This episode written by Moira Kirland & Marc Guggenheim starts off with a bank heist that could have been stopped by a off duty cop if not for some lady talking to him and causing the bank robbers to shoot the man. It really is all her fault. The bank robbers send everyone running out of the bank wearing the same masks as them. The cops storm the bank and find a hole in the vault. Elsewhere in town they climb out of a sewer hole.

Oliver is training Diggle to fight like him. Diggle wants to know what happened on the island but Ollie won't tell him, at least not today. Oliver gets ready to go after another name on the list but Diggle points out that the man can wait, that Oliver should go after the bank robbers. Oliver says that he doesn't do street crime. He is so focused on one thing, just fixing the corruption at the top and leaving the people who need him to fend for themselves. Diggle tells him he has a very narrow definition of hero but Ollie points out he isn't a hero.

At Laurel's law firm we learn that their largest investor has pulled their funding. Things are bleak at the company. Tommy shows up and asks Laurel out but she is kind of snappy with him. She has a lot on her plate and it is moving too fast for her.

Ollie's mom, Moira, is trying to cope with her husband leaving her by reuniting with old friends. Oliver and Thea are not happy about this but agree to a family dinner. The man Oliver is after tried to kill himself. Tommy shows up to hang out with Oliver but he blows him off. Tommy is feeling left out, no one wants to hang out with him. He is so pathetic he even asks Little Thea for advice on how to date Laurel.

Oliver shows up and learns that Diggle lied to him to get Oliver to show up. He forces Oliver to meet the cop who was shot's wife. The cop is holding onto his life by a string. Oliver is pissed that Diggle lied to him but he falls in line and starts looking for the bank robbers. The arrow would not be the hero we all know and love if not for Diggle pushing him like this.

Dressed as the arrow Oliver breaks into the police station to use their computers and see what information they have on the bank robbery. Smart man, not really but hey he didn't get caught. Tommy shows up at Laurel's law firm and offers to help fund them. Laurel is against it but her partner talks her into letting him throw her a fundraiser. I mean come on Laurel! He is trying!!

At the family dinner Oliver breaks the news about his night club that he is opening. Where? Right above the secret base he built for himself. He runs out on dinner when he hears about another bank robbery. The arrow shows up and tries to stop them but they get away. We learn that this is a family of bank robbers. They decide to do one more bank robbery and then hang it up for good.

Oliver and Diggle have Felicity look up information on the bank robbery. Oliver learns that the father was laid off his job by Oliver's father and it ruined his life. His dad didn't even pay them a severance package like they were supposed to.

Oliver wants to give the bank robbers a second chance to turn over a new leaf because he feels guilty about what his father did to them. Laurel and Tommy get their date. The flash backs on this episode are all about Oliver wanting to kill himself on the island and the ghost of his dad talking him out of it. A bit of a weird one but I'll roll with it because the rest of the episode is strong, and even that part while feeling weird fits the story so well that I like it.

Oliver finds the father bank robber. Oliver all but tells him that he knows he is the bank robber and that it isn't too late for him to turn it all around. Oliver even offers him a job. He is trying to help him. Trying to get him back on the right track. Instead the man spits in Oliver's face and says no. Oliver leaves his card and takes off. The father tells his family that they are out. His wife talks him into doing the last job. He could have saved his family and kept all the money they had but now the arrow knows their plan and is out to get them. Poor guy.

The fundraiser is going good. Tommy tells Thea that he did all this for Laurel, she doesn't look too happy. She likes Tommy, which is very creepy seeing as he is really her brother!! Oh wait. . . that is a spoiler. Sorry. Anyways, back to the story. Another man swoops in and asks Laurel to dance. Tommy is hurt. Moira starts telling Oliver how much it hurts her that he won't talk to her and Diggle picks this moment to tell him that another bank is being hit. He has to go.

The heist is happening at night this time so that no one will get hurt and they can get in and out before the police or the arrow can know about it. Arrow tries to stop them but the son starts shooting at him. The dude has a shield and it gives him an advantage over the Arrow but not much of one. Oliver wins the fight but the day gets shot and starts bleeding out. Oliver tells the guard to call the cops. He goes to the father and takes off his hood so the father could see who he is. The father dies while in a flashback Ollie's dad tells him that he has to fix all the wrongs that the family has caused. Oliver agrees.

