Arrow (3x03) 'Corto Maltese' Episode Recap

Another week, another episode of Arrow. *Spoilers ahead*

The beginning of the episode made me laugh, especially when Roy grabbed his bow while trying to tell Oliver that he was going with them to Corto Maltese to find Thea. I love Roy as a character in general, but this definitely added some humor and I loved this little scene between him and Oliver.

I love that we get to see how Thea becomes stronger, and how in the beginning she's scared from how brutal Malcolm's training is. I especially loved the scene where she stood up for herself against Malcolm and his training. She was ready to protect herself. Also, I love her new haircut. The hot coffee spilling on her hand and her not even flinching is definitely going to raise questions, and it already has for Oliver, who questions if she seemed different.

The scene between Roy and Thea. I loved them when they were together, and I love them separately. You could see the pain on both of their faces. I love that Roy said that all he wants is for her to be happy, it's all he ever wanted for her, and he apologizes for getting in the way of that.

Slowly, but it's definitely there, we're seeing Laurel's transformation into the Black Canary. It started out with her going after an abusive boyfriend of a girl at one of her meetings, but I love how she's trying to make a difference and is trying to be someone who can protect people. She's showing more strength, even though she was defeated brutally by the guy, but also the strength to go out there and battle, instead of sticking to the sidelines. I understand why Oliver refuses to train Laurel. He's afraid of what could happen to her, of what it would do to her dad to lose both her and Sara. Ted and Laurel should form an interesting relationship, so I'm looking forward to seeing that.

Ray Palmer... again, not really sure how I feel about him. He's definitely after something. I do like the fact that he gave Felicity her own larger office and personal space, and speaking of Felicity, I loved the scene where she set her rules straight for Ray. You go, Felicity. We also had the lead up to next week's The Flash episode, and I'm very, very excited for that.

There was a lack of Olicity scenes, which can be understood because that was not the focus of the episode, but I still wanted there to be some more besides the opening scene. I also heard there was supposed to be an emotional Olicity scene, but that was apparently cut, and I really want to know what it was about.

I love that Oliver opened up to Thea a little bit more in this episode. He revealed more about what actually happened, like how Robert actually killed himself to Oliver could survive instead. I'd like to see this happen more often in bits and pieces until she actually finds out he is the Arrow. I love that Oliver gave Thea the choice as to whether or not she would come home, he wasn't going to force her. This scene was overall fantastic. Great jobs by Stephen and Willa.

The episode definitely wasn't action free, because let's be honest, it wouldn't be an Arrow episode if it was. Diggle, Oliver, and Roy all kicked ass.

I will never get over how cute Lyla, Diggle, and Sara are as a family. I absolutely love them.

And lastly, the ending of the episode where Nyssa shows up questioning where Sara is, an arrow pointed at Oliver. Maybe it would have been a better idea to call her...

Favorite Quote:
“Definitely no coffee. There’ll be no espresso brought to you by me. I stand very firm on that last point.” - Felicity Smoak 

I think I may start doing more of these episode recaps for other shows I watch, so you can look forward to some of those and also another Arrow one next week.

What did you think of the episode? Leave it below.