Line #17 Recap/ArrowS3E22ThisIsYourSword


1	Oliver was only [[PretendToBeBrainwashed pretending to be brainwashed]], and reveals to Malcolm the plan to destroy Starling City with the Alpha-Omega Virus. Malcolm has to convince Team Arrow to travel to Nanda Parbat to destroy it before it can be deployed.
2	----
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4	* AllAccordingToPlan
5	** In the BatmanColdOpen, a criminal is being chased by Diggle, only to lead him onto the rest of his gang who are waiting with automatic weapons. While he's EvilGloating about how he did this deliberately, Diggle explains that letting the crook lead him to his pals was his plan too, and [[SuperScream puts in his earplugs...]]
6	** Turns out Oliver and Malcolm have been working together the whole time.
7	* ArtisticLicenseEconomics: In the flashback, General Shrieve claims that China can decimate America's economy simply by withdrawing trade. While this is true, China needs America far more than the opposite. If economic ties were cut, America would be devastated, but China would '''die'''. That being said, this is a very common myth in real life, and Shrieve is exactly the sort of person who would believe the worst case scenario.
8	* BBCQuarry: Ra's has the plane he's planning to use to bomb Starling City stashed in a gravel quarry.
9	* TheBigGirl: Laurel has the highest body count (presumably non-fatally) during the assault other than Malcolm and Diggle.
10	* BookEnds: At the end of last season, Thea walked away from a life with Roy leaving a letter explaining her actions. This year Roy does the same with Thea.
11	* BrokenPedestal: Diggle tells Oliver in no uncertain terms that the stunt he pulled by kidnapping Lyla "in front of his daughter" not only cost him their friendship but Diggle's respect as well.
12	* ContrastMontage: Between the wedding ceremony and Team Arrow dying on the dungeon floor.
13	* TheBusCameBack: Roy, Tatsu in the present day scenes, and General Shrieve in the flashback scenes.
14	* TheCavalry: Team Arrow fails to stop the bomber from taking off, but fortunately, Felicity "brought some insurance." Cue Ray Palmer flying in with his leitmotif and taking out the bomber singlehandedly.
15	* ChekhovsGun: During dinner, Nyssa quietly steals a knife when no one is looking. At the end of the episode, during the wedding, she attempts to stab Oliver--[[NoSell only for him to casually catch her hand and disarm her]].
16	* TheChessmaster: Oliver has been playing everyone in his mission with Malcolm's help to take down Ra's. His friends don't take it well when they find out.
17	* {{Cliffhanger}}: Oliver and Nyssa's wedding are taking place around the same time Oliver's "former" friends sans Tatsu are (seemingly) slowly dying from the Alpha/Omega virus. In the flashback, Akio has died and General Shrieve's men are about to shoot Oliver.
18	* ConvenientlyTimedAttackFromBehind: Malcolm saving both Laurel and Felicity.
19	* ComicBookMoviesDontUseCodenames: While Tatsu shows up in full Katana gear, she's never actually called that.
20	* ConservationOfNinjutsu: Subverted. Team Arrow does quite well against the League's assassins, but only because it's a ruse by Ra's to draw out every last member of the team and ferret out a mole in his own organization so these were probably the League's lower ranked members.
21	* CorrelationCausationGag: Felicity throws her tablet at a member of the League of Assassins in desperation. She watches amazed as the assassin as starts to fall to the ground. However, as he finishes falling, she sees he has an arrow in his back and Malcolm Merlyn is standing behind him with a bow. "Oh. That makes more sense," she says to herself.
22	* CradlingYourKill: Tatsu does this to Maseo after killing him in combat.
23	* DarkReprise: Tatsu sings the same lullaby she sang to Akio in the flashbacks to a dying Maseo.
24	* DeathSeeker: Maseo proves to be this, wanting to be released from his "prison" that is his life after the death of Akio. He thanks Tatsu for obliging him before he dies.
25	* DeceasedFallGuyGambit: After the team is captured, they claim they gained the information on the virus from Maseo, who died during the assault. Ra's lampshades that it's a little convenient that the dead man is the mole in his organization.
26	* DiedInYourArmsTonight: Poor Tatsu saw her son die in the flashbacks, and Maseo in the present.
27	* DiesWideOpen: Maseo.
28	* DirtyCoward: Malcolm betrays Oliver to save his own skin. [[RewardedAsATraitorDeserves It didn't get him very far the last time he begged before Ra's, and it doesn't get him very far here either.]]
29	* DownerEnding: Once again, the episode ends in a very depressing note as Team Arrow minus Tatsu (who was ordered to be spared by Ra's) apparently falls victim to the Alpha/Omega virus.