Thea starts hitting on her brother. . .  oh wait she doesn't know that Tommy is her brother. So she is hitting on her big brothers best friend. She is drunk and throwing herself at him. He gets her out of the party and Laurel comes out to check on them. Laurel gives Tommy a kiss and thanks him for everything just before he takes Thea home. Thea asks Tommy not to hate her and he says he doesn't. She's young and had a crush, not the end of the world.

Diggle tells Oliver that what happens wasn't his fault. He did everything he could to help the man and the man made a choice not to let him help. He made his bed and has to deal with it, Oliver can't take that burden on. Back in the past Oliver wakes up and learns the conversation with his father was all a dream. We all knew that. He promises the memory of his father that he will fix everything once he gets home.

Oliver goes to his mother and tries to make peace. She apologizes as well. She tells him that a lot of her anger comes from the fact that her husband is away and Oliver is not as open as he use to be. He takes her out to eat, not an expensive dinner but still it is sweet.

This episode written by Wendy Mericle & Ben Sokolowski starts off on the island 5 years ago when Oliver's new friend teaches him how to hunt. Ollie goes to pick up the dead bird but is captured by men in masks and tossed into a hole in the ground while bars are placed over it.

In his current life Detective Lance is questioning Oliver who keeps telling him that he isn't the Arrow, his mom and step dad break up the interrogation. He tells his parents that he wants Laurel to be his attorney. She says no so Oliver represents himself. Laurel shows up at court and says that she is going to be attorney. She gets him house arrest with an ankle bracelet until the trial is over.

Oliver wants to throw a giant party at his house and Lance yells at Laurel about defending Oliver. He blames Oliver for killing his daughter. She points out that Sarah made her own choice and they can't put all of that blame on him. Diggle shows up in Olvier's room and Oliver tells him that he set himself up to get arrested. He asks Diggle to follow his next target and he sends Diggle to his underground base.

Ollie's step dad, Walter, has the boat that Oliver and his father were on when it went down moved to another location. The DA offers Oliver a deal but he turns it down. Detective Lance tells Oliver he will never believe anything he says. Oliver says that he will take a lie detector test in front ofu Detective Lance. Funny thing about the lie detector test, it was creator by the same man who created Wonder Woman. Very cool bit of information.

5 years ago Oliver is brought to meet the leader of the men who captured him. His name is Edward. Oliver tells the man that he can pay him a great deal of money for getting him off the island. The man shows him a picture of the guy who has been helping him and asks if Oliver knows him. Ollie says no and Edward calls his  bluff and storms out. He gives Oliver over to a man who has what looks to be Deathstroke but isn't.

Thea is worried that Oliver might be the arrow and be going away for a long time. Oliver tries to convince her that he isn't. That nothing is going to happen to him. She starts to believe him and tells him that she can't lose him again. Oliver's mom meets with Malcolm again.

Oliver starts the lie detector test. Now in the past he is a bad liar but now he is doing pretty good. He keeps flashing back to his time being tortured on the island. He admits he wasn't alone on the island. He admits that he was tortured on the island. Lance asks him if he killed anyone and Oliver says yes, when he asked Sarah to come with him he killed her. He unhooks himself and leaves. Laurel asks if her dad will drop the charges and he says no.

The party starts and Oliver makes a speech mocking his situation. Lance is at the party. Oliver tells Diggle his plan, he wants a 100 witness seeing Oliver at the house while Diggle is across town stopping the back guys. Diggle tells Oliver that from now on he never lies to him. That isn't how this partnership works. Diggle agrees to plan.

The man that Walter hired to move the ship was found dead in a car crash. Laurel shows up at the party to talk to Oliver in private. She apologizes for how her father acted and he said that he understands it. She tells him that Sarah dying is what caused the divorce. Lance blames Oliver for that as well. He asks Laurel why she doesn't hate him as well and she tells him how she did for so long. She asks to see the scars and he takes off his shirt to show her. They start kissing and I can't help but feel bad for Tommy. I think Laurel does too because she rushes out of the room.

In the past the fake deathstroke is ordered to kill Oliver but the old man he was protecting shows up dressed as the hood and saves him. In the here and now Diggle shows up and stops the gun deal. Walter calls his wife to the office in the middle of the night and tells her that he found the ship and that she had it hidden. She begs him not to look into all this anymore. That it is too dangerous. Diggle calls to tell him everything is done and a man with a gun shows up trying to kill Oliver. They get into a fight. Lance come in saving him. Talk about ironic.

