Arrow began 2015 on extremely solid footing by focusing on Ollie’s massive absence after his deadly duel with Ras Al Ghul. After the events of “The Climb” Ollie is left dying on a rock face halfway down a mountain and “Left Behind” explores the effects of his loss to varying degrees of success.

Somehow it didn’t even matter. We all knew Oliver was going to be coming back in relatively short order, but this week we got to see just how badly his absence affected the team that was “Left Behind.” After having very little to do for most of this season Diggle and Roy begin the episode with a bang. I could seriously watch Diggle in that “too tight” suit for the remainder of the season. While Roy actually made good on his training and proved to be a rather formidable force when going up against the faceless goons of the week.

Their resolve to keep fighting was contrasted by Felicity’s loss of her ditzy attitude. It was replaced by a noticeable hole. She’s lost the man she loves and she refuses to believe it. She can’t help but want to prevent Diggle, and Roy from falling to the same fate. And even still we can see her worry with Ray, a scientist who has great ideas but faulty execution. Her scenes this week felt a lot more at home with Ray as the two of them actually have some stakes to their interactions.

While, Malcolm Merlyn is the honorary recipient of the most convenient appearance of the week award since his few scenes in this episode were nothing if not problematic. His rolling into the Arrow cave to deliver his version of the bad news, only to reappear a little later to show that he’s done the worst detective work on his trip to Nanda Parbat was pretty much laughable. As was his random scene with Thea warning that they had to leave the city asap.

Danny Brickwell was a welcome addition to the glades. He is perfectly cast as Vinny Jones, and looks to be the villain of the next couple of weeks. I found his plan to not only be enjoyable but a pretty great idea all things considered. Plus he gave us that fantastic sequence between his goons and Roy in the pipe.

The fight choreography has really taken a step to another level this year.  I was legitimately on the edge of my seat when Roy jumped out of the pipe, onto the top and bounced off the one to his side while firing his bow. Giving us simply awesome stuff that you wouldn’t have been able to find on this show two years ago.

The flashbacks with Ollie and Maseo did a lot to sell the debt between these characters. The infiltration of the lab was another action highpoint and showed yet another different side of Ollie that we never knew he had. I’m happy they didn’t play coy with Ollie’s resurrection for too long. I knew we’d be seeing him sooner rather than later but I’m glad to see the literal “cliffhanger” resolved so quickly. Maseo seems to be the perfect character to save Ollie. I’m excited to see where this goes.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Laurel’s transition from useless pretty face to Black Canary. But I can’t stop cringing over that line she delivers. Let’s hope donning that domino mask does something for her character, otherwise I welcome her long overdue death.

Next week we’ve got “Midnight City.”