My "Arrow" 6x16 Recap
Four years ago, we saw how Thea met up with Captain Jack and decided to train with him. Spoiler Alert: It’s Thea’s goodbye episode so we’re getting all the greatest hits. She is lowkey put off by his as always and he is all about being her evil dad.
In the present, the reformed LOA exposits some stuff about how they are Thanatos Guild and how Captain Jack ensured this would happen. Screwing them over from the grave (?); he would be happy about that. They are lead by a woman named Athena who discovers Nyssa hidden among their ranks. Nyssa sets off a bomb and escapes. Side Note: The actress who plays Athena is married to the man who plays Captain Singh on “The Flash.” She was also Vasquez on “Continuum.”
At Thea’s going away party, Thea bonds with William and tells him to look after Ollie. Ollie is supportive of Thea’s leaving for her own happiness but did threaten to torture Roy to death if something happened to Thea. Haha. Elsewhere, the team is beginning to suspect that the corruption is in more places than just the police. Diggle confronts Ollie again about handing back the hood. Ollie refuses to do that when Diggle is the only one on the team. A good point since Ollie never let himself be the only one on the team for long. More on that later. It’s worth noting that Quentin is at this party but he and Thea never interact.
At Rene’s place, Curtis is really disappointed about not being invited to Thea’s party. Umm… didn’t you burn literally all these bridges in the last episode? Anyway, he and Dinah are looking into the SCPD to see who is compromised. Curtis is into one of these suspected cops. Finally some movement on that front. He is also watching Zoey while Rene is in the hospital and they are bonding.
Roy and Thea are in a car leaving town. Thea is thrilled. Roy is afraid of jinxing things. On cue, their car is attacked with an arrow. The Thanatos Guild attacks. Nyssa saves them. She tells them the LOA has reformed and wants them. Thea is not trying to hear it but she doesn’t really have a choice.
At the Arrow Cave, Nyssa says that Captain Jack assembled a team called the Thanatos Guild to use a map for mysterious purposes. Her evil enemy Athena is part of the group so they are up to no good. She needs Thea’s help to get the map and assures her that this is the only way to get away from the Thanatos Guild. Thea agrees. Nyssa and Felicity are bantering back and forth about sharing a husband. It’s pretty hilarious. A lot of people didn’t like this but Nyssa seemed to have meant it in good fun since she wouldn’t be able to use these jokes much longer.
In an alley, Dinah is working on solving a drug murder. The Captain comes and takes the case as well as the evidence away from her. Dinah puts Curtis on it. Finally, she notices the Captain’s corruption. Will she notice all the dead ninjas of the city? She will not.
At a bar, Nyssa brings Thea in to meet Tigressa. She killed 200 people and liked Captain Jack. Don’t get too attached. Anyway, she gives them the location of the map pretty easy because she’s a plot device. Thea is great and decent as always.
Thea (about Captain Jack): “I’m sure death has cured him of his disappointment.”
Nyssa and the OTA go to look for the map. Nyssa finds it but it’s in a box. They can’t open it. Tigressa’s dead body drops from the ceiling. The Thanatos Guild comes for the map and Thea. They fight. Athena gets away but they defeat the rest.
At the Arrow Cave, Nyssa decides to leave with the box. Thea doesn’t want her to handle it alone. She wants the OTA to help. Another highlight for Thea’s exit: her empathy. Everyone else is super pissed though. Nyssa takes the deal. Ollie asks Nyssa to stop calling him husband. She likes all the shit it gives him so the answer is no. He also tells her to lay off Thea. She says that Thea has the right to her own choices. She also points out that she and Ollie dedicated their lives to righting their father’s wrongs so why shouldn’t Thea? Ollie says Thea shouldn’t have to and Nyssa only wants her to for her own reasons. Felicity finds out how to open the box. They get the map out but it’s blank. It is not written in the league invisible ink. Felicity tries to read it with a computer. Nyssa doesn’t understand this since she didn’t use a computer until she was 25. Felicity tries to get her to leave her alone but Nyssa wants to stay close to her sister wife. Ha! Thea talks with Roy. He is worried that he will lose her again. She assures him that won’t happen. Ollie and Thea have a talk. Another Thea Special: The Ollie/Thea bond. He tells her to her face that she can leave if she wants. She asks why he won’t give Diggle back the Hood. Ollie doesn’t want to. He was only going to do it for William and William is fine with him being the Green Arrow. Thea says Ollie is the best version of himself when he’s saving the city and maybe that’s why she’s not ready to leave either. Athena and the Thanatos Guild are holding the gas company hostage so they can blow up the city. No one is ready to give into these threats except Thea. She will not let her city be destroyed and asks the others to come with her. Other tidbits of this scene are that the LOA was founded in 1013 and that is also Captain Jack’s birthday.
