Stephen Amell's return to Starling City as the Arrow had a huge impact on the show's ratings. Just how huge? Second only to one other season 3 episode, the Arrow|Flash crossover episode which aired back in December. In the key 18-49 demographic, Arrow scored (1.2/4) and in M18-34 (1.4/6) and had a total of 2.94 million viewers in total. This gave Arrow a third place finish in the Wednesday night 8PM network battle behind FOX's American Idol and ABC's The Middle [Arrow tied with CBS's The Mentalist].
Arrow's next episode is Season 3, Episode 13 "Canaries" which is directed by Michael Schultz and written by Jake Coburn & Emilio Ortega Aldrich.
VERTIGO (GUEST STAR PETER STORMARE) RETURNS AND PITS CANARY AGAINST BLACK CANARY - Oliver (Stephen Amell) is thrown by the changes within Team Arrow. He's used to calling the shots but sees that the team has evolved in his absence and tensions quickly escalate in the lair. Oliver is furious that Laurel (Katie Cassidy) has been going out as the Black Canary and tells her to stop risking her life, but when Vertigo (guest star Peter Stormare) hits the streets again, Laurel goes against Oliver's wishes and tracks down Vertigo who hits her with a full dose of the drug. Laurel's biggest fears revolve around her sister Sara (guest star Caity Lotz) so the Vertigo causes her to hallucinate an epic fight between Canary and Black Canary. Meanwhile, Chase (guest star Austin Butler) surprises Thea (Willa Holland), and Roy (Colton Haynes) warns Thea to stay away from Malcolm (John Barrowman).
Extra Point: Wildcat (J.R. Ramirez) didn't exactly have a successful return to crime fighting. If that's the best he can do, Laurel (Katie Cassidy) needs to find a better teacher ASAP.