Ra's al Ghul offers Oliver a position as his heir, allowing him to return with Diggle and Malcolm to Starling unharmed as a gesture of good will. In the flashbacks, Oliver is still on the run with Maseo's son.
- Actually Pretty Funny: Lying half dead on her couch, Malcolm has a faint smile while listening to his daughter explain in detail about how she's fantasized killing him.
- An Offer You Can't Refuse: A variant; when Oliver asks what will happen if he refuses Ra's offer, Ra's brings out Diggle and Malcolm and says they are all free to leave, with all blood oaths canceled. Instead Ra's begins rewriting the narrative, starting by killing people while posing as the Arrow in order to force him to accept.
- Bait-and-Switch: Right after Oliver is told there will be consequences for refusing Ra's offer, Roy gets a knock on the door from someone who refuses to identity themselves. Roy grabs a weapon and opens it...to find a distraught Thea.
- Because Destiny Says So: Apparently there is a prophecy that claims "the man who survives Ra's al Ghul will become Ra's al Ghul." Of course, Ra's demonstrates he's willing to force things to go according to the prophecy, so whether it even counts as prophecy any more or just as a mission statement is arguable.
- Barehanded Blade Block: A variant — Ra's doesn't do it in the traditional way, and gets a huge gash in his hand for it. Good thing he had a Lazarus Pit right there.
- Big, Screwed-Up Family: Lampshaded with Thea wanting to murder her father while her father is encouraging her to do so.
- Bring It: When Nyssa says she won't let an outsider become Ra's al Ghul instead of her, Ra's tells her to go right ahead, with the implication that she's welcome to challenge him. Knowing that would be suicide, Nyssa doesn't.
- Broken Bird: Noted by Thea about herself and her father.
- Broken Pedestal: Quentin has lost all faith in the Arrow after finding he concealed the truth about Sara's death from him.
- Call-Back:
- Thea says that in the past month she's held a gun to Slade Wilson's head and nearly killed her father twice.
- Oliver says to Felicity that he has already worked as an assassin.
- Felicity in turns reminds him that the other members of Team Arrow also had to work out why they were fighting, and if they should continue doing so, after thinking Oliver was dead.
- Calling the Old Man Out: Thea points out to Malcolm that she went to him in the first place because she didn't want to feel pain again, only to end up more screwed up than before.
- Cassandra Truth: When Thea tells Nyssa it was she who killed Sara under the influence of Malcolm, Nyssa refuses to believe her, given that Oliver has confessed to be the murderer (and the League knows he's protecting someone), and then Thea gave Malcolm up to the League, telling them he killed Sara.
- Conflict Killer: Averted; it looks like the Arrow intervening to save the police officers will reconcile Quentin with the Arrow, but Ra's decides to enforce their split by committing murder as a Costume Copycat.
- Conveniently Timed Attack from Behind: Laurel is about to be shot when the mook catches an arrow in the back from Nyssa.
- Double-Meaning Title: While the title mainly refers to Ra's' offer to Oliver to be his heir, it can also refer to Nyssa offering Laurel her training.
- Dull Surprise: In-Universe. Ra's commented on how Oliver seems unfazed by his discovery of the Lazarus Pits. Oliver responds that he has seen things that helped him to believe the world is much bigger than people realize.
- Easily Forgiven: Averted; when Laurel lampshades the issue, Quentin makes it clear that he's not willing to just cold shoulder her for a while, then blow his stack, and eventually they reconcile over dinner as always.Quentin: You don't know how hard I've tried to forgive you for lying to me the way you did. I'm not proud of it. You're my daughter, I'll always love you, but I don't know if I'll ever be able to forgive you.
- Everyone Can See It: Turns out even Ra's al Ghul knows that Oliver has an unrequited love for Felicity.
- Generation Xerox: Ra's and his daughter Nyssa each made offers to two different people by the end of this episode.
- Genre Blind: Oliver thinks he doesn't have to fear any consequences by turning down Ra's offer. Malcolm is quick to tell him that Ra's doesn't ask, he commands.
- Heroic Resolve: After he begins questioning himself at the middle of the story, Oliver remembers why he's doing his vigilante work and reconciles with the fact that he'll be a Hero with Bad Publicity.
- Hope Spot: After considering taking Ra's offer, Oliver eventually gains heart from catching Amos and saving the lives of police officers he intended to kill. Turns out Ra's is not going to take no for an answer.
- Identical Stranger: Flashback!Oliver meets a woman who looks like Shado in Hong Kong.
- Is That a Threat?Sarab: If you insist on pursuing this path of resistance there will be consequences.Oliver: Is that a threat?Sarab: It is the will of Rasal Ghul.
- Love Is a Weakness: Ra's claims his daughter is unfit to become the Demon's Head, because of the love she felt for Sara and the grief she feels now, all of which affect her decisions.
- Meaningful Echo: Captain Lance is pissed that the Arrow kept Sara's death a secret, and refuses to work with him any more. Felicity reminds Oliver that he's not doing this job for a thank you. Later when the Villain of the Week is caught...Lance: [after the villain is caught] What, are you waiting for a thank you?
