I wasn’t all that excited about “Sins of the Father.” In fact, I shared with a friend that I was over another “League of Assassins” mini-arch. Boy, how I was wrong! So many changes and an answer to a question from the first episode.

**** Spoilers Below ****

Nyssa has been a character that has grown on me. In fact, she became a favorite when she was training Laurel last season. In my last review, I never thought I would speak so highly of Malcom Merlin, but for both individuals, they fell very far from grace this episode.

We knew from last episode that Thea had only a few days to live if she wasn’t given this magic cure that Nyssa had obtained.  So, if she had the cure, what’s the problem? She had worked beside Team Arrow before, hell, she still considers Oliver her husband.  Unfortunately, Nyssa wants leadership of the League of Assassins and is willing to allow Thea to die in order to take that leadership from Malcolm.

Then there is the other side; Oliver brokers a deal in which Nyssa would freely give the antidote to Thea if Malcolm would surrender his leadership of the league.  Why wouldn’t he, isn’t his daughter worth more than the title, Ra’s al Ghul?  This was a huge part of tonight’s episode; there was much killing in the streets to force Team Arrow’s hands to help Nyssa.  Strangely enough, even Diggle and Laurel urged Oliver to kill Malcolm for all of the evil he had done in killing both Tommy and, later, Sara.  After years, it was good to see a mature Oliver Queen answer his friends in that his own father wasn’t a good man, but, with all of his faults, he still wished that he would be alive, and he didn’t want to kill his sister’s father.

On the other side of our Team Arrow, Felicity was giving her father a chance when he basically announces to her that he is the Calculator and that he knew she was Overwatch.  Then he tried to convince her how they were the same kind of person, both of them vigilantes.   I was actually surprised how quickly this story line ended with Felicity turning her father over to Captain Lance and the SCPD.  I guess I was expecting that we would be seeing him even longer, like for the rest of this month at least.

Interestingly enough, I thought the same thing about the League of Assassin’s arch.  For whatever reason, I thought Nyssa and Malcom would be fighting for leadership for at least a few more episodes.  It was surprising to see all the double crosses this evening, but none more than Oliver against Merlin.  Then something that had never happened before, Ollie defeated Malcolm and cut off his hand.  Even more, after Nyssa obtained leadership of the league, she dissolves it as atonement for the evils her father had done over his reign.  There was a lot to let settle after the first viewing, but even after the second it was a lot to think about… no more League of Assassins and Malcom betrayed, alone and hand-less.

After seeing what happened, there is no question of Malcolm’s anger toward both Nyssa and Oliver, losing all of his resources, his daughter and his hand.  But then, to me, Malcolm crossed a line that I have had for years, don’t bring innocent children into your war.  He met with Damien Darhk and disclosed the identity of Ollie’s son in Central City, basically he painted a bullseye on the kid.  I’m afraid that the grave we saw at the beginning of the season will be the grave of Oliver’s son.  If this is how February is going to be, I can’t help but be excited to see what else happens.  And I know we will be getting Vixen guest staring at the end of the month.

Stay tuned Arrow fans, sweeps has only begun!  Remember you can see Arrow on the CW Wednesday nights at 8 pm/ 7 central.