It took 9 seasons for every main cast member to know Clark’s secret on Smallville with Lois Lane being the last to know. On Arrow, it merely takes 2 and half season for every main cast member to know with Thea being the last to know Oliver’s secret. Before we get to how Thea, let’s start off with a pretty strong opening. [UPDATE: Cody in the comments, pointed out that Captain Lance doesn’t know and he’s right. My bad. Maybe he will find out next season or by the end of this season]

It Black Canary versus Canary. And Black Canary is losing. We see Canary calling Laurel selfish, a liar and an addict and that she isn’t a hero. Canary delivers a knock down blow and we see a bloody Laurel begging for her to stop.

We then go back 48 hours and Arrow and Arsenal are chasing a whole bunch of bad guys across roof tops and down fire escapes.

One bad guy is stopped by Laurel/Black Canary. Arrow is not happy to see Black Canary on the scene. Black Canary defends herself and says that she has done a pretty job at protection the city while he was away but Arrow tells her she is not a hero and she is selfish for not thinking about her father and what would happen to him if something were to happen to her.

Once Oliver and Roy has returned to the Arrow Cave, Oliver is mad at Diggle for allowing Laurel to join his crusade. Diggle says that Laurel earned her spot on Team Arrow but before the discussion can get any further Felicity interrupts to say that Oliver’s new BFF, Malcolm Merlyn has dropped by for a talk. Merlyn tells Oliver that he needs to tell Thea his secret as the three of them together can better confront Ra’s Al Ghul.

Speaking of Thea, it seems that Chase is trying to get into her pants but she turns him down saying that if they were to kiss again, he would have to earn it. As Chase leaves, Oliver takes Thea to the basement of Verdant telling her he lied that it was flooded and shows her the Arrow Cave. Oliver explains why he lied to her and when Thea realizes her brother is the Arrow, instead of being angry at him and not forgiving him as Diggle warned, she actually envelops him in a hug and thanks him for saving her and the city.

The next day in front of the Starling City Courthouse, Werner Zytle also known as the new Count Vertigo is being lead away in chains and in front of a group of reporters demands that his accuser the Arrow come out to say what he is being accused of. Laurel tries to stop Zytle media circus when his police escort starts seeing the reports as demons and pulls out his gun and starts shooting people. Laurel knocks him out but Zytle has escaped.

I was on location that day and saw them rehearse the scene. Here is video of it:

Laurel goes to the Arrow Cave to let Team Arrow know how Zytle managed to escape. It looks like a reported drugged the guard with Vertigo and when Felicity manages to identify the reporter, Laurel wants to go but Oliver tells her that she isn’t coming and that her being Sara helps ease the pain of her death and it has become a drug to her and calls her an addict.

So Arrow and Arsenal goes to the reporter’s work address and he has a suicide vest on and he is supposed to blow it up to kill the Arrow or his wife is dead. Despite Arrow trying to get him to now pull the detonator, he does but Arrow and Arsenal make it out as the office explodes. Outside in a van, Zytle sees the explosion and thinks he has succeeded.

When Oliver returns home, he tells Thea the truth that he was involved in an explosion. The two sit down and Thea says that Oliver always had lame excuses and just thought he was a flake but really was out there every night saving people. Oliver says it is his job to protect the city and his family. Oliver tells Thea that their mother knew that he was the Arrow and told him so the night she died. Thea wants to know why her brother decided to tell her now. This is when Malcolm comes in and says that she needed to know because they are all in danger from Ra’s Al Ghul and they all need to work together. Thea is not too happy about this and when alone with Oliver, says that she doesn’t trust Malcolm, especially since he tried to put a wedge between them.

Let’s take a brief break and talk about the Hong Kong Flashback.

Maseo and Oliver part ways as Maseo fears for his and his family’s life since China White knows where he lives. Maseo encourage Oliver to call his family to say he is alive and to issue a press release as this will make it more difficult for Waller to kill him.

When Oliver calls home, he leaves a message for his mom to say he is alive and in Hong Kong and to issue press release but his call gets cut off when a gang of men come across him and knock him out. We see Oliver being tortured by Waller and his men and when she threatens to kill Thea, Oliver sells out Maseo’s location. And Maseo is brought in by Waller’s men and Oliver confesses for ratting him out. But Maseo says he lied to Oliver about his plans just in case he got captured and he deliberately got caught. The two men are knocked out and when they awaken, Waller says that it is a good thing Oliver is still alive as he has another use for her next mission, which happens to be in Starling City.

Now back to the present day. Laurel has asked her father for some shipping manifests and Lance comments to her how Sin said that the other night, it wasn’t Sara fighting. Lance asks if Laurel has heard from her sister but she says she hasn’t. Lance lets her go back to work but we see that he clearly knows something.

