The Odyssey

"The Odyssey" is the fourteenth episode of the first season of Arrow, and the fourteenth episode overall. It aired on February 13, 2013.

Synopsis
After Oliver is shot, he turns to a surprising person for help: Felicity. John is stunned when he sees Felicity walk through the front door of the lair dragging a dying Oliver behind her, and the two team up to save Oliver's life. As Oliver hovers between life and death, he flashes back to a seminal event on the island a daring escape attempt with his new friend Slade Wilson.

Plot
The Hood crashes into Moira's office. He orders her to tell him about Walter's disappearance. She begs him to spare her life, showing him pictures of him and Thea. Oliver lowers his guard and she calls for help after pulling out a gun and shooting him. She hits him, and, although he escapes, he leaves blood in her office.

In the building parking garage, Felicity starts her car and finds Oliver waiting for her in the backseat. He pulls back his hood, revealing his identity to her and asking her to take him to his hideout since he can't go to the hospital. She agrees to take him there, remarking that the revelation clears a lot of things up. She walks into the hideout stained with blood, asking Diggle to help her bring Oliver down since he's too heavy. She subsequently helps Diggle save Oliver. As they work on his gunshot wound, we flashback to the island.

Slade is training Oliver in hand to hand combat. Oliver is struggling to master the techniques. Later Slade shows him a map of the island. He explains that there is a supply plane every 3 months and they have to act soon to make it off the island via the plane. The airstrip is heavily guarded, but the biggest issue is a guard tower with bulletproof glass. It will be   Oliver's job to take out the sniper. The next day, as they set out to the airstrip in the woods, Oliver steps on a old land mine. Just as they're discussing whether Slade can disarm it, several soldiers head towards them. Slade leaves him and Oliver pretends to be one of the soldiers. Slade returns and takes out the soldiers, placing one of them on top of the land mine so Oliver can escape.

Elsewhere on the island Edward Fyers asks Yao Fei to help him train some new arrivals in archery.

That night Oliver tells Slade about Laurel and his infidelity. Slade says the man who tortured him used to be his partner and friend. His name was Billy Wintergreen and he was the godfather of Slade's son. When Edward took Slade and Billy hostage, Billy betrayed Slade and joined Edward's camp. Oliver and Slade then arrive at the airstrip.

Back in present day Diggle stitches up Oliver. He seems to think Oliver will be okay and is surprised Felicity isn't more shocked by the situation she's found herself in. Felicity tells him that while she didn't necessarily know that Oliver was the Hood, she knew he had some kind of secret because of his horrible cover stories while requesting favors from her. She points out several examples that just didn't make any sense once she finished the favors. When she mentions the syringe/energy drink from Vertigo, Diggle tells her that the substance was Vertigo and she was instrumental in taking down The Count and they couldn't have done it without her help.

Back in a flashback, as Slade takes out guards with his silenced rifle and sword Oliver makes his way to the tower. However the guard pulls a gun on Oliver and has him at gunpoint.

In present day, Oliver begins to take a turn for the worse. First, he has a seizure and then his heart stops. Thankfully, they have a defibrillator on hand and Diggle tries to shock him back to life, making Felicity jump back from Oliver because he didn't say clear. Then they realize the defibrillator is working and Felicity figures out that it's a problem with the wiring, not the entire machine. After she fixes it, they shock him again and Oliver's heart starts beating; Felicity explains that she has been working with computers since she was seven and wires are pretty much the same in any machine.

Slade shows up at the last minute to save Oliver before the guard can make a phone call. Oliver's job is to stay in the tower and not let anybody inside. After Slade leaves, Oliver picks up the phone and places a call to Laurel. He hears her voice a few times but cannot say anything. Just then, Slade appears and smashes the phone in case it is being monitored. When the plane's captain radios the tower with a verification code, Oliver is able to figure out the answer. Slade tells Oliver he'll be ordering an air strike on the island once they're gone. Oliver says he's tired of thinking only of himself and refuses to let Yao die. Slade gives him 3 hours to return or he'll leave without him.

Felicity asks why Diggle helps Oliver because she thinks that he's the kind of man that would have a problem with Oliver killing people. John tells Felicity about having to protect a drug and child trafficking warlord when he was in the military. In an ensuing firefight with insurgents, he ended up killing a teenager. After that event, John struggled with whether or not he was a good man. Working with Oliver makes him feel like a good man again.

Back on the island Oliver finds Yao in a tent and tells him they have a way off the island. Yao won't leave, saying the reason is a "who". Edward walks in and Yao knocks Oliver out. We then Slade tell the plane it is clear to land.

Edward tries to figure out why Oliver would return. Oliver asks whether he'll be fighting Yao again and is told he is to be executed. Billy starts beating up Oliver, who tells the masked man he knows who he used to be and taunts him. At this point Slade arrives, causing a distraction through explosions and subsequently gets into a fight with Billy. Slade kills his former friend, but moments later is shot by Edward. Oliver helps the two escape just as the plane leaves. As they are leaving the camp they encounter one guard who Oliver disarms and knocks out using a technique Slade taught him.

Back at Slade's hideout they talk about the next step. Slade thinks Oliver has progressed and now they might have a chance of surviving.

Edward speaks with his boss over a phone and assures him the complications won't be a problem. Yao walks up and is told he has 5 minutes. We see that his daughter has been captured. She is the reason he's been loyal to Edward. Yao Fei's daughter has a dragon tattoo on her back shoulder, an identical tattoo Oliver is seen having at the end of the episode.

In present day, Oliver wakes up. After updating the computer systems in the Foundry, Felicity also hacked the police crime lab and order Oliver's blood sample destroyed. Oliver asks her if that means she wants to join the team, considering she's practically a member already. She isn't going to join them, per se, but wants to help find Walter, so she'll help them with missions, and with finding Walter. After that, she wants to go back to her boring I.T. girl life. She leaves for the bathroom and Diggle says he's worried about being able to protect Felicity. On top of all that, Diggle says that he's still not sure what Moira is hiding or how much she's involved with the book with the names. Oliver (still in denial that his own mother is involved in the disappearance of Walter, as well as the book with names and the sabotage of his father's yacht) makes it clear that his mother is off limits, at least until they learn more, citing her plea to spare her life for the sake of her children.

Oliver returns home and is informed by Detective Lance and his family that his mother was attacked by the Hood. After Quentin leaves, Oliver embraces Moira and assures her that the Hood will never come after her again.

Behind the scenes

 * Tommy Merlyn does not appear in this episode despite Colin Donnell being credited.
 * In a flashback scene of the episode, Oliver is amused that he is trapped on an island and his only friend is named Wilson, a reference to the 2000 film Cast Away.