm tells Laurel and Thea they’re in uncharted waters and to prepare for the worst. A guard comes in and tells them something happened…and that’s an incredible understatement as Nyssa has destroyed the Lazarus Pit! She says she destroyed it because it fell into the wrong hands. She tells Malcolm she’ll kill him and when she does he won’t come back. And then Nyssa warns that what’s happening now to Sara is on Laurel’s hands this time.
