5) “Three Ghosts” – December 11, 2013
Like any good mid-season finale, this episode from Arrow’s season two was a satisfying conclusion to the story points laid out so far, and offered some intriguing hints at what’s to come.
In the island flashback, Ivo sets up Oliver to make an impossible choice that results in Shado being killed, which the now Mirakuru-fueled Slade takes as an act of war, not knowing that it was Oliver’s actions that inadvertently lead to Shado’s execution. Meanwhile, in present day Starling, Sebastian Blood’s plan starts to take shape, as it’s revealed that the identity of his benefactor is a very alive Slade Wilson.
How can Slade be alive? Certainly Oliver believes he’s dead, as Slade is one of the titular apparitions that appear to him (Shado and Tommy being the others). Diggle convinces Oliver that spirits have something to tell him, and they do, but it’s the ghost of Tommy that makes Oliver believe he can be the hero he wants to be, and perhaps relieve himself of some of that guilt that’s been driving him mad. Oliver, in the end, learns a powerful lesson about letting go, and is able to do the impossible and beat a Mirakuru super-soldier single-handedly.
Of course, the flipside of “Three Ghosts” is that it’s a continuation of Barry Allen’s introduction into the Arrow-verse, complete with the episode’s final scene that sets up things nicely for The Flash. We see Barry get struck by lightning after the S.T.A.R. Labs particle accelerator blows, which makes “Three Ghosts,” in some sense, the birth of two heroes.