Laurel brings Sara’s body to Oliver’s hideout. The others walk in to see Sara dead. Oliver is the only one who seems to be holding back his emotions.

Oliver promises Laurel that he’ll find Sara’s killer, and Laurel offers/demands to help. Oliver won’t let her, telling her to take care of her family. Laurel decides to hold off on telling Quentin, as she fears the news may kill him.

Oliver goes to the spot where Sara was killed to try and find some clues. Diggle shows up to let him know he has his back. Felicity calls them to let them know Quentin has called for the Arrow. When Oliver shows up, Quentin informs him of a fake archer that is murdering people in town. Quentin has no idea that his own daughter is one of the victims.

Felicity confronts Ray, who keeps trying to woo her to work for him. He even bought the company that owns the tech store she works at. With his statement that she’ll either work for him at Queen Consolidated or at the tech store, Felicity quits.

Based on some details Oliver strong-armed out of a drug dealer, the team is able to determine that the fake Arrow is a man named Simon Lacroix, AKA Kimodo. They hack Lacroix’s phone and are able to determine his location. Oliver heads there and chases Lacroix away on his motorcycle.

Finally, Arrow is back! After a second season that dragged a bit in the middle, but did a great job of picking up the pace at the end, season three begins at least 9 months after the events that concluded season two ended.

Detective Lance is now Captain, and has been pulled from active duty due to his heart condition. He has also publicly thanked The Arrow, and has decommissioned the anti-vigilante task force. Diggle and Lyla are having a baby, and she is due at any time. Roy has fully embraced his role in the team, and has managed to keep himself under control. Felicity and Oliver’s “relationship” has at least grown to not so obvious flirting, and Oliver and Laurel are working together (“You catch ‘em, I cook ‘em” as she said).

Things are going so well, that Oliver has a lot more free time, and Felicity is helping him prepare a speech for the Board of Queen Consolidated to try and buy the company back. Felicity has picked up a job at a tech shop. Diggle even convinces Oliver to finally take Felicity out on a date.

Arrow chases down a drug dealer and asks him about the man in the skull mask.  He dealer claims to not know him.  Arrow returns to headquarters and tells Diggle that no one on the streets seems to know this man.  Felicity has gone to visit Barry, who is in a coma.

Laurel is still taking random pills, and is now investigating Sebastian Blood.  She gets a weird vibe from him, and has found that he was connected to a psych building that was destroyed by a suspicious fire.  He also has ties to Cyrus Gold, the man who killed several officers and almost killed Quentin.

Oliver hosts a party for Sebastian helping his campaign for mayor.  While at the party, a man in a car spewing anti government rhetoric to himself blows up a building.  Reports are that there was a cleaning crew and some bankers working late still inside.  Arrow goes to help and helps the bankers escape the building.

Sara is staying with Oliver while she is in town. Oliver is still trying to convince her to let her family know she is alive. As though she’s just going to do it after saying she couldn’t all those other times.

Oliver heads to a meeting with the D.A. regarding Moira’s case. Laurel has been assigned second chair for the case against Moira, despite the 50 different ties she has to the family. A plea bargain of life with the possibility of parole has been offered, and Moira is considering it. Oliver is appalled that Laurel would work on this case, but Laurel reminds him that the only reason there is a plea bargain on the table is because of her.

Oliver returns to the house, and talks with Sara again. She says that the things she had to do offer her no forgiveness. A man dressed in Malcolm’s villain gear attacks Oliver and Sara, but they manage to fight him off, and he flees.

Oliver introduces Sara to Diggle and Felicity, and Sara says that the man was after her, not Oliver. The man is called Al-Owal, and he works for the League of Assassins. Diggle has heard of this league, but thought it was a myth. They are deadly warriors that kill and vanish like ghosts.

There is a new threat in Starling City – The Mayor. He is the head of a new gang that emerged after the earthquake, and is in possession of military grade weapons. When one of his men returns after a confrontation with Arrow (without his gun), The Mayor shoots his cousin and fellow gang member. The Mayor tells him to do his family more proud than his cousin did.

Felicity thinks that the lady vigilante is not following Arrow, but rather Laurel. Oliver tests this theory, and finds her outside of Laurel’s apartment. He traps and unmasks her, revealing her to be Laurel’s sister Sara. Yes, the same Sara that Oliver watched die when the boat went down. And also the same Sara whose mother was convinced was still alive.

Oliver confesses to Felicity and Diggle that he saw Sara once a year after he thought she had died. But he reiterates that he thought she was dead. Diggle and Felicity are astounded that he apparently watcher her die…twice! Felicity is furious that he never told Laurel and Quentin that she was alive.

Diggle uses his contact with the FBI to get a GPS tracker that is connected to some military weapons that were hijacked. The GPS has been disabled, but Felicity is able to get it restarted long enough to find the location of The Mayor’s hideout. Arrow gets there, and is able to secure the weapons, but The Mayor escapes.