Team Arrow is alerted to a tracking device coming online. Oliver has tracked Laurel, who has gone to the shipping yards because Zytle is there to help rebuild his Vertigo empire.

Black Canary comes across Zytle and his men and takes some of them down. When Arrow and Arsenal come on the scene to help, Zytle gets away with Black Canary on his heels. But Zytle drugs her with Vertigo and Black Canary starts seeing her sister the Canary. We see the same fight at the top of hour and we get more of Laurel hallucinating Sara belittling her for trying to be her. But we know that Laurel is fighting Zytle who manages to knock her down and escapes in a van full of Vertigo. Arrow and Arsenal want to give chance but Laurel is begging for help.

Oliver brings Laurel back to the Arrow Cave to get treated for the Vertigo. Laurel starts to see Felicity as Sara with her asking over and over again why she had to die.

When Thea interrupts to speak to Oliver, he snaps and asks her to leave. Roy takes offence and says Oliver can’t order Thea to leave now that she knows his secret. Thea says it’s fine and will talk to Oliver later.

Oliver then reams into Roy for arguing with him but Felicity and Diggle stand by Roy and says things changed since they all thought he died and how they had to learn to function as a team without him. Oliver goes up to Verdant to lick his wounds and Diggle explains the new dynamic of Team Arrow and he has to open up and be accepting of this new Team Arrow, which includes Laurel.

Back at the Arrow Cave, Laurel is recovering and tells Felicity that she saw Sara while under the influence of Vertigo and realizes that she doesn’t have what it takes to be Sara. Felicity agrees but before Laurel can take offence, she explains. Felicity says that Sara wore a mask to hide her demons and that there was a darkness in her. Felicity says that Laurel has a light in her and that she shouldn’t try and be Sara but be her own hero. Laurel gives her a hug and I yell that Felicity is awesome.

When Thea got brushed off by her brother, she runs into Chase outside of Verdant, gives him a kiss and says she needs something simple in her complicated life and takes him by the hand and drags him away. Roy goes out to see if Thea is okay but see her take off with Chase.

Back at Thea’s, Chase and Thea have hooked up and Chase offers to pour them a drink. Right away my spidey senses suspect something. When Chase pours them a glass of red wine, Thea is about to put it to her lips when she sniffs the glass and right away we see she notices something. Thea tells a story that her father told her about how people would use the smell of red wine to mask the smell of cyanide. Thea pulls a knife and asks who Chase is, who says he is an agent of Ra’s Al Ghul and the two start to fight. Chase manages to grab the knife and it really looks like he is going to slit Thea’s throat but Arsenal comes on the scene to save her. So Arsenal and Chase start to fight but the Dark Archer comes into the fight too. Before Chase and Malcolm fight, Chase down a vial of cyanide and dies.

While all that is going on, Felicity is alerted that Zytle opened on of the barrels of chemicals and he is at a lab and taken people hostage. Oliver wonders where Roy is at but he isn’t answering his phone. Oliver looks at Laurel and she thinks that she won’t let him come but au contraire Oliver gets her to suit up.

So Arrow and Black Canary arrive at the lab and confronts Zytle but he smashes a vial on the floor and fire starts to engulf the lab. Arrow goes to save the hostages while Black Canary goes after Zytle. Zytle drugs her again and Sara appears to her again yelling at her for wanting to be her. Sara then changes to Lance who also yells at her for not telling about Sara being dead and not giving him a chance to mourn. We get Sara and Lance alternating in Laurel’s hallucination but she manages to snap out of it and takes down Zytle. When Arrow comes on the scene, Laurel sees Sara as Sara and not in her Canary costume looking on proudly at Laurel. It really was great seeing Caity Lotz again as Sara/Canary, I missed her and hope that it isn’t the last time we see her.

At the precinct, Laurel knows what she has to do and she attempts to tell her father about Sara. But Lance says he already knows that Sara is off who knows where and that it is Laurel that has taken on the mantle of the Canary and he seems okay with it. However, Laurel says that isn’t the case and the two mourn together the loss of Sara.

Meanwhile, Oliver is called home to deal with the Chase aftermath and finds Roy there with Thea. Malcolm explains that Chase was probably just the beginning and if they have any chance of defeating Ra’s then Oliver and Thea need to face their greatest fears as that is what Ra’s preys on.

So Oliver tells Team Arrow that he is leaving again just for a few days but knows that Starling City is in safe hands, and this includes Laurel.

So we see that Malcolm has left Oliver and Thea on Lian Yu.

Next week, we get the return of Deathstroke!