Arrow Season 3, Episode 16 Recap: The Offer

It’s been a few weeks since the last new episode of Arrow, but that’s just given us more time to consider the doozy of an offer that Oliver Queen received from Ra’s al Ghul. Surely, some part of Oliver believes he can turn the League of Assassins into a force for good.

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Of course, he’s not likely to be able to take a few weeks off from his job protecting Starling City to mull it over. A new villain is coming to town tonight, one that Flash fans might recognize. Plus there are the usual other subplots swirling around, so let’s see why this episode is truly called “The Offer.”

On-the-Mark Recap: Almost referencing the fact that the show has been off the air in real life, this episode begins with Ra’s al Ghul making his surprising declaration. That is, that he wants Oliver to take his place. After tour and a little wining and dining, Ra’s gets down to business. He says he knows Oliver is having trouble with his double life as the Arrow, and that if he continues on his current path, he will eventually be hunted and killed by the very people he is trying to protect.

In the Arrow Lair, Thea Queen is still trying to convince Nyssa al Ghul to kill her. Yes, really. Nyssa listens to her story and decides there would be no justice in killing her, and that the blood debt will end with Malcolm Merlyn’s death. Suddenly, Laurel Lance and Roy Harper enter the room, and they immediately attack Nyssa. That doesn’t go well, but Roy is able to shoot her with a tranq dart. Asked about how Nyssa escaped, Thea says, “League training, probably.”

The Ra’s al Ghul tour continues as he shows and explains the Lazarus Pit. He’s taken aback that Ollie accepts that the waters of the pit extend his life, to which Queen simply replies that he’s seen things. Like the Flash, maybe? Ra’s tries to sell Oliver on the idea that heading up the League of Assassins would allow him to take his crusade worldwide, and he could even have his troops renounce killing if he so desired. Tempting. As a show of good faith, Ra’s lets him leave with John Diggle and a slightly worse for wear Malcolm Merlyn.

Back at his apartment, Ollie reunites with Thea. She’s happy her brother is still alive but isn’t so thrilled that her dad is. Oliver simply says that she doesn’t have to forgive Malcolm, just let him heal.

Diggle has some questions about what went down in Nanda Parbat, but he gets no answers from Ollie, who goes downstairs and frees Nyssa. Everyone is officially confused, including Roy, Laurel and Felicity Smoak. Ollie wants them to get back to protecting the city. Conveniently, there’s a robbery in progress.

The crooks pulling it off have no qualms about shooting some guards, and their leader has his mouth sewn shut. Arsenal ends up needing to get bailed out by Black Canary, who in turn needs saving by Arrow. The bad guys get away with what looks like a bunch of diamonds.

That leads Arrow to follow up with Captain Lance, but he’s angry with our hero. Lance knows he was lied to about Sara’s death, and he bemoans the fact that he tossed away his ideals about upholding the law once he threw in with a vigilante who keeps secrets. He’s done with that.

Felicity and Ray Palmer are mixing business and pleasure when Oliver arrives. He’s friendly with Ray, but you can tell he’s bothered. Felicity hears about the crew leader with his mouth sewn shut and provides a name: Michael Amar, also known as Murmur. She also asks about Ollie, but he insists he’s fine.

Thea is not fine, and she gets a visit from Laurel. When Thea mentions that Laurel is lucky to have a normal dad who really loves her, Laurel replies that they aren’t on the best of terms right now. With Malcolm stirring, Laurel takes off. An awesome father-daughter discussion follows, with Malcolm knowing she’s holding a knife. He makes his old plea that everything he’s done, he did out of love, but her response is that if that was true, he would have just stayed out of her life.

Returning to Nanda Parbat, Nyssa demands answers from her father, and is stunned that he would choose an outsider over her as his heir. Is it because of her love for Sara? Seems like it is, and when she says she won’t stand by and watch as he hands the keys to the kingdom to Oliver, he says she doesn’t have to. Wait, did she just get kicked out of the League?

