‘Arrow’ season 3, episode 16 review: Did Oliver Queen take Ra’s al Ghul’s offer?

The last time we saw “Arrow” on TV, we had quite the offer from Ra’s al Ghul to Oliver Queen: Become the new Demon’s Head. As we found out before the episode concluded, though, what we learned was that Ra’s “offer” was that it was hardly that. It was really a whole lot more of a commandment than anything else. Ultimately, he has to do what he says, or otherwise run the risk of having his entire world thrown into chaos.

Maybe that is what we saw at the end of the episode, where Ra’s donned a hood and started to go around killing people, determined that Oliver fulfills what he believes now to be his destiny. So long as this continues, this is certainly not particularly great news for him.

As exciting as this cliffhanger may be, it didn’t make up for what was at times a weaker episode. For one, watching Felicity sort-of flirt with Oliver while she’s technically with Ray was pretty awkward. We ‘ship Olicity as much as the next guy, but we’d rather see her make a choice than to string someone like Ray along if she has feelings for someone else. This doesn’t madden us nearly as much as the regurgitation of Roy and Thea. We all knew it was going to happen, but seeing her go back to him is not a good look at all.

Were there good moments? Sure, in between the Oliver / Diggle conversations, that impressive action sequence, and Captain Lance telling Laurel that he may not be able to ever forgive her. Maybe our problem is just that we are still reeling from Tuesday’s epic episode of “The Flash,” and this hour really paled in comparison. Grade: C+.

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