The episode starts off right with Malcolm holding Oliver hostage after discovering his identity. Malcolm speaks to him about not knowing what he’s really fighting for than leaves him hanging. Oliver breaks free of his chains, but two men are there to stop him, and just when things were looking dark, Diggle shows up and saves him from a gunshot wound. They return to the hide out to discuss what’s going to happen next, Diggle mentions to Oliver that Felicity has found the schematics for the earthquake machine. As the episode rolls on, Felicity has realized that the machine of destruction is underground, and Oliver quickly realizes exactly where it is. It’s placed right where Tommy’s mother was shot dead.
Detective Lance manages to get a hold of Felicity and interrogates her, connecting her to the hood. Fortunately Arrow makes a phone call to Lance and tells him about Malcolm’s evil plan to level the glades, saving Felicities behind in the process. Lance releases her, and as she’s leaving she tells him that the hood is more of a Hero than a criminal. Trying to convince the chief of police about the undertaking, Lance gets suspended for conversing with the Hood.
Oliver meets up with a drunken raging Tommy to tell him the news about his father, but he doesn’t believe him. He’s too upset about seeing Oliver and Laurel kissing from her apartment window in the previous episode. Tommy tells Oliver that he wishes he had died on the island and walks away. Later on Tommy confronts his father about what Oliver had just told him…and I wasn’t expecting this, but Malcolm came clean and told Tommy about his evil plan. He plays a message recording of Tommy’s mother as she was dying, and this broke Tommy’s heart.
Oliver returns home and tells his mother, Moira that she needs to stop the undertaking before it happens. She starts thinking about it but just then Malcolm calls her and tells her that the undertaking will be happening that night. As Oliver is about to leave his house, Laurel shows up and they both get a little emotional, they share a kiss and Oliver tells her that she needs to stay out of the glades. As Oliver is at the hideout figuring out a game plan, Moira holds a press conference at the mansion. She explains that she was a part of an undertaking to destroy the glades and that Malcolm was the architect behind it all. She had proof that Malcolm had killed many people to accomplish his plan, including He husband. Angry and in shock, Thea confronts her mother about it than runs off to save her boyfriend Roy, who lives in the glades.
As Malcolm shows Tommy the dark archer suit, a few police officers come to arrest Malcolm. But he makes quick and easy work of them. Tommy doesn’t want this for his father, so he tries to detour him by pointing a gun to his head but Malcolm knocks Tommy out.
Back at the hideout, Oliver and Diggle decide to pair up and go after Malcolm. Oliver calls Detective lance and tells him where the bomb is, and the Felicity will walk him through the process of disarming it. The Duo makes their way to Malcolm’s office and finds Tommy. Tommy apologizes to Oliver and Diggle discovers a false wall. Malcolm was behind it fully dressed in his dark archer suit. Diggle ends up being stabbed in the shoulder and the fight makes its way to the roof. Just as Malcolm had the hood in a chokehold, Oliver grabbed a stray arrow and plunged it through Malcolm’s chest. As Malcolm lay there dying, he tells Oliver that there’s a second device and that’s it’s too late to stop.
While all this is going on, Detective Lance finds the device and realizes he only has seven minutes to disarm it. He tampers with it a bit and the time limit goes down to two minutes. Uh oh… Realizing that he doesn’t have much time, Lance calls Laurel to say his goodbyes, and begs her to get out of the glades immediately. She doesn’t do as she’s told, and it’s going to cost someone their life. Eventually, Felicity figures out how to disarm the device and tells Lance how to do it. But they soon hear from Oliver that there is a second device, and its minutes away from going off. There’s no time.
Thea manages to find Roy in an alley, up against a guy with a gun. She saves him by sneaking up behind the guy and hitting him over the head with a bottle. With a rampaging city, they try to make their escape, but get separated when Roy decided to help some citizens. Leaving hid girlfriend to get out of the glades alone.
Diggle and Oliver watch from the rooftop as half of the glades fall apart right before their eyes. Oliver remembers Laurel and heads into the disaster on his bike. Laurel was too late to get out of CNRI; she gets trapped under a big piece of concrete. Just then, her knight in shining shows up to rescue her, and no, it’s not Oliver this time, it’s Tommy! He tells her he loves her and that he’s right behind her summoning all his strength, he lifts the concrete just enough so that she can jimmy out. Laurel makes a great escape to her father waiting outside the building. As she turned to look for Tommy, the building collapses.
Oliver made it there, expecting to find Laurel, but to his horror he only found his best friend on the ground with a piece of rebar through his chest. Sadly, Tommy dies. R.I.P Tommy, you will be missed.
SO, now that we have that down, let’s talk a little bit about the flashbacks Oliver is always having. In the beginning of the episode there’s his father shooting another survivor and then himself. And then we fast forward to Oliver breaking free from his bonds with the knife that Yao Fae slipped him. He stabs the man operating the radio, but unfortunately the missiles have already been launched. A huge fight breaks out and Oliver manages to turn the missiles around, only they head back towards the island, destroying everything. Oliver finds Slade amongst the rubble, and they soon notice that Fyers has Shado hostage, a gun to her head. Oliver picks up a random bow and draws the arrow pointing straight at Fyers. Fyers boasts that Oliver won’t be able to do it, boy, was he ever wrong. Oliver shot the arrow straight into Fyers chest.
So there you have it! This season finally will definitely be one to remember. It was so action packed there was no way I could write just a short recap. I really look forward to season 2’s premier and hopefully we get to meet some new hero’s, like Speedy and the Black Canary. Only way to find out is wait it out.