Arrow Episode Guide: Season 6, Episode 9 - Irreconcilable Differences

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here. 



Plot

Oliver and Felicity's wedding reception is dampened by disturbing news - The FBI have a witness ready to testify that Oliver Queen is The Green Arrow and it's someone on Team Arrow! Paranoia runs deep, as the team questions who they can trust but their fears will have to be put on hold when Quentin Lance is taken hostage by Cayden James and Black Siren.


Influences

The Mission Impossible films (the heist on ARGUS)


Goofs

Black Siren shows far more martial arts skill here than she has in previous episodes, being capable of knocking out both Thea Queen and Quentin Lance with one punch.

It is said that the nano-aluminum amplifier could be used to increase the power of a thermobaric bomb by twenty-fold. John says this is enough to destroy Star City and then some. However, it was said in the Thanksgiving episode that the bomb's radius was 200 yards. 4,000 yards is a considerable distance but not the size of a large city.

As neat an idea as it is trying to tie all the villains from the first half of this season into a unified villain group, it really doesn't make sense in the context of the characters. Forget the psychotic Black Siren being made to heel. There's no logical reason (yet) for Anatoly to involve himself with the destruction of a whole city nor for Ricardo Diaz. And don't get me started on Vigilante teaming with a group of criminals unless this is part of a major long con on his part.


Performances

You never realize how much you miss Willa Holland as Thea until she's back after being gone for a few episodes.


Artistry

The script does a good job at the beginning of playing up the mystery of who the traitor to Team Arrow is. While we know it probably isn't Dinah, enough wiggle room is left (along with the revelation that Vigilante knows Oliver Queen is Green Arrow) to make it uncertain, along with Curtis' heavy drinking and Rene's confession of wondering if they'd be better off without Team Arrow.

There is one nice shot of Oliver Queen, standing before the racks holding all of Team Arrow's costumes, after telling John to assemble the team... the whole team.


Trivia

The episode opens with the original Season 6 introduction, with Oliver once again declaring that he is The Green Arrow.

The Arrow Title Card is back to having the symbols for Black Canary, Wild Dog, Mister Terrific, Overwatch, Spartan and Green Arrow.


Technobabble

Cayden James requests a nano-aluminum amplifier in exchange for Quentin Lance's life.

The vault holding the nano-aluminum amplifier has a pressure-sensitive floor rigged to its alarm.

The nano-aluminum amplifier can be used to increase the explosive power of a thermobaric bomb by twenty-fold. That is enough power to blow up all of Star City. 

Curtis says he can disable the amplifier by back-channeling a path into the circuitry. Felicity suggests he also hide that behind the existing board.


Dialogue Triumphs

Donna: I want you to know that I have forgiven both of you for running off. And eloping. And waiting to propose to my daughter until you were under indictment.
Oliver: Oh! Actually, Felicity proposed to me.

(After Oliver and Felicity escape from her parents.)
Felicity: Those whack jobs are already your in-laws, so if you're having second thoughts, it's too late for you.
Oliver: I wouldn't have it any other way.
Felicity: (softly) You really do love me.

(Curtis is awkwardly and obviously lying to Rene about all the men he is dating.)
Curtis: There's one guy in particular who I'm dating. His name is... Dom Perignon. He is smooth and expensive, and uh, he's really nice. Uh, but there's, like, other guys too.
Rene: Who? Tom Collins? Rob Roy?
Curtis: Not actually a gin guy.

(Quentin gives Oliver a small box. It contains a fancy gold watch.)
Quentin: Yeah, I know. It doesn't look like much. (chuckles nervously)  But... my dad gave that to me on my wedding day.
Oliver: Quentin, I can't accept this!
Quentin: It's not like I've got anybody I can give it to, is it? (pauses) And besides, it's not right you don't have a parent here tonight.

Rene: True love is... so special that we all dream about it. And when I look at Oliver and Felicity, I'm reminded of... how I felt about my wife on our wedding day. We were so in love. And we would do anything for each other, I mean no matter what! And that is the epitome of Oliver and Felicity. Yeah, I mean, you guys have had your struggles, but... you always worked through it. These are two of the most genuine people in the world and they deserve all the happiness. And... I'm so fortunate to call them my friends. So please raise a glass to true love... Oliver and Felicity.

Curtis: Do you...  do you ever... feel like life would be easier... if there was never a Team Arrow?
Rene: (pauses) Only all the time.

(A hungover Curtis, disguised as a janitor, pushes a wheeled trashcan over a panel. He pulls the lid off and looks down into the bin.)
Curtis: We're clear! Ohhhh.. .also, leaning over - not a great decision.
(Felicity stands up out of the trash clan and slaps Curtis.)
Felicity: You are not throwing up! I'm already spending my honeymoon in a garbage can! I am not wearing your puke!

Rene: Stop! Dinah, isn't the witness, Oliver.
Oliver: You don't know that.
Rene: Yes, I do. Because it's me. I'm the one that's testifying against you.

Oliver: Thinking about what Rene did... what did he do really? He kept a secret and he put his daughter ahead of the team. And I feel betrayed. How can I feel betrayed by somebody doing the exact same things that I've done?
Thea: Because you've never sold anyone out on the team, Ollie. And if you're convicted, you could wind up spending a really long time in jail. But having said that, you're doing the right thing looking at things through his perspective. And having done that, maybe you can see your way to forgiving him?
Oliver: Seriously?
Thea: Well, Rene is a very desperate guy who just did a very desperate thing. But he's also the same guy who just last night was giving such a heart-felt, sweet speech and was calling you his friend. And I really thing that he meant that! It was a betrayal. No question. But since you've been able to see things from his point of view, you should also be able to see a way of forgiving him.

Cayden James: I am a man of my word. If I wasn't, there wouldn't be much point in my vowing to destroy this city, would there?

Vince: You okay? You don't look good.
Dinah: I don't want to talk about it.
Vince: Then why did you reach out?
Dinah: Because I had no one else to call.
Vince: I'll try not to be insulted by that.
Dinah: I really needed someone who... believed in me. I needed a friend.
Vince: Friends. I can do that.


Dialogue Disasters

The whole scene of Quentin Lance trying to empathize with Black Siren. Katie Cassidy's plastic performance doesn't help.

Oliver: Cayden James knew that we sabotaged the amplifier last night. We need to find out how.
(Cut to: A POV shot from the ceiling of The Bunker. We pull back to reveal that we're looking at a monitor in Cayden James' hideout.)
Black Siren: When you had me raid their bunker and plant that mini-cam two months ago-
Cayden James: - was this the outcome that I had in mind? Quite so, Miss Lance.
(We pull back to see James standing with another man as they watch the monitor and Black Siren comes to his side.)
Cayden James: Although I must confess things have worked out even better than I anticipated.
(A door opens from one side of the room. Anatoly enters and comes to stand with the others.)
Anatoly: Hardly impressive. Left to his own devices, Oliver Queen will always push away those closest to him.
(Vince joins the group as well.)
Vince: So we've got them fighting with each other instead of fighting us.
(Ricardo "The Dragon" Diaz steps up on the side of the unknown man.)
Ricardo Diaz: Please tell me that isn't your whole master plan?
Cayden James: Oh, not at all, Mr. Diaz. In fact, I think it fair to say that this...is only the beginning.


