(The CW)

The third season of the show "The Arrow" premiered last night on the CW. The show did not take long to ramp up the action, as the episode started out with a truck chase where the gang takes down yet another one of the city’s most wanted criminals. Starling City is currently at its lowest crime rate thanks to the vigilante. There is definitely a new atmosphere among the characters which is obvious when Felicity and Oliver passively flirt with each other. John hints that Oliver should take a chance with Felicity and to stop trying to fool himself that there is nothing there. The common theme of utilizing flashbacks from the 5 years that Oliver was thought dead. The flashback starts with Oliver running while being chased by a Japanese agent. He attempts to send a message to his mom that he is alive but fails. Back to the present, Laurel’s dad, Captain Lance, gives a speech where he formally recognizes the “vigilante” as the Arrow. During the telecast, we find out who our new villain of the season, Count Vertigo, is as he swears to his team that they will kill the Arrow.Back at the headquarters, Oliver finally asks Felicity out on a date. Well, technically he invites her to dinner and then they have a really awkward exchange where they talk in fragments trying to clarify if it is a date or not. Oliver is very excited about this new beginning to his life and tries to juggle both his personal and business life, for he asks Felicity if she likes Italian during a mission. Into another flashback, FBI agent Waller explains to Oliver how he will not be able to escape and they will get him on their side, even if it means beating him into it.

Then, while at work, Felicity meets a stranger who asks about a software that is used to hack into firewalls. The random stranger recognizes Felicity as a prior worker for Queens Consolidated and tells her he has a man who is interested in hiring someone of her expertise. After she rejects the offer, Felicity assists him in finding a software that has a much better quality then the one that he asked for. We then find John at the hospital as he is going to be having a baby soon. But the more exciting scene happens after as Oliver makes it to his date by cable and finds Felicity looking absolutely gorgeous. Again, they are both super awkward and cute, and then Oliver talks about his dramatic past from when he was in Hong Kong. Of course, only he would start a first date like that. However, he cleans it up very well as he states how during those hard times he developed the habit of seeing people beyond themselves and always seeing them as enemies and weapons. But, when he first saw Felicity, he did not see any of that, he only saw her as a real person (while chewing a red pen). During the date, the new villains are outside as they know the Arrow is in the restaurant, for they attacked a tracker on his arrow during their earlier scuffle when Oliver tried to multitask with his date and mission. They fire an RPG into the restaurant and blow it up. Good thing Oliver was able to pick up on the incoming missile that he was able to drop Felicity and himself into the ground.

When Oliver wakes up, he manages to get out with Felicity knocked out and hurt. He was very upset as he realized that this might have happened due to his lack of focus. The crew, then, hunt down the culprits and, when Oliver confronts them for the first time, he meets Vertigo and is shot by a venom that makes his enemies see his worst fears. Oliver’s worst fear was himself which definitely made him not be able to concentrate on the fight on hand. Thankfully Detective Lance was there to help, however, he had an artery spasm and drops to the floor. Oliver saves Lance from being killed by Vertigo by shooting him, however, Vertigo still manages to get away. In the next flashback, Oliver is being treated by the wife of the Japanese agent that was chasing him down and beating him earlier. Back in the present, Laurel talks with her dad about his condition and how he needs to stop pushing himself to these limits. Meanwhile Felicity and Oliver head to Oliver’s big meeting where he attempts to win back his family’s company. Before they go in, another bidder shows up to compete against Oliver. Of course, this mysterious bidder was the stranger Felicity met at the store named Ray. Oliver gives a heartwarming speech about his company not just being business but a part of who he is and it being family to him. Ray goes up after him and utilizes statistics and numbers that could only be found in the Queen’s consolidated systems. Felicity instantly realizes that the reason he was looking for hacking equipment at her store was so that he may hack into the Queen’s database. Due to this, Ray was able to steal the company from Oliver. Afterwards, Oliver gets in his emotional state blaming himself for the mistakes that have occurred and acknowledges how he is afraid of himself like the venom showed up, but Felicity tells him that that is not who he is and that does not define him. Anyways, back into the mission at hand of trying to get a hold of these new villains. The gang found out that their enemies are concentrated at a boxing arena where they plan on blowing up the whole place. Oliver tells John how no longer wants him out on the field because he is about to have his baby and he does not want John to put his life in jeopardy because of his crusade. John is very defensive but has no choice but to comply.

At the boxing stadium, the team split up as Roy attempts to deactivate the bomb with Felicity’s help while Oliver hunts down the villains. Roy barely manages to stop the explosion by freezing the bomb (with only two seconds to spare). Outside, Sara randomly shows up (like she’s accustomed to do) to help Oliver fight off the enemies. Vertigo shoots Oliver with the same venom as he did earlier, however, it no longer works as Oliver is no longer afraid of who he is. After taking down Vertigo, we find ourselves back in the hospital where John just had his baby. Before we get to see his baby, though, Ray finds Felicity (after stalking her through her GPS) and he tries to get her to work for his new company as he was the one he was referring too when he said he knew someone who wanted to hire someone with Felicity’s 

The moment we have all been waiting for (The CW)

expertise. Apparently, Felicity hacked into all of Ray’s electronics and deleted all of his information and replaced them with sounds of porcupine farts. Then, John apologizes for his behavior as he now knows how important it is that he remains out of harm’s way for the sake of his new baby girl.

In the final flashback, Oliver finds out that if he does not comply with Waller’s demands, then the Japanese agent’s family was going to be killed due to his inability to restrain Oliver. In light of this new information, Oliver had no choice but to agree. In the present, Oliver tells Felicity that he cannot be with her and be Oliver and the Arrow. And then, they make out….finally!
After their passionate moment, Oliver receives a call from Barry, the flash, as he just woke up from his coma that started in season 2 and is not yet in tune with his new abilities. The show concludes with a sister bonding moment between Sara and Laurel. The first episode ends with a huge bang due to the fact that, as Laurel is heading to the boxing stadium, Sara is shot by multiple arrows by someone who sounds exactly like Oliver when he uses his voice modifier. Sara falls off the building where she falls in front of Laurel and dies in her arms within seconds.