Arrow "Left Behind" Review: Life Without Oliver Queen

Arrow S03E10: "Left Behind"

Well, at least Arrow didn't drag that out.

Putting aside the jokes about the show rebranding itself as A.T.O.M. or Canary, we all knew that Oliver wouldn't stay dead after his duel with Ra's in the fall finale. It was simply a matter of who would end up saving him and how. Instead of making us wait five or six episodes to find out—which is what I figured was going to happen—Arrow capped off "Left Behind" with the reveal that Oliver is back in the land of the living, thanks to Maeso and Tatsu's assistance (though their methods for reviving him remain decidedly vague). I don't think he'll be returning to Starling City for a while, as I'm assuming that coming back to life entails at least some recovery time, even on this show, but I'm glad that Arrow didn't bother to unnecessarily keep us in "suspense" over Oliver's "fate."

Even without confirmation that Oliver's alive, the generally accepted belief that the show wouldn't drop its lead left the writers in a bit of a bind. They had to come up with a story that would allow the audience to actively buy into Team Arrow's struggles to survive without Oliver while not constantly thinking, "Yes, Felicity, we understand that you're very sad, but things are going to be fine in, oh, probably four or five weeks, so just chin up, okay?" That's not an easy thing to pull off when you're dealing with savvy (or jaded) viewers who feel confident in their abilities to predict a show's every plot twist, let alone ones who revel in the notion of anticipating said twists and the satisfaction that comes with doing so. And to Arrow's credit, "Left Behind" did a fine job of setting up that story.

The flow of the episode certainly helped matters. Felicity's denial and Diggle pragmatism butted heads a little bit, especially as Diggle encouraged Felicity to prepare herself for the eventuality of Oliver's death. To then have Malcolm show up to basically troll Team Arrow and then confirm their worst fears by presenting Ra's's sword covered in Oliver's blood allowed both Felicity and Diggle's stances to be challenged.* As Merlyn acknowledged, they can't trust him, but his knowledge of how Ra's and the League operate works in his favor, and that got the gears in their heads churning in bad ways and left them questioning what was next.

* Yes, I've excluded Roy, but sort of like the whole "Roy doesn't seem bothered by the idea that Thea could be a murderer" situation prior to the brainwashing reveal, he doesn't seem particularly broken up about Oliver's death. He's sad-ish in that he's drinking alone, but since Roy and/or Colton Haynes are simply not very expressive—either by design in Roy's case or by fault in Haynes' case—it all came off as very flat.

As for Diggle, he was was just trying to keep everyone together while serving as their new, albeit reluctant, leader. Arrow has progressively sidelined Diggle as of late, reducing him to someone who merely doles out sage advice to Oliver, even though, not so long ago, he used to do that and other stuff, too. "Left Behind" needed Diggle's perspective in order to deal with Oliver's death in an engaging way. His admission to Laurel that he still thought of himself as Oliver's bodyguard—a nice way to maybe justify Diggle staying in the van so often, I suppose—had just the right amount of sentimentality, and it was very nice to see Diggle really shine. He's been here longer than Felicity and Roy, after all.

While I don't think that Diggle currently needs a mission the way he needed one when he and Oliver first began working together, especially with Lyla and Baby Sara in the mix, I think he likes having a purpose that's larger than himself. Early on, that purpose was avenging Andy's murder, and then it was joining Oliver's crusade. Now, Diggle is ready to take over the crusade in Oliver's absence. Felicity, however, is very much not interested. Felicity may like the feeling of helping, but she doesn't like the risks. She's never liked the risks, and given her feelings for Oliver, it's not surprising that she not only quit, but turned out the lights in the Arrow Cave to show just how out-of-the-game she wants to be.

Meanwhile, despite being a creepazoid stalker, Ray Palmer continues to be the gift that keeps on giving for Arrow. I've discussed what a good foil he's been for Oliver, both in his attempts to save the city through his company and his ability to woo Felicity, and now he gets to be somewhat of an Oliver stand-in for Felicity to work through her grief over losing Oliver. Felicity didn't get to save Oliver, but she can prevent Ray from going out in "an enhanced eco-skeleton to save the city" while mourning his fiancée's death. Felicity just wants to stop the vigilante man pain from getting all the gentlemen in her life killed.

Happening alongside all of this was the arrival of Vinnie Jones' Danny "Brick" Brickwell. I'm always happy to see Jones in pretty much anything, and while he did his normal criminal thing here with a dash of disinterest in being hit by bullets, his normal criminal thing is better than most other things, so I'll take it. I wish I was more invested in his plans to take over the Glades, but as I've given up on Arrow ever doing anything noteworthy on that front, I've accepted the Glades as Arrow's go-to MacGuffin for criminal enterprises instead of a place worth caring about.

The way he went about preparing to take control of the Glades, however, made for a nice complement to Team Arrow's efforts to function without Oliver. By stealing all the evidence used against criminals that had been locked away by the cops and Team Arrow since they dealt with Slade, Brick essentially wiped out a chunk of Oliver's legacy as the Arrow just as he was declared dead. It highlighted the futility of the operation at a time when Oliver wasn't around to demonstrate to his partners that it's not actually futile, that change and goodness are possible.

At least Laurel isn't convinced, however, as she's assumed a few aspects of Sara's costume and tactics to become the next Canary. I guess her classes with Ted Grant—remember him?—went well enough that she graduated to "masked vigilante" status. Her official entrance into the crime-fighting world should cause headaches for Diggle and Roy, though I'm really hoping that won't have to hear them insist that she shouldn't be doing this; I got enough of that from Oliver. Of course, since "Left Behind" was the first part in a sort of three-part event, I guess we'll have plenty of time to find out just how all of this—Oliver's death and Brick's plans—are going to impact the course of the show.

FROM THE QUIVER

– "This suit is too tight."

– Oh, right, Thea and Malcolm! There was some sword training this week, and now Malcolm's ready to get the hell out of Starling City again since Ra's is still probably gunning for him.

– "Can you put the gun away? They don't scare so much as annoy me."

– I know I said that Malcolm's plan to get rid of Ra's pretty good, and a few of you pointed out that it was pretty dumb to assume Oliver could beat Ra's, but I'm going to chalk it up to Malcolm being very desperate. He seems confident in his ability to handle anyone and anything except Ra's, and he gambled here and lost.

– "I guess arrows work a little better on this guy than bullets?" Apparently! Also, I'm glad that Arrow decided not to paint Vinnie Jones orange to better match his comic-book counterpart.

What did you think of "Left Behind"?