How I Think Season 3 Should Have Gone...

I think it needs no explaining that Arrow Season 3 was a divisive year with respect to story and character. The reasons for which are many and have been stated, restated and argued multiple times in various places on the forum throughout the year. As such, I won't be going too much into them. Instead, I thought I'd try putting together my take on how Season 3 could've gone.

Thoughts and feedback for both, the idea and how I've organised it would be much appreciated. Anyway, without further adieu, here's my take on Arrow Season 3.

SETTING

• Following Slade's siege of Starling City at the end of Season 2, Starling City Police Department is severely understaffed and the Glades once again a hotbed for crime.
• Team Arrow is in a good, stable place; with Oliver taking Roy under his wing for training, while Diggles and Felicity continue providing support.
• No one has heard from Thea since her departure at the end of Season 2. Roy feels responsible for this but has kept it a secret from Oliver, who thinks she's somewhere in Europe "needing her space".
• Quentin is still in hospital, recovering from injuries sustained at the end of Season 2.
• At the start of the season, a scandal breaks courtesy of an unknown source; revealing Thea to be Malcolm Merlyn's daughter.

NEW/ALTERED CHARACTERS


[spoiler]Ray Palmer - A tech entrepreneur, owner of Amertek Industries and all-around philanthropist, who has recently moved to Starling City following his acquisition of Queen Consolidated. May be harbouring a dark secret.


Werner Zytle - Boss of the Vlatavan crime families who has come to Starling City seeking vengeance after learning of the death of his son, the original Count Vertigo. Uses a new version of vertigo, that is aerosolised and effective even when inhaled, as weapons of terror.


Amanda Waller - Head of ARGUS in the present day. However, in the flashbacks, she is in charge of its Hong Kong operations, and is attempting to shut China White down.


Jade Nguyen - Thief, assassin, and chief enforcer of China White's operations in Hong Kong in 2009/2010.


Cheshire - A thief operating in present day Starling City who Roy first encounters. She wears a cat-style kabuki mask.[/spoiler]




Episode 1:
[spoiler]

• With the city the safest it's been in 2 years, Oliver finally attempts to live a normal life by taking Felicity out on a date. However, the night is cut short when the restaurant is attacked by a man using vertigo-laced explosives. Oliver escapes but Felicity is badly injured as a result of vertigo poisoning.
• As a means of luring Oliver out, Zytle plants another vertigo-containing bomb in the city centre. However, the attack is foiled through the timely intervention of Sara/Canary.
• Sara visits Quentin at the hospital, where she meets Laurel. The three of them share a moment before the sisters leave the hospital to continue talking. Laurel comments about having difficulty coping with all the deaths that have happened the past few years and implores Sara to come back.
• Sara leaves only to be shot and killed by an unseen person using arrows, with Laurel finding the body.
• As a subplot, Oliver attends a board meeting to regain Queen Consolidated but is unable to convince them from selling to Palmer, particularly following a suspiciously well timed scandal outing Thea as Merlyn's daughter, along with a promised plans to "save this city".
• In the flashbacks, Oliver is taken Hong Kong by ARGUS (Waller and Maseo). He is initially interrogated about Mirakuru and when it's apparent he doesn't have it, they attempt to force him to work for them. He attempts to escape but is eventually cowed into obedience when they threaten his family.

[/spoiler]


Episode 2
[spoiler]

• Team Arrow attempts to uncover Sara's killer by finding out why she was in Starling City. Having no success, they instead track down another League of Assassins member who is initially less than cooperative. After an initial confrontation, the Assassin reveals that he knew nothing as they were on separate missions but discloses a safe house that Sara would have used.
• There, the team discover that Sara had been tracking Merlyn; revealing that the Dark Arrow was still alive and had been in Starling City. Oliver immediately gets worried about Thea's safety; deciding he needed to find her and bring her back to Starling City.
• Meanwhile, following the fallout of Zytle's terror attacks, Palmer unveils and signs a contract with the city to support the understaffed SCPD by providing security to the Glades through the newly reorganised Blackhawk Protection Group.
• In the flashbacks, ARGUS coerce Oliver into using his biometrics to grant them access to the Hong Kong branch of Queen Consolidated to steal some classified data. This is the first chronological use of the router arrow.

[/spoiler]




Episode 3
[spoiler]

• Oliver tracks Thea to Corto Maltese. Roy finally explains why Thea left; which pisses Oliver off. He forbids Roy from accompanying him; as he and Diggles travel to Corto Maltese to bring Thea home.
• While there, they encounter Merlyn. After a confrontation, the latter swears he had nothing to do with Sara's death; the news coming as a surprise to him. Oliver nonetheless warns Merlyn to stay away from Thea.
• Oliver talks to Thea and although reluctant, the latter finally agrees to come home to Starling City.
• Meanwhile, back in Starling City, Roy goes out on a solo mission to stop a break-in at a laboratory, where he encounters a female thief in a cat-style kabuki mask (Cheshire) who proves to be his match in combat. They trade remarks at one another while they fight but Roy is ultimately unsuccessful at stopping her from escaping with a case of mysterious chemicals.
• In the flashbacks, the data that Oliver stole turns out to be for a Project Lazarus; a research project being conducted at Queen Consolidated subsidiary, Unidac Industries. Oliver and Maseo attempt to steal it but are intercepted by a woman who is later revealed as Jade Nguyen, the China White's chief enforcer in Hong Kong.

[/spoiler]




Episode 4
[spoiler]

• Roy tells Oliver about Cheshire though the latter is initially distracted; worrying about Thea and looking for clues to Sara's murderer. However, he is then contacted by Waller who informs him that the stolen chemicals were components similar to that from Project Lazarus. She orders him to find the mastermind unless Oliver wishes to have ARGUS deploying Task Force X in his city. Waller then informs Oliver of the location for the second half of the chemicals needed in Project Lazarus; which would be where the thief was likely to hit. Laurel isn't happy about this as she feels that Oliver should be spending his time looking for her sister's killer.
• At the same time, Nyssa is back in town; searching for Sara's killer, and convinced that it's Merlyn. To lure him out, she abducts Thea.
• Learning of this, Team Arrow is forced to abandon their search for Cheshire in order to defeat Nyssa. Once defeated, Oliver explains to Nyssa that Merlyn did not kill Sara but she doesn't believe him. Laurel overhears this as well and is equally convinced that Merlyn is the killer and feels betrayed that Oliver is protecting him.
• At the end of the episode, Laurel and Nyssa decide to team up to hunt Merlyn down.

[/spoiler]




More to come if there's interest.