‘Arrow’ 8×02 recap: A mission reveals more mystery about the Monitor

In Tuesday night’s episode of Arrow, titled “Welcome to Hong Kong”, Oliver continued his mission for the Monitor and it was revealed that a familiar face knows all about the plan for the upcoming Crisis. In case you missed it, here’s what went down in 8×02.

Back to Hong Kong

This week saw Oliver, Diggle, and Laurel travel to Hong Kong to complete another mission for the Monitor. Now, I’ve always found the Hong Kong storyline to be one of the most boring parts of the show, so I was glad that we were only spending one episode on it.

So why did the Monitor want Oliver in Hong Kong? They need to locate a guy named Dr. Robert Wong because he’s needed to help for the upcoming Crisis or so that’s what the Monitor says. Oliver and Diggle get into it with a couple of thugs, but are helped out by Tatsu, who showed up by crashing through a window. After tracking Dr. Wong’s whereabouts, Oliver goes to meet him but is stopped by China White, who ultimately gets away.

Eventually, Oliver realizes Wong’s recreating the Alpha Omega virus. Oliver calls China White and asks her for an exchange. He’ll give her the virus if she’ll give him Wong. She agrees but when the exchange happens, Wong is brought out with a bomb strapped to him. Oliver fights off some of China’s thugs and eventually the bomb is defused.

With Wong now safe in ARGUS custody, Oliver tells Diggle and Laurel that he’s not going to willingly give Wong to the Monitor. Instead, he’s going to travel to Nanda Parbat to try and dig up some information about the man who he’s doing all of this for.

Lyla’s secret

The biggest “holy crap!” moment came in the final seconds of the episode when a woman was seen talking to the Monitor. It was Lyla! She somewhat scolds him about Earth 2’s destruction. But the Monitor says it is all part of a bigger plan.

“The destruction of that Earth was a necessary sacrifice,” he said. “Countless more will perish if we do not ensure Oliver Queen is prepared for what is coming.”

Then he asks if Dr. Wong is with her and the two walk off together. It might be surprising to viewers that Lyla knows the Monitor, but it’s not to fans of the comics. I do wonder what her husband thinks of all of this though.

Episode Notes

• Elsewhere in the episode, Laurel attempts to go home back to Earth 2 but Cisco’s breach device is “broken”. When she takes it to some tech nerd to try and fix it, she still can’t get home. He explains that Earth 2 is gone from existence. It was truly a sad moment for Laurel, who has worked so hard to redeem herself.
• In this week’s flash forward, JJ turned to the dark side because he did not get enough attention from his parents. He was jealous that Connor required more of their attention, since he was the son of Bronze Tiger. Seriously? That has to be the lamest reason for turning evil if I’ve ever seen one.
• With that said, with each flash forward moment, I am loving the possibility of an Arrow spin-off. Bring it on!

What did you think of the episode? Let me know in the comments below!

Arrow airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on The CW.