Continuity

Oliver and Thea were allowed to sip champagne at family gatherings as part of toasts as children.

Lyla Michaels was unable to attend the reception due to an ARGUS mission.

Noah "Calculator" Kuttler is seen for the first time since 422.

Donna Smoak is seen for the first time since 423.

Noah and Donna were married by a Tom Jones impersonating rabbi. Noah said he arranged that because he mistakenly thought Donna was a Tom Jones fan.

Adam and Laura Hoffman - the neighbor couple with whom Oliver and Felicity frequently socialized with when they lived in Ivy Town in 401 - show up for the reception.

Curtis and his husband Paul had custom cocktails made at their wedding - The Holtini and the Peach Paul Sangria. They both also wore matching white tuxes.

Dinah says she doesn't really believe in marriage or life-long commitments but admits that may be due to her having several broken engagements.

Dinah receives a text message at the reception from an unknown caller who asks why she isn't answering their calls. Both Rene and Curtis have noticed her getting mysterious texts and acting strangely lately.

Curtis has been drinking more often since his divorce.

Quentin gives Oliver a watch that his father gave him on the day he got married.

Curtis catches the bouquet when Felicity throws it.

Oliver and Felicity's first dance is held to Etta James' At Last.

Thea makes reference to hoping to see someone at the ceremony. This is a nod to Roy Harper.

Thea makes reference to Chase - the League of Assassins member who posed as a DJ and with whom she had a brief romance before his death in 313.

Thea has a "no DJs" rule regarding men she dates now.

Donna Smoak says that she had made a mistake trying to drive Noah out of her and Felicity's life and admits that she does like Tom Jones.

Quentin tries to say hello to Donna. It is awkward, since she has not seen him since the start of Season 5, when he had fallen off the wagon.

Oliver refers to Evelyn Sharpe a.k.a. Artemis, who betrayed Team Arrow in 509.

Rene keeps fresh-cut sunflowers in his apartment. They are his daughter Zoe's favorite.

Dinah's mysterious texter is Vince "Vigilante" Sobel. She tells him to leave Star City and that if she sees him again, she won't let him get away a second time.

Vigilante is aware of Oliver Queen's secret identity.

Reference is made to the thermobaric bomb Cayden James made in 607.

Rene reveals that he is the one testifying against Oliver. The reason why is because Agent Watson said that she had proof that he was Wild Dog and that the only way she'd back off and let him see his daughter again is if he helped her get The Green Arrow.

Black Siren says that the Quentin Lance of Earth Two died when she was 13, killed by a drunk driven while picking up her birthday cake.

The Laurel Lance of Earth One and Earth Two share the same kind of favorite cake - yellow with chocolate frosting, from a bakery called Carlye's.

Oliver kicks Wild Dog off of Team Arrow.

Black Canary quits the team, saying she doesn't trust Oliver anymore. She calls Vigilante back, saying she'd like to try and be friends again for a start.

Curtis quits the team as well, though he is still part of Felicity's company.

Zoe is allowed to move back in with Rene.


The Bottom Line

Lackluster and nonsensical in equal measure.  "Yellow cake with chocolate frosting" will be the new "Martha" when Marvel Comics fans mock DC Comics properties. At least the wedding scenes are funny and touching.

Arrow Episode Guide: Season 4, Episode 23 - Schism

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.


Plot

With HIVE's master-plan foiled, Damien Darhk risks a direct assault on Team Arrow, stealing the laptop holding Rubicon in check and assaulting The Bunker. As Felicity and Curtis work to redirect the nuclear missile heading straight for Star City, Oliver Queen will have to draw upon a new-found power of his own to counter Darhk's death magic and save the world!


Influences

Green Arrow: Year One (the Lian Yu segments), Green Arrow: City Walls (Green Arrow fighting a magically-empowered villain by rallying the people of a city behind him), the film Dr. Strangelove Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb (centered around a doomsday device similar to Rubicon that could launch multiple nuclear missiles at once), the Spider-Man movies of Sam Raimi (the scene where a group of ordinary people show up to save the hero from the super-villain or support him after he nearly dies saving them.), Raiders Of The Lost Ark (ARGUS taking custody of the idol and disappearing it into storage) and Green Arrow: One Year Later (Oliver Queen becoming Mayor of Star City following a super-villain attack).


Goofs

Felicity says that Warren Air Force Base is in Colorado. That may be the case in the DCTVU, but in our world it is located in Wyoming, though it is close to the Colorado/Wyoming border.

Where does Curtis go to in the final part of the show after Darhk is defeated?

All of the talk about Laurel being merciful and not wanting her murderer to die directly contradicts everything we've seen about Laurel's character throughout the show's history. In Season Two, she was ready to see The Arrow shot dead by a SWAT team when she was blaming him for Tommy's death. In Season Three, the only reason she didn't kill the assassin she thought killed her sister was because she never checked to see if the gun she stole from the Arrow Cave was loaded. And for all of the talk about how she believed in law and order, she routinely abused the authority of her office and subverted rules and promises when it suited her to do so. Hopefully we'll get less of this white-washing in Season Five.


Performances

This may be Stephen Amell's finest hour yet as Oliver Queen.  When he is speaking to the people of his town begging them to stop writing and when he later confronts Darhk before an angry mob ready to take back their city from the man wanted to destroy it, he IS the fat-cat bashing champion of the people from the comics.

Honestly, the entire cast bring their A-game to this episode and everyone has at least one amazing moment.


Artistry

The special effects during the sequence in which Darhk contains one of Oliver's exploding arrows are of cinematic quality.

The fight scene in The Bunker between Team Arrow and the ghosts is one of the best in the show's already impressive history.

The fight scene between the HIVE ghosts and the mob of Star City citizens is probably the largest one in the show's history and is well-shot and choreographed.

The final scene as Ollie is sworn into office and we see all of the team parting ways is a wonderful bit of direction and editing, with a powerful music score.


Trivia

Instead of the usual "My name is Oliver Queen." introduction, the episode opens with a recap of the major events of Season Four.

Sara is briefly mentioned as being at an ARGUS safe house in Coast City. Coast City, in the DC Comics Universe, is a city in California and home town to the Green Lantern Hal Jordan.

After Baron Reiter's idol is claimed by ARGUS, Amanda Waller commands it to be transported to The Slab. In the DC Comics Universe, The Slab is a maximum security prison for metahumans. Originally located in New Jersey, it was relocated to Antarctica following the events of the story Joker's Last Laugh.



