Arrow "Restoration" (REVIEW)

Written by Jacob Chimilar (@sweetlows)

We start this week once again on a typical mission where Diggle still wont forgive Oliver for what he did during his time as Ra's. Meanwhile Laurel and Thea go visit Malcolm to use the Lazarus pit to bring Sarah back to life. Malcolm warns them that such a thing hasn't been tried in centuries and there is no telling what will happen, and even if it works she would be an angry shell of her former self. Laurel insists and eventually Malcolm gives in to her demands.

She's loving OG Team Arrow

Back at home, more specifically Diggle's, ARGUS has broken in and given him a tip on a HIVE agent by the name of  Mina Fayad who was responsible for hiring the people who killed his brother. Obviously Diggle takes the lead and runs with it, without telling Felicity or Oliver as his side revenge plot continues.

Mina Fayad was brought in as an agent of HIVE and  meets Damien and brings back up in the form of a meta human hit man with the once again Cisco nicknamed "Double Down" who uses razor sharp playing cards that he materializes from the tattoos in his skin to kill. He is then tasked with taking down The Green Arrow, something no one has accomplished and it's getting on Damien's nerves. Setting up a routine robbery that Felicity said was too easy even for Oliver, but insisting that the police won't cover it so he will, Luring Oliver into a warehouse (villains sure do love their warehouses) and attacks him with his playing card meta human powers, now he knows the enemy but Double Down fails to execute his plan, executing the Green Arrow, and Damien is none too pleased with this result. 

Double Down 

Diggle at the same time is on  his mission to find Mina and ends up being too outnumbered and retreats back to HQ as does Oliver. This is when things get tense. Felicity loses it on both of them, using her CEO voice, much like a mom disciplining her naughty children, she sends them into time out and tells them that if they don't work things out, she will find a way to do it for them. Oliver expresses his wanting to get back on good terms and Diggle clearly can't trust him, but he has an idea on some steps to take. He explains to Oliver finally that he has been looking into HIVE and the two of them share a common goal in tracking them down and together they have gotten much further than either would have apart, hooray for team work! 

back in the "Dhark" we see just how angry Dhark can get. He lays  down the mystical law on Double Down using his powers to show just how easy it is for him to kill DD, but instead kills Fayad with one of the cards and grants him one last chance

Thea as it turns out has a "Dexter" like complex. Having been healed by the pit has given her anger issues, Malcolm give her some advice and tells her to let it out on someone, its a force that urges her to kill or at least seriously harm others in order to stay sane and keep the hunger for violence at bay and like a good dad Malcolm encourages it whole heartedly. 

Giving out some fatherly advice (the normal kind)

This week in flashbacks we see Oliver torturing  workers on island using his skills he learned from being tortured himself. It seems as though some of the workers have banded together to try and steal drugs and flee the terrible working conditions, this leads to some harsh interrogation but eventual sympathy from Oliver and he decides to help one of the ladies escape the camp. Another small step forward for the episode one in which we may see Oliver triumphing over the militia and saving all the workers there.

How he feels when someone steals his drugs, wouldn't you?

Felicity takes one of the cards that came out of Double Down to Curtis to have it analyzed. He finds that it contains a chemical present in tattoo ink but also homing pigeons that allows them to find their way home, and double down seems to use that sense to find them at Palmer Tech and Felicity in desperation takes Curtis to The Lair and  they both defend each other against Double Down destroying The Lair in the progress but ultimately he gets away. 

Laurel and Thea have Malcolm help put Sarah in the pit, and she magically comes alive. Unfortunately like Malcolm predicted she comes alive as basically a monster. She looks mad as hell and wants to beat up any one in sight. They chain her up to see if she can calm down like Thea did. While all that is going on Lisa goes and destroys the pit  as Ra's had instructed her to if it was ever used for something he would deem an extreme misuse of the pit. Furious Malcolm has her locked up as well to be delt with later.

Finally Oliver and Diggle track and take down Double Down with Oliver "taking a bullet" for Diggle, thus earning back his respect in the process and he punches Double Down's lights out and presumably goes to jail or back to the STARR Labs containment facility.

Overall I thought the episode was pretty solid. I enjoyed Double Down and Felicity and Curtis working together more, finally getting resolution on the Diggle/Oliver feud and itll be interesting to see how things play out now that there is no more Lazarus Pit and an angry Sarah in the mix, at least until she goes on to Legends of Tomorrow. Good job team!