Arrow Recap With Spoilers: Blood Debts

The episode opens with Oliver at the gravesite four months from now, in an echo of the last scene [...]

By Russ Burlingame

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The episode opens with Oliver at the gravesite four months from now, in an echo of the last scene of the season premiere. Still, we don't see who's in the grave, and again Barry comes to see Oliver and Oliver pledges to kill the one responsible.

At the hospital in the present, Felicity is being prepped for surgery; this intercuts with scenes of Oliver brutalizing Ghosts looking for Darhk. They continually kill themselves rather than give him information.

Back at the lair, Oliver tells Diggle he needs to get the information from his brother. Laurel comes to tell Oliver Felicity is going in for another surgery, but he wants to look for Darhk rather than visit her.

In the Lian Yu flashbacks, Conklin takes Oliver and Taiana to be punished (killed) by Reiter.

At the hospital, Donna tells Diggle, Thea and Laurel that Felicity's about to go in for her final surgery. Everyone present is nervous, but Felicity says she'll be fine.

At the Lair, Diggle goes into his brother's cell and starts beating on him to get information about Darhk.

At police headquarters, Oliver goes to see Lance, asking him to give up his meeting place with Darhk even though they both know that would mean compromising Lance. Lance gives Oliver the information — and asks whether Oliver is back to killing. Oliver says just this once.

In the office building where Lance had sent him, Oliver arrives to find a number of dead Ghosts, and an "anarchy" sign painted in blood in the elevator.

At the Lair, Oliver is researching Lonnie Machin, the kid who Darhk rejected and who Thea disfigured during their last run-in. When Thea asks how Oliver found his way to the base, he doesn't give up Lance, but Laurel clearly knows, and heads to see him.

At Reiter's camp, Conklin brings Oliver in, along with the maps from the freighter. Reiter is upset, and Conklin takes Oliver out behind the camp to whip his back.

At home, John goes to talk to Lyla. She tells him he needs to talk to Andy like his brother, not like he's a prisoner.

At the hospital, Thea believes Machin will go after her — that he's a monster, in part because of her Lazarus rage. She's demoralized by what's been going on lately, and still confused by the effect Darhk's attack on her had. Laurel tells her that she's going to be fine, but Thea doesn't want to hear it.

In Felicity's room, Thea and Laurel walk in on Lance consoling Donna Smoak. She's surprised but when Quentin sends Thea and Donna away, she tells him she just wants him to be happy; she's more worried he's going to bring Darhk's wrath down on himself by giving up the base of operations.

He gets a text saying that the CSIs got a hit on the blood at the Machin/H.I.V.E. crime scene. At the lair, Laurel reveals it's Machin's foster parents.

Team Arrow figures out that Machin is probably using his old home as a base of operations, and suit up to go after him. At his home, they find more graffiti, photos with faces scratched out and some very poor housekeeping. They try to take him in, and Machin clicks a button and almost kills them with some automated guns while he tries to make an escape. After cornering Thea, he tells her he'd never hurt her, because she helped make him what he is.

After taking out the motion sensor on the guns, Team Arrow finds Machin just as he's taunting Thea. They knock him out and take him into custody.

At another location, Team Arrow has Machin chained up. Everyone wants to send him to get help, but Oliver has decided he's going to do whatever is necessary to get information from Machin. Before he can get too far into it, Thea comes to tell Oliver that he needs to go to the hospital — Felicity is out of surgery and there's bad news.

Back at Andy's cell, Diggle and his brother bicker. John says he's ashamed of beating on his brother and has always tried to reform Andy. They reminisce about being friends as kids, playing cards together late into the night. Diggle asks him for help, saying that Darhk has crossed lines. Andy tells him about a neighborhood Darhk used to talk about.

Machin is hassling Thea, trying to get her to kill him and trying to prove she can't control herself. She holds an arrow to his throat but before its' resolved the police show up to take Machin into custody.

