Arrow: Left Behind Review

The Team’s worst fears are realized when Meryln informs them of Oliver’s death. Meanwhile Ray Palmer tests part of his ATOM suit out and Laurel Lance decides to pursue justice outside of the law by taking up the mantle of the Black Canary.

Oliver Queen is dead, but Arrow needs to live on. After the shocking events of the mid-season finale, it was time to return to life in Starling City. Here are our 7 takeaways from the episode.

1. Starling City went to hell pretty damn fast didn’t it? I mean we start the episode only 3-4 days removed from Oliver’s encounter with Ra’s Al Ghul, and Team Arrow already seems in over their heads. Not only that, but Brick has launched this massive scheme (which is quite intelligent really) and doesn’t seem to fear any real injection from the Arrow.
2. Oliver is dead, and Felicity carries the emotion of the team and Starling City well… but I felt a bit… cold? I guess because we’ve been through this before… honestly at the start of this very season. With the heroes mourning the loss of one of their own for most of the first chunk of season 3. I guess the difference now is removing the head instead of a massive cog from their operation. 
3. Laurel has a long road ahead of her, but I thought her entrance as the new Black Canary was well done. It was a pretty bad-ass way to introduce her version of the character. And seems like she will rely on gadgets a lot more than her sister.
4. Thea is smart enough to figure out Roy is Arsenal, which I give her a ton of credit for. Though kind of negates the whole fact that she still can’t figure out her brother is “The Arrow.”
5. While Felicity acted the hell out of all of her scenes, the real star of this episode was John Barrowman’s Malcolm Merlyn. He has the right amount of concerned, smug arrogance to really have you question whether you feel bad for the guy or should hate his guts. And seriously, line of the night, “It’s cute that you think you could.”
6. I don’t know if it’s because the show tends to be a bit more over the top when it comes to Roy’s action sequences, but the big fight at the end of the episode was some of the show’s best work. I really enjoyed the camera work when Roy was running through the pipe (?) while a crook was trying to gun him down. And he also got some fancy leap as he jump kicked off some dude to get higher ground.
7. Oliver Queen is not dead! Shocking absolutely no one, but I was a bit surprised the revelation came so soon. Figured they may milk it for two episodes or so, but nope alive and well (maybe?). I guess the big mystery will be the “How?” part of it.

A solid enough return for Arrow. This episode felt like the start of a mini-arc (With Team Arrow in shambles, and Brick’s plans in motion) more than it did a way to set the table for the reminder of the season, but we shall see how it all plays out.