'Arrow' Recap: Are Oliver and Merlyn Working Together?

Katie Cassidy as Black Canary, John Barrowman as Malcolm Merlyn, and Colton Haynes as Arsenal

Warning: This recap contains storyline and character spoilers for this week's episode of Arrow.
Oliver's back in Starling City... but why isn't Felicity happy about it? Maybe she didn't get to see the same flashbacks from tonight's Arrow that we did? Plus, Malcolm Merlyn's history leading up to his initiation into the League of Assassins is explored, and the team-up you never thought would happen causes a rift in Team Arrow.

The episode opens with Oliver trying to sneak out of the cabin that Tatsu has been nursing him back to health in. He needs to get back to the city, but he's not healed yet. She lets him go with two parting tips for beating Ra's al Ghul. The first is that only the student has hope of beating the master, and only Maseo can teach him that. The second is that he'll have to sacrifice whatever's most precious to him to be strong enough.

Stephen Amell as Oliver Queen and Rila Fukushima as Tatsu Yamashiro

Back in the Glades, Brick has taken over, and Arsenal and Black Canary are on the ground fighting his men (one of which mistakes Arsenal for “that Red Streak I've been hearing about on TV” — yay, Flash reference!). Sara and Roy's old friend, Sin (Bex Taylor-Klaus), notices them.
Team Arrow is badly outmanned. Chief Lance is doing what he can to work around the mayor's edict that no officers can enter the Glades, but the most he's able to do is pass along old information about Brick. They discover that Brick is also the man who killed Malcolm Merlyn's wife, Rebecca.

Which is weird, because Malcolm just finished telling Thea that the first person he killed was the man who killed Rebecca. Apparently, he killed the wrong guy, so he offers a partnership to Felicity, Diggle, Arsenal, and Black Canary to take down Brick.
Everybody is on board except for Felicity — who appears to be the only one who remembers all the people Malcolm killed in The Undertaking and that he forced Thea to kill Sara. She can't believe that Oliver would agree to help Merlyn if he were there, and she convinces them to turn Merlyn down.
They decide that the only way to fight Brick's manpower is with manpower of their own. They recruit Ted Grant, Laurel's boxing coach (and former vigilante Wildcat). They also get Sin to spread the word to get the citizens of the Glades to stand up and fight for themselves.

Bex Taylor-Klaus as Sin

This leads to a rumble as Brick's thugs clash in the streets with the ordinary people under his thumb. Brick takes down Wildcat, but an arrow from Arsenal drives him into an alley. Black Canary rushes to help Grant, which is where Sin realizes that the woman wearing Sara Lance's costume isn't Sara Lance — something she tells Chief Lance after the battle.

In the alley, Brick comes face to face with Merlyn. The core of this episode is how Malcolm went from a loving father to a cold-hearted killer. Flashbacks show the night officers inform him of his wife's death and the friend who gives him (bad) information about how to get revenge. After shooting the man he thinks killed Rebecca, he goes to join the League of Assassins to learn how to protect his family.
It's repeatedly brought up that, even when he does kill, he does it to protect those he loves. After losing his wife and son, all he has left is his daughter, Thea — which is what Oliver uses to convince him to turn in Brick instead of killing him. “Make a different choice now for Thea,” he tells Merlyn, i.e. give her a reason to forgive you.

John Barrowman as Malcolm Merlyn

Is this a turning point for Malcolm? By not killing Brick, he's given up a personal 21-year quest for justice. He thinks he's beyond forgiveness, but Oliver says no; despite his misgivings and despite his crimes, he enlists him to help defeat Ra's al Ghul. After all, he needs to learn from a student to beat the master.
But he also needs to sacrifice what's most precious to him. Oliver trusts Merlyn, but Felicity can't, and it leads to the heartbreaking last lines of the episode. After more than a month of thinking he's dead, as soon as he gets back, he joins up with a killer: It's the last straw.
“Before you left, the last thing you said to me was that you loved me. Now you're back, and the first thing you tell me is that you're working with the man who turned your sister — a woman you're supposed to love — into a killer who killed a woman you used to love. I don't want to be a woman that you love.”

Is this what will drive Felicity into the arms of Ray Palmer? What will Team Arrow do without her? Do you trust Merlyn, or will he turn on Oliver to save himself again? How cheap would real estate have to be for you to buy a condo in the Glades?

Original post found here: https://tv.yahoo.com/blogs/tv-news/arrow-recap-oliver-merlyn-060548314.html