Third Installment of DC Week - 'Arrow' Recap: "Invasion!" - RESPECT.

Arrow’s 100th episode and the third installment of the 4 night DC crossover event took us back in time and into an alternate universe where many of fan favorite characters resurfaced while our abducted team members were in stasis in alien pods.

The first Arrow resurrection was Laurel Lance aka The Black Canary. In the dream-like hallucination The Dominators have put some of our characters in an alternate world where Oliver Queen and Laurel are engaged and are getting ready for their wedding day. Moments later Oliver is greeted by his parents Moira and Robert Queen. Oliver begins to feel like something is off but can’t put his finger on it.

Sarah then arrives at the Queen estate and reunites with her sister. She notices Laurel’s necklace with a black canary emblem and when she touches it she gets a vision of Laurel as The Black Canary. Sarah feels the pain of losing her sister and hugs her tightly. She also knows something is off but chooses to ignore it.

Back on Earth Cisco vibes the missing team member’s location using an old bow of Oliver’s. He then shows Felicity and crew the device he took from The Dominator’s ship. They attempt to track the mothership with that device but their human tech is overloaded and dissipates. They locate a suitable alternative but the problem is someone else has their hands on it already. That someone being Laura Washington. She has been making herself powerful with the stolen tech so Felicity calls in reinforcements.

Oliver is still dazed and confused in the shared dream he is in with the rest of the team. He runs into Diggle while almost being robbed and learns that he is now The Green Arrow. No wonder he is confused. Oliver once again has flashbacks of his two different lives; the one he is currently living and his actual life back on Earth. Unable to fathom what is going on Oliver heads to the arrow cave and meets Felicity and a very hostile Diggle in his Green Arrow suit.

Diggle grabs Oliver and begins to choke him but quickly releases him once Oliver starts telling John everything he knows about him. Oliver has an epiphany and realizes he is in an alternate universe. How or why he is in that state he doesn’t yet know.

Ray finally comes into the picture when he gets introduced to Sarah. He recognizes her from somewhere but can’t put the puzzle together just yet. He is also having visions of his life back on Earth.

On Earth the reinforcements come in the form of The Flash and Supergirl. They team up with Ragman, Wilddog and Mr. Terrific. Wilddog wants nothing to do with Supergirl or The Flash and their super powers that is until he needs them when he is attacked by Laura Washington. Cue the epic tag team punches from Supergirl and The Flash that incapacitate Laura and allow Mr. Terrific to grab the regulator off of her. Back at the arrow cave, on Earth, Curtis is able to decode The Dominator’s language but not into something he can decipher. Luckily Ragman sees that The Dominators language shares commonalities with the Old Testament. Maybe they can crack the code and communicate with the aliens.

Throughout the episode Thea really seemed to be enjoying this alternate version of her life. She is finally truly happy, that is until she has a flash of Slade Wilson aka Deathstroke killing her mother. However, like Sarah, she chooses to ignore that vision and live in the moment while her brother (Oliver) and Diggle start to put together the puzzle.

John shows Oliver a picture he drew of The Dominators and Oliver is able to figure out how this universe works. He realizes that The Dominators will push back at anything they try to do to get out of the mind game being played. Cue Slade Wilson’s entrance.

Oliver and Diggle battle Slade but are quickly losing the fight as they are not armed. Luckily Sarah arrives and kills Deathstroke much to her own surprise. Oliver and John explain the fact that they are in a shared hallucination to Sarah and she remembers them being abducted. They then realize the only way out of the machine is to head to the Smoak Technologies building; the only symbol representing their life back on Earth.

Tommy Merlyn’s (Oliver’s childhood best friend) absence is explained by Malcolm Merlyn (his father). He is working long shifts at a hospital in Chicago where he is a doctor aka Chicago Med. While this is going on Ray and Felicity, who are engaged in this dream, run into Sarah. Sarah pulls Ray away and talks to him about their situation. He begins to remember his life and jumps on board to exit this lucid dream.

Oliver tearfully hugs his parents’ goodbye and goes to get Thea. She doesn’t want to leave because this life is too good. Her parents are alive. Laurel is alive. She can’t lose her family again. Oliver is forced to leave her behind. He tells Thea he loves her and wants her to be happy with tears in his eyes. I’m surprised he didn’t take her against her will. He really is changing.

Oliver and the team begin their trek to Smoak Technologies but are stopped when Oliver is shot with an arrow by Malcolm Merlyn when they try to escape. He is not alone. Some of the toughest villains Team Arrow has ever faced surround them. Speedy (Thea Queen) rejoins the group and they battle Deathstroke, Damien Darhk, H.I.V.E. members and Merlyn.

An action packed sequence leads to a final shot where Ollie shoots Deathstroke in the eye with an arrow. All the villains are defeated. However, that isn’t the last of the challenges the team must face to escape. Laurel comes running out of the estate hoping to stop them all, especially Oliver, from leaving. Sarah tries to explain to her sister (Laurel) that they have to leave. She doesn’t want to hear it and continues to beg Ollie to stay. He tells Laurel that she deserves better, that he is not the man she fell in love with and leaves. Poor Laurel is left on the night of her wedding.

An injured John and crew, minus Oliver, walk through the portal to get back on the mothership. Oliver turns back a final time and is greeted by important figures from his past, both dead and alive. Via holograms we get to see Tommy, Roy Harper (Arsenal), Robert Queen, Moira Queen, Felicity and Laurel all telling Oliver not to give up.

Moments later the team wakes up and exit their pods. Shortly after they learn that they are in somewhere in outer space. They try to navigate the alien aircraft in an attempt to escape and run into Dominators. Oliver grabs a nearby laser gun and shoots them. They continue to navigate the mothership until they find escape pods and take one. Thea figures out how to make it take off and the pod heads out into the galaxy.

However, they are not alone. The Dominators follow them in other pods and fire at them. Luckily the Waverider arrives in time to snag them and save them.

Once on the Waverider they are introduced to Nate Heywood aka Citizen Steel and Gideon. Ray has Gideon translate something The Dominators said back on the ship; the weapon is almost complete. Gideon is unable to determine what the weapon is but tracks The Dominator mothership heading directly for Earth.

TO BE CONTINUED ON DC’s LEGENDS OF TOMORROW!

What’s to come in the final installment of the crossover:

Barry has to surrender himself and if he does The Dominators will leave the Earth in peace.

An epic battle ensues and Mick is saved by geeks aka Felicity and Cisco.

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