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‘Arrow’ Recap ‘What We Leave Behind’

I always have a love/hate relationship with my favorite shows and the mid-season finales. I love them for the fact that they are packed with action and have a phenomenal story-line. I HATE the fact that I have to wait over a month before I get to indulge in my favorite TV shows.

The episode opened with Artemis meeting with Prometheus; giving him the  names and addresses of Oliver’s team members. Artemis states to Prometheus that she wants to be there when he kills Oliver, but Prometheus tells Artemis that she has not been listening to him. He doesn’t want to kill Oliver, he just wants to make him wish that he were dead.

'Arrow' Recap 'What We Leave Behind'
Image: The CW

At City Hall, Thea throws a gigantic Christmas party for Oliver and the rest of the city’s finest and their leadership. Susan Williams showed up as Oliver’s date, which got extremely awkward when Felicity showed up with Detective Malone as her date. Felicity introduced Billy to Curtis, calling him her ‘former’ coworker. This causes Paul to grow suspicious of Curtis’ late night ‘activities’.

While Oliver and Felicity enjoy a party at City Hall, Rory and Rene hang out with Diggle and John Jr. at the Arrow Cave for their own holiday party. Evelyn walked in with presents to spread the ‘holiday cheer’. Renee and Diggle have a brief conversation about watching kids grow up, and Renee hints at having a kid. Before Diggle can ask Renee any further questions, Evelyn interrupted the pair.

After Oliver gives a speech at the party,  Curtis and Paul decide to leave. Paul stated how suspicious he was of Curtis’ ‘late night work hours’, when he was clearly caught in a lie. As Curtis attempts to tell Paul the truth, Prometheus shows up and attacks Curtis with a throwing star. Both Curtis and Paul attempt to fight off Prometheus, but it ends with Prometheus rendering Curtis unconscious.

Curtis wakes up in the hospital with Paul by his side. Paul demands to know where Curtis learned to fight. Felicity and Oliver enter the room before Curtis had a chance to answer Paul’s question. While Felicity took Paul outside to make a statement to Billy, Curtis tells Oliver that Prometheus must know that he’s Mr. Terrific, which means that Prometheus knows that Oliver is the Green Arrow.

Afterwards, Oliver discusses that a drug that was found in Curtis’ system was extremely familiar to him. It was a drug tied to a pharmaceutical company that Oliver had come across five years ago. The company was owned by a Justin Claybourne and he was, as you may have guess, on Oliver’s ‘list’.

The Team tracks down a lead on Justin Claybourne (thanks to Felicity), which causes them to wind up in one of his old warehouses. While the team splits up, Prometheus leads Oliver into an abandoned officer and confronts him.They engage in a brief match of hand to hand combat; which results in Prometheus getting the upper hand.

'Arrow' Recap 'What We Leave Behind'
Image: The CW

Wild Dog arrives just in time, and shoots Prometheus’s sword out of his hand. Just when you think that Wild Dog and Oliver are going to take down Prometheus, Artemis shoots an Arrow at Wild Dog’s hands; causing him to drop his guns. Oliver, completely shocked, asked Evelyn ‘Why’. She states that the city needs to be saved… from Oliver himself. She fired a flash arrow at the ground and she escapes with Prometheus.

Back at the Arrow Cave, Felicity runs a DNA test with Rory and Rene on some ashes they found at the warehouse. While they run the test, Felicity meets up with Billy. She learns that yes he loves her, but he is refusing to give up on the case… especially after Prometheus went after their friends.

At the hospital, Curtis gets a phone call informing him of Evelyn’s betrayal. Curtis jokes about how she always had a ‘darker’ side, just as Paul walks in the room with dinner. Curtis finally tells Paul about how he has been working with the Green Arrow. Curtis tells Paul about how fighting along side the Green Arrow and being a vigilante is inspiring in the fact that he can finally help people. Paul then gives Curtis an ultimatum:he can be his husband or be Mr. Terrific.

Felicity learns that the ashes the collected belong to none other than Justin Claybourne hismself.

We are then shown a flashback of Oliver, 5 years ago as the Arrow, attacking Claybourne. (THAT SEASON ONE SUIT!! STILL SO BADASS TO THIS DAY). Oliver gave Claynourne an ultimatum, following his signature ‘you’ve failed this city’.

Billy tracks down a lead to Claybourne’s warehouse and finds a lockbox in a desk containing a baby picture. He quickly sends a photo of the picture to Felicity just before Prometheus finds him and knocks him out.

In a flashback, we learn that Claybourne created weaponize version of TB to raise prices. Oliver and Diggle gather in the Arrow Cave (the Season One Arrow Cave) and Diggle warns Oliver that killing Claybourne may one day catch up to him.

Back in the Arrow Cave, Felicity tries to figure out the link between the baby picture that Billy sent to her and Prometheus. At City Hall, AdrianChase tells Oliver that Prometheus has abducted Billy. Oliver agrees with the ‘shoot to kill’ order on Prometheus.

'Arrow' Recap 'What We Leave Behind'
Image: The CW

Felicity discovers that Claybourne had an son, which leads the team to believe that Prometheus is indeed Claybourne’s son. Oliver tells his team that Prometheus knows tactics and moves similar to Oliver, which leads him to believe that Prometheus either studied Oliver’s training or they had similar teachers.

Thea suits up as Speedy once more in order to help Oliver find Billy. Thea reminds Oliver that there’s two sides to every legacy, one of them being ‘What we leave behind’.

While Oliver heads out to track down Prometheus and find Billy, Curtis shows up at the Arrow Cave to help Felicity. While in conversation with Thea, Oliver remembers an address to a black market group and realizes that’s where Prometheus more than likely has Billy.

Oliver finds a body in Claybourne’s secret office in the exact position of where he dropped some of Claybourne’s guards years ago. Oliver follows a trail of bodies, which were laid out the exact same way as the crime scene years ago, and he finally finds Prometheus on the roof in the exact same spot where he killed Claybourne years ago.

They engage in a fight fight, which results in them crashing through a lower level of the building. Prometheus takes Oliver’s moments of distraction to scurry away, and hide in the shadows.

Prometheus tells Oliver that he’s studied him and will take everything from him piece by piece. Oliver spots Prometheus out of the corner of his eye and shoots him three times in the chest. However, something doesn’t seem quite right. Oliver goes to unmask Prometheus and realizes that it was Billy dressed in a Prometheus costume, with his mouth duct tapped shut and a voice changer on his chest. As Oliver realizes what he’s done, Prometheus voice calls out that everything that Oliver touches dies.

Oliver returns to the Arrow Cave and tells Felicity and the rest of the team about how he accidentally killed Billy. He explains the entire situation as to how he was set up, and tells the team that they should get as far away from him as possible. Diggle puts embraces Oliver in a hug and tells Oliver that the entire team is exactly where they needed to be.

Curtis heads home to find Paul packing his belongings. Paul tells Curtis that he has never seen Curtis more happy, and he refuses to take that away from him. Lyla calls Diggle panicking and asks him to get to the safe house, because something is wrong with JJ. When he gets to the there, a team of soldiers have their weapons pointed at him… to bring him in. Oliver heads to Susan’s apartment and says he didn’t know where else to go. Oliver admits to Susan that he ruins people’s lives. Susan says that Oliver needs to focus on the good instead of just the bad, and she then kisses him.

The next morning, Oliver walks to the Arrow Cave and finds a very alive looking…. LAUREL standing there waiting for him, stating ‘Hi Ollie.’

WHAT!? Laurel is alive!??

Unfortunately, my friends, we have to wait until January to find out what is really going on here. All I know is, I’m certainly STOKED.

 

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