Oliver's mom blames Lance for causing all of this to happen. He removes the ankle monitor since the Arrow has been seen across town. Lance feels like shit, it is made worse when Oliver thanks him for saving his life. His mom then goes to confront Malcolm about trying to kill Oliver and all he can say is sorry. She tells him that if anything happens to her family she will take him down hard.

Laurel shows up with the results of the lie detector test and tells Oliver that she sees a slight flutter on his test. She knows that he lied and can fake the results. He tells her that he can't tell her or anyone else the truth about what happened because they would never look at him the same again. She tells him that nothing can ever happen between them again and he says he knows.

Diggle points out that Oliver underestimated how much people would care and look into what he was doing. Walter leaves the house for a while. Lance goes back to drinking and Laurel gets him out of the bar. Oliver takes off and stops the gun deal, finishing what Diggle started. Oliver's plan worked!

This episode starts off with a bang as Ollie tells Diggle about him being the vigilante. Ollie thought that Diggle would join him but Diggle takes a swing at him and calls him a crazy murderer. Moira Kirland & Lana Cho give us this very emotional episode that just keeps swinging right off the bat. As soon as Oliver gets home Laurel is there waiting for him to tell him how selfish he is and how he needs to get over himself and think about other people for once.

Back on the island five years ago the mystery man is helping keep Oliver alive by feeding him birds. Oliver is acting ungrateful just yelling at the guy to speak English. In the present Oliver tells Thea his problems, she talks him into telling Laurel how he feels. Ollie wakes up the next day to find that Diggle has quit. Oliver now has a new body guard, luckily Diggle didn't tell anyone what Oliver told him.

It takes Oliver all o five seconds to ditch the new body guard. The arrow shows up at Laurel's apartment and she pulls a gun out on him. He asks her for help in proving that the man who murdered his wife didn't do it. He is being put to death for a crime that he didn't commit. Her boss killed her because she was going to blow the whistle on him.

Oliver tracks down Diggle and tells him what his mission is. He shows him his father's list, he even tells him about how his father killed himself to save Oliver. He tells him how the guy he stopped in the last episode was the man who killed Diggle's brother. Even though he didn't, long story, watch season 4.

Oliver's mother covers up a missing 2.6 million dollars that is missing from the company. Her husband doesn't seem to buy it. Laurel is starting to fall for, if not the arrow, the idea of the Arrow. This makes the whole, Luis, Clark and Superman thing look like a joke. Laurel, Oliver, Tommy and Arrow. It's so soapy and I love every minute of it!

Never jump to conclusions, that is a lesion that Felicity Smoak learns when she yells at her boss for firing her when he was really just putting her on a special task, what is that task? He wants her to find out where that 2.6 million really went.

The mystery man tries to teach Oliver how to take care of himself in the past while in the present the Arrow teaches Laurel that sometimes going outside of the law is the only way to get things done and help people. Detective Lance puts together that Laurel is working with the Arrow and it causes problems for the two of them.

Smoak finds out that the 2.6 million was used to create a underground company and bought a warehouse. The Arrow goes to get a signed confession from the boss, he won't do it so the Arrow shoots him through the hand. He is saved by a phone call that tips the arrow off to the fact that someone is going to kill the prisoner, and Laurel is there with him. Arrow runs to go save them. Meanwhile Diggle talks to his sister-in-law and starts to come around to joining up with Oliver to help the city.

The arrow saves them just in time. A prisoner gets the drop on them and almost kills Laurel but the Arrow stops him and loses his cool, Laurel sees him for the crazy man he is and loses all the respect she had been building towards him. He messed up bad. He just lost his cool, we see that the bird back on the island 5 years ago was his first kill. It changed him.

Oliver's step-dad goes to check out the warehouse that was bought with the money. He goes inside and finds what is left of the boat that Oliver and his dad were shipwrecked on. Why would his mother have the ship? Detective Lance goes through the footage looking for the hood and finds Oliver pulling out a ski mask.

Laurel gets the wrongly accused man set free. The day was a win even if it did cost them a lot to make it one. Oliver crosses another name off of his list. Back on the island Oliver eats the bird and finds out that the mystery man speaks English. He tells Oliver to forget about Laurel and that the only way he will live is if he hunts.

Oliver's mom meets with Malcolm Merlyn, the father of Tommy. He tells her that the Arrow isn't targeting the rich, he is going after people who work with them. Diggle shows up at Oliver's house and tells him that he will help but he isn't a sidekick, he is his partner. The two men agree. Just in time for Oliver Queen to get arrested for being the Arrow.