Technobabble

Darhk's attack on Curtis leaves him with possible internal bleeding, cracked ribs and a hemothorax. This has to be treated by an immediate release of pressure.

The runes on Baron Reiter's arm prevent the power of the idol from overwhelming his mind.

Rubicon launches 15,434 nuclear missiles.

It takes 45 minutes for a Minuteman ICBM to travel from Warren Air Force Base to Star City.

Curtis suggests, when Felicity is unable to remotely hack the ICBM aimed at Star City, to use a line-of-sight attack on the missile to disarm it once it is close enough.

Nukes are designed to detonate 100 feet above their actual target.

Felicity uploads a GPS spoof to disable the missile as Curtis points an IR receiver at it.

The odds of disabling all the nukes launched by Rubicon with the line-of-sight hack is 1 in 375 million.

When Felicity hacked the nuke aimed at Star City, she gained access to its on-board computer and cloned its hard drive remotely before running a back-trace to determine the source of the initial launch signal.

By inverting the horizons of the remaining 15,433 missiles, Felicity and Curtis are able to cause the missiles to explode in space.


Dialogue Triumphs

(Green Arrow jumps through a window, tuck and rolls and comes up his bow drawn and an arrow ready.)
Darkh: Okay, I know you don't live here anymore but those were nice windows.

Taiana: You are a murderer! You killed my brother! You are darkness.
Oliver: Yes I am!  But you don't have to be!

Oliver: We can't just lose all hope here.
Felicity: You have. I can see it in your eyes.
Oliver: (sighs) I just can't believe that I thought... that I'd be the one to unite this city while Damien Darhk was trying to kill it. That was arrogant. The same arrogance that made me feel like I could be The Green Arrow without descending into darkness. Bottom Line: it was foolish.
Felicity: You don't believe that-
Oliver: I didn't believe that. Until Laurel died.
Felicity: I thought you weren't blaming yourself for her death anymore?
Oliver: We made a decision to come back here. I tried to do things differently and for a time I did. And now I am left here to wonder... if I hadn't, would Laurel still be alive?
(Curtis limps into the room, clutching his side.)
Oliver: Curtis! You shouldn't be up.
Curtis: Tell me about it. Someone's got to provide a little optimism. Doesn't seem like anyone around here is in the head space to do it.
Oliver: You know we've lost the city?
Curtis: No. I know you're running out of time to get it back. Look, living in Star City requires a special kind of tenacity. A sane person wouldn't live here. It's a fact that Paul likes to remind me of weekly. We were this close to leaving Star City last October. After three terrorist attacks, we were done. But then - the night before we were going to start packing - The Green Arrow popped up on our TV. And he reminded me that this city is worth saving. And my home... that my home was worth fighting for. That guy gave me inspiration. He gave me hope. And if he could give me hope then, why can't he give it to others now?

(Oliver Queen addresses a crowd of rioting citizens.)
Oliver; Please! I know what you're feeling right now! I'm feeling it too! The sense of helplessness?! Of Hopelessness?! I don't know how we even begin to process what might happen to us right now! But there are a few things that I do know! I know that this city has been through tough times before and we have pulled through! We survived The Undertaking! We survived The Siege! We survived The Outbreak! And somehow, someway, we will survive this! A friend of mine told me that living in Star City takes a special kind of tenacity. But we do live here! Because this is our home! This! Is! Our! Home! It is our friend, our family, our lives!  And we will not - we will not - throw those precious gifts away by descending into chaos! We will look to each other for hope! We will cling to each other for strength! And if we do that, no matter what happens, we can all stand here united!

John: Oliver, you yourself said going after Darhk was a suicide mission.
Oliver: Well, John, I'm not gonna die tonight!

(Green Arrow enters the nexus room under Star City's city hall.)
Green Arrow: Darhk!
Darhk: (rolling his eyes) What does a guy have to do to end the world in peace?!

(Thea shoots the two HIVE Ghosts that were sneaking up on Merlyn)
Merlyn: Thanks. Unless you were aiming at me.
Thea: At this point, I honestly can't tell.

(Darhk has just brought an entire crowd to their knees with one magical growl.)
Darhk: Humanity is feckless! And I wanted to cleanse it of a millennium worth of rot it has been infected by and I will do it!
Green Arrow: (from behind Darhk, coming to his feet) No you won't!
(Darhk turns and smirks at Green Arrow.)
Darhk: Okay. Just for fun. How are you going to stop me?
Green Arrow: Because it won't just be me who's going to stop you!
(Darhk freezes as he hears the mob behind him starting to come to their feet, enraged and inspired by one man standing up to Darhk's power. Without a word, Green Arrow draws a shaft and lets it fly. It cuts Darhk's face.  He touches the blood with one finger and looks at it astonished.  He reaches out toward Green Arrow and nothing happens... save that Green Arrow's eyes glow gold as they did when Green Arrow last tapped into his sense of hope to repel Darhk's magic.)
Green Arrow: Not so easy without the magic, is it?!
Darhk: Oh, I don't need magic. I'm a former member of the League of Assassins. Or have you forggoten that?
Green Arrow: Remind me.
(The mob cheer as Green Arrow closes in on Darhk and the two begin to fight.)

(Quentin Lance helps Green Arrow up after he's shot in the chest with an arrow Darhk fired.)
Quentin: Now you know how it feels.
Green Arrow: Wait, I thought you and Donna-?
Quentin: Don't worry. She's safe. But I had to come back to stand with my city because this Oliver Queen guy gives a hell of a speech.
Green Arrow: (looking to Spartan and Lyla, who just walked up) You two were supposed to stay as back-up!
Spartan: I already lost one brother!

(Green Arrow grabs Darhk by the shirt-collar with one hand and holds an arrow in the other.)
Darhk: What are you going to do now, Oliver? Stop the posturing We both know you can't do it. You spared the life of the man who killed your own mother.
Green Arrow: You killed a friend of mine. You killed tens of thousands of innocent people. With Slade Wilson I had a choice. This time, I don't.
(Green Arrow stabs the arrow into Darhk's chest and lets him fall to the ground.)

Oliver: You okay?
John: Not really. I told Lyla the truth about Andy.
Oliver: What did she say?
John: She's a soldier. She understood. But I don't and I don't think I ever will.
Oliver: What are you going to do?
John: Take some time away from this team. Away from the city. Figure out where I went off track and how to get back on.
Oliver: John, I have never done this without you. You're the one who keeps me in line.
John: Oliver, I don't know if you've been watching lately, but.. it's been the other way around, man.

