The final moments of the Arrow mid-season premiere saw a resurrection by mysterious means. We theorize about how it may have happened.
Despite the show’s attempt to remain grounded in reality, it should come as no surprise to anyone that at the end of Arrow season 3, episode 10, “Left Behind,” Oliver Queen came back from the dead. It is his show, after all. But the means of that resurrection was surprising, particularly since the life-extending Lazarus Pits are implied to exist in the Arrow-verse.
We discover over the course of the episode that it was Maseo who recovered Oliver’s body from the ravine Ra’s al Ghul kicked him into, after stabbing him through the chest.
When Stephen Amell revealed that a Lazarus Pit would not be used to resurrect Oliver, many fans were confused and concerned that perhaps Oliver survived his duel with the deadliest man on the planet somehow. But, the episode made it clear that even if the blade and fall hadn’t killed Oliver, exposure would have. He is definitely dead when Maseo finds him.
After Maseo recovers Oliver’s body, he brings it to a cabin, where he asks for help. At the end of the episode, Oliver comes back to life and finds Tatsu looking over him. That’s right, both Yamashiros have now appeared in the present day.
“I asked her to come here so she could bring you back to life,” Maseo tells Oliver.
But how was Tatsu able to do this?
In the DC Comics, Tatsu Yamashiro, alias Katana, wields a sword known as Soultaker. This magical sword is so-named because it has the ability to take the souls of those it kills. The souls are housed within the sword, and they are able to communicate, if in a limited manner, with the sword’s wielder.
Interestingly, there is also a ritual through which the souls within the sword may also be reincarnated. However, with this ritual, the summoner controls the reincarnated souls.
Arrow regularly borrows from the comics while tweaking abilities or storylines to fit the story being told and the world the story is being told in. It seems likely, then, that the show has tweaked the abilities of Soultaker, perhaps giving a version of them — specifically their resurrection powers — to Tatsu herself.
Should we be concerned that Tatsu’s abilities also include controlling the will of those she resurrects? Perhaps. But it’s worth noting that the current flashbacks are showing Oliver risking his own life to help reunite Maseo and Tatsu after Tatsu was taken by China White. If Tatsu’s rescue is indeed facilitated by Oliver, Tatsu, like Maseo, may see herself in his debt and leave Oliver with his free will.
And while this may seem outside the realm of the more grounded Arrow, we also have to remember this is a world in which metahumans now exist. Though they mostly seem contained in Central City for now, Arrow producers have said they are open to seeing superpowers in Starling City since the Arrow/Flash crossovers worked so well.
Of course, Arrow is, as Amell noted, also a show that has mystical herbs, so perhaps we’re completely off base.
Arrow airs Wednesdays at 8:00 p.m. ET on The CW.