Arrow Recap: City of Heroes

The episode begins on the island–Oliver is running and jumping, shirtless, through the underbrush when a plane arrives.The plane is being flown by an old foreign man, who seems to have very little control of the descent. Diggle and Felicity are on board, with Felicity scared of flying and Diggle trying to get her to bail out with him onto the island, since there’s no safe place to land.They chute down together, and Felicity throws up on the beach. The pair pass the Deathstroke mask seen in the first season as they make their way into the tree line.As we’ve seen in the preview material, Felicity steps on a land mine and when Diggle goes to try and disarm it, Ollie swings in from behind on a vine, snatches her off the mine and it blows up, knocking them all clear of the scene but not hurting anyone.Oliver tells them they shouldn’t have come.Back at his camp, Ollie is acting antisocial, and tells them that he’s not going back to Starling–that he failed at his task in the first season becuase he couldn’t stop Tommy’s death.Diggle tells him that it’s not about the Hood–that the family, and the business, needs Ollie. Grudgingly, Oliver agrees to go.Flashing back to the previous visit on the island, Oliver and his sidekicks get a ping on their radar and realize that even without Fyers, they aren’t alone on the islend.In the city, Ollie sees a “vote for Blood” graphitti on the wall. Apparently he (Jason?) is running for alderman. Ollie gets the file on Isabel Rochev, who is mounting a hostile takeover to break down the company for parts. Ollie says he wants to go home to check on Thea, but she’s with Roy–fighting with him because in the throes of making out, she sees bruises and realizes he’s been out fighting with bad guys again.Ollie asks if Thea has checked in on their mother, and Thea says that she won’t, since their mom is a mass murderer. In spite of Ollie’s objections, she remains determined.STAR Labs is developing a reactor, apparently, per the news.The mayor is at a party, talking to District Attorney Donner; he’s for the Hood and Donner is against. Laurel comes up, taking sides with the district attorney–her “new boss.”He begins to make a speech and in the middle of it, someone begins screaming at hiim that he has failed the city. Gunmen come out from the wings and kill the mayor and a bunch of other people., then try to take the district attorney. Laurel kicks one down the stairs but ends up with a gun to her head. The gang, wearing hoodies and gas masks, identify themselves as “The Hoods.”Office Lance shows up, only to be chastised by another cop for being there even when he shouldn’t because he was demoted. Her dad checks in with her, and then Ollie checks in as well, bringing her off to the side to talk about how they dealt with Tommy’s deaths.Laurel says she made a mistake sleeping with Ollie, and that she deeply regrets not being able to fix it now that Tommy is dead. Ollie tells her that he felt the same way about what happened to her sister during the wreck, and that he would do anything to take it all back. She hugs him and says she knows, but she can’t.Outside, Ollie tells Diggle that he’s annoyed Diggle tricked him into coming back to fight the Hoods. He refuses, saying he’s going to focus on the company.In their hideout, the Hoods decide to target Ollie because they want to take out the decadent rich.At the bar, Roy Harper comes to talk to Thea, telling her that he thinks she should go see her mom. Thea says she won’t, since her mother helped create a lot of orphans who don’t have the option. “I’m not going to that prison; it’s the only way I know how to hurt her,” she tells him. He tells her that she should consider that it’s hurting her as well.Ollie comes to Queen Consolidated the next day, and Isabel Rochev  tells him that he can’t stop her from taking over Queen Consolidated; that the company has fallen and he doesn’t have the money to stop her. The Hoods come into the meeitng and try to take Ollie; shey shoot up the room but Ollie gets Rochev and then Felicity free of the room, leaving Diggle in there with the shooters.Oliver apologizes to Rochev, saying that what happens there is his business. Officer Lance asks Felicity whether she’s heard from the Hood, and she says no.Ollie isn’t comfortable with the body count of being the vigilante, he tells his crew when the cops leave, and so that’s why he can’t be the Hood. He’s upset that his best friend died thinking that he was a murderer. Felicity says that instead of killing them, he should just find another way to be Arrow. He leaves the room to find someone who will help him save the company.Flashing back to the island, Shado and Slade are helping Ollie track whatever’s on the island. Shado leaves the group for a moment and vanishes into thin air.