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Arrow Review – Season 3, Episode 11: Midnight City

By Nick Tylwalk

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Team Arrow isn’t exactly functioning like a well-oiled machine in Oliver Queen’s absence. Brick is tightening his grip on Starling City, Felicity Smoak has quit the team, and the new Canary is probably in over her head.

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But hey, at least Oliver isn’t really dead! Let’s see if he gets closer to getting back home in “Midnight City.”

On-the-Mark Recap: Olicity shippers get a special treat: it’s a replay of the last conversation between Oliver Queen and Felicity Smoak before he went off to fight Ra’s al Ghul, except this time, he decides to stay. Ollie says he loves Felicity, and they kiss. The feels! Only he starts gushing blood from his mouth, and a horrified Felicity backs up to see a blade through his chest.

You guessed it: it’s a dream, or maybe a hallucination. Oliver is recovering slowly, and he’s heavily bandaged. Tatsu gives him some penicillin while remarking that only the snow and cold, combined with his will to live, kept him alive. She also remarks that she’s not usually in contact with Maseo, though he arranged for her to be there to help. Maseo makes it clear that as soon as the storm lifts, he’s returning to the League of Assassins. When Oliver points out that he’ll be killed, Maseo says Ollie should worry about Starling City and what’s become of it in his absence.

Speaking of that, we see a criminal chasing a woman into a dead end alley. Black Canary bails her out, but the crook does pretty well in the ensuing fight, even cutting her with a knife. Arsenal makes the save, telling Canary they need to talk.

Roy Harper patches Laurel Lance up while also telling her she needs to stop with her vigilante activities. Laurel insists that criminals fear her, and when it’s pointed out that who they really fear is her sister, she retorts that Sara is no longer here. Fair point. And speaking of digging one’s heels in, Felicity repeats her assertion that she’s not going to help Ray Palmer with his ATOM suit. She actually calls it his suicide mission, but you get it.

Thea Queen and her new friend, the Verdant DJ, have a talk about the moment they recently shared, and she kind of, sort of agrees to see him later. Her dad Malcolm Merlyn arrives, upset that she hasn’t started packing to leave town. Though Thea presses him for more, he simply repeats that their lives are in danger and they need to leave. But she’s not budging, and Roy sees the end of that exchange.

Captain Lance tells Laurel that her sister must be back in town, because there have been reports of the Canary. Actually dad, it’s … never mind. Ray stops by for a meeting with the police, but so does Brick. He orders his men to kidnap the city aldermen and kill everyone else, forcing Ray and Laurel to spring into action to avoid becoming dead. Brick does escape with the aldermen, though, as Ray notes that’s why he needs a “techno suit.”

Oliver tries to convince Tatsu to get Maseo not to return to the League, but she says he has no choice, while also offering this cheerful nugget: sometimes death is preferable to the agony of life.

In the aftermath of the attack, Felicity and Captain Lance have a confusing talk (for them), as she tells him Arrow is gone, and he insists Sara is back in town. Felicity does admit she’s been living under a rock as of late. Elsewhere, Laurel plays hardball with one of the thugs, getting him to spill the beans on Brick’s location.

How about we go for another intense conversation? This time it’s Roy finding Malcolm, warning that he won’t allow Thea to leave town with her dad. When Merlyn smugly insists Thea will never know how he used her to kill Sara, Roy counters that Thea always digs the truth up in the end, and Malcolm is risking losing her by lying.

In a slightly more pleasant situation, Felicity tends to Ray’s wounds, and he says he’s been going about the ATOM project all wrong. He started it intending to avenge his lost love, but now he feels he needs to do it to protect a person he cares about who is still alive. That would be Felicity, silly.

At the Arrow Lair, John Diggle is upset that Laurel is there, but Roy explains that she has info they need. Alright, how about she stays in the Lair and provides support? Nope, that’s not how this is going to work. Well, you tried, Diggle. He warns Arsenal to stay close to her.

As a team, Arsenal and Black Canary do okay, assaulting Brick’s convoy and looking like they are going to free the aldermen. Unfortunately, Brick intervenes personally, and even though Arsenal shoots him with an arrow, the crime boss simply pulls it out and shoots one of the aldermen, dumping his body out of the van. Because that’s how Vinnie Jones rolls. He later calls the mayor to arrange a meeting.

Thea isn’t crazy about seeing her dad again, but Malcolm is actually there to apologize. And he tries a dose of the truth, explaining a bit about Ra’s al Ghul and how he wants the Merlyn family dead. Since Thea is all he has left, he begs her to let him save her.