Arrow is cornered by a SWAT team in Laurel’s office with no means of escape. A lady vigilante swoops in and saves Arrow. She has blond hair. Could it be Felicity?

Barton Mathis, a serial killer that Quentin put away, has escaped from prison following the earthquake. He is known as the Dollmaker, as his M.O. is pouring polymer down his victim’s throat, giving her the appearance of a doll. Quentin is told by order of the Lieutenant not to pursue this case, or he will be arrested.

While Arrow helps Quentin investigate the resurgence in Dollmaker murders, Arrow sends Roy to look into the new lady vigilante. Quentin and Arrow trace down the hotel room that Mathis is staying at, but then they get there the room is empty. A phone rings, and the Dollmaker forces Quentin to listen on the phone while he kills a girl.

The only lead Arrow and Felicity can come up with is that the new victim and one of the old victims use the same brand of skin cream. They determine that the Dollmaker is targeting women who shop at a particular boutique. Only four shops carry this particular skin cream, so Felicity volunteers to go to them all in hopes of drawing out the Dollmaker. During the stakeout, Quentin confides in Arrow that every girl he couldn’t save on the Dollmaker’s first killing spree reminded him of Sarah.

Things come to a head and all hell breaks loose in the final episode of the season.

Oliver awakens, shackled up in a basement. Malcolm tells Oliver that he is truly sorry for what Oliver went through on the island. Malcolm believes he is honoring his dead wife in the same way that Oliver thinks he is honoring his dead father. Malcolm tells Oliver that he cannot beat him, because Oliver doesn’t know what his fighting for or what he is willing to sacrifice to get it.

Oliver manages to escape, with the help of Diggle, as apparently Oliver had put a tracking device in his boot. As they are waiting to hear from Felicity on the schematics of the device, Quentin confronts her. She is brought to the police station, but before he can get to far in grilling her, he receives a call from The Hood. The Hood tells him what Malcolm is planning, and in light of this new threat, Quentin lets Felicity go.

Tommy goes to the club to confront Oliver about him and Laurel, but instead Oliver tells Tommy of Malcolm’s plan to level The Glades. Tommy lashes out at Oliver, and says he wishes Oliver had died on that island.

The copycat archer has killed a bunch of UNIDAC scientists. Oliver, Diggle, and Felicity are able to determine that there is some link between UNIDAC and Merlyn Global. Quentin has made a similar, but not clear connection.

Laurel visits Oliver at the club. She tells Oliver she still has feelings for him, and he’s changed since he came back. Oliver tells her he hasn’t and he doesn’t want to get in the way of her and Tommy.

Walter arrives home from the hospital, but seems a bit cold towards Moira. Oliver tries to confront Moira about The Undertaking, but she has just seen the news of the UNIDAC murders, and knows Malcolm was involved. She hurries out of the house before Oliver can talk to her.

Oliver is finally able to talk to Moira, and asks her who took Walter. She won’t tell him, and as he is trying to get her to be honest with him, they are both hit with poison/tranquilizer darts. They awaken in a dark room, tied up to chairs.

Arrow confronts an accountant for a corrupt businessman, stealing his laptop. Felicity is trying to trace the money so they can return to its rightful owners when she finds a weird deposit. On the day that Walter disappeared, a $2 million deposit was made into Dominic Alonso’s account. He is the leader of an underground casino.

Felicity agrees to go to the casino to plant a bug in Alonso’s office. She is caught counting cards (as planned) and does manage to plant the bug. However, they figure out that she is working with someone, and Oliver has to bust in the save her. Alonso tells Oliver that Walter is dead.

Oliver tells Thea and Moira that Walter is dead, and Moira storms out of the house. Thea and Oliver are confused at her reaction. Moira confronts Malcolm, and he shows her a very alive Walter on video. Oliver is listening in and hears Malcolm tell Moira that “The Undertaking” is progressing.

Deadshot is back in the US, and has already killed a German Ambassador. Diggle goes to his contact with the FBI for information, but she has figured out that Deadshot killed his brother. She tells him to stay away from this or he will be arrested.

A couple planning to testify against schemer Edward Rasmus is killed by a hired assassin, leaving their son Taylor all alone. Laurel agrees to take him in until his grandparents arrive from Australia, keeping him out of an orphanage.

The assassin finds Laurel’s apartment and breaks in, shooting the place up. The Hood busts through a window, saving the day and chasing off the would be killer. Tommy agrees that he, Laurel, and Taylor should stay at the Queens for maximum safety.

Roy goes to the police station to ask Quentin about the vigilante case. When Quentin leaves, Roy takes his police radio. Roy is out on a date with Thea when he hears a call about the vigilante. When Roy arrives he is arrested, as it was a trap to get the radio back. Later on, when Thea comes to pick up Roy, Quentin shows them the bodies of some of the vigilantes “victims”, trying to make them understand that he is still killing people.