Arrow - 'Unchained', 'Sons of the Father' and 'Code of Silence'

I don't know if they kept a Roy-tailored suit around just in case he happened to
come back while Thea was incapacitated, or if he let the shoulders back out.

Team Arrow pursue a burglar stealing high-tech components, only to discover that the thief is Roy Harper. During one pursuit, Thea has a dizzy spell and Malcolm Merlin pops up to tell us that the thwarted bloodlust is now killing her.

The team fake-kill Roy in order to get him away from a remote-control master who has a camera contact in his eye and proof that he is a) Roy Harper, b) alive and c) not the late Arrow. They then go head to head with the Calculator, a villainous hacktivist set to deliver a brute force attack on the city's digital infrastructure, crippling vital services and killing thousands. Felicity goes head to head with her opposite number while the rest of the team take out the physical threat.

Awkward.

Away from her keyboard, Curtis talks Felicity into ignoring the board and presenting Palmer Tech's new power cell superbattery herself. It's a welcome return for Curtis, who also manages to not be completely hammered when attacked by Roy and even throws his prototype t-sphere at him. Felicity's presentation goes down a storm with the audience, including a man we know to be the Calculator, and whom Felicity recognises as her father.

In Nanda Parbat, Nyssa takes advantage of Malcolm's absence to start a coup, and retrieves something called the Lotus from Tatsu Yamashiro. At the end of the episode 'Unchained' she offers the Lotus, a cure for the bloodlust, to Oliver in exchange for the head of Malcolm Merlin.

In 'Sons of the Father', Felicity Snr. reveals his secret identity, having identified Felicity as Overwatch, and claims that they aren't that different. He considers himself a vigilante of sorts, and swears up and down that he wasn't actually going to kill thousands of people. He wants to get to know her, but fails her test when she shows him her R&D room and he tries to hack the servers.

Once a douchebag...

Oliver negotiates a compromise: The Lotus for the demon's head ring. Malcolm is dismissive of the very existence of the Lotus, so Oliver secures a sample. Once it works, Malcolm agrees to the exchange, then ambushes Nyssa instead. By this point, pretty much everyone is telling Oliver to kill Malcolm and have done with it, but he's not willing to take away Thea's father, even if he is a dick. Malcolm of course claims that he is being responsible and that Nyssa in control of the League would be a disaster.

Rather than have a League civil war fought out in the streets of Star City, Oliver arranges a trial by combat. Nyssa is not good enough to beat Malcolm, but as her husband Oliver steps in to fight for her, defeating Malcolm, cutting off his hand and taking the ring. Nyssa then disbands the League and Malcolm swears worse than death revenge before running off to tell Darhk about William (Oliver's son, whom he has apparently been seeing loads of off screen.)

Arrow does The West Wing.

In 'Code of Silence', Oliver faces a key debate against his surprise opponent in the Mayoral race: Mrs Darhk (although for political reasons she goes by Adams.)

Darhk brings in a demolitions crew - a quirky miniboss squad who specialise in precision demolitions and offensive use of tools - to take out Quentin Lance and then bring down the Debate, killing everyone but Adams. Team Arrow thwart the attack with help from Quentin and Oliver owns the debate, Adams apparently having neglected any prep beyond practicing her 'shell-shocked face.'

Donna Smoake breaks up with Lance when he tries to protect her by distancing himself while people are dropping buildings on him, but realises that he's just trying to keep her safe. Oliver and Felicity have an engagement party and Curtis gives Felicity a bio-chip which could allow her to walk. Unfortunately, Malcolm, Darhk and now Thea know about William, which means that that lie is about to blow up in Oliver's face. Even if it doesn't, William's mum has apparently sent him on an evil exchange trip and he'll be staying with those nice Darhks for a while.

In Flashbacksville, Oliver hallucinated Shado who gave him a real rock, confessed to killing whatsherface's brother, set himself to freeing the other slaves, and killed Conklin as a show of faith.

Once more, Arrow attempts to build tension by perpetuating the spent trope of superheroes with secrets. Thea actually tells Oliver that he's right to keep William a secret from Felicity because of the risk of William being used against Oliver, which when you think about it is basically saying that she considers Felicity a security leak. It's bollocks and done to build for a conflict later in the season, and it's getting pretty tiring. I'd like the generally excellent DCTVU to find a new tune, please.