30	* DynamicEntry: Lampshaded by General Shrieve when Oliver and Maseo burst in on him.
31	* ExtremelyShortTimespan: Lampshaded. Malcolm and Oliver thought they'd have months, if not years, before Oliver ascended to Ra's, giving them plenty of time to come up with countermeasures to the plan to destroy Starling. Instead, it's only been a few weeks.
32	* ExactWords: General Shrieve told Oliver and Maseo that he'll give them the cure. By cure he meant insulin for his diabetes, not for the Alpha/Omega virus that affected poor Akio.
33	* FacialDialogue: Our first sign that Oliver is NotBrainwashed is the shocked look on his face at hearing Maseo was the one who gave Omega to Ra's.
34	* FakeDefector: Turns out Oliver has been faking his allegiance to the League the entire time.
35	* FateWorseThanDeath: How Maseo views his life after Akio's death.
36	* FauxAffablyEvil: Ra's talks of the love he had for Nyssa's mother, yet also implies that she had no choice in the matter. He drops any sign of parental affection by grabbing her in a VillainousFaceHold while making it clear that she won't have any choice either.
37	* FiveManBand: The "Nanda Parbat assault team".
38	* {{Foreshadowing}}: Notice that as everyone on Team Arrow dies of the bioweapon, none of them are bleeding from their mouths.
39	* GasLeakCoverup: The Chinese authorities put the Omega outbreak down to a chemical spill.
40	* GoneHorriblyRight: Oliver's commitment to his League disguise means none of his former friends will ever trust him again.
41	* HeWhoFightsMonsters: After Maseo witnessed his son die of the Omega virus, he was so broken that he provided it to Ra's in exchange for entry into the League of Assassins.
42	* IJustWantToBeNormal: Averted with Roy, who finds his normal life rather boring.
43	* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: Maseo by Tatsu. She's clearly distraught over it.
44	* ImprobableAimingSkills: Felicity gets in the game for the first time, throwing a damaged tablet with pinpoint accuracy and hitting a League mook right in the throat. [[SubvertedTrope Only to reveal it was Malcolm who killed him.]]
45	* ImprobableWeaponUser: Again, Felicity uses ''a damaged tablet'' as a weapon.
46	* KilledOffForReal: Tatsu is forced to kill Maseo when he refuses to back down or turn against Ra's.
47	* KillTheCutie: Akio dies in the flashbacks.
48	* KillTheOnesYouLove: Maseo swordfights Tatsu and is fully prepared to kill her, but she ends up killing him instead. Maseo is actually [[DeathSeeker grateful]] to her, as she has freed him from his misery.
49	* TheLancer: Diggle, the official NumberTwo of the original Team Arrow and the second most authoritative member of the assault team after Malcolm.
50	* TheLeader: Malcolm, takes charge of the assault and was in cahoots with Oliver about the plan.
51	* LockedOutOfTheLoop:
52	** Roy didn't tell Thea about his plan to fake his death because she'd tell Oliver, and he'd then proceed to break Roy out anyway.
53	** Oliver didn't tell anyone but Malcolm his plan to fake allegiance to the League and dismantle it from the inside because his friends are terrible liars. This episode seems to bear that out, as Felicity shouts that they trusted him when he's apparently leaving them to their deaths. Team Arrow is not happy when they find out.
54	** Nyssa was also not brought into the plan, but Oliver and Malcolm (especially the latter) have no particular reason to trust her.
55	* MaritalRapeLicense: Ra's orders Nyssa to produce an heir with Oliver, claiming that she has no say in the matter. He outright states that he had a similar attitude with Nyssa's mother as well.
56	* MythologyGag:
57	** Roy brought a lot of Easter-eggs to the table:
58	*** He uses Jason as an alias. In the [[ComicBook/RedHoodAndTheOutlaws current comic continuity]], Roy is part of a team led by Jason Todd/ComicBook/{{Robin}} II/Red Hood II.
59	*** He left his Arsenal costume to Thea and told her that it fits her more. Canonically, Roy was succeeded by Mia Dearden (Thea's counterpart) as Speedy.
60	*** He currently works as a mechanic just like [[Franchise/TheFlash Wally West]].
61	** Ra's mentions Amina Raatko, Nyssa's mother in the comics.
62	** The Nanda Parbat assault team gathers at [[Franchise/GreenLantern Ferris Air]].
63	** During the assault on Nanda Parbat, Laurel does not wear her wig and DominoMask. The most common depiction of ComicBook/BlackCanary doesn't wear a mask, though if she wears a blonde wig or dyes her hair blonde varies DependingOnTheWriter.
64	** Much like his comic counterpart, Maseo was killed by a loved one/family member. In the comics, it was [[MurderTheHypotenuse his]] [[SiblingTriangle brother]]. Here, [[ShootTheDog it was Tatsu herself]].
