One of the reasons so many of us come back to Arrow every week is because just when we think we can predict what the focus will be, we are pleasantly surprised.  After last week’s resurrection, I figured this episode would focus on the Lance family.  Instead, Star City has a new candidate for mayor, one who has come home to “save his city.”

***SPOILER ALERT***

Before this episode, Team Arrow has been focusing on specific raids or attacks, being reactive against Darhk’s ghosts.  Tonight two very different ideologies in Star City stand against the other, Darhk and H.I.V.E. claim that Star City is beyond redemption.  But Team Arrow declares a very different answer, and in this episode they become reunified once again as one team for the purpose of saving their city.  This began when Oliver and Felicty shared two very important changes in their lives.  The first is that Oliver Queen is running for mayor of Star City, and the second is the Arrow Lair 3.o.  The reunification of Team Arrow became a reboot of a number of events that recently happened or that were going to happen in this episode, and the team united under Oliver’s platform as both a mayoral candidate and Green Arrow’s inspiration for Star City.

So, instead of an episode about Sara becoming whole again, she is locked in a basement, alive but not the same Sara that they knew.  It was obvious Detective Lance knew this, even while Laurel continued to live in denial.  To her, she brought back her sister, and she was “alive.”

Katie Cassidy, Caty Lotz and Paul Blackthorne were amazing tonight.  Laurel desperately wants her sister to be alive again, while her dad, still confused with how he was looking at Sara, turns to Darhk for advice on how the girl he was looking at could be his daughter, exposing himself to both Oliver and Felicity.

The meeting in Lance’s house between Oliver and Quentin was so intense. At no point did I think that Lance was in danger from Ollie, but it was unexpected that they ended up operating towards the same goals.  What was so out of the norm is that Lance is typically the one who is high and mighty treating, Oliver like a criminal or someone that was beneath him because of his vigilantism, but tonight the shoe was on the other foot.

It is so intriguing that Darhk wants Star City to be in a state of hopelessness and exist in a survival mentality in order to remake it in his own image.  With the city leaders dead, and police under resourced, it will be Team Arrow who will stand against Darhk and his associates.

It has been so exhilarating watching both Oliver and Thea Queen at their best, for a little while, and to see Oliver come into his own after few difficult years.  To also see Thea not only supporting her brother in his candidacy, but backing him.   She is also the one who reminds him that his devotion inspires not only Team Arrow, but it can be an inspiration for Star City. “Beyond Redemption” was about Oliver Queen and his team being more than just vigilantes, they will give hope back to Star City, and I for one am looking forward to the ride ahead during this entire season.