Amanda Waller: You saved a lot of lives.
Oliver: I took some, too.
Amanda Waller: Do you remember what I told you? That the only way out is through?
Oliver: Well, I'm not out, Amanda. I'm still filled with darkness.
Amanda Waller: This was never about expunging your darkness, Mr. Queen. That darkness will always be a part of you.
Oliver: Then what was the point?!
Amanda Waller: To show you that sometimes killing is the only path to justice.

Felicity: You okay?
Oliver: No. (sighs) It's Thea amd John.
Felicity: Them leaving has to be a blow.
Oliver: They're leaving because of their own personal darkness. I just can't help but think that maybe they were infected by mine.
Felicity: Maybe. Like you said, maybe you can't become a hero without succumbing to the darkness even a little bit? But you were able to defeat Darhk by giving the city its hope back.
Oliver: You're saying it's not black and white?
Felicity: I'm saying that there's a man who killed Darhk in cold blood. And that same man stood on top of a car and gave a city its hope back. What you're feeling isn't darkness. It's a schism. You're at war with two sides of yourself.


Continuity

Baron Reiter has magical power enough to destroy a small airplane with a gesture.

Oliver and Taiana kill Baron Reiter together, with Taiana tapping his life force and Oliver throwing a knife into his back.

Diggle freezes up in the middle of the fight with The HIVE Ghosts, seeing his brother's face.

Lyla notices this, prompting him to confess that he didn't kill Andy Diggle in self defense.

Lyla doesn't care but Diggle does.

Oliver snaps Taiana's neck after she asks him to kill her before she becomes more of a monster than Reiter.

Taiana reminds Oliver of his promise in 418 to tell her parents what happened if she died.

Felicity reminds Cooper Seldon of how they wanted to save the world, seven years earlier, as seen in the flashbacks in 305.

Cooper Seldon is killed by Darhk after he refuses to continue working to keep Rubicon running.

Darhk refers to the events of 223 and Oliver's refusal to kill Slade Wilson.

Quentin Lance is officially let go from the CCPD and decides to leave Star City for a while with Donna Smoak.

Thea also decides to quit being Speedy for fear of losing too much of herself and being Malcolm Merlyn's daughter, based on her threatening to kill Darhk's daughter to save Ollie's life.

John also says he's going to go away for a while and figure out where he went off-track.

Oliver buries Taiana.next to Yao Fei, Robert Queen and Shado on Lian Yu.

Oliver uses the comm gear Amanda Waller gave him to radio ARGUS in order to rescue the rest of the prisoners on the island.

Oliver refuses Amanda Waller's offer of employment as an ARGUS agent or a ride back to the USA so that he can keep the promise he made to Taiana and go to Russia.

Thomas Kemp - the chair of the Star City council - informs Oliver Queen that they want to appoint him as an interim mayor until the next election in August 2016, based on his speech to the people of Star City during the rioting.  Oliver agrees to take the job.

As the episode closes, Quentin is seen leaving Star City by car with Donna Smoak, Thea is seen sitting on a couch in the apartment she shared with Laurel and John is seen packing a bag while wearing a dress military uniform, apparently having reenlisted.


The Fridge Factor

Felicity is dumbed-down to give Curtis Holt a chance to contribute - first by his having the idea to use a line-of-sight attack to disable the nuke approaching Star City and then by suggesting they invert the horizons of the missiles so they will explode in space.


The Bottom Line

Taken on its own, this is a solid episode with some great performances, wonderful action sequences and great writing. Taken in the context of the whole season, however, it's something of a disappointment. The whole point of Season Four was to make Arrow lighten up. and its hard to see how having everyone except Felicity leave the team in order to cope with their own personal issues fits into that theme... particularly since Oliver ultimately has to abandon his new-found optimism and promise not to kill in order to defeat Darhk once and for all. Still, the idea of Oliver falling to leave up to his ideals is par for the course in the comics, too. Unfortunately, having Oliver win in this fashion does make much of his conflict for this season seem completely pointless.

Arrow Episode Guide: Season 4, Episode 22 - Lost In The Flood

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.




Plot

Rubicon has been delayed for a day. But Felicity's old flame, Cooper Seldon, is now working for HIVE and all too eager to prove himself the better hacker once and for all. Now, as Noah and Curtis join forces with Felicity to protect the world's nuclear arsenal, Oliver and John must race to rescue Thea from HIVE's underground city before Anarky can destroy it. Unfortunately, Ruve Adams has turned the whole city against them. And Merlyn has turned Thea against Oliver!

In the flashback sequences, the dark power of the Idol begins to change Tiana for the worse. And Baron Reiter is not quite as dead as Oliver thought...


Influences

Green Arrow: Year One (the Lian Yu segments), Green Arrow: City Walls (Green Arrow fighting a magically-empowered villain inside a sealed city), the film Dr. Strangelove Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb (centered around a doomsday device similar to Rubicon that could launch multiple nuclear missiles at once, name-dropped by Darkh), the film War Games (centered around hackers averting World War III, name-dropped by Curtis) the Fallout game series (Tevat Noah resembles the more idealistic visions of the underground vaults and serves the same purpose), the works of William Shakespeare (Cooper Seldon quotes Richard the Third and Hamlet), Brave New World (Spartan name-drops the book, there's some resemblance between the society HIVE is creating and The World State of this book), the James Bond novels of Ian Fleming (the destruction of Tevat Noah is pretty much every James Bond villain base going up in smoke, Darhk lets Green Arrow and Spartan live only so they can die a worse death while watching hiim win) and pretty much every Dennis O'Neil or Elliot S! Maggin story where Oliver Queen doubted his role as a vigilante doing real good for society at large.


Goofs

There's a lot of weird lens flares and other oddities in the lighting that distract from the action.

Noah and Donna's argument is remarkably quiet until Felicity has sufficient time to ask Curtis what is going on and notice that he's drinking.

Granting that it's in a backyard, you'd think SOMEONE would have done something to clean up Alex's dead body!

Also, what genius decided that powering Tevat Noah with a power source so unstable that one arrow going into the machinery in its control room could cause the whole complex to explode was a good idea? Was HIVE contracting out to the lowest bidder?

Cool as the fight looks, it's impossible to beleive that Anarky is capable of fighting both Green Arrow, Speedy and Spartan to a stand-still, even in the middle of a collapsing room!

How does Merlyn know Ruve Adams was killed? He was busy evacuating people when she died. (Possibly he's working with Anarky planning a double cross of Darhk and the escaped Anarky told him? Or he just knows because he is/was Ra's Al Ghul.)


Artistry

The sequence in which Spartan, Speedy and Green Arrow fight Anarky in the midst of a collapsing control room looks amazing, between the practical effects and the fight choreography.


Trivia

As is tradition with previous seasons' penultimate episodes (i.e. Darkness On The Edge Of Town, Streets On Fire, This Is Your Sword), the title of this episode comes from a Bruce Springsteen song.

