Arrow “Missing” was written by the team of Speed Weed and Oscar Balderrama and was directed by Mairzee Almas, whose other credits include
The 100,
iZombie, and
Legends of Tomorrow. The episode certainly sets us up for a major confrontation in the finale, pulling in a number of fan favorite villains, including two of my favorites: John Barrowman as Malcolm Merlyn and Manu Bennett as Slade Wilson.
As the episode begins, it almost feels like this should be the happy end of the season. Green Arrow (Stephen Amell) has been given credit for taking down serial killer Chase (Josh Segarra) and Oliver’s approval rating is at an all time high of 70% - and it’s Oliver’s birthday to boot! But of course, Chase isn’t done with him yet.
Oliver has a “date” with Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) which turns out to be a surprise party. I have to admit that I really enjoyed him body-slamming Curtis (Echo Kellum) when he thought he was an intruder! It’s a pretty sparse party – why did Felicity have all those little cocktail tables? The cake is undeniably adorable – and a “sweet” nod to upcoming season 6!
We do learn that Diggle (David Ramsey) and Lyla are in a good place even though she is visiting her sister with JJ. The team is all planning a vacation – which seems a little odd considering all the criminals let out on the technicality of Chase being arrested are still at large…
Quentin (Paul Blackthorne) arrives late to the party because he went to check on Rene (Rick Gonzalez) who wasn’t there. Dinah (Juliana Harkavy) also doesn’t show up for the party and Curtis goes to her apartment to drop off a scream modulator that he’s made for her. He finds her place trashed and is on the phone with Felicity when he’s also knocked out and kidnapped.
Oliver and Diggle find one of Talia al Ghul’s (Lexa Doig) arrows and know that Chase is in on it. Oliver confronts Chase who freely admits it. He wants out or Oliver’s friends will start dying.
Oliver goes to the lair and freaks out when he doesn’t see Felicity immediately, and she’s already freaking out and almost shoots him with a giant gun! It’s hilarious! She tells him that she’s actually looking forward to an Argus safehouse, but Oliver tells her he wants to keep her in the lair to help – he’s worried about William (Jack Moore) – as he should be. Eventually, Oliver realizes that he needs to send Felicity and Diggle away because Chase will expect him to pull them closer – and he has to do what Chase doesn’t expect. Felicity and Diggle drive away – but of course, they are taken captive by the League of Assassins.
Naturally, they discover that Black Siren (Katie Cassidy) has escaped from her cell at Argus. She and Evelyn (Madison McLaughlin) take Quentin and Thea (Willa Holland) prisoner from their Argus safehouse. Is Argus an epic fail or what? Quentin has a hard time accepting that Black Siren is not his Laurel.
I did enjoy Thea trying to explain parallel Earths to Quentin. There’s a nice scene between Quentin and Black Siren. She tells him that she got her freedom from Chase, but in exchange for her help, she also got Chase’s promise that Quentin wouldn’t be hurt. They are clearly setting up the eventual rehabilitation of Black Siren and Cassidy’s return to the show next season. I hope they can do a decent job explaining Black Siren’s sudden attachment to Quentin – who she just met.
Oliver is joined in the lair by Malcolm, whose only concern is getting his daughter back. I loved Malcolm telling Oliver that “human connections are what keep us human! It’s sad that a sociopath has to point that out to you. You have to accept that you’ll always have people in your life.”
Oliver is determined not to let Chase manipulate him and refuses to give in to his demands until he gets a phone call from William begging for help. Malcolm shows up with Oliver’s alternative disguise and together they prevent Chase from being taken away in the helicopter. Oliver wants to know why Chase would involve William – an innocent. Chase replies that his wife was an innocent – forgetting that her death was his doing.
Oliver realizes that Chase is heading to Lian Yu and gathers more reinforcements. Felicity, Diggle, Thea, Quentin, and Curtis are all chained together at Chase’s feet, but there’s still no sign of Dinah or Rene. Malcolm is not happy to see Nyssa al Ghul (Katrina Law), but Oliver tells him to check his ego at the door – there’s no love lost between sisters Nyssa and Talia! And of course the final scene shows Oliver recruiting Slade!
The flashbacks also bring us back to the Island and Kovar’s (Dolph Lundgren) torture of Oliver. He resorts to a drug that will theoretically drive Oliver mad as it shows him all his failures. Kovar leaves him with a gun with one bullet so that Oliver can kill himself to make it stop. We get a nicely unexpected appearance by Byron Mann as Yao Fei – though he’s pretty hard on Oliver. He tells Oliver that Oliver squandered Yao Fei’s sacrifice, but Oliver can make it up by killing himself before more people have to die for him. But Oliver is also visited by Laurel – Katie Cassidy doing double duty! Laurel begs Oliver not to kill himself because that will mean his father and Sara died for nothing. Oliver uses the bullet to shoot the lock on his cell to escape.
This felt a lot like a filler episode, but the number of terrific guest appearances helped to make up for it. The episode really sets us up for some epic fights to come – and I’m super excited for that! But, will everyone make it out alive? The show seems particularly top-heavy with recurring/regular characters just now. I’m sure that Rene and Dinah were absent to help cut down on the overhead, but having that many characters to juggle doesn’t make for the best storytelling. What did you think of the episode? What are you hoping to see in the finale? Do you think there will be casualties? I’m betting Felicity and Oliver end the season in a really good place… Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
