Wow. Just wow. I’ll be honest, when I saw the preview for this week I groaned a bit as there was a lot of Thea and Laurel involved but I was wrong because I loved this episode! There was so much going on and it was pretty much one person crying after another and damn if it didn’t tug at the ol’ heartstrings.

This dude though, he needs to stop neglecting his buildings/tenants/whatever and start working on his ability to hold a knife. He dropped that like it was a hot potato and look where it got him – kidnapped, stashed on an old subway car, and then killed while the internet watched. Speaking of, would you like to catch up on the latest that “Glades Betrayed” has to offer? Well you are in luck! You can find the site right here (note: googling “gladys betrayed” will not get you the result you were intending) and we can see that it is a really good think Oliver put that arrow in the Savior’s chest because he was not done with his list.

While the bad guy du jour was entertaining enough, it was everything else in the episode that really made it great.

How adorable and heartbreaking was Felicity this week? She really reminded me of Garcia from Criminal Minds with her “I just look at the computer screen I don’t really have to be a real part of all this” reaction to the whole situation. Pretty much every exchange between the Arrow Cave group was fantastic whether it was the funny parts or the really sad-ish “you can call me any time” part. You just know that all those Olicity (I think that’s what has been settled upon) shippers just died at this episode. DIED!

When Oliver was running from the first place Felicity sent him to the second, I can not be the only one who thought of this.

PARKOUR!! Seriously, that was both awesome and somewhat ridiculous. Apparently we are supposed to believe that Oliver can outrun a subway car. Right. That’s totally possible. Sure. I also really enjoyed Oliver busting down every door in an office building and it taking about ten seconds. He really is a superhero!

Superman being faster than a speeding bullet has nothing on Starling City’s golden boy Oliver Queen!

As much as I can not stand Thea (this is more of an ebb and flow kind of dislike), she was killing me this week

with her tears. Like they were little tears of acid tearing down the concrete walls surrounding my cynical heart. I’m trying to hone my maudlin teen angsty side, does that seem about right? Seriously though, that whole thing with her watching the internet feed and Roy saying that no one would miss him and he’s just a nobody, oh man just kill me now!

I do wonder though how long it’s going to take Thea to put two and two together. One second she says something to Oliver about Roy and next thing we know, Roy is being rescued by the vigilante. Come on Thea, you seem like a smart girl, you can do this. Especially when Roy hooks up with Oliver – only a matter of time and Thea is going to be a resident of the Arrow Cave.

If the Thea/Roy and Felicity parts didn’t make you feel things in the ice castle known as a soul, then surely to :insert deity of choice: the Lance family having their hopes shat upon did! Although I have a bone to pick with Laurel. If she thought her mom, Dinah Lance – if you’ve forgotten, was full of it and delusional thinking her sister was alive, why didn’t she just tell her that when she showed up at the door two episodes ago?

Instead, now we’ve got this family task force thing going and her parents are all excited and hopeful and all that is ruined by one call to the Chinese Embassy. Damn Chinese Embassy always ruins everything! I was a mess with that whole “I killed our baby” thing. A mess. Like “pull yourself together Amanda for you are a grown ass woman tearing up over a show that is really not all that deep and you are sort of making a fool of yourself here” mess.

I might have been boohoo’ing like a baby but at least I don’t have an ugly cry like Laurel. Yikes. They might want to keep the Laurel crying scenes to a minimum because she does not sob gracefully, at all. I am interested in seeing what happens between her and Tommy as all evidence is pointing towards them being on the outs and I can totally see her turning to Oliver in her “time of need”. Of course Oliver will be all over that, white knight that he is, even though she pretty much friend-zoned him when he told her he no longer wanted to be on an island. He reaches out, she keeps him at arm’s length. Ouch.

Now all of this was great and wonderful but the real action of this episode was the smallest portion and that Malcolm and Moira. I think we all knew that when Frank showed up a few episodes ago, his time with us was going to be brief. Oh so  you have connections to the Triad and know all about “the undertaking”? Sorry Frank but it’s time for you to die. Now we’ve got Malcolm and Moira again as “partners” in whatever effed up thing they’ve got planned and Moira is in the car going all Lady Macbeth. I fear Moira is going to make a mistake and it will not be pretty.

I knew that Shado and Yao Fei were going to end up with Oliver and Slade Wilson somehow. I’m also beginning to thing that it’s going to be Shado that ends up teaching Oliver how to be the Green Arrow. Homegirl can kick some ass, and apparently speak English which will go far when it comes to the student/teacher relationship.  Even though I didn’t really think that they’d be able to make the trade with Fyers for the circuit board, I was a little heartbroken for them when they found out that Fyers stole it. Of course that could have just been residual tears from the rest of the episode.

So Dark Archer is back killing people, Malcolm and Moira seem to be back on track with “the undertaking” that somehow involves the Glades and the old subway system, Felicity is a full-fledged member of the Arrow Cave, Thea and Roy are practically knocking down the secret door, Dinah is heading back to Coast City (and will be home in a “flash”), Laurel is pretending to be sticking by Tommy’s side even though we all know that’s a ticking time bomb, everyone is still on the island and….

Oliver is still working out.

A fantastic episode! I am starting to think that Walter is for real not coming back. Unless I missed it, there hasn’t been any “oh hey, Walter is gone for good” announcements but there is a good chance they are just stringing me along but that was pretty much the only thing missing from this episode. Going to have to go with a four on this one. Would bump up to a four and a half but it was a generic bad guy (not a bad thing really) and of course that ugly cry of Laurel’s is always going to knock things down a peg.