Taiana says her home village is ruled over by a "strongman" named Kovar, who works for the Russian Government. This could be a reference to Leonid Konstantinovitch Kovar a.k.a. Starfire a.k.a. Red Star. Kovar was DC Comics first Russian superhero, created in 1968 and first appearing in Teen Titans #18. The son of an archeologist, Leonid and his father investigated a spaceship crash that bathed the teenager with a strange energy when the ship exploded. Afterward, Leonid found that he had enhanced strength, speed and psychokinesis, A devout Communist, Leonid offered his services to his country and became Russia's first state-sanctioned superhero.


Technobabble

The nuclear missile which destroyed Havenrock was a long-range KN-08 ballistic missile.

Felicity's back-trace of Thea's phone signal has an accuracy rate of 99.9999%..

Diggle says that Tevat Noah is just like Mount Weather - a Continuity Of Government facility built by FEMA during The Cold War in case of a nuclear attack.

Oliver is either able to pick locks with an arrowhead or has a special arrowhead that is shaped like a lock-pick. He uses it to break into one of the houses in Tevat Noah while seeking cover from the guards.

Smartphones are protected by encryption. If you fail to enter the proper passcode or fingerprint after so many tries, the phone "bricks" itself (i.e. locks so no one can access it). Curtis suggests that rather than trying to break the encryption on Rubicon, they make it stop working in the first place by overwhelming it with too many access requests.

Cooper shuts down Felicity's system with an X-Axis Bi-numeric Algorithm virus. It's one she created back in college.

Cooper then sends electrical surges to all their previous IPs. Unfortunately, this allows Felicity to ping back to his location. This let's Noah hitch their own code onto the back trace. The code they use is an executable Curtis designs to overload Rubicon with access requests.

Tevat Noah is powered by a dwarf star alloy. Powerful, but touchy, as Anarky describes it. This means that a stray shot in the control center could blow up the whole complex.


Dialogue Triumphs

(Oliver shoots two arrows at Dark. They vaporize before they come close to touching him.)
Darhk: Cool. You know, I didn't even mean to do that?!

Darhk: Today was supposed to be Christmas and I woke up to a lump of coal. Is it because I've been naughty this year?

Darkh: (To Cooper) Not that it's not scintillating to watch you type, but when exactly will I have Rubicon back?

Man: You can't win! You can't stop Genesis!
Spartan: Well, what are you going to do when you're not here to enjoy your Brave New World?
Green Arrow: Spartan! Easy...
Spartan: He almost got us killed.
Green Arrow: They're like Thea. They're not in their right minds.
Man: You mean the pills? We haven't taken any. Not even one. None of us have. We're here because we believe. Because we know the world is evil and darkness. It's beyond saving.
Green Arrow: How can you believe that?
Man: Because we lived it. Every day. So many promises were made to save the city. But it all just fell apart. And we were the ones left in the rubble. Damien Darhk has given us hope. Can you, with your masks and your guns, actually say the same?

Green Arrow: Do you ever think that maybe Darhk has a point?
Spartan: No. Darhk is psychotic. Everyone down here is.
Green Arrow: Are they? He's not wrong. The world is coming apart just like Star City. I mean, it is worse than it has ever been...
Spartan: That's because Darhk's been spending the past year trying to kill it.
Green Arrow: Then why is he giving these people more hope than we ever could?

Thea: (to Merlyn) Drug me again and I will kill you, you son of a bitch!

Spartan: So Machin is down here?
Merlyn: An ongoing pest we've yet to exterminate.
Thea: He killed Alex, who brought me down here because Ruve drugged him. Just like you did to me.
Merlyn: We can discuss my parenting philosophy later. Mr. Machin is the immediate threat!
Spartan: To Darhk and his wife and I still don't understand why we should care.
Merlyn: Because he has already tried once to kill everyone down here!
Green Arrow: Malcolm's right. We're not letting anyone else die. (turning the family whose house they took over) This place isn't safe. I need you to get them out of here in order to protect them. Please...
(Green Arrow turns back to Merlyn.)
Green Arrow: Now you know the way out. So if we can't stop Machin, then you are going to lead the evacuation.
Merlyn: I don't recall volunteering.
(Spartan draws his gun and puts it to Merlyn's head. Merlyn doesn't blink.)
Merlyn: And even if I did, where exactly where would I evacuate them to? Everything above our heads is going to be under a mushroom cloud!
Green Arrow: I refuse to believe that.
Merlyn: Because you're a fool.
Green Arrow: Because I have hope.

Green Arrow: The city's safe...
Felicity: You sound like there's a "but" to that sentence.
Green Arrow: People still need saving. They still need hope.

Darkh: Tell me.
Merlyn: It was Machin. He's-
Darkh: Ruve?!
Merlyn: I'm sorry.
Darkh: My daughter?
Merlyn: We're still getting reports of survivors.
Darkh: We're locked out of Rubicon. Momentarily. I know someone who can get us back online.
Merlyn: Damien... Tevat Noah is gone! It's buried under miles of ash! Even if you could regain control of Rubicon, they would be no place on Earth that is safe!
Darkh: If there's no place left on Earth that is safe... let it all burn.

Felicity: Go to hell!
Darhk: Why bother? I'm going to bring it to us.


Continuity

Curtis makes reference to the city-threatening events that have occurred in Starling City over the past three years including earthquakes (Season 1), viral attacks (Season 3) and armies of super-soldiers (Season 2).

Curtis is apparently on the Dark Web and knows Noah Kuttler by reputation.

Cooper Seldon is seen for the first time since 305. He broke out of Iron Heights during Damien Darhk's escape.

We learn the name of HIVE's underground city is Tevat Noah.

Thea's phone signal comes from the corner of Berkeley and Childress, right in the heart of The Glades.

Taiana becomes more blood-thirsty and willing to kill as people die near her as she is holding the idol.

Merlyn drugs Thea to make her compliant.

Felicity tells Donna that she's been working with The Green Arrow for three years.

Taiana is from a village, Krasnoyarsk, which is ruled over by a "government strong man" named Kovar. She wants to use the power of the idol to free her people.

Noah claims he wasn't given any choice regarding abandoning his family.

Noah recognizes the virus Cooper uses as one Felicity designed, saying that he did keep tabs on his daughter and her work.

When Donna Smoak gets stressed, she folds clothes.

Donna Smoak confesses to Felicity that Noah didn't abandon them - she took Felicity and left him when Felicity was 7.

Felicity notes, however, that Noah never once tried to correct Felicity's belief that he was a deadbeat dad.

Thea is now a good enough shot with a bow and arrow that she can shoot the sword out of someone's hand.

Anarky refers to the events of 410 - the last time he took Darhk's wife and daughter hostage.

Tevat Noah is powered by a dwarf star alloy, much like Ray Palmer's technology.

Anarky stabs Ruve Adams to death with one of Speedy's arrows.

