Being a vigilante isn't easy. First of all it pays nothing, you get injured all the time, and, most importantly, it means making some extremely tough decisions that can blur the line between right and wrong. Oliver knows this to be true and unfortunately, he's just been put into yet another morally compromising situation now that Thea is dying on Arrow and the only way to cure her is to take somebody else's life. Actually, her father's life, to be exact. And it's all thanks to Nyssa, who returned to Arrow this week in full force. You see, she's currently in possession of something called Lotus, which can supposedly cure the effects of the Lazarus Pit. But she's only willing hand it over to save Thea's life under one condition: if Oliver agrees to kill Malcolm Merlyn for her in exchange.
Now, if you had asked me even a few episodes ago what Oliver would do, I'd say that he would've agreed to Nyssa's terms without hesitation. He's hated Malcolm for the majority of the series and would certainly kill him in order to save his own sister's life. But Malcolm's actually been kinda nice as of late, which is odd, of course, but definitely makes the decision less straightforward than usual. In fact, he showed great self restraint in not forcing Thea to kill anyone in order to save her life, which proves how much he's grown and Oliver clearly respects him more for it. (They even shook hands!) I'm not saying they're BFF material, but they certainly feel a lot less like enemies these days.
That being said, I can't stress enough how much Oliver loves Thea and the lengths that he'd go to in order to protect her. And considering we now know that she will die if she refuses to kill anyone, he may feel as though he's left with no other choice in the matter. But, at the same time, would Thea ever forgive him for killing her father in order to save her? These are the types of decisions vigilantes have to make and whatever Oliver chooses, odds are someone is bound to get hurt.
Granted, there's always a chance that Nyssa would come around and not just let poor Thea die because she wants Malcolm dead. (Nyssa is a warrior, but she has a heart.) So maybe they'll be able to work out another type of deal. Either way, Oliver better think of something fast because who knows how many hours (or even minutes) Thea has left. And I think we'd all hate to see her end up in that mystery grave.
Image: Liane Hentscher/ The CW
