Recap / Arrow S 2 E 9 Three Ghosts

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On the island, Ivo’s men take Oliver, Shado, and Sara into the forest and order Oliver to choose which of the women will die. After unsuccessfully pleading with the men, Oliver rushes to protect Sara. Shado is shot. Slade awakens, and when he finds the others, he knocks out Ivo’s men and grieves over Shado’s death.

An unconscious Oliver hallucinates Shado asking him not to fight. When Oliver jolts awake from Barry’s injection of rat poison, he’s furious that Barry knows his identity. Barry offers more assistance, identifying the attacker by fingerprints, and asks a lot of questions, like why Oliver wears makeup, not a mask. After Diggle narrowly escapes death by Gold, Arrow brings Lance into the case and hallucinates Slade. Lance, Hilton, and Daily swarm Gold’s place, where Hilton is killed and Lance is sent into ICU. Arrow visits Lance and receives Gold’s key, which Felicity tracks to the Glades.

Thea, with Sin, hides a wounded Roy in her room, but allows Oliver to enter and call Diggle for medical aid. Thea and Sin ask Laurel for help uncovering the truth behind their friend’s murder, but the only thing Laurel uncovers is that the donors were subject to psych evals. As Roy sneaks through patient files, he finds his friend’s photo marked with “Mirakuru.” Roy is captured and injected with the serum. Oliver hallucinates Tommy telling him to fight, so he takes out Blood’s men and brings Roy back to life.

Blood announces his run for mayor, then Slade agrees to provide another sample of his blood, but Blood can’t go near the vigilante. Oliver warns his team that a war is coming. He opens a present from Barry to discover a green mask. Back in Central City, the particle accelerator malfunctions, causing a lightning bolt to strike Barry.

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Tropes Applying to This Episode