At the hospital, Oliver goes to see Donna, who asks where he's been. He admits he should have been there, and she tells Oliver that there's permanent damage to Felicity's spinal cord, and she'll never walk again. Oliver says they'll get a second opinion, but Donna says this IS the second opinion. Oliver sees Machin's arrest, with Laurel on-hand for it, on the news before he goes to see Felicity.

On Lian Yu, the tattoo John Constantine had left on Oliver's abdomen starts to glow, as does the Orb of Horus. Reiter stops the torture, and Oliver steals Conklin's gun, then puts it to his own head.

Back in Star City, Oliver attacks a police transport to break out Machin, giving him a simple instruction: make sure Darhk is dead.

At the Lair, Laurel tells Oliver that he was out of line, and he objects, saying that she made it necessary by taking Machin in. They debate the ethics of how Oliver has been getting more obsessed and violent, but he says he put a tracker on Machin, who will lead them to Darhk and they'll take both down. Laurel objects, asking what happens when his plan goes wrong, but Oliver is determined.

Diggle tells Oliver that he will back Oliver's play, but that Oliver has to be careful not to lose what made Felicity fall in love with him in the first place.

At the campaign headquarters, Thea breaks up with Alex, saying that her anger management isn't under control. He says to call him back if she ever gets to a better place.

At the Lair, the signal on Machin's tracker is lost. Diggle sends Oliver to see Felicity, since she needs him and right now he's not at his best. Team Arrow will work on tracking Machin.

At the hospital, Oliver goes to see Felicity, who understands his absence. He says that he's worried he hasn't been going far enough, and that's why Darhk is winning. She asks what the point is of doing the Green Arrow thing if he loses himself in the process. She tells him that if he wants to back out of the engagement, she understands, but he says he won't, and puts the ring — taken off by a nurse pre-surgery — back on her finger. They kiss.

On Lian Yu, Oliver tells Reiter that he won't kill himself and will help Reiter find what he needs provided they give Taiana safety. Reiter agrees, over Conklin's objections, and then tells his men to take both Taiana and Oliver to prison.

At the hospital, Oliver gets a visit from Laurel, saying that it seems the neighborhood Darhk had mentioned to Andy Diggle is where Machin was seen before his tracker went dark.

At Damien's house, Anarky has his wife and child tied up and is about to start burning them with a flamethrower when Team Arrow breaks in and stops him, freeing the pair.

Anarky fights Oliver and Speedy with his three-sectioned staff while the rest of the team gets Darhk's family to safety. Eventually Speedy runs off to find Anarky, and Oliver runs into Darhk.

Speedy incapacitates Anarky while Oliver and Darhk fight. Darhk demands to know where his family is, but Green Arrow tells him that Team Arrow saved his family from Machin. This surprises Darhk, who says that in appreciation for that, he'll give him some time with his own family before he kills him.

In the woods behind the house, Machin frees himself from his bonds and leaves Thea nearly unconscious as he makes his escape.

At the lair, Team Arrow meets with Lance. Darhk's wife and daughter are fine, but denied knowing him and had fake IDs. Oliver says he's going to go see Felicity.

At Lian Yu, Conklin sends Oliver and Taiana into their cell, promising that he's going to kill Oliver once Reiter is done with him. Taiana starts cleaning his wounds.

Back at the Lair, Diggle opens up the food slot in Andy's cell and deals a hand of cards for each of them.

At Thea's apartment, she brings Alex over for a romantic wine date, where she says she figured out that she really can control her rage. They toast and kiss.

At the hospital, Oliver is watching Felicity sleep when she wakes up. He tells her that he wants to take her to Bali — an extension of an earlier joke she made — but she says they can't do it until Darhk is off the board.

In his limo, Darhk says he has rented out a hotel for his family, and they'll be safe there for a while. He says Machin will never hurt them again, and Darhk's wife says he should have killed Green Arrow tonight. She says Genesis is almost ready and they're too close to play games. He says they'll have a new beginning once they've brought this world to its end.

Four months from now, Oliver gets into the limousine at the edge of the cemetery, where a clearly-upset Felicity is waiting. He asks if she's okay and she says that he knows what he has to do: Oliver has to "kill the son of a bitch."

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