“The Odyssey” is episode fourteen of season one of Arrow.
In the previous episode, “Betrayal”, Diggle had followed Moira and bugged a meeting between her and Malcolm Merlyn. The recording suggested that Moira may have known something about her husband’s death and so Oliver, as the Hood, paid a visit on his mother. By crashing through a window in the Queen Consolidated building and knocking out the people she was meeting with.
Oliver has disguised his voice – otherwise it’s highly likely that Moira would recognise it – and is pointing an arrow at his mother. She begs him not to kill her, as she has a son and daughter, who have already lost their father. Oliver assures Moira that he won’t kill her and, whilst his guard is dropped, Moira grabs a gun she conveniently has lying around and opens fire at him, hitting him. From behind the cover of her desk, Moira calls security but, when she checks again, Oliver has gone. Leaving a pool of blood behind.
Felicity gets in her car and then discovers there’s someone already in it. Oliver removes his hood and she tells him that everything about him has just become unbelievably clear. As Felicity points out later, she may be blonde – but she’s not that blonde, and Oliver had certainly dropped enough hints (Felicity also says that Oliver is terrible at cover stories). Felicity tells Oliver he’s bleeding and he replies that he did not need to be told that. She says he needs a hospital but Oliver wants her to take him to his father’s old factory. Felicity says he needs a doctor, not a steelworker.
Diggle is watching the news about the Hood’s attack on Moira when Felicity asks, from behind Digg, if he can help her. Because he’s really heavy. Digg explains that Oliver didn’t want to go to a hospital because the police would ask questions like how and why he got the wound. Felicity replies that she thinks those are Oliver’s least favourite questions. Diggle comments that he’s not too keen on when and where also. Diggle has a supply of Oliver’s blood, stored in case it was needed, and various hospital supplies. So they are going to operate on Oliver. Digg reassures Felicity that Oliver has been through worse than this.
Oliver is having a flashback to the island. It’s a very extended one; most of the episode is set on the island, interspersed with Digg and Felicity operating on him. In the previous episode’s flashback, Oliver had followed Yao Fei’s map to a crashed plane. In it was a Slade Wilson, of Australian intelligence. Who said that Yao Fei had sent Oliver to him because Wilson wouldn’t be able to take the island’s airstrip by himself. Wilson first needed to train Oliver to be a bit more useful in combat. He also has a black and white mask just like the person who tortured Oliver in “Damaged”. According to Wilson, the mask is worn when on a mission, and his and his partner’s mission was to recover Yao Fei. It’s not exactly a great shock when Wilson’s partner is revealed.
Wilson is now training Oliver to fight, and the latter isn’t doing well. They only have a few days before the supply plane lands and Wilson wants to turn Oliver into at least half a soldier before then. They are currently sparring with bamboo poles. Oliver points out that Fyers’ men have guns, not bamboo sticks, and what happens if they jam one in his face. So Wilson hands over a handgun to Oliver and tells him to jam it in Wilson’s face. Oliver does and Wilson promptly disarms him and knocks him to the ground, Well, that answers that question. Wilson tells Oliver he has two choices; escape or die. And Oliver has to choose. Oliver chooses escape, and Wilson says he will try and teach him how not to die.
Wilson and his partner’s original mission was to exfiltrate Yao Fei, but their plane was shot down before they even started. That’s the crashed plane that Oliver was led to. Wilson also says that Fyers is a mercenary, and up to something, but he doesn’t know what.
According to Wilson, there are ten guards posted at the airfield and an eleventh in a portable air control tower. The tower has bulletproof glass, so Wilson won’t be able to take him out with his sniper rifle. Oliver’s job will be to take the tower guard out and prevent him from contacting the base about the attack. According to Wilson, the supply planes come only every three months, and when the next one comes they are leaving on it. Given that Oliver has only been on the island for six months, and he was found after five years, that is probably not going to happen. Plus Oliver isn’t anywhere near the level of fighter he is as the Hood. He needs a lot more training.
Not much is found out about the present, given the episode being set in the past, and really only a few things are found out about that past.