‘Arrow’ season 4, episode 13 review: Malcolm Merlyn, Oliver Queen’s epic showdown

For years on “Arrow,” Malcolm Merlyn has proven himself to be quite the tormentor of Oliver Queen. We saw what happened to Tommy, and we experienced what he attempted to do in the Glades at the end of season 1. Since that time there have been occasional glimmers of hope that this man changed.

Had he really? At the time of the most-brutal standoff between Stephen Amell and John Barrowman’s characters during Wednesday night’s new episode, it did not appear so. Merlyn refused to surrender his ring to Nyssa in return for the lotus needed to save Thea. Therefore, Oliver eventually decided that it was better that he took matters into his own hands, even if it did mean in the process causing Malcolm to lose his in a duel. He gave Nyssa the ring from Malcolm’s amputated arm, and this seemed to resolve things.

The good news for Malcolm is that he’s alive. The bad news? He no longer has any reason to hold back, and this could prove to be terrible news for Oliver and Malcolm in the future. We saw a small sense of that in the closing scene, where Malcolm informed Damian Darhk that he knew who Oliver cared about more than anyone, and therefore who should be targeted: William, Oliver’s son.

Here’s the irony: After all she went through to get control of the League, Nyssa realized that she didn’t want to control anyone else. She set the League free.

Felicity calculates her future – We got a chance to finally see the Calculator in action as Felicity’s dad, and let’s just say that it did not go well. Do we think that there are some good bones in his body? Sure, but he’s also a criminal, and that is going to be problematic for many episodes to come provided that we get to see this character in the near future. For now, Felicity has sent him over to the cops after she realized that he was still very much the man she thought he was.

After everything that Oliver and Felicity went through the past few weeks, it does seem like they’ve made a big decision on their future: They’re getting married soon! Let’s just hope that Malcolm doesn’t cause things to come crashing down before they walk down the altar. Grade: A-.

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