I'm still impressed with this show's narrative momentum. Having Oliver confront his mother now, and establishing that she will be in his blind spot as Arrow while maintaining her more mama bear features with his civilian identity nicely establishes emotional stakes for the inevitable reveal of the Undertaking.
Most of the real action this week was in the flashback, where we were again graced with the charisma and intensity of Manu Bennett as Slade Wilson. This guy has the cynicism and trust issues that you can easily see morphing into the apathy and lone wolf personality of Deathstroke the Terminator. It's pretty clear that Slade's execution of Wintergreen (not gonna lie, at first I thought they meant Walsh, the second Ravager, but giving Wintergreen an on screen final fight is much better than the off-panel beheading he got in the comics) had little to do with his former friend's betrayal of Australia and everything to do with the personal nature of being stabbed in the back by a friend, with a side of his loyalty towards Oliver.
And let's face it, this episode was really more of a fusion of Deathstroke Begins with Green Arrow: Origins. Bennett was Amell's co-star for this episode, not a supporting character. Oliver had his climax with going back to save his rescuer, but Slade had the more impressive duel with Wintergreen for his own climax. He had just as much dialogue in the flashback as Oliver, and Bennett's commanding presence dominated this episode.
One can only hope we get to see a fully transformed Deathstroke in the modern day stories, though it is kind of sad just how much more comic book stuff gets a better treatment on the island than in the modern setting.