Duck Fox

What do you mean The CW owns me?

Three episodes in and Arrow is already setting itself up for its best season yet. While "Corto Maltese" didn't have a lot about the death of Sara, this turns out to have been a good thing because we get to further explore one of the more problematic characters of the show: Thea Queen.

Thea started the show as the boozy younger sister to Oliver, an aimless young lady with nothing to look forward to after her brother and father apparently died in a shipwreck. When Oliver returned, she had a little bit of hope for her thoroughly messed up family, but mostly she was content to be the rebellious wild child. It wasn't a bad setup, but the show had been spinning its wheels with Thea up until tonight's episode. While she's never really hateable, she's been pretty unlikable for a while, because we see everyone else's side of the story when she's criticizing them. Moira may have done some messed up stuff and lied to her about it, but she was trying to protect Thea. A fact that enrages Thea before Moira's death, and, after, which serves to motivate her to find Malcolm Merlyn, her father.

Leading in from last week's closing moments, the Arrow crew are now officially on track to find out where Thea is. With a little help from Felicity's hacktravagenza, they find out she's in Corto Maltese, the fabulous paradise hotspot for rich kids since 199X! The flashbacks this week handle Thea's training under Malcolm, who seems to genuinely want his daughter to have a good life. He quickly escalates his training from "kind father looking to provide basic self defense" to "you will become an unstoppable assassin in three months" mode. At least it paid off, judging by Thea's casual disregard after getting hot coffee spilled on her hand. Like, boiling/blistering hot.

But of course, no good episode of Arrow would be complete without at least one badass showdown scene. To this end, Lyla asks Diggle to do a little freelance for ARGUS (she should really stop working there...) by going with Oliver to Corto Maltese and tracking down an agent who has gone dark. Turns out the agent, Mark Shaw (David Cubitt) is a traitor and was looking to collect a fat paycheck by selling ARGUS files to the highest bidder. Thankfully, Oliver, Diggle and Roy are in town to stop it! While the case itself is pretty forgettable, the character of Mark Shaw is recognizable as Manhunter in comics, so we've probably got more of him to look forward to. It's also a little odd that Diggle and Lyla are so casual about putting each others' lives at risk. While it's true Lyla didn't expect Shaw to be involved in anything dangerous, sending her husband to investigate when he's not even on ARGUS payroll feels like they were really stretching for a way to get him there.

While the episode doesn't directly connect dots between Sara's murder, there's still quite a bit of resonance between the themes of "Corto Maltese" and the way the group is dealing with their loss. Oliver is so insistent on getting Thea back presumably because he wants to ensure she doesn't meet a terrible fate like Sara, as well as because he misses her. Laurel is now fully committing to the idea of becoming the Black Canary in Sara's stead, pulling in a puzzled Felicity to help her track down the abusive boyfriend of an Alcoholic's Anonymous member. Though she has a bat and a plan, she's hardly Sara in her confrontation, and ends up in the hospital.

I could practically hear Malcolm Merlyn's voice reverberate through the room when Laurel reflects on her father's comments, and shows up at Ted Grant's (J.R. Ramirez. Also.... OMG, Wildcat!!) gym to start really preparing herself. Those words, spoken to Thea carry weight with the whole cast, most likely:

"Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional." Though Sara's loss pains them all, particularly Laurel, they don't have to wallow in it and become sufferers. Both Oliver and Laurel seem to arrive at this conclusion along with Thea, with Oliver deciding to really open up to his sister, though he can't tell her everything quite yet, and Laurel taking a level in badass. But the show isn't going to be reflective for too long, as the episode ends with Nyssa confronting Oliver and Roy, aiming an arrow straight at Ollie and asking for information on Sara. With friends like these, who needs enemies?

Score: 7.5

Watch It Like a Fox:

• Laurel. No seriously, she was fantastic. "Just Google his cell phone or something."
• Felicity is pretty cool too: "Are we favor friends now?"
• You've been waiting for Thea to become a compelling character!
• You always wanted to see Oliver "MacGuyver" a couple of bows and arrows!
• "I never said I didn't know how to use a gun."

Duck It:

• The plot felt a little forced.
• You were hoping for more Roy/Thea interaction.
• You really can't believe that both Detective Lance AND Nyssa are being kept in the dark. Come on team Arrow, these guys deserves to be in the know!