It has been three days since Oliver went off to face Ra’s Al Ghul and those left behind are trying to make sure Starling City is safe in his absence. And this is where we open on the first new Arrow of 2015.

The cops are on the trail of two thugs, Germaine Fisher and Jose Anton, that shot a cop. Arsenal, on Oliver’s motorcycle is also giving chase while Diggle in the Arrow suit is trying to keep them at bay. Arsenal manages to capture one of them.

Back at the Arrow Cave, Felicity is in denial at what Oliver’s absence could mean while Roy and Diggle are trying to get her to fear the worst. Even later when Diggle tries to talk to Felicity about the real possibility that Oliver could be dead, she refuses to believe that.

In court, Laurel manages to put Fisher away thanks some evidence that linked him to the cop shooting.

When Team Arrow learn about Germaine Fisher and his associate Jose Anton, they link him to a Danny Bricker aka Brick. Roy has heard of him and goes to canvas the Glades to see what he can learn.

Speaking of Anton, Brick isn’t pleased with him going rogue with Fisher so he beats him to a bloody pulp and his eventually burned alive. Fisher, in the meantime, has stayed loyal and didn’t flip on Brick, a fact that his lawyer tells Brick.

Thanks to that conversation that Laurel overhead, Felicity manages to trace the call the to Brick to a warehouse in the Glades. When Arsenal and Diggle arrive, it is empty except for the charred remains of Anton and the burner phone that Brick used. The two also find partially burned blue prints and a paper filled with numbers.

Roy and Diggle give the evidence to Felicity who starts to look into what it could mean. Laurel arrives at the Arrow Cave to confirm that it was Anton’s body. When Laurel inquires about Oliver, Diggle and Roy tell her he went off to confront Ra’s Al Ghul and is possibly dead. Like Felicity, Laurel refuses to believe it and has faith that Oliver is alive and will return.

Meanwhile, Thea and Malcolm are doing more sword training when Thea stops to answer a text. Thea thought it might be Oliver and tells her father that she is worried about him as he hasn’t been home nor is he answering any of her calls or texts. Malcolm tells Thea that he will ask his old associates as to where Oliver could be.

Malcolm breaks into the Arrow Cave and awaits Team Arrow to come. Malcolm inquires about Oliver where Felicity states her believe that Oliver is alive. Malcolm tells the team that if he confronted Ra’s it is highly unlikely that Oliver is alive and his prisoner as Ra’s doesn’t take prisoners. We later see Malcolm in his Dark Archer get up go to the spot of the duel and finds the sword that fell Oliver.

Malcolm returns the Arrow Cave and presents Team Arrow with the sword and says that Oliver is dead and he fell over a ravine where his body was unrecoverable (more on that later). Felicity blames Malcolm for causing Oliver’s death. While Malcolm says he does play a part and mentions that his death warrant from the League might have possibly been wiped out (but I might not have gotten that right as we see Malcolm tell Thea that they are in danger and have to leave Starling City).

Later on Felicity does test the sword and confirms that Oliver’s blood is on it.

Roy is drinking his grief away when Thea approaches him to uses his connection to the Arrow to find Oliver. Roy agrees.

Roy tells Diggle what Thea asked him to do and wonders how they can do what they do without Oliver to guide them. As Diggle is investigating the numbers, he realizes that are all connected to case files to people Team Arrow put away and they are being housed in the a Starling City police storage facility (which was the purpose of the blueprints).

Let me get to the stuff with Ray. Ray is working on his ATOM suit. The gauntlet isn’t working perfectly so Ray asks Felicity to work on the chip to make it work. Felicity questions his desire to fight crime as she worries that he might get killed. After Felicity hears about Oliver’s death, a grief stricken Felicity isn’t quite in the mood to deal with Ray’s chip. Upset, Felicity tells Ray that he should stop what he is doing as it won’t bring back Anna, his fiancee and it wouldn’t be what she wanted him to do. Ray tells Felicity not to presume what Anna wanted or not.

Felicity leaves and takes the call from Diggle about what he discovered. So Team Arrow go and try and stop Brick and his gang from taking the evidence. It doesn’t really go as plan despite Arsenal’s and Diggle’s best efforts as well as the police. Diggle is confronted by Brick, who beats him up pretty well while Arsenal and the police can’t deal too well with all the bullets flying. Brick and his men escape with the van full of evidence despite the fact that Arsenal and Diggle almost had them but a bay door closed just before they could.

When Roy and Diggle return to the Arrow Cave they bemoan that they almost had Brick when Diggle realizes that Felicity closed the bay door on them. Roy and Diggle want to know why and Felicity tells them that she didn’t want to see more people she cared about getting killed so she made the only call that had to be made. Roy and Diggle aren’t happy with her decision but Felicity doesn’t care as she quits Team Arrow as it is nothing without Oliver.

Felicity returns to Palmer Technologies and apologies to Ray. Felicity tells him that she has been upset lately because she recently lost a friend and because of that she refuses to help another friend (i.e. Ray) commit suicide so she returns the chip.

Because of the evidence that Brick stole, Laurel has to tell Diggle the bad news that all the criminals they put away are now free. Diggle shares with Laurel how Oliver feared losing Diggle and he feels that he let Oliver down as he didn’t do his job as a bodyguard. Laurel gives him a comforting hug before he leaves. Laurel then spies Sara’s Canary gear and has a thought.

All the people that Brick help free are now part of his gang and plan to take over the Glades. Brick has kept the evidence to use against any of the men should they betray him. As two of the men are outside Brick’s home base, they talk about Brick’s plan when the Black Canary comes upon them using her sonic cry to take them down and she uses her staff to knock one of them.

Flashback

The Hong Kong flashback was all about Waller getting Matseo and Oliver to retrieve the Alpha serum that works in conjunction with the Omega serum that China White stole. The only thing Matseo cares about is getting Tatsu back but Waller doesn’t seem as concerned.

When Matseo and Oliver arrive at the lab that houses Alpha the two break in and are successful in getting it and manage to escape despite being confronted by the Chinese Triad. Oliver even let one of China White’s men go, a fact that Waller doesn’t like at all as they have no one to “question”. Matseo tells Oliver that he didn’t hesitate in killing the thug but deliberately let him go. Oliver shares with Matseo that he planted the GPS tracker that was on the Alpha on the thug that will lead them to Tatsu. Matseo tells Oliver that he will be forever in his debt.

And that bit is important as throughout the episode, we see Oliver on the ledge bleeding out. A man comes upon him and we see said man drag him on a makeshift stretcher through the snow to someone’s home. This person is of course Matseo. Inside, we see Oliver all bandaged up and wakes up. Who is his saviour? Why it is Tatsu.

To no one’s surprise Oliver is alive. But how long will he stay away from Starling City? And what happened to Tatsu and Matseo’s marriage, it seemed like they were no longer together. And I have to say a smile spread across my face when Laurel finally suited up as the Black Canary. It was her destiny to do since the show started.

Until next week, we get to see the Black Canary in action some more.