Arrow: That's not why I do this. - Names to Run Away from Really Fast: It's pointed out by both Oliver and Felicity that the League of Assassins is called that for a reason, despite Ra's claiming that as the Demon's Head he could simply order his followers to obey his Thou Shalt Not Kill rule.
- No Man Should Have This Power: Though tempted, Oliver isn't in any rush to become the successor to Ra's. It scarcely needs to be said that commanding a personal army of assassins is bound to go wrong at some point, despite the best of intentions.
- No, Mr. Bond, I Expect You to Dine: During his pitch, Ra's invites Oliver to dinner.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Thea reflects on how she and her father are both broken inside.
- Odd Friendship: Nyssa and Laurel seem to strike one up, after several episodes of build up. Both are connected mutually through their shared grief of Sara and their current trouble with their fathers, while Laurel is a normal girl trying to become a badass vigilante while Nyssa is a badass vigilante who, going from her last scene, is trying to be a normal girl.
- Overshadowed by Awesome: Laurel is still just not a very good vigilante. At the end of the episode, Nyssa offers to give her the same training Sara received.
- Poor Communication Kills: Quentin refuses to answer Felicity's call when she's calling to warn him the police station is about to be attacked.
- The Reveal:
- The Lazarus Pit is finally revealed to actually exist when Ra's lowers his bleeding hand into a pit of water and it heals instantaneously. Also, its effects are starting to weaken on him thanks to overuse, requiring him to find an heir.
- The flashbacks include Oliver running into what appears to be Shado in Hong Kong while on the run from Waller's people. Also doubles as a Wham Shot.
- Relationship Revolving Door: Roy and Thea rekindle their romance.
- Rhetorical Question Blunder: While Calling the Old Man Out, Thea demands to know what her father taught her. Malcolm reveals that he knows she's got a knife hidden in her hand and tells her to use it in the way he instructed her.
- Sadly Mythtaken: Ra's claims that Khidr's discovery of the Lazarus Pit is chronicled in The Qur'an. Aside from the fact that Khidr isn't named in the book (he is only identified as a "servant of God"), there is no Qur'anic verse that ascribes to this story. The association of Khidr with the fountain of youth and immortality did not come from the Qur'an, but rather from sayings narrated by companions of the Prophet as well as from folklore and legends.note
- Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Ra's predicts that Oliver's friends in the police will turn against him. When Captain Lance makes it clear he's no longer working with the Arrow, Oliver wonders if maybe Ra's can see the future, but Diggle puts this down to Criminal Mind Games, pointing out a temporary rift with Lance isn't worth getting worked up about. Ra's however plans to force the issue by making the Arrow out to be on a killing spree.
- Sex for Solace: With Malcolm in her apartment and her emotions in a tailspin, Thea flees to Roy's place for comfort.
- Ship Tease: After being at odds for weeks, Oliver and Felicity get back in each other's good graces; although she's still dating Ray, she lets Oliver know that she's happiest with him in her life.
- Spare a Messenger: At the end of the episode, Ra's al Ghul plays Costume Copycat by dressing as the Arrow and murdering a group of thugs. He leaves one alive and tells him to go and tell anyone who will listen what he has seen.
- Stab the Scorpion: When a trainee Assassin loses a duel it looks like Ra's intends to cut his throat, but Ra's just lectures the trainee on his footwork and returns his sword.
- The Thing That Would Not Leave: Played for drama when Thea is stuck looking after Malcolm as he recuperates. She does not want him there in her current emotional state, but there's nowhere else for Oliver to stash him.
- Villain of the Week: Michael Amar stitched his mouth shut after being coerced into giving a false confession. He steals industrial diamonds to fashion diamond bullets that can pierce police body armor, for an assault on the SCPD headquarters to take revenge.
- We Can Rule Together: Although it's actually You Can Succeed Me, it's played entirely like this trope, except that Oliver is actually tempted by the possibility. He doesn't seem to be making any headway in Starling City, and Ra's is offering him vast resources and dedicated followers who can affect change on a worldwide scale.
- Wham Shot: The episode ends with Flashback!Ollie running into someone who looks exactly like Shado, and Ra's goes on a brutal killing spree of Murmur's mooks dressed as The Arrow.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Captain Lance gives the Arrow a doozy of a one for keeping Sara's death a secret of him. Felicity gives him a milder but still pointed one when Ollie reveals he's seriously considering Ra's' offer and challenges him to remember why he started his crusade to begin with.
- Would You Like to Hear How They Died?: Subverted; when Nyssa refuses to believe her confession, Thea spells out exactly how it happened to incite her to anger. Nyssa listens with a cold-eyed expression, but Thea saying that she was under Malcolm's control just convinces her that the right culprit is already being punished, and it would be wrong to kill Thea as well.
- Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: Thea reflects how screwed up things became after she discovered Malcolm was her father, with her handing her father over for torture and execution, and him being proud of her for doing so.