What a great ending to a great episode!!!!

Once again the three men responsible for this episode are Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg and Marc Guggenheim. It starts off with Ollie crossing yet another name off of his list from his father's book. Only things didn't go as planned. Another enemy fires a shot that kills the man before Oliver gets the chance too. Grazing him in the process. Turns out the bullet is poisoned. Talk about over kill! 

Oliver comes home to find out that Thea was arrested for breaking into a store. She was let go in the custody of her mother. Things are not well in the Queen household. Oliver finds out that the assassin is a man known as Deadshot. Oliver plans on tracking him down.

He brings Tommy into his plans to open up a club above his new hideout. This way he has more chance to escape Diggle. We see that the two men don't really get along. It's a slow forming friendship, very slow.

Oliver tells his mother off about how she isn't being a good mother. She tries to do better but that ship has sailed. Thea wants no part of her. The police want to point the murder at the Arrow but Detective Lance points out that the M/O is different. That they are just being lazy and need to look deeper to find out who is really being the killing. Something his fellow cops don't want to hear.

Ollie goes to the Russian Mob and starts speaking Russian. Seems he learned a lot on that island. He is a man that has earned the respect of the Russian Mob. Not an easy thing to do. We quickly learn that Oliver is a captain. What the hell happened on that crazy island?

Deadshot tattoos yet another name on his body. He has a name for everyone he killed tattooed on him. One of the names we see is Andrew Diggle, John Diggle's brother Now spoiler alert, he is alive. We meet him in season 4. So, why did Deadshot believe he was dead? Is he that bad at his job? Was it an honest mistake? And if so, how many of the others are mistakes as well?

Oliver and Tommy get into the club but they won't let Diggle in and Oliver pretends he doesn't know him. Laurel and an under-aged over drunk Thea. She tells Oliver that Tommy and Laurel have been sleeping together since he died. Oliver seems not to care. It is an act. Laurel tells Oliver that they don't need his blessing and she doesn't want his forgiveness. It's hard for him to get back into the swing of things here.

Back on the island five years ago, he is running, winded as hell when he gets caught in a trap. Meanwhile back in the present Oliver tracks down Deadshot and the two have a shoot out. Neither one getting the better of each other. Oliver than goes and meets someone very important. The one and only Felicity Smoak!

Oliver goes to Detective Lance for help. He doesn't want to help the arrow but he is a good man who wants to do the right thing. It's just who he is. Deadsot kills a cop and pretends to be him so the cops have no idea that anything is wrong.

Tommy tells Laurel that now that Oliver knows they should date. That she should let him prove to her that he could be the right man for her. That he could make her happy. She agrees.

Deadshot attacks the party and the Arrow tracks him down. The two men fight it out. Deadshot tells the Arrow they are no different, they are both killers but Oliver doesn't want to hear it. He shoots Deadshot and hits him in the eye scaner, thinking he is dead. Diggle shows up, he has been shot and the Arrow gets him out of there.

Back in the past Oliver s cut down from the trap by a mystery man. It seems there are others on the island and they are closing in on Oliver and his new friend.

In the current day Oliver helps Diggle survive the gun shot. He wakes up and sees that Oliver is the Arrow and that is how this episode ends. What a badass ending to a great episode! It leaves you just craving the next episode, joneings for it almost.

Episode 2 of the show that birthed the DC TV universe. Written by Andrew Kreisberg & Marc Guggenheim with a story by Greg Berlanti & Marc Guggenheim. In it Oliver has to go to court to be declared alive again. How messed up is our justice system when someone has to go to court to be declared alive? What if the judge was a horrible person and turned down his request.

On the way of the court room he runs into Laurel  and the tension between the two of them seems to be getting worse and worse. Although, can you blame her? For the past five years she thought that he had died while cheating on her with her sister. It turns out that he survived while her sister died while they were messing around behind her back. Kind of makes it worse doesn't it?

Laurel is going against one of the most powerful men in the city in court so Ollie throws on his hood and tries to help her out in the streets by scaring him into confessing. Meanwhile his mother pretends to care about him and emotionally blackmailing him into having Diggle protect him. Diggle tells Ollie that if he ditches him one more time he will quit. He doesn't need the job that bad.

Ollie keeps getting pushed into taking a leading hand at the company but he is fighting against it. He goes out of his way to push his mother and her new husband away from him. He just wants to run around town playing superhero and doesn't really care about running the company. Not when he is so busy trying to bring all the rich people around the city down.