65	** Ra's is seen mesmerized by Tatsu's sword. In the comics, said sword possess powers that enable Tatsu to have some DeadPersonConversation with her deceased loved ones.
66	* NotStayingForBreakfast: Roy leaves Thea behind with just a letter and his costume.
67	* NotWearingTights: Diggle still resists the idea of wearing a costume...erhm "identity concealment", with the criminal he's chasing wanting to know if he's working plainclothes.
68	* OutlivingOnesOffspring: Maseo and Tatsu after Akio's death.
69	* PlayAlongPrisoner: General Shrieve pretended to have the cure, and claimed it had to be injected in a precise manner, so that Maseo and Oliver would take him to Tatsu so Shrieve's men could finally kill off the last witnesses.
70	* PretendToBeBrainwashed: It's not said how, but presumably it was a combination of HeroicWillpower and Malcolm briefing Oliver on the League's brainwashing techniques so he would be mentally prepared for them.
71	* RammingAlwaysWorks: How Ray destroyed the decoy plane that seemingly contains the Alpha/Omega virus.
72	* RedemptionRejection: Oliver tells Maseo/Sarab that once he becomes Ra's he can release Maseo from the League so he can return to Tatsu. He's not interested as he doesn't regard the League as a prison; he bears that burden himself.
73	* TheReveal: Turns out Oliver never fell for the brainwashing, he joined not only to save Thea but to also take down the League from the inside - and Malcolm's been helping him.
74	* SheCleansUpNicely: Nyssa wears some pretty dresses during the episode.
75	* ShipperOnDeck: Tatsu encourages Felicity to fight for Oliver.
76	* ShootTheDog: Tatsu killing Maseo.
77	* ShootYourMate: Played straight this time, with Oliver locking his friends in a dungeon and smashing a vial of Omega on the floor.
78	* TheSocialExpert: Tatsu deals with reasoning with both the reluctant members (Diggle, Felicity and Laurel) of Oliver's "former" team as well as her conflicted husband.
79	* SixthRanger: Ray, arrives at the last minute to stop the plane that seemingly contains the Alpha/Omega virus.
80	* TheSmartGirl: Felicity, was in-charge of hacking the plane that (was assumed to) contain the Alpha/Omega virus.
81	* StormingTheCastle: In order to stop the Alpha/Omega virus from being spread to Starling City.
82	* TakeUpMySword: Of a sort. Roy leaves Thea, [[IjustWantMyBelovedToBeHappy not wanting her to be forced to live with him as a fugitive]]. But he leaves behind his Arsenal costume.
83	-->'''Roy:''' I always thought red was more your color anyway.
84	* TeethClenchedTeamwork: Team Arrow ''really'' resents having to pull an EnemyMine with Malcolm. When Malcolm saves Laurel's life in battle, she assures him that she would not do the same.
85	* TravellingAtTheSpeedOfPlot: We see Malcolm speaking to Thea in Starling City in one scene, then to Oliver in Nanda Parbat in the next, which would require a long flight and an even longer infiltration on foot.
86	* TwoGirlsToATeam: Inverted. [[TheLeader Malcolm]] and [[TheLancer Diggle]] were the only men in the Nanda Parbat [[FiveManBand assault team]] until [[SixthRanger Ray]] arrives to balance the genders.
87	* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: The preview for the next episode renders the {{Cliffhanger}} DownerEnding useless.
88	* TheUnfettered: If Oliver has to destroy the respect and love of his friends to save Starling, then so be it.
89	* WhatTheHellHero:
90	** Oliver gives a silent one to Maseo when he finds out he was the one who gave Ra's the Alpha/Omega Virus.
91	** Diggle tears Oliver a new one for kidnapping Lyla. And at the end, ''all'' of Team Arrow give him one when he allows them to be subjected to the Alpha/Omega virus.
92	* WhereDoesHeGetAllThoseWonderfulToys: One has to wonder how the League got its hands on a state-of-the-art transcontinental bomber that they can afford to sacrifice as a diversion. Being a centuries old, wildly powerful organization has its perks. Plus, the overhead on swords and arrows and stuff is pretty low.
93	* WidowedAtTheWedding: Nyssa attempted to free herself from being unhappily married to Oliver by attempting to kill him during the ceremony itself. She failed.
94	* YouAreInCommandNow: Ray had Felicity sign some papers regarding "corporate stuff." She should have paid more attention, because Ray just gave her ownership of Palmer Industries.
95	* YouAreTooLate: Oliver and Maseo return with the cure only to find Akio has already died. Turns out the cure was non-existent anyway.

Context Recap / ArrowS3E22ThisIsYourSword