Team Arrow discusses how Amar sewed his lips shut out of being improperly coerced into confessing for a crime he didn’t commit. Murmur’s gang was, in fact, after industrial diamonds, and with Felicity “unavailable,” they decide to use Roy’s old contacts from his street days to figure out what’s going on. Once he leaves, Oliver levels with Diggle about Ra’s al Ghul’s offer, much to John’s disbelief. As only Ollie can do, he asks what they’ve really accomplished. If he can’t make a difference as the Arrow, maybe he should become Ra’s al Ghul. Again, only he would make that leap of logic.

At the Queen family loft, Thea drinks some wine and tries to remember what she was like before their mother died. She says she didn’t kill Malcolm because of what Mom would have thought, though she also says she’s like her dad in that both of them have something broken inside. Malcolm is up and around a bit again, and once Oliver tells him what Ra’s has offered, Merlyn says he’s deluding himself if he thinks he has the choice to refuse. Also, there was a prophecy that this would happen, because of course there was.

Word travels fast in Team Arrow, because Felicity already knows about Oliver getting picked to lead the League. She can’t believe that he’d consider it, and points out that he’s already on the right path. Brooding mode alert! Ollie asks again what he’s accomplished, noting that his mom, Tommy and Sara are dead and that crime isn’t down.

(Sidebar: wasn’t the status quo at the start of this season that crime was down?)

He adds that he doesn’t know why he’s doing this any more, but Felicity simply says that it was his choice that they aren’t together, and that when everyone on the team thought Oliver was dead, they all figured out why they wanted to keep going. Now it’s his turn. Roy and Diggle return with info. The diamonds can be used for diamond-tipped bullets, and Murmur is probably going to have his men use them to take revenge on the cops.

Speaking of the police, Lance ignores Laurel’s warning cell call, and he rebuffs Laurel’s peace offering of food. He doesn’t think he can ever forgive his daughter for lying to him. They’ll have to table that discussion, as Murmur’s gang attacks, shooting a couple of officers while storming the station. Murmur gets his hands on Lance, but Arrow saves him while Nyssa does the same for Laurel. Together with Arsenal, they take out the whole gang, and Arrow takes down Murmur in the alley. Lance pops out and asks Arrow if he’s waiting for a thank you, but the hero says that isn’t why he does this before zipping off into the night.

To her delight, Felicity gets a “thank you” and a “you were right” from Oliver at the Arrow Cave. He explains that all he could think about at the station was that the families of the cops were counting on them to get their loved ones home safely. Felicity is happy, and says she always will be as long as he’s in her life in some way. Ah, but there’s a call from Ray she has to take.

Laurel gets an unexpected visit from Nyssa, who wants to know if they can talk about dad trouble. As they head to dinner, Nyssa suggests she can continue Laurel’s training since she has nowhere else to go.

Oliver tries to tell Maseo that he is turning down the offer from Ra’s, but his old friend warns that if he continues his path of “resistance,” there will be consequences. Elsewhere, a frantic Thea shows up at Roy’s door, asking if she can stay with him. He agrees, and kissy time commences.

Last but not least, the remnants of Murmur’s gang laughs about how they still have a supply of diamond-tipped bullets. Three of them get killed by the Arrow … except that’s not Ollie, but Ra’s al Ghul under the hood. He tells the one guy he didn’t kill to go tell everyone what he’s seen. Apparently the many tools of the League of Assassins include destroying reputations.

Meanwhile, in Hong Kong: Oliver and Akio are in a crowded market in Hong Kong. Panic sets in when Akio momentarily disappears (because he thought he saw his parents), and the kid suggest they head for the botanical gardens, as it what supposed to be the meeting place if his family was ever separated.

Unfortunately, there are bad guys there, and Oliver tells Akio to run. As they do, he bumps into … Shado? DOESN’T ANYONE ON THIS SHOW STAY DEAD?

Favorite Moment: When told about Murmur’s lips, Felicity quips, “If only I had known I had that option.” Yeah, but then we would have missed out on lines like that.

Final Thought: Props to the writers for not making Oliver think about taking over for Ra’s for more than one episode, because that would have gotten old. Now we’ve got our conflict for the remainder of the season, I would think. There are a lot of other interesting pieces moving around the board as well, and plenty of different character pairings that could make for compelling drama. So while this wasn’t a showstopper like this week’s episode of The Flash, it wasn’t bad.

Next: Previously, on Arrow: our recap of Nanda Parbat

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