Arrow season 2, episode 12, “Tremors,” aired tonight, featuring the beginning of Roy’s journey to Arrow sidekick.
So what happened in the episode?
The return of a familiar face
A newly processed prisoner at Iron Heights is taken to the cell of Ben Turner, otherwise known as Bronze Tiger. He gives Turner some instructions about a meeting before pulling Turner’s signature claws out of his skin. Shudder.
Turner uses them on a guard and escapes. He ends up going to the meeting, where he’s hired to lead a crew to steal a very dangerous item.
Training days
It’s been a few days since the Arrow started training Roy, who is impatient with just hitting water. The Arrow tries to convince him that he needs to learn control. After all, the Arrow had to put an arrow through the eye of the last person he knew who couldn’t control the mirakuru change.
The Arrow tries a different approach and sets Roy up with a punching dummy, but Roy, channeling his inner Jackson, smashes it. He wants to hit something that’ll hit back.
He gets his chance when Felicity learns that the architect who built Malcolm Merlyn’s house was murdered and the blueprints stolen. The Arrow offers to bring Roy and his red hoodie along. In Merlyn’s garage, they find Turner and his men stealing a prototype earthquake machine. Uh oh.
The Arrow and Turner fight while Roy gets caught up beating on the getaway driver, and Turner escapes with the device.
A bumpy mentorship
Thankfully the fight wasn’t a complete waste since Oliver managed to get a watch off one of Turner’s men. Felicity gets to work trying to identify its owner.
Meanwhile, Roy tries to convince Thea that she and her family need to leave Starling for a few days. He can’t tell her why, though, so ends up frustrated and flees his increasingly helpless-feeling girlfriend.
Roy comes back to the Arrow, wanting to go after the device. The Arrow is upset that Roy attempted to bring Thea into the conflict, but Roy takes offense at this and attacks the Arrow, telling him not to interfere. Oliver, though, isn’t ready to give up on Roy.
Felicity finally gets a print from the watch, which leads the Arrow to the docks where Turner is being paid for his services. The Arrow shoots Turner’s benefactor, but Turner jumps him. The Arrow knocks him off, just in time for Roy to appear and take on Turner himself.
Deciding he’s dead no matter what, the crook of the week sets off the prototype’s timer. And while there’s no way the Arrow can break into the machine’s crate himself in under a minute to stop it, Roy can. Unfortunately, he’s busy beating on Turner.
The Arrow revealed
The only way for the Arrow to get through to Roy is to pull off his hood and mask. As Oliver, he invokes Thea’s name and gives a shocked Roy instructions to break into the container, and together they destroy the machine just in time.
Roy tells Oliver that he gave him purpose. They shake hands, and Oliver says they’re just getting started. Later, he takes Roy to the Arrow lair and introduces him to Felicity and Diggle. Welcome to Team Arrow.
Back in Iron Heights, Amanda Waller visits Turner with an offer to join “a squad.” Suicide Squad, anyone?
A political career
The episode’s B-plot sees the return of the dearly missed Walter. He and a business associate, played by sci-fi staple Nicholas Lea, ask Moira to run against Sebastian Blood for mayor. Moira’s hesitant because she was just acquitted in a trial for mass murder, but Walter is serious. She has name recognition and would be a game-changing candidate.
Thea, it turns out, is also fully behind the idea, telling her mother that the best way for her to earn redemption for the Undertaking is to save the city. This convinces Moira to run.
However, there’s one wrinkle: Thea’s parentage. Walter is aware that Thea isn’t Roger’s, and Moira is worried about a political campaign uncovering skeletons in her closet. The only other person who knows Thea is Malcolm’s daughter is Moira’s OB, who they need to convince not to talk.
Lance family drama
As Laurel continues to unravel, her father comes to visit. He says he misses her and asks her to have dinner with him. They agree to go out the next night, but what Lance says is a hole-in-the-wall restaurant turns out to be an AA meeting. Laurel is furious and leaves.
The next day, Laurel goes to a job interview at her old friend Joanna’s firm, only to learn that she’s being disbarred. She ends up at Verdant looking to drown her sorrows, and Thea has to call Oliver. Between them, the Queen siblings cut her off, take her keys, and send her home in a cab.
But when Laurel arrives home, she falls down and hits her head — and sees Sara kneeling over her.
Meanwhile, on the island…
Oliver and Sara use the radar to track Slade back to the cave, but he’s not there when they arrive. Oliver notices some calculations drawn on the cave wall and realizes he’s seen them before.
Oliver knows they’ll find Slade at the missile launcher from last season. He’s going to blow up Ivo’s freighter to avenge Shado, and he pulls a gun on Oliver when he tries to stop him. Oliver appeals to Slade by telling him that Shado loved him and wanted him to make it home.
If Slade destroys Ivo’s freighter, then Shado would’ve died for nothing. This reins Slade in for the time being, as Oliver declares that they’re going to take the freighter for themselves.