Thea is still having a hard time dealing with Oliver's death. She helps Oliver see that pushing everyone away isn't doing himself or anyone else any favors so of course the first thing he does is run off to go see Laurel. Part of his reasoning is to make sure she is safe. The same reason her father has posted cops all around her house.

They hit it off spending a long time eating ice cream and catching up when gun fire goes off. He tries to keep her safe as a white haired assassin shows up out of nowhere and Diggle fights her off. What would he do without Diggle? The man who would go on to become Spartan is one of the only reasons that Ollie is still alive.

Detective Lance threatens to disappear Oliver and Diggle starts to figure out how well of a fighter Oliver has become. The start of a beautiful friendship is just becoming. 

After fighting with the white hair assassin Arrow gets caught by Detective Lance. He manages to escape but leaves behind a recording for Lance to help in Laurel's case. Olvier shows up the next day at a press conference pretending to be drunk and makes an ass out of himself. He does it to make a point, that he isn't his father and that he never will be. He asks the city and his mother to stop asking him to be something that he is not.

Laurel wins her case thanks to the help from the arrow. The show just keeps getting better and better.

So where do we start on the first episode of what will quickly become one of the most widespread live action universes out there. It's the TV version of the Marvel Cinematic universe. Not an easy thing to do. Even less so when you start the universe off with a B character like Green Arrow. To be fair Marvel used a B/C character in Iron Man to start theirs so I guess it makes sense but the big difference is that there wasn't another Green Arrow a few months prior.

Smallville had just ended when this show came out and they had a much beloved Green Arrow on there. Asking fans to like a new take on the character so soon was a lot to ask. I know that when it first came out I wasn't ready for a new take on the character. When I finally did give it a chance I was quickly turned off by how dark he was. So broody, which makes sense since he was trapped on an island for 5 years.

This episode starts off with him leaving the island and reconnecting with everyone. His mom married his dad's business partner. Right off the bat the show is filled with family drama. We learn that Oliver has been cheating on his girlfriend with her sister, who died on the boat. Oliver got Laurel's sister killed, while his own sister started doing drugs.

Oliver tries to make things right with Laurel, which doesn't really work when you are responsible for getting her sister Sarah killed. For such a short episode so much is thrown at us. We also learn that Oliver's dad wasn't an honest man back home. We see that his dad killed himself to save Oliver. It is a lot to process all at once but it keeps you on the edge of your seat the whole episode. Not a lot of shows can do that right out of the gate but this is one of them.

From fighting to speaking Russian, the man has learned a lot on an island where he was supposed to be alone. He can even out run bullets. Got to love the comic book of it all. Although he is more Punisher than batman. After all he kills every chance he gets.

After killing the people who kidnapped him he calls the cops and creates a story about a man in a green hood. Thus creating his own mythos. Quentin Lance is the cop who investigates the kidnapping. How awkward must that have been for Oliver? The father of the girl he cheated on and the girl he got killed. I would not want to be in the room with that man while he has a gun.

His mom hires John Diggle to protect him. The best thing she ever did. The friendship that will come forth from that choice will change Oliver's life, but that is for another day. On this day he is nothing more than an obstacle. Once free of Dggle he goes to a closed warehouse and sets up base to give birth to the Arrow, because he can't go by Green Arrow yet. Not till season 4.

The mission statement for the first couple of seasons is set up around this point. Oliver is hunting down the people in his father's book. The people who sold out the city for their own selfish ends. People who have failed the city.

Diggle gets smarter and starts keeping a bigger eye on Oliver. Laurel apologizes to Oliver for what she said earlier. She really doesn't need to, he is in the wrong and he even treats her like shit when she was trying to make amends with him. 

I don't really get how a green hood and green eye liner keeps people from recognizing a guy whose face has been all over the TV the last few days. That part really makes no sense what so ever. Oliver goes after the big bad of the episode as Detective Lance and the rest of the police run ever closer to him. Like I said, this episode has you on the edge of your seat the whole time. He only escapes by jumping out of a building. What a G!

Arrow saves the day and we learn that Laurel is dating Tommy, Oliver's best friend. Not to mention that Oliver's mom is the one who hired the people to kidnap him. She wants to know what his father told him. This show is drama!

The episode was written by Marc Guggenheim and Andrew Kreisberg with Greg Berlanti helping out with the story.