The second episode of "The Arrow" premiered last night on the CW. After last week’s major cliffhanger, the episode was quick to ramp up the emotions and drama, as Laurel appears in Oliver’s headquarters with Sara’s dead body and we can see the amount of pain it inflicts on the whole team. A flash back to five years ago, we find out that the FBI has been turning Oliver into their hit man and as he is about to shoot a man he realizes that he knows him. Back to the present, Laurel decides to wait to tell her dad until after they find the culprit so that he would have some sort of closure. We see that Oliver is still trying to reach out to Thea for support but she won’t answer.

Detective Lance meets with the Arrow and tells him that someone has been targeting businessmen and killing them with Arrows (around the same time that Sara was killed by one). Back in Hong Kong, we discover that Oliver’s best friend, Tommy, is in Hong Kong looking for him because the moment that Oliver logged into his email to reach his family in the first episode, it sent off an account alert. Oliver’s friend is not the only one trying to find loved ones, for Roy was trying to use the FBI’s database, back in the present, to try to find Thea until Felicity catches him and he reveals that Thea is not where she says she is and he has the proof in a letter. Felicity tells him that Oliver has to know and that he has to hear it from Roy and no one else.

After Felicity’s good advice, she quickly storms off to confront Ray at Queen’s Consolidated for his excessive stalking which include: sending her flowers/texts/emails and buying out her store’s franchise (so that she can either work for him for minimum wage at the store or at for 6-digits at the company). Felicity tries to reject both offers by quitting and attempting to storm out but Ray stops her and acknowledges that there is something wrong with her and her screaming at him is really toward someone else.

Back at the cave, the team is able to track down the mysterious archer who has been killing businessmen, and possibly Sara, through video cameras and phone tracking. His name is Simon Lacroix and Oliver hunts him down and stops him from killing another man. They have a motorcycle face off where Oliver is shot down and Simon gets away. In the next flashback, Oliver is trying to come up with ideas on how to make the FBI think that he killed Tommy without actually doing it. We, then, find Tommy at his residence where he is subdued by behind and dragged out of frame. The tension didn’t stop there, as Laurel takes matters into her own hands and she uses her police investigator (and her dad’s captain position) to get into the hospital room to interrogate the man that Oliver stopped Simon from killing.

Meanwhile, Felicity confronts Oliver for being so cold and heartless about Sara’s death and he responds with the fact that he cannot show these emotions. He is not allowed to break down for he is the leader and doesn’t have the luxury of grieving. We get a completely different sense of Oliver’s character from last episode. In the first episode, he was very happy and charismatic while he was asking Felicity out and trying to make himself happy with her. However, now, we see he is a complete emotional wreck and he reveals that he has realized that one day he will be in Sara’s position: lying on the table dead because of the lifestyle he has chosen.

Back at the hospital, Laurel is not playing when it comes to getting information out of the victim. She grabbed his broken arm and smashes it onto the metal side of the bed until she gets some answers. The victim manages to spit out that the connection between the businessmen has to deal with a conspiracy with Ameritek before he was killed by an arrow shot through the hospital window by Simon. Afterwards, Roy finally tells Oliver that Thea is not going to respond and he shows her the letter she left him which states how everyone around her has been lying to her and she has been too weak to handle it, but she will no longer be that person and she does not plan on ever going back.

In light of Laurel’s ne information, the team track down Simon’s next victim and Oliver begins his search but Laurel makes it clear that she will not sit back and let Oliver do all the work because he failed to catch Simon last time. And, of course, the next victim was found to be at Ray’s new business opening party. Simon breaks in through the window and the target quickly tries to run away but gets hooked by Simon. Thankfully for him, Roy and Oliver stop him and they force Simon to flee but Oliver will not let him get away this time. Oliver disarms Simon and is about to get some answers until Laurel appears right behind him holding a gun. Simon explains how he doesn’t know who Sara is and he was not even in town when she was murdered.

However, Laurel is not convinced and she pulls the trigger but soon finds out that Oliver took out all the bullets back in the cave. Later, Oliver tells Laurel that they guy’s alibi checks out and that the trail has gone cold so the best thing to do is for Laurel to tell her dad the truth. As Laurel is about to tell Detective Lance the heartbreaking news, his heart pill reminder beeper goes off and Laurel goes back on her plan as she couldn’t break it to him with his medical issues. We, then, find the team crowded around the grave that they dug up for Sara and they give their final goodbyes.

In the final flashback, it turns out Oliver is the one who kidnapped his friend and he makes him believe that the email alert was all a ruse to get him to come to Hong Kong so that they could capture him for money. Oliver and the Japanese agent fake a police rescue in order for Oliver to maintain his false death without having to kill his friend. The episode wraps up with Oliver stating his new prerogative is to find Thea (and to not die in this job); Felicity takes Ray’s job offer; and we finally see Thea with a brand new attitude as she has learned how to fight in combat with her dad’s guidance. 

Reach Staff Reporter Cristian Pagan here.