Anarky seems to escape the collapse of Tevat Noah.

Green Arrow saves Damien Darhk's daughter.

The destruction of Tevat Noah does damage to The Glades above it.

Donna asks Noah to leave and never contact Felicity again. As the episode closes, he seems to.

Curtis points out that Donna's refusal to believe Noah could change his lying ways mirrors Felicity's dumping Oliver over his lying.


The Winick Factor

Everyone - HIVE and Team Arrow alike - is nerfed so that Anarky can be built up as a threat. Ditto the return of Cooper Seldon, who is now suddenly a competent enough hacker to handle Felicity AND her dad at the same time.


The Bottom Line

Everything about this episode feels like so much padding. When everything should be racing to a conclusion after last week's exciting episode, this episode slams on the breaks so we can focus on Felicity's family issues (which still aren't really resolved) and Thea's fight with Anarky last week proves to be completely pointless so that we can have all of Team Arrow have a far harder time fighting him than they should.

The cast gives it their all but that doesn't change the fact that the first half of the episode revolves around people typing while spouting technobabble and - as Damien Darhk himself notes - that's not exactly scintillating. The second half is somewhat better, but Thea's being brainwashed is a waste of time as is Oliver's momentary consideration that he's failed the city as a beacon of hope.

And yet, I have hope that next week's finale will prove to have been worth this diversion. It's a dim hope, but it is there.

Arrow Episode Guide: Season 4, Episode 21 - Monument Point

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.




Plot

With Damien Darhk's plan exposed, Team Arrow and ARGUS will have their hands full preventing a nuclear catastrophe! Unfortunately, cracking the Rubicon Protocol is beyond even Felicity's talents. Now, Team Arrow must find The Calculator before HIVE does. But even if they manage that trick, can Felicity's felonious father be trusted? Meanwhile, in Darhk's underground city, Thea reluctantly teams up with Merlyn to stop Anarky from killing all of the city's inhabitants. And Quentin Lance makes a fateful decision regarding his job and his relationship with Donna Smoak.

In the flashbacks, Oliver moves to confront Baron Reiter as Taiana escorts the rest of the escaped slaves to an airplane off Lian Yu.



Influences

Green Arrow: Year One (the flashbacks on Lian Yu), the Fallout game series (Darhk's underground city is reminiscent of The Vaults), the film Dr. Strangelove Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb (centered around a doomsday device similar to Rubicon that could launch multiple nuclear missiles at once), the film War Games (centered around hackers averting World War III) and 24 (the continual ticking timer in the background, the global stakes, espionage  and continual shifting of focus throughout the episode)


Performances

This episode may be Willa Holland's finest turn yet as Thea Queen. She is fierce throughout the episode and my fears of her being turned into a damsel in distress for this final act proved totally unfounded!

The subplot with Quentin and Donna may seem unnecessary given the high-stakes in the episode's other stories. Still, it's a welcome moment of humanity that doesn't slow the pace of the action at all and Paul Blackthorne and Charlotte Ross play it wonderfully. In fact, I can't recall us ever seeing them interacting together alone ever since they became a couple and I now wish we'd seen more of it.


Artistry

Great fight scenes throughout, as per usual.

The direction of the fight-scenes in the fifth segment, with Thea fighting Anarky intercut with the HIVE ghosts fighting Team Arrow is cut together perfectly.


Trivia

Mention is made of the fictional DC Comics nations of Markovia and Corto Maltese, along the nations whose nuclear weapons have been taken over by HIVE.

Markovia has been mentioned several times before on Arrow, most recently in 416 as the home of Damien Darhk's alias, Kenneth Bender.  In the DC Comics Universe, it is home to the superhero GeoForce and located in Western Europe, between France, Belgium and Luxembourg.

Corto Maltese has also been mentioned before on Arrow, and was the setting (and title) of 303. It is an island nation in the DC Comics Universe, located off the South American coast. Originally created by Frank Miller as the site of a rebellion that was backed by the US Government in Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, it has become a catch-all location for shady dealings or stories requiring a modern-day Banana Republic

Felicity refers to Brick and Murmur as "last year's greatest hits." Both villains were introduced to the DCTVU during Arrow's third season.

Because Merlyn doesn't trust Thea with a weapon, he says she'll have to make do with Krav Maga when facing Anarky. Krav Maga is a martial art developed by the Israel Defense Forces that mixes elements of aikido, judo, boxing and wrestling along with realistic fight training.

The DEFCON level is primarily controlled by the Secretary of Defense and The President of the United States. It describes the levels of readiness for the US Military in a crisis situation. DEFCON-5 is the lowest. To give some perspective, The Cuban Missile Crisis was a DEFCON-2 event whereas The September 11th Terrorist Attacks were a DEFCON 3 event.

In the Justice Society of America comic written by Arrow Executive Producer Marc Guggenheim, Monument Point was a large Metropolis located within commuting distance of Washington DC. The town was saved several times by The Justice Society, who wound up adopting the town as their base of operations and the city council appointed the Jay Garrick Flash as their mayor.

The location of Monument Point as indicated on the map in the episode shows that it is in a similar location, just west of Washington D.C.


Technobabble

Rubicon uses fourier protocols - something Noah Kuttler practically wrote the book on.

A nexus chamber is a collector of magic. In order to take advantage of the deaths caused by even a single nuke going off, Darhk will need to be inside it.

Oliver deduces the nexus chamber in Star City it must be on a ley line (the wi-fi of the magic, as Vixen calls ti), but that still leaves too much of the city to search easily.

Felicity tracks down Calculators new lair by searching for a deep-trunk fiber-optic hookup with polymorphic encryption.

Calculator has a root directory on his system called Ravenspur.

Felicity develops a ley line algorithm to find possible hiding places for the Star City nexus room.

Green Arrow makes use of an explosive arrow to cover his and Spartan's tracks after the fight with Brick and Murmur in Cyprus Cove.

Noah claims he will need the quantum subliminal processor that Palmer Tech developed to hack Rubicon in twelve hours

Anarky targets the CO2 scrubbers of HIVE's city. This will render the atmosphere unbreakable.

Ollie uses an electronic lock-pick to open the door into Palmer Tech for Felicity and Noah.

An electro-magnetic wave-generator and a battery tender can be used to force the restart of an electronic lock.

Noah uses his sniffer device to copy the processor's operating code wirelessly, when Felicity is unable to open the case holding it.

Noah is only able to copy 90% of the code. It's possible for him to extrapolate the remaining 10% of the code to build a workable processor, but that will still require them to upload the override codes to every individual missile silo manually. This can only be done from a server farm.

When Felicity takes down the sub-node at the sever farm, this releases a tapeworm in the Rubicon code - an anti-hack fail-safe, created by HIVE. Noah is able to override it, but not before it broadcasts their location to HIVE.

