Through all its ups and downs, one thing the Arrow writers have consistently excelled at is crafting gripping cliffhangers. I mention this only to underline what I’m about to say—“The Climb” features, hands down, the most phenomenal cliffhangers in the history of the series—Oliver, after a beatdown courtesy of Ra’s al Ghul, is impaled in the abdomen and kicked off the side of a mountain.
Holy. Moly.
The sense of dread starts from the opening scene, where we see Oliver climbing a snow-covered mountain, an image that the show will return to sporadically throughout the episode. We later learn that this is Oliver moving towards the “neutral” zone where he is set to face off with Ra’s for the their final act showdown. Not knowing what these scenes are building to, these flashforwards give the episode a perpetual sense of mystery and tension. We know Oliver is heading to something monumental, but we just don’t know what.
The rest of the episode outlines how Oliver came to be in this situation. It all starts when he is abducted by League members, and taken to Ra’s al Ghul’s hideout. Ra’s informs him that he must uncover the identity of Sara’s killer; otherwise, the League will exact revenge by killing off Starling citizens. Oliver orders all tests on the murder weapon be completed ASAP, and is shocked when his DNA is found coating the arrow. Knowing he’s being set-up, Oliver has his team look into other leads. Unfortunately, the most likely suspect soon turns out to be Thea, who was videotaped coming into Starling City on the night of the murder. Oliver refuses to believe that his sister would do such a thing, and even goes as far to confront her as The Arrow, where she quickly evades him via some unexpectedly hardcore martial arts work. Eventually, Oliver comes to the definite conclusion that she can’t have been the murderer. He knows when she’s lying. It helps that earlier in the episode, upon first hearing from Laurel that Sara is dead, Thea seems to react with genuine shock.
All while this is going on, Laurel must deal with an unexpected visit from her mother, Dinah. Like Quentin, Dinah is concerned, since she hasn’t heard from Sara in some time. Unlike Quentin, she senses right off the bat that something is amiss. Eventually, she wrenches the truth out of Laurel. When Laurel then lays out her desire for revenge, her mother only further stokes the flames.
There’s no question that the show has benefited from Laurel’s reduced role for the past two episodes. This time around, however, the subplot gets some good mileage out of Dinah’s presence. If nothing else, it helps that Katie Cassidy has someone different to work off of. It still makes for some of the episode’s slower moments and Alex Kingston’s shaky American accent can be a bit distracting, but it’s nowhere near as leaden as some of the previous Laurel-centric storylines have been.
Also improved are the Hong Kong flashbacks, which actually tie into the main story in two major ways. For one, it further explores Oliver’s relationship with Maseo who, as we learn in the beginning of the episode, has since left Hong Kong and joined the League. The flashbacks begin as the traditional assignment-of-the-week—Oliver and Maseo must investigate the theft of a highly destructive biochemical weapon capable of obliterating entire cities (safe to say, that’s not the last we’ll hear of it)—before diving into “mid-finale escalation” mode when Maseo ’s wife is kidnapped by China White. While, at this point, we don’t have a clear idea for why Maseo has become indoctrinated into the League, these flashbacks promise the first bit of an answer. In any case, Maseo’s present-day status as a League member helps give a sense of purpose to the Hong Kong scenes, much like how Slade Wilson’s Big Bad status in Season Two gave focus and vision to the Island flashbacks.
The second element holds a more direct connection with the main story. Oliver and Maseo realize that the perpetrator of the theft has no real memory of stealing anything. Even after extensive torture by Oliver, he cannot offer any info on what he did. This leads Maseo to conclude that the man was a victim of a specialized drug that allows a person to be manipulated into doing something, all the while, having no memory of the event. This, it appears, is the exact same drug that Malcolm Merlyn used to push Thea towards killing Sara.
On a side note, the episode also provides more background for Ray Palmer. Not only do we get a rundown of his ATOM technology and superhero ambitions (“Why does this keep happening to me?” perpetual audience stand-in Felicity comments), but we also get his de facto “origin story.” Apparently, Ray’s leg was broken during the Deathstroke raid the previous year, and he had to watch helplessly as his girlfriend’s neck was snapped. Dramatic convenience aside, it is cool that the writers are using the big event of last year as a kind of crucible for birthing new heroes and villains.
But, of course, all of this seems like relatively small beans compared to what unfolds in the episode’s final stretch. With Thea’s guilt confirmed, Oliver decides to take the heat for Sara’s murder and requests a trial-by-combat with Ra’s. Before heading out, however, he has one final heart-to-heart with Felicity where he, in a shocking twist, flat-out says, “I love you.” Even if you weren’t aware this was a mid-season finale, the fact that Oliver vocalized such a sentiment should be a bad omen, since this all but guarantees that some great calamity will befall him.
And befall him it does. After first entering into combat with great confidence, Oliver soon finds himself quickly outmatched by Ra’s. At one point, Oliver appears to be making a brief comeback and his heroic theme music swells, but it is quickly silenced when Ra’s stabs him, says a brief prayer of respect and then kicks him over the edge.
Oliver Queen has had no shortage of dark hours but, even in the worst of times, the audience always knew he would overcome in the end. “The Climb” takes that sense of safety, and guts it like it was Oliver’s stomach. Of course, we all inherently know that this is not the end of The Arrow (my money is on the Lazarus Pit as Oliver’s salvation), but the execution of this final sequence makes for a jaw-dropping subversion nonetheless. Thinking over the events of this entry (and the several entries before it), it’s hard to believe that this season of Arrow once started in such a place of contentment and calm. And while the season took some time to coalesce, “The Climb” is prime indication that the best is yet to come.
And, of course, we now have to wait a month to see what happens next. Argh!
Mark Rozeman is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer and regular contributor to Paste. You can follow him on Twitter.