Thursday, April 30, 2015

Arrow - Ah Sah-Him


After three weeks of training and brainwashing at the hands of the League of Assassins Ah Sah-Him (Stephen Amell) gets his first assignment from Ra's al Ghul (Matt Nable). Ordered to return home to Starling City, Ollie's mission is to find and neutralize the only rival to his ascension to becoming the next Ra's al Ghul. Although it takes more than a little convincing, Laurel (Katie Cassidy) finally rallies the remnants of Team Arrow to protect Nyssa (Katrina Law) from the death sentence handed down from her father at the hands of his new protege.

Opening with a montage, "Ah Sah-Him" quickly dispenses with Oliver's training and sends the hero back home a changed man. Proving more than capable of beating Nyssa, Ah Sah-Him's mission is compromised by the intervention of his former friends and his sister as Thea (Willa Holland) grabs a hood and bow of her own preventing her brainwashed brother from something his conscious self would never forgive. Despite the lead up to Nyssa's execution Ra's has other plans for his daughter. And despite sparing the lives of Oliver's friends the Demon's Head has other plans for Starling City setting up the final two episodes of the season.

Oliver's surrender and brainwashing have led to a situation where he is the threat to Starling City's survival and a complicated enemy for the rest of Team Arrow to battle. The flashbacks to the virus outbreak in Hong Kong lead full circle with Ra's new assignment for our hero who is tasked with putting the final nail in the coffin of his old life by destroying his home. Although it means Nyssa sticks around for at least another episode, I have some trouble with her sentence (even if it does possibly foreshadow a way in which Ollie's friends may eventually reach him). In the end, however, "Ah Sah-Him" suggests there is only one person capable of stopping the assassin who bares little resemblance to man she knew as her brother.

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