At this point in time, I’m thinking I need to be rewatching the first 2 seasons of Arrow because damn this season is coming close to topping both of them. This episode is one of my favourite of the whole series. Hands down. This episode had everything you wanted while still offering so much for the future. Like Supergirl and Flash, Arrow has a month off and they have continued the trend of entering this break on a high.

I loved everything with Oliver and Diggle. Of all the CW superhero shows, this is by far one of my favourite. They have had their ups and downs throughout the series and you can tell that this relationship is one of the strongest because of that. Diggle had some terrific moments this episode and he stood out as my favourite this episode. Oliver stood out as a close second. He was extremely well written as a character and I thought they wrote his turn from wanting to team to step down to him accepting that Diggle is right was done really naturally and fit well within the episode.

I thought the use of the Bratva was perfect this episode. We have been teased for a while that they will make a return in the present story. I really liked how they ran the parallel of the flashbacks where Oliver was helping them perform a heist for the purpose of money, and the present day story where Bratva is doing the exact same thing. I’ve really grown to like Anatoli as a character this season so it was great to see both sides of him throughout this episode. For the future of Bratva, I don’t ever really see them becoming a main villain for a season but I can see them causing some trouble in the future.

I really enjoyed Felicity’s Helix story line this episode. I liked how Curtis was dragged into it because I think they always have some great onscreen chemistry together. It was cool to see them go in and do a mini heist by themselves because it reminded me of when Arrow started and it was just Oliver and Diggle doing the small jobs. Now that Curtis appears to be in with Helix, I’m interested to see where they are going to take it. I think that Felicity will leave the team to join Helix full time and Curtis will be the official Felicity for team Arrow, but I think Felicity will continue to help out with stuff in the future.

This episode has changed this season from here on out. Prior to this episode, the Green Arrow was the villain of Star City, but now it is Chase. I really liked that they played this flip still with a while to go in the season. For once we are going to see Chase on the back foot, something we are yet to see in this season. I’m not sure how this will involve bringing the Green Arrow back, but my prediction is that for it to happen, Oliver will have to own up to what he has done to the public.

As usual, all the action was great as you’d expected it. I usually don’t touch on much of the action because it is so well choreographed each week but we have had some stand out sequences the past few weeks so I thought I should make mention of that.

Looking to the future, I’m not actually completely sure where this season is heading for the last leg. Team Arrow is back but the Green Arrow is yet to be redeemed, if he ever will. Chase has been exposed as Prometheus and his on the run from the police. Helix appears to be playing a bigger role and looks like they are going to come into the fold at the pointy end of the season. Quick note, there was part of me that thought when they revealed Chase’s face that it was going to be someone else. I assumed that it was when he first takes his mask off on the roof top but i wouldn’t put it past the writers to chuck a spanner in the works.

Overall, I loved this episode. Arrow is back and I am so happy for that. It sucks that we now have a month break from all these shows but all of them should be hitting the ground running when they come back and Arrow appears to be leading that charge.

10/10