• All Love Is Unrequited: Barry recognises that, like him, Felicity is enamoured with someone who doesn't feel the same way.
• Arc Words: The STAR Labs particle accelerator, which was mentioned throughout the season finally pays off. It begins Barry's origin story.
• Arc Welding: It turns out that Blood and Slade organized the copycat Hoods back in the season premiere, in order to kill the mayor so that Blood could eventually run for election. Furthermore, Slade is the source of the serum Blood's injecting to his experimental patients, having been injected himself on the island, thus tying this year's two Story Arcs together.
• Ascended Fanboy: Barry.
• Back-Alley Doctor: Barry's only experience is in treating dead people, yet he successfully revives Oliver, who later treats Roy and calls Diggle in to patch him up.
• Backdoor Pilot: To The Flash.
• Be All My Sins Remembered: Ollie's talk with Hallucination!Slade makes it quite obvious that he's carrying deep emotional trauma from his stint in the island.
• Bait-and-Switch: Thea appears to have reverted to her Emo Teen ways by sulking in her room, but it's actually because she's hiding Roy in there, as these days going to the hospital with an arrow in your leg is guaranteed to attract police attention.
• The Berserker: A Mirakuru-enraged Slade curb-stomps Ivo's mooks, breaking apart a Kalashnikov rifle with his bare hands and putting his fist through a man's chest.
• Betty and Veronica: With Felicity as the Archie, brooding Anti-Hero Oliver as the Veronica whom she has an unrequited crush on, and Birds of a Feather assistant CSI Barry as the Betty. It's seems that Barry wins when he asks Felicity out on a date and she says yes—only to have the particle accelerator go off...
• Big Damn Heroes: On Lian Yu, Slade wakens from his Mirakuru injection and rushes to save his comrades, only to be too late to save Shado.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Low key heroic version. When Barry fanboys over Team Arrow's victories such as the Dollmaker, Count Vertigo, and the Huntress, Diggle says they weren't "keeping score", but he says he was.
• Cartwright Curse: Oliver's strikes again!
• Central Theme: The titular "Three Ghosts" each represent part of the guilt Ollie carries around.
• Chair Reveal: Slade in the present day, though his distinctive gravelly voice gives him away beforehand.
• Character Death: Shado, by Boom, Headshot!.
• Christmas Episode: Downplayed. Oliver didn't even remember it was Christmas until he saw his mother decorating the tree. Moira also says, considering everything the family's been through (not to mention last Christmas didn't go over so well,) she decided to skip this years big, elaborate Christmas.
• The Cowl: Ollie's status as this is cemented by the end of the episode, when he finally dons the Green Arrow Domino Mask.
• Deadpan Snarker:
  • On hearing that Oliver had another Love Interest on Lian-Yu, Felicity snarks accordingly.
  "Shado. Sara. How many women were you marooned with? Are you sure this wasn't Fantasy Island?"
  • When Barry says he's going to work out what's wrong with Oliver, Felicity replies that he would be the first person to do so.
• Death by Irony: "Buried on Sunday". Gold is buried under rubble.
• Death Seeker: Ollie's talks with Hallucination!Shado make it clear that, deep down, a part of Ollie is tired of fighting and just wants to take a long rest.
• Determinator: Hallucination!Tommy shows Ollie that, despite his sins and failings, he still tries each day to be a hero and do the right thing.
• Dreaming of Things to Come: Everything about the Slade hallucination points toward his and Olliver's conflict in the latter half of the season.
• Eviler than Thou: Blood is clearly scared of Slade.
  Slade: Remember your mask can be worn by another.
• Fast-Roping:
  • Seeing a hallucination of Slade, Oliver flees by shooting a grappling arrow into the wall and abseiling down the side of the building. Given Slade's nationality this may be a Visual Pun as he descends face down, commonly known as the "Australian rappel".
  • The Arrow blasts a hole in the ceiling and rappels down into Blood's lair.
• Fatal Family Photo: Detective Hilton mentions taking his family Christmas shopping before Quentin convinces him to arrest Gold instead. Gold ends up shooting Hilton with his own gun.
• Fiery Cover-Up: Blood finds from Laurel that someone is nosing around the blood drive, so he sends Gold to burn the place down. Roy is in there snooping through the files and gets caught when he tries to flee.
• Flowers of Romance: Laurel finds a bouquet of flowers on her desk from Sebastian Blood.
• Foreshadowing: Several, especially once Fridge Brilliance sets in.
  • The Slade hallucination shows him acting antagonistic and terrifyingly hostile towards Oliver. He and Ollie are clearly going to come to blows on the island.
  • The hallucination also snaps the arrow he caught in half with one hand, showing that Slade gained super strength from the Mirakuru, which we then see him awake from later.
  • If you also notice, when Hallucination Slade first appears, the left side of the face is hidden in shadow. Then in comes real Slade...
  • The Bond One-Liner about Cyrus Gold dying on Saturday and buried on Sunday?.....Soloman Grundy, Born on a Monday...
• For the Evulz: As both Sara and Oliver point out, now Ivo has the Mirakuru he's spent years searching for he can just leave and there's no need for him to kill anyone. His Sadistic Choice is a pure Kick the Dog caused by petty spite over our heroes delaying him in his quest.
• Freak Lab Accident: How Barry gets his superpowers.
• Genre Shift: This episode helps cement the season-long swing, from "Dark, Gritty and Realistic Crime Drama" to "Dark Superhero Show".
• Green-Eyed Monster: Felicity isn't happy about Oliver seeing "beautiful island girls" like Shado.
• Hallucinations: The titular ghosts are visions Oliver has of Shado (who tells him to stop fighting), Slade (who tells him he deserves to die for his sins), and Tommy (who reminds him who he is; see Heroic Second Wind).
• Healing Factor: After being injected with the serum Island!Slade wakes up without his facial burns, and Roy discovers that the wound in his leg has disappeared.
• Heal It with Booze: Sin gives Roy a bottle to cope with the pain, then Oliver pours some of it on his leg before removing the arrow.
• Heroic Second Wind: Oliver's vision of Tommy, had while Cyrus Gold is beating him into the ground, reminds him that he's a fighter and to never give up, giving Oliver the strength to get back up and seemingly kill Gold with a Mirakuru overdose.
  Hallucination!Tommy: You didn't let me die, Ollie. You fought to save me. Because that's what you do, what you have always done: you fight to survive. I know I called you a murderer, but you are not. You are a hero. You beat the island, you beat my father. So fight, Oliver. Get up, and fight. Back.
• Heroic Willpower: How Roy survives being injected by Mirakuru, with some help from Ollie.
  Ollie (giving CPR): I am not... leaving anyone else... to die. Come on, FIGHT IT!
• Iconic Attribute Adoption Moment: Oliver Queen finally dons the Green Arrow domino mask.
• I'll Kill You!:
  Roy: If you stick that in me, I'll kill you!
  Man in Skull Mask: No, Brother Roy. You'll kill for me.
• In Harm's Way: The Arrow shooting Roy in the leg only makes Roy, Thea & Sin more determined to investigate Max's death.
• Ironic Echo: As Oliver flatlines, Felicity can be heard calling on him to "stay with me", at the same time as Shado's 'ghost' is telling Oliver to do the same.
• It's All My Fault: Ollie has a massive survivor guilt complex from the island and it only gets worse when he puts Lance on the trail of Cyrus, resulting in the death of Lance's partner and his own near death.
  • Lampshaded by Lance:
  "I hate to break it to you, but not every death in this city is your fault."
• It's a Long Story: Oliver awkwardly having to explain to Diggle how an arrow got stuck in Roy.
• "Just Joking" Justification: Felicity does this after Oliver says he's considering putting an arrow in Barry in case he goes to the police. Barry does not look convinced.
• MacGyvering: Barry uses diluted rat poison to treat Oliver.
• The Man Behind the Man: Slade turns out to be behind Brother Blood.
• The Mole: Officer Daily volunteers to go on the raid to arrest Cyrus Gold.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Linda Park better known as Wally West's girlfriend/wife in the comics is the journalist on TV in Central City, reporting on the particle accelerator's meltdown.
  • The "Solomon Grundy" poem is found in Cyrus Gold's apartment. This is referenced again at the close of the episode.
  Diggle: What happened to Cyrus Gold?
  Ollie: Died on Saturday, buried on Sunday.
  • Present day Slade looks almost exactly like the comic version of Deathstroke without his mask, with graying hair and an eyepatch.
  • It's probably unintentional since the episode title is an obvious reference to A Christmas Carol, but it may also remind viewers of the "Three Ghosts of Batman" story arc which kicked off Batman (Grant Morrison).
• Not Quite the Right Thing: In order to cover for Ollie, Sara tells Slade that Ivo just shot Shado without saying why rather than explain the Sadistic Choice. In hindsight, lying to him about why Shado was killed probably helped his Face–Heel Turn.
• Oblivious Guilt Slinging: Oliver having to treat Thea's boyfriend for the arrow he put in his leg.
• Omnidisciplinary Scientist: Apparently being a CSI assistant and working with cadavers means that Barry can also diagnose and treat drug overdoses.
• Only I Can Kill Him: When Slade orders Blood to keep his hands off the Arrow, Blood realises that Slade knows who the man under the hood is. Slade replies that he's a friend, so Blood assumes this is why Slade doesn't want him killed, but Slade declares that he won't kill the Arrow until after he's destroyed everything and everyone he cares about. "Then, I will put an arrow through his eye."
• Pietà Plagiarism: Slade holding Shado's body.
• Police Are Useless: Zigzagged; realising he's off his game the Arrow calls in Quentin to arrest Gold, telling him to bring plenty of backup. It's not enough.
• Revealing Hug: Blood hugs Laurel, who is upset over her father ending up in intensive care, while exchanging a Meaningful Look with Officer Daily.
• Revenge by Proxy: Slade intends to destroy everything Oliver cares about before eventually killing him.
• Sadistic Choice: Dr. Ivo tells Oliver to choose between Shado and Sara or he'll kill them both. Oliver doesn't actually make the choice, but when Ivo points the gun at Sara he instinctively throws himself in front of her—Ivo takes this as an answer and shoots Shado.
• Ship Tease: Barry notices that Felicity actually likes Ollie. She's also irked that Ollie manages to have several girls along despite being stranded on an island.
• Start of Darkness: Shado's death is the trigger for Slade.
  Slade: Whoever did this... is going to suffer.
• String Theory: Fitting for a CSI investigator, Barry has one of these boards in his lab.
• Super Hero Origin: Two actually. Barry's origin story is the most obvious but Roy's transformation into Arsenal (which was slowly being built up over the course of two seasons) kicks off when he is injected with Mirakuru.
• Super Window Jump: Diggle has to jump through the window and down the fire escape to get away from Gold.
• Survivor Guilt: Diggle interprets that this is why Ollie is having hallucinations. The mixture of the reintroduction of Mirakuru and Sara to his life seems to have triggered his Shell-Shocked Veteran status much more heavily.
• Tempting Fate: The moment Barry asks Felicity for a date, you knew something was going to happen.
• This Is the Part Where...
  Felicity: This is the point in a lifesaving emergency where you thank the person that did the lifesaving.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Blood's has reached the point that he's able to popularly announce his plans to run for mayor.
• Warts and All: Lampshaded regarding Barry's reaction to Ollie's lack of gratitude.
  Felicity: Never meet your heroes, right?
• Wham Episode: A big one made of a lot of wham moments. Detective Lance is almost killed by Cyrus Gold (who dies himself later on), Shado dies on the island, Roy is injected with Mirakuru, Slade is revealed to not only be alive but also masterminding Brother Blood's actions and harboring a grudge against Ollie, Barry experiences his superhero origin, and Ollie gets a domino mask.
• Wham Shot: When Slade is revealed to be alive and the one behind Brother Blood.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Oliver rips into Felicity and Diggle for revealing his Secret Identity to Barry, and cops it back from Felicity in turn as they were trying to save his life and can hardly consult an unconscious man.
• Worst Aid:
  • Zigzagged; Roy's friends have not tried to remove the arrow from his leg, which is actually the correct thing to do with an impaled object, but they haven't tried to stabilize it either. When Oliver does remove the arrow, he should have cut off the fletching first to make it easier to pull through Roy's leg.
  • A few chest compressions are enough to bring Roy back from the dead (though that may be because he was injected with the serum. Island!Slade recovers without any help at all.)
• Yet Another Christmas Carol: An example that's not too obvious at first. The episode takes place at Christmas time and Ollie is visited by three hallucinations, the titular ghosts. Given that Slade is introduced as a future Big Bad, you could even say he was the Ghost Of Things Yet To Come.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: After the hallucination of Shado tells him to give up and the hallucination of Slade reminds him of his sins, the hallucination of Tommy shows up and tells Ollie he's a hero. Fitting in this episode, where he finally gets his domino mask.
• You're Insane!: Ollie's reaction to the Sadistic Choice.
  Oliver: You freaking psychopath!
• Your Mind Makes It Real: Ollie's fight with the hallucination of Slade causes actual damage to the base.
• You Won't Feel a Thing!: Averted
  Oliver: This is going to hurt.
  Roy: My anger dulls the pain.
  Sin: (handing over a bottle) This will dull it better.
  (Roy takes a swig, then Oliver pours the rest on the wound.)