Now for more feels. Laurel watches a news report about the deceased alderman, and when Felicity stops by, she’s informed that the Canary will fly no more. I think you see where this might be going. Yep, Felicity gives her a variation of the speech Ray gave to her, pointing out that they need to protect the people they care about. Laurel: “I thought you quit?”

The meeting goes down with Brick, who taunts Ray for being rich and still helpless under the circumstances. Long story short, Brick wants all city services and police out of the Glades, giving them a day to do it, or the aldermen die. Captain Lance calls Felicity, who says the Arrow is definitely gone, but she knows where to find the Canary.

Maseo prepares to return to the League, even after Tatsu assures him she still loves him. Some League assassins show up, and while Maseo tries to lie to them, they find Tatsu. Some husband and wife ninja action follows as the couple quickly takes out the whole group.

Roy is feeling down about the deceased alderman too, especially since it was his decision that led to that guy’s death. Diggle joins him, and the two men drink to Oliver. Roy is just about to throw in the towel, saying Felicity was right, but she arrives and says she was actually wrong. They need to continue Oliver’s mission, because it now belongs to all of them. You can see Diggle crack the faintest bit of a smile.

The mayor is ready to give in to Brick’s demands, much to the disgust of Captain Lance. Laurel impersonates Sara on a phone call to her dad (thanks to some patented Felicity technology), learning that one of the kidnapped aldermen has a pacemaker. Can Felicity track it? Does this show have bows and arrows in it?

Apparently the plan needs one more thing, as Felicity asks a surprised Ray for his helicopter. The keys to the helicopter, actually, though he claims helicopters don’t have keys. She’s not flying anyway, Diggle is, though he complains that he hasn’t done so for five years.

You wanted a big action scene, you got one. Arsenal and Black Canary assault the warehouse where the aldermen are being held, managing to take out all of Brick’s men. They free the aldermen, but Brick pins down Canary with pistol fire. She manages to trick the bad guy with her voice modulator, and though she can’t hang with him in melee combat, she manages to escape — barely — by jumping out a window and onto the ladder thrown down from Ray’s helicopter.

Wherever Oliver is, Maseo hides the bodies and cooks up a story about a botched escape attempt by Ollie. He leaves but is immediately hit by a flashback to the Hong Kong days.

Lance gets a visit from the Canary, who learns that the mayor is still going to pull everyone out of the Glades, as Brick has threatened the families of all the city council members. The Captain asks his daughter if she wants to go to dinner, but she says she can’t, promising she’ll explain why some other time.

Thea has a question for her dad: why don’t they just stay and fight? The whole point of her training with Malcolm was to learn not to be afraid any more. Whoever Ra’s al Ghul is, he should be scared of them. Merlyn agrees that they’ll stay, and now it’s his turn to crack a bit of a smile.

Felicity returns both the helicopter and the new, improved chip for the ATOM suit to her boss. When questioned about her earlier vow not to help with Ray’s suicide mission, she says that with her help, he might not get killed.

Last but not least, Thea and the DJ have another moment, and she tells him that she’s not leaving town, despite rumors to the contrary. He goes to his DJ set-up and places a call. Oh boy, he’s an informant for the League of Assassins. And since Maseo takes the call, I guess he decided to return after all. Bummer.

Meanwhile, in Hong Kong: Ollie and Maseo track Tatsu to a Triad club. China White was expecting them, or at least Maseo. To Oliver’s surprise, he agrees to give her the Alpha in exchange for his wife.

The crime lord doesn’t trust Maseo though, insisting on testing the serum. When she learns it’s a fake, our heroes have to punch, blast and slash their way out. When they get home, Oliver asks Maseo about his dangerous bluff. Only it wasn’t a bluff; Maseo was really going to hand over the Alpha, but he figures Amanda Waller must have figured he’d do something like that and switched the Alpha for a fake. Maseo says he would do anything for his family, and Tatsu thanks Oliver for savng her life.

Favorite Moment: I enjoyed Roy’s explanation of why he’s better prepared to be a super hero: “I have training from Oliver and years on the streets. You have a law degree.” And a wig, though. Don’t sleep on the wig!

Final Thought: Brick is turning out to be a formidable if incredibly annoying foe. The preview clip for next week’s episode make it appear the Arrow might have to make his return to swing the final battle, but what kind of shape will he be in? And what’s Oliver going to say about Laurel taking up her sister’s mantle? Should be interesting, for sure.

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