Noah is able to set the remaining launch algorithms into an infinite loop. He guesses this will buy them 24 hours.

Unable to hack the controls on the nuclear missile, Felicity instead decides to "move Monument Point" using a GPS realignment. As a prank, Felicity once relocated a GPS satellite. This caused everyone on the Eastern seaboard to think they were twenty miles west of where they really were. This allows Felicity to redirect the missile to the smaller town of Havenrock, saving millions at the cost of killing tens of thousands.


Dialogue Triumphs

(Thea is sitting in the kitchen of the house she and Alex were staying in. Two HIVE guards are watching her. Thea is whistling along with the birdsong looped in the background. She gestures to the side as the dog is supposed to bark as Merlyn enters and says 'Woof'.)
Merlyn: I know. The predictability was a terrible flaw in the design.
Thea: Predictability is your flaw too. Every time my life starts to suck, you show up.
Merlyn: Leave us.
(The HIVE Guards leave them alone. Thea looks at Malcolm's new hand.)
Thea: Is that hand a present from your new best friend?
Merlyn: I'm not doing this for a prosthetic, Thea. I'm doing it -
Both: - to keep you safe.
Merlyn: Yes. To keep you safe.
Thea: Mmm-hmm. Yeah. Like I said. Predictable.

Thea: (To Merlyn) Look, I am way, way past the point of telling you that you are crazy! I just want to see Alex. I just want to know that he's OK. I get it. I'm stuck here. But I can be stuck here and compliant. Or I can be a pain in your ass! So take me to him. Now.

Donna: You told me that you knew what Laurel was doing.
Quentin: Yeah.
Donna: Yeah. So... this is a lie.
Quentin: Yeah, but it's a complicated lie.

Oliver: I spoke to Lyla. She's worried about you because you said you shot Andy in self-defense.
John: Oliver, I don't want to talk about this.
Oliver: You just never said anything about self-defense to me, John.
John: Couldn't tell Lyla the truth and have her look at me the same way anymore.
Oliver: C'mon! You don't know that!
John: Oliver, you're the last person on Earth to lecture someone about lying to the people they love!
Oliver: I'm not lecturing. I'm worried. You're better than me at this. And you're hurting worse than I have ever seen. Don't compound that by lying to your wife. (pauses) The fact that I lied to Felicity does not give me less credibility. It should tell you that I know what I'm talking about.

Felicity: Let's make this simple. This isn't a reconciliation. This isn't a reunion. This is you helping me save the world.
Noah: And what makes you think I can?
Felicity: Damien Darhk thinks you can. That's why he sent last year's greatest hits to take you down. You're a smart man. I'm assuming you know what Rubicon is?
Noah: And I'm assuming it's under Mr. Darhk's control?
Felicity: We have twelve hours to stop it.
(Without a word, Noah sits down at Felicity's command console.)
Felicity: That's it?
Noah: You seem surprised.
Felicity: I was expecting a quid pro quo.
Noah: Felicity, I may be a terrible father-
Felicity: "May"?
Noah: But I'm not a monster. Terrible or not, I am your father. As long as you live in it, I have an interest in seeing that this world doesn't end.

Oliver: So, John's right. We'll go in and help you and your father boost it from...?
Felicity: (protesting) It's in Curtis' lab!
(Ollie just stares at Felicity.)

Felicity: You want me to help my father steal from me?
John: Well, it's not exactly yours anymore, is it?
Felicity: ... nope. Guess not.

(regarding Anarky's bomb)
Thea: Can you disarm it?
Merlyn: We'll soon find out.

Noah: I'm not the man my daughter thinks, you know?
Green Arrow: Don't tell me. Tell her.
Noah: I've tried. I tried explaining to me that there are two sides to me. The Father and The Hacker. She sees only The Criminal. I mention this because you strike me as someone with experience leading a dual life. Any insights you'd care to share?
Green Arrow: Yeah. It doesn't work. You leadint a dual life is why you lost her.
Noah: You sound like you're talking from some personal experience...

Lyla: POTUS and SecDef have taken us to DEFCON-2.
Spartan: Just 2? They're optimistic.
Lyla: They don't want to cause a panic. The President asked me if the fate of the world is resting in the hands of an IT girl, a criminal and two guys in Halloween costumes.
Green Arrow: They're not Halloween costumes...

Anarky: What is it with you? Why are you always at the mercy of some guy? You can make your own decisions, Thea. You're not a pawn. You're a queen. Get it?
Thea: Yeah. Yeah, I get it.
(The two close in to fight.)


Continuity

Amanda Waller was the one who ordered the creation of Rubicon.

John refers to 415 and what Vixen said about ley lines being the wi-fi of the magical world.

Alex's brainwashing was Ruve Darhk's idea - not Merlyn's.

Brick was last seen in 312. He is now working as muscle for Damien Darhk in exchange for his release from prison, but is not happy about it.

Murmur is seen for the first time since 418. He escaped from Iron Heights along with Darhk and is still part of his team.

Calculator was last seen in 413. He was among the prisoners who escaped from Iron Heights but did not join HIVE in the aftermath.

Anarky was last seen in 410.

Oliver repeats Taiana's words from 414 back to her, regarding needing a monster to fight a monster.

Quentin signs a statement confirming that he knew his daughter was The Black Canary, despite it almost certainly meaning that he'll be fired from the SCPD.

Ravenspur was the name of a cabin in Cypress Cove where Noah Kutler and Donna Smoak used to go on vacation. It may have been where Felicity was conceived.

Felicity is fired from her position at Palmer Tech, following a vote by the Board of Directors.

The elevator from the old Arrow Cave into The Palmer Tech building was shut down following The Bug Eyed Bandit's attack in 417.

Noah recognizes Quentin as the cop who arrested him in 413.

Taiana saved Oliver's life from Baron Reiter. They flee for the plane together with Taiana carrying Reiter's idol.

Anarky kills Alex.

Noah takes a bullet for Felicity.

One nuclear missile is launched - a Russian one aimed at Monument Point.

The town of Monument Point was first mentioned in 417.

The Star City nexus room is located under Star City City Hall. It is revealed that this is why Darhk had his wife running for mayor - to ensure his access to the building.

As Tiana and Oliver are making their escape, she complains of feeling pained and drops the idol. Her eyes flash with the same gold light as Reiter's when the dark magic overtook him.

The episode ends with Oliver and John confront Darhk in the Nexus Room under Star City's City Hall.

Location

The Missile Attack Warning Center in Kaliningrad, Russia
HIVE's underground city.


The Fridge Factor

Averted majorly with Thea, who holds her own in the fight with Anarky and stands up to her father. There's also a suggestion that she really was ready to help Anarky bring down the whole HIVE ark provided she had a wave to save her boyfriend in the process.


