It is the penultimate episode of season 3 of Arrow and we got a lot of set-up for it that includes a pretty kick ass fight sequence and a new member joining Team Arrow.

Hong Kong Flashback

I will keep this section short. It basically is about Maseo’s mission to find a cure for Akio who is getting worse after being exposed to the Alpha-Omega virus. Maseo and Oliver go to Shrieve whom they believe has a cure. They confront the general who points to a safe that contains the cure but tells the men that the administration of it can be complex. So Maseo and Oliver drag him to the pharmacy where Tatsu and Akio are. However, they are too late as Akio is dead and the cure was just Shrieve’s insulin. Shrieve just wanted to be brought where Tatsu was so he can capture all of them.

Reunited and it feels so good

Thea leaves Starling City as she can’t be in town after Oliver’s sacrifice. Despite Malcolm’s pleas to stay, Thea departs to see Roy.

I am not quite sure which town Roy, now known as Jason, ends up in but he is working at the local body shop. Thea and Roy end up back at his place and he lets her know that he will probably moving on again as people may start to realize he is Roy Harper aka the Arrow and also supposed to be dead. Before the two sleep together, Thea brought Roy his Arsenal gear. Post coital, Roy gives some encouraging words to Thea and by the next morning, Roy is gone. Thea returns to the body shop and learns that Jason quit but left her a note. The note basically says that Thea always runs and running with him is no life and she should return to Starling City. Roy then gives her the Arsenal outfit saying she looks better in red anyways. Sounds like Speedy will be joining Team Arrow.

The New New Team Arrow

With Oliver on Nanda Parbat, Black Canary and Diggle have taken on protecting Starling City. We see the Black Canary use her cry to subdue some drug dealers but Diggle gets out of hand when he aggressively punches one of the criminals. Back at Diggle’s place, Felicity admonishes him for losing control and Diggle says that he won’t let that happen again. Diggle is still pissed at Oliver for kidnapping his wife, Felicity is in denial that Oliver really is no more while Laurel just seems to have accepted all of this.

Meanwhile, back on Nanda Parbat, we learn that Maseo was the one that brought Ra’s the Alpha-Omega weapon as entry into the League. Also, Ra’s is very insistent that Nyssa and Al-Sah-Him be married while Nyssa pretty much says Ra’s will have to drag her down the aisle. Ra’s says that Nyssa will have no choice and that she will bear Al-Sah-Him’s children.

Al-Sah-Him asks for leave to go for a walk to clear his head. This was a ruse so he can meet Malcolm. Apparently, it was planned along between the frenemies for Oliver to join the League to dismantle it from within. Oliver tells Malcolm of his upcoming marriage and Ra’s plan to level Starling City and he needs to go to Team Arrow to let them know and knows someone who they will listen to.

Maseo checks up on Oliver as he was gone for a while. Malcolm is gone at this point and the two former friends have a chat. Al-Sah-Him tells Maseo that he can release him from the League once he is Ra’s. Maseo declines the offer and says that the League isn’t his prison.

Elsewhere in League HQ, Ra’s gifts Nyssa with a pretty gaudy necklace that belonged to her mother and once again Nyssa tells her father she has no desire to marry Oliver. Ra’s tells Nyssa again that she has no choice. We then see Nyssa pull out a knife, the one she stole earlier at dinner, ready to be used.

Malcolm returns to Team Arrow to tell them that Oliver joining the League was all a ruse but now he needs their help in stopping the bio weapon. To no one’s surprise, they don’t believe a word that Malcolm says so he brings out Tatsu who shares first hand knowledge of the affects of the bio weapon. Since Tatsu is someone Team Arrow has never met, they too are reluctant to believe her but after returning to the new Arrow Cave it seems that they do believe her. Tatsu talks to Felicity and shares how Oliver talked about her while he was recovering and how he loved her. This convinces Felicity to join the mission.

Team Arrow arrive at Nanda Parbat and a pretty epic fight begins between them and the League of Assassins while Felicity is tasked to hack into the plane carrying the bio weapon to bring it down. Thanks to Nyssa’s training, Laurel more than holds her own while Diggle takes down the bad guys with a machine gun. Unfortunately for Felicity an arrow disables her tablet and couldn’t hack into the plane and the plane takes. Just as a League member is about to shoot a bow and arrow into her, Felicity tosses her tablet at him and thinks she takes him out but it really was Malcolm to which she says that makes more sense. But the Atom arrives and takes down the plane. I love how Ray is always there for Felicity. Ray even said earlier in the episode that he will be there for her – non-negotiable. I am so glad that the Flarrow spin-off is happening as I adore Brandon Routh as Ray.

Elsewhere on the battlefield, Tatsu in her Katana gear battles Maseo but not before trying to convince her husband to come back to her so they can leave together. Maseo tells his wife the only way they are leaving is if one of them is dead. The two battle and just as Maseo is about to kill Tatsu, he tells her to say hello to Akio for him, she is the one to kill Maseo with her katana sword and says he can tell their son himself. Maseo dies in his wife’s arms and thanks her for releasing him from his prison.

Ra’s and Al-Sah-Him puts an end to the fight and says that the alpha-omega was never on the plane and that he has it and his plan as yet to reach its fruition.

Team Arrow is taken prisoner while Al-Sah-Him speaks to Diggle alone. Oliver then talks to Diggle as if he was aware of the plan. Diggle is aware but has not forgiven Oliver for kidnapping his wife. Oliver defends his actions but Diggle tells his former best friend that his actions as broken his trust.

Diggle is brought back to the jail cell while Tatsu is separated from them as she has been vaccinated against the alpha-omega. Ra’s smashes the vial on the jail floor and Al-Sah-Him shuts the door while Felicity and Laurel yell at Oliver for betraying them and trusting them.

The scene of Team Arrow slowly succumbing to the alpha-omega is intercut with Al-Sah-Him and Nyssa’s wedding. Al-Sah-Him stops Nyssa’s knife attack and the two are wed just as Team Arrow seemed to have died.

But we know they don’t as previews show the Flash coming to their aid (mostly likely at the request of Oliver at the end of “Rogue Air”). So looking forward to next week’s season finale and how it will set up season 4.