At SCPD, Dinah and Curtis break in to see about evidence. Dinah hides while Curtis flirts with hot cop. He leads him away so Dinah can get to work. Well, that was lucky.
At the NTA cave, Curtis and Dinah are keeping a board of the corrupt cops. Dinah is sure that the Captain is dirty. Curtis says the drugs that the Captain confiscated were Vertigo (another shout out to Thea). Dinah thinks that means the Captain isn’t dirty. Have you never heard of a switch out?
At the Star City Gas Plant, our heroes fight the Thanatos Guild. Felicity helps Roy stop the bomb. Speedy fights Athena. Athena says they need Speedy’s blood to access the map. Speedy decides to burn it rather than let it fall into the wrong hands but doesn’t have to. They defeat their enemies but Athena escapes. Thea bleeds enough to reveal the map. Nyssa knows where it leads. One point here, if they knew the whole time that they needed Thea’s blood to see the map, why did they not take her blood while she was in a super long coma in her own hometown? Then all they would have to do was steal the box. They have no one to blame for this other than their own poor planning.
Roy: “There’s always a bomb situation.”
At the Arrow Cave, they look at the map. Felicity says that Captain Jack called his LOA the Thanatos Guild because it’s the personification of death. Nyssa says Captain Jack discovered 3 Lazarus Pits. I wonder if any of those will be used before the end of the season? Thea storms off.
At SCPD, Curtis asks out hot cop Nick. Good for him. Dinah privately tells Curtis that the Vertigo case was not documented. They realize that the Captain is corrupt. FINALLY!
At Thea’s place, Roy comes to see Thea. She doesn’t want anyone to find the other Lazarus Pits. She wants to help Nyssa destroy them. She thinks her purpose in life is to right Captain Jack’s wrongs just like doing it for her other dad is Ollie’s purpose. Roy decides to go with her. Aww. Why wasn’t that considered before given they didn’t have a plan?
On an empty street, Ollie and Thea say goodbye. He hugs Roy goodbye. He asks Nyssa to take care of his sister. Nyssa says she can take care of herself. She also presents a ceremonial dagger to Ollie which finally annuls their marriage. Ollie laughs so I guess he finally likes Nyssa now that they are no longer married. Thea tells Ollie to be honest with Diggle. They have a sweet goodbye where they callback to a line in the pilot about them being with each other the whole time. Thea drives off into the night with Roy and Nyssa.
I think it was a great sendoff to a character that was so important to the show. It really highlighted all of Thea’s best features as we are letting her go. I’m also glad they didn’t kill her off so there’s a possibility we’ll see her again someday. One complaint I saw was that it was very rushed which yes. This should have been building for the whole season. Since, coming out of her coma, Thea has just been handling Quentin nonsense and didn’t even say goodbye to him at the end. This was truly rushed to the finish line. Another was that Thea has always struggled with her bloodlust and the ability to be corrupted and she got out of that pretty fast. I look at it as that she finally found a purpose when she was forced to make choices. She will have Roy with her and will stay in touch with Ollie (offscreen). I think she has found her true north with the support system to back that up. Obviously, it would be better if this was more reinforced within the show before this point but we are where we are.
Ollie: “I thought I was the one who gave the wise sibling advice.”
Thea: “No. That has never been the case.”