The Bottom Line

Greatness. The action doesn't let up for a moment in this episode. Even the short scenes with Quentin and Donna and the flashbacks don't slow the pace of this episode one bit. It looks like they've finally found their pace as the endgame begins.

Arrow Episode Guide: Season 4, Episode 14 - Code of Silence

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.




Plot

HIVE makes their move against Team Arrow and Quentin Lance, bringing in some outside muscle in the form of The Demolition Team. This causes some tension between Quentin and Donna Smoak, as he lies to her about why he has to go into hiding to try and protect her. Meanwhile, Oliver prepares for his first debate with Ruve Adams and wonders whether or not he should, with his wedding to Felicity approaching, tell her the truth about his illegitimate son... right before Thea uncovers the truth herself!

In the flashbacks, Oliver must win the trust of Baron Reiter's slaves. And only one thing will accomplish that - killing the overseer Conklin!



Influences

Green Arrow: Year One (the flashback sequences on Lian Yu), the Green Arrow comics of Elliot S! Maggin (the plot of Oliver Queen running for mayor and various corrupt forces working against him), The Empire Strikes Back (Darhk kills a man from a great distance while observing him through a monitor), the original story of Aladdin (Reiter's story of a hidden place only one chosen of the gods may enter to retrieve a magic item is reminiscent of the cave holding the lamp), Gail Simone's New 52 run on Batgirl (the implant Curtis develops is similar to what was used to enable Barbara Gordon to walk again in the comics) and the writings of Nietzsche (Taiana's line about needing monsters to fight monsters contradicts one of Nietzsche's most famous sayings, "Battle not with monsters, lest you become a monster.")


Goofs

Given how thoroughly screwed up her own life was by people keeping secrets from her, Thea should be about the last person justifying Samantha's unreasonable request that Ollie not tell even his own family or the woman he loves about his son.  Yes, keeping William a secret is keeping him safe, but there's no good reason - especially with Thea having figured out the secret - to try and keep Felicity in the dark. Hell, Felicity could probably do a lot to hide the clues that Thea followed to figure out the truth!

After all the hype regarding the debate between Ruve Adams and Oliver, why aren't we allowed to see the debate or at least see a clip of it? Admittedly watching Ollie engage in a mental/verbal battle may not be as exciting as watching him pummel the villain-of-the-week, but it still seems like a heck of a Chekov's Gun to leave on the wall after all the time focusing on his preparing for the debate!


Artistry

The action sequences for this episode are amazing, even by the standards of this show. From the multi-vehicle chase sequence at the start of the episode, through all of the fight scenes and up until the final fight between Team Arrow and The Demolition Team, everything is well-blocked and well-directed.

The special effects used for the destruction of the buildings by The Demolition Team are also great.


Trivia

This episode sees the return of Milo Armitage as part of HIVE's command staff. In the comics, Milo Armitage was the step-father and frequent enemy of the second Green Arrow, Connor Hawke.

A 602 is the police code for Breaking and Entering.

The Demolition Team is a mercenary group from the DC Comics universe, first appearing in Green Lantern #176. Armed with high-tech weaponry based on construction equipment, the team came into conflict with Hal Jordan after they were hired by a corrupt congressman to destroy the Los Angeles branch of Ferris Aircraft.

The Demolition Team includes Hardhat (a former boxer with a special helmet and harness that increases his strength and durability), Jackhammer (a former oil-rig worker, armed with a high-powered jackhammer), Scoopshovel (a former professional jai-alai player, with a hydraulic arm), Steamroller (a former motorcycle stunt driver who drove a high-speed, compact steam-roller) and Rosie - the team leader - who was armed with a high-power rivet gun.

The DCTVU Demolition Team are a mercenary group made of three former GRU, IRA and MOSSAD agents who were experts in precision demolitions. Unlike their comic book counterparts, they do not used specialized weaponry.  Jack uses a sledgehammer rather than a jackhammer and Rosie uses a high-power nail-gun rather than a rivet gun. The third member, Hardhat, does not wear a hard hat and seems to be the team's explosives expert.

In another nod to Curtis' eventual role on the show, Oliver calls him "terrific" in response to his invention that will cure Felicity's paralysis. Curtis Holt is, of course, based on the superhero Michael Holt a.k.a. Mister Terrific.


Technobabble

The Demolition Team make use of a specialized acid used to weaken building foundations.

John has access to some kind of technology that allows him to repel Jackhammer's sledge-hammer strikes, forcing the hammer-head away from him - perhaps some kind of magnetic force-field?

Curtis' wedding gift to Felicity and Oliver is an implantable bio-stimulant - one that, coupled with Palmer Technologies new power cell, should allow a paralyzed person to walk after the bio-stimulant is implanted in their spine.


Dialogue Triumphs

(As he is getting ready to go change into costume in order to follow Darhk's wife.)
Ollie: Are you going to be alright in here?
Felicity: Oh yeah! Great Wi-Fi.

Taiana: Aside from my brother, have you killed before?
Oliver: Yeah. There was a man in Hong Kong. And I did terrible things to him. And that made me a monster.
Taiana: And you're afraid killing Conklin will make you into this monster again?
Oliver: (pauses) Yeah.
Taiana: Good.  It takes a monster to fight monsters.

Felicity: You know, the first time we met? The first thing you asked me was pull data off a damaged laptop. It's kind of romantic.

(Oliver is changing into a nice suit and tie in the Arrow Cave. Quentin enters.)
Quentin: Well, that's not your typical night time suit.
Oliver: Well, you're the reason I'm wearing it. Inspiring me to save the city in the light of day.
Quentin: (scoffing) Fine inspiration I turned out to be, hiding down here in the dark.
Oliver: For your protection. You haven't told Donna, have you?
Quentin: No. (sighs) How you kept this up for four years, huh? This double life? These secrets? Lying? I mean...
Oliver: I'm trying not to live that way anymore. (sighs) Trying.
Quentin: You know, in AA, we say you're only as sick as the secrets you keep. You're looking pretty healthy these days. Let's just hope I can get back to that place with Donna.
Oliver: For what it's worth, you're in a tough spot and you're trying to keep her safe. You know, sometimes a lie isn't wrong when it's for the good of someone you love.

Oliver: Can you hack the fire alarm?  We need to evacuate the building.
Felicity: (typing furiously on her phone) It's an old system. It might take me a minute.
(Suddenly, the fire alarm goes off. Felicity and Olvier look up to see Thea standing next to an emergency fire alarm switch.)
Thea: Yeah. I learned that back in high school.

(whispering to Ruve Adams as the crowd applauds as they enter the debate)
Oliver: That's nice applause. It's enough to bring the house down. (grinning) Almost.

Reiter: I need you alive, Mr. Queen, but there are different forms of alive. Don't test me again.

(In response to the news that Curtis has developed a bio-stimulant that can cure Felicity's paralysis.)
Oliver: Curtis, you're terrific.


Continