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Legion contributor Andrea Levine is recapping and reviewing Arrow for us this season. Follow her on Twitter @wysefyre!

The search for a new Black Canary is on in this week’s Arrow, but before that, let’s go back three years to when the particle accelerator in Central City exploded.

Right before the accelerator exploded, in a warehouse was a woman named Tina. She’s being held hostage and tortured. Her friend, Vinny, is brought in. It becomes clear, Vinny is more than just a friend. The man in charge decides Vinny is going to die while Tina watches, helpless. Before he can pull the trigger, the shockwave from the accelerator hits them. Vinny is shot, Tina screams, and that’s the last we know. For now.

In the present, the team is offering up potential candidates to become the new Canary. Oliver turns them all down. Rory says he knows a woman who is a vigilante elsewhere, but she’s not just any vigilante. By day, she’s an astronaut. By night, she’s a ninja vigilante. It’s not true, but the point is no one will be good enough for Oliver.

Curtis comes up with the idea to look into an urban legend. A female vigilante who kicks butt and also has a Cry. She’s a meta with a power similar to Laurel’s? Oliver can’t believe the luck. Rory calls is “beshert” which is yiddish for destiny. Oliver wants to meet her.

Her last known whereabouts were in Hub City, so Oliver, Rene, and Curtis head out to find her. They track her to a rooftop, where she’s spying on some men. They prevent her from going after the men, and she’s not happy about it. She wants them to stay away from her. I believe the term “nuts in a sling” was used.

They figure out she used to be Central City PD. Oliver calls Captain Singh to ask about her. At first, Singh is skeptical as to Oliver’s identity, but Oliver texts Barry to vouch for him. The Flash runs in and leaves a post-it on Singh’s computer. Singh fills Oliver in on what happened to Tina.

She had been on a deep cover investigation, which went very wrong. She was investigating a drug lord named Sean Sonus, she was discovered, tortured, and her partner, Vinny, was killed.

With that intel, they are able to track Tina a little better. She’s out to avenge Vinny. Curtis is able to locate Tina’s apartment. Rene and Oliver go in. The place is a mess. They come across Tina “interrogating” one of Sonus’ men. They try to stop her, but Tina doesn’t want that, so she lets loose a cry, which kills the man. She tries to use it on Oliver, but Rene pulls out a sonic dampener, cutting her off. More of Sonus’ people arrive. Rene deals with them, while Oliver follows Tina into an alley.

Oliver tries to talk to Tina. When that fails, he hits her with an arrow, knocking her down. He helps her up and then makes his sales pitch. Tina isn’t interested, and she wonders the range on the sonic dampener. Oliver backs away and Tina lets loose a cry and flees.

Team Arrow tries to figure out what the deal with Sonus is. They believe he came to Hub City because of the power vacuum left by Tobias Church. Sonus deals a particularly nasty drug called “Slide.” They believe Tina wants revenge on Sonus and both Rene and Curtis are for letting her take him out.

They track Tina to Sonus’ hideout. She’s gone in and took out all of his men, but when she tries to hurt him, he blasts her with his own reality bending powers. He’s also a meta. Tina collapses. Before Sonus can finish her, Oliver and Rene arrive. Sonus uses his powers on them, but Oliver is able to shoot Sonus and get Tina out of there.

They go to a parking lot to figure out the next step. Curtis surmises Tina and Sonus’ powers are similar. He has an idea. While he works on that, Tina comes around. Oliver tries to persuade her to let them help. Her ability is a liability in this case. Tina says no. Oliver decides to unmask. Tina rightfully calls him out on whether he’s doing it to gain her trust, but Oliver swears he’s not (secretly he is). He explains he knows her history. He tells her a little of his story. He can empathize. He wants to help, and then they’ll go. He won’t push her on anything else. She agrees.

With Curtis on comms, Oliver, Rene, and Tina go to where Sonus is expecting a large shipment. It’s on a roof, because it’s coming in by helicopter. They go in, Rene and Tina’s guns blazing. Sonus tries to use his powers, but Rene uses a modified sonic dampener to stop him. Curtis is ridiculously happy about it working. Oliver goes to deal with the chopper.

Oliver shoots and arrow to attach itself to chopper and then he swings around the roof, disabling the various guards as they come near him. When that’s done, he breaks free of the chopper and shoots it with another arrow. This one detonates. No more chopper.

Tina has Sonus in her sights. She wants to kill him. Oliver tries to reason with her. He asks her what Vinny would do. Tina shoots Sonus multiple times. He dies and Tina flees. Oliver instructs the guys not to follow. They head back to Star City.

Meanwhile, Diggle is in a tight spot. Chase goes to see him and lets him know there was a moment of luck. General Walker was under investigation, which could have helped Diggle get out, but due to Walker’s many connections, the investigation has been ground to a halt. Oliver is with Chase when the bad news is delivered, but have no fear, it’s our favorite hackivist to the rescue.

Oliver fills Felicity in and goes back to the Cave. She tries hacking the NSA to find the file, but it’s been scrubbed. It’s gone. But this is Felicity we’re talking about. She remembers nothing is ever really gone from the internet. She is able to make contact with someone who has the file and wants to meet in real life. Felicity is hesitant, but she brings Rory as backup and goes to the meet.

Felicity thinks she’s going to meet a big, potentially dangerous person, but instead she’s treated to a version of herself. Going by the name “Kojo Sledgehammer,” Kojo proceeds to geek out hard over Felicity, because Felicity’s hacktivism inspired her to do the same. She hands Felicity a thumb drive which contains not only the file on Walker, but a plethora of other files. She calls it a “cash pandora,” and Kojo is giving it to Felicity, because Felicity inspired her, and now she wanted to repay the favor.

Felicity goes back to the Cave, gets the information to Oliver, and Oliver gives the file to Chase, who is able to get Diggle released on bail and home. Meanwhile, Felicity goes through the pandora and is amazed by what she sees. She’s definitely needed to be reminded of her roots, but the amount of trouble she can get into now has significantly increased. It’ll be fun to see how that goes.

Second Chances ends with Tina visiting Oliver at the Mayor’s Office. She’s impressed he’s the mayor. She came to see him because killing Sonus didn’t do what she thought it would. Oliver understands. She admits Vinny was more than a friend; he was her lover, and she feels guilty about not being able to save him. Again, Oliver understands. She wonders how Oliver lives with all the pain. He’s still working it out, but being with friends helps. He assumes that’s why she’s there. The team is about second chances. Tina thought he didn’t believe in second chances. Oliver thinks she might be his. Big burden, but Oliver believes she can bear it.

In the spirit of trust, Tina reveals her name isn’t really Tina. That was her undercover name. Her real name is Dinah Drake. Oliver smiles. It’s beshert. He knows his friend, Dinah (Laurel) would approve.

Flashback

Oliver wakes up to find has taken him to a safehouse. He wants to know what she wants with him. He needed rescuing; she provided it. She’s also done her homework on him. She knows who he is and what he’s done, and if that’s not all, she knows he possess the hood of one of her students.

Oliver is a little surprised by this and makes a stupid remark about her age, but Talia just claims it’s a family secret. As for what she wants with him, she wants to help him. She knows he’s after Kovar. He can’t get to Kovar and the Bratva will not be able to help him. It’s too complicated with them. However, she knows how to hurt Kovar. His main supplier is a smuggler named Yurievich. He trafficks in everything, including humans, and wouldn’t you know it? A shipment is coming in very soon. She offers to help him, with the hope he will listen to her after they take care of Yurievich.

They go to Yurievich’s location. Talia takes care of some of the guards, while Oliver goes on a killing spree, taking out the additional men. He gets into Yurievich’s limo. Yurievich tries to bribe him. Oliver beats him to death while Talia watches outside.

Afterwards, Oliver calls her out. She wanted this to happen. Talia doesn’t deny it. She knows about Robert Queen’s list and doesn’t understand why Oliver isn’t following through on his father’s wish. She knows Oliver thinks he’s a monster, but he’s not.

As she puts it, Oliver has a monster inside of him, and only by giving it an identity can he find Oliver Queen. The monster needs to become someone else, something else (sound familiar?). She gives Oliver The Hood. He suits up. Talia offers to help him become ready.

Other points of interest

~ Felicity tries to explain to Kojo she didn’t really sell out, but that would mean admitting she works for the Green Arrow.

~ Rene is way too happy to have a 3×3 from the local diner in Hub City.

This was a good episode in that they didn’t fall back on tired tropes, such as Oliver taking his mask off or him placing his redemption issues on Tina. They actually called those tactics out, which was a refreshing. But more importantly, the episode allowed for the team to split up and still work together. We saw more of a dynamic between Rory and Felicity as well as my new favorite buddy team of Rene and Curtis. It’ll be fun to see how this progresses.

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Andrea Levine

Andrea Levine is an East Coast based geek, who has more fandoms than she cares to admit. When she isn't talking about the latest geeky news, she's obsessing over musical theater. Her dream is to successfully bring geekdom and musical theater together (I'm looking at you, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark). You can read more of her exploits as Wysefyre over at [insertgeekhere].