The Arrow season 2 finale, titled “Unthinkable,” aired tonight. Read our recap and discuss the episode with fellow fans.
The final act begins
The episode opens with Slade’s soldiers entering the clock tower. Roy, sans super strength, wakes up and Team Arrow flees just in time for a helicopter, flown by Lyla, to blow up the tower.
The group heads for the wrecked foundry. While Lyla and Diggle plan to stall Amanda Waller, Felicity and Roy are tasked with finding injection arrows and filling them with the cure.
At the train station, Malcolm survives Thea shooting him since he’s wearing Kevlar. He says Thea’s made of iron and he’s proud.
Taking back the company
Sara brings Nyssa al Ghul and seven assassins into the foundry; she agreed to return to the League in exchange for help. Nyssa informs Oliver that Slade is at Queen Consolidated. Oliver then gives Roy a mask and demands Nyssa and her men go non-lethal.
Thea gets a call from Roy, asking asks her to meet him at his place. She agrees, though Malcolm tells her Roy is no different than Moira and Oliver. As she leaves, he tells her that when she needs him, he’ll be there.
Team Arrow assaults Queen Consolidated, and when Nyssa and her men arrive, Slade flees. Sara and Nyssa quickly take Isabel down. Oliver stops Sara from killing her, but Nyssa snaps her neck.
At SCPD, a Mirakuru soldier attacks Quentin and throws him aside like a rag doll before grabbing Laurel. Quentin heads to Queen Consolidated and pleads with Canary and the Arrow to get Laurel back by any means necessary.
As much as they want to, though, the city has to come first. Slade’s men are gathering at a tunnel. After everyone leaves, Felicity tells Oliver that Lance is wrong and Oliver has a choice.
Standoff
When Thea arrives at Roy’s, Roy apologizes. He tells her he is done with the Arrow. Thea hugs him and asks him to leave with her. Roy agrees, but their reunion is interrupted by him being called to action. He asks Thea to wait for him.
Oliver brings Felicity to the Queen mansion, where he tells her that Slade is after the woman he loves but took the wrong one. He tells Felicity he loves her, and Felicity agrees to stay behind.
Team Arrow arrives at the tunnel too late to save the A.R.G.U.S. soldiers. Oliver reiterates the no killing rule right before a battle ensues with Team Arrow curing soldiers left and right.
Diggle and Lyla head into A.R.G.U.S. and free Deadshot and some other prisoners for backup. As Waller prepares to order the drone to fire, they arrive. At a standoff, Waller says Lyla is pregnant.
As the tunnel battle winds down, Oliver gets a message from Slade — he has Felicity.
The final battle
Oliver reaches Slade, who has a sword at Felicity’s throat. Oliver drops his bow, and a Mirakuru soldier then brings Laurel in. Oliver says Shado would be horrified at what Slade has done in her name. Slade replies he’s done what Oliver lacks the courage to do.
While Oliver keeps Slade talking, Felicity pulls a syringe of the cure from her pocket and stabs Slade with it. Sara then shoots the soldier holding Laurel and leads the women out.
Oliver and Slade then go at it. They make their way outside, where Slade says it wasn’t the Mirakuru that made him hate Oliver. The only way for this to end is to kill Slade. Oliver eventually gets the upper hand in the fight and binds Slade to a beam.
Oliver informs Waller the fight is over, and she finally calls the drone off.
The birth of a hero
Sara meets Laurel and Quentin before heading off with Nyssa. For the first time in her life, she’s deciding her own fate. She promises to see Laurel again and tells Laurel that Oliver needs her. She gives Laurel her leather jacket, though Quentin tells her not to get any ideas. But as father and daughter leave the docks, Quentin collapses.
When Roy returns to his apartment, he finds his bow and quiver uncovered with a note from Thea saying she can’t be Thea Queen anymore because Thea Queen was too trusting and weak. She says she’s never coming back and leaves with Malcolm.
Slade wakes up in a cell. Oliver tells him he’ll never be able to hurt anyone ever again. He acknowledges that he’s alive because of Slade, but he knows now that he needs to be more. “You helped me become a hero, Slade,” Oliver says. “Thank you.”
While Slade promises revenge, we see that he’s being held in an A.R.G.U.S. prison on Lian Yu. As they walk away from the prison, Felicity compliments Oliver, saying he even had her fooled when he said he loved her as he slipped the cure into her pocket. Oliver says they both sold it — a trap for Slade — before they prepare to fly home.
Meanwhile, on the freighter…
Captives Oliver and Sara watch Slade experiment with Mirakuru on prisoners. As Slade, who is hallucinating a bloodthirsty Shado, prepares to kill Oliver, Anatoli shoots the final torpedo from the sub, and the freighter floods.
In the chaos, Oliver grabs an arrow and the cure and burns the remaining Mirakuru. Slade hits him and also knocks Sara aside. She’s swept from the ship in a parallel to the Gambit sinking. Oliver and Slade then duke it out.
Slade gets the upper hand until another explosion drops metal beams on him. Slade swears he will keep his vow to make Oliver suffer, so Oliver stabs him in the eye with an arrow. Another explosion rocks the sinking freighter, and Oliver is knocked out.
Oliver wakes up in a bed and two men appear to give him clothes. He’s then brought to Amanda Waller, who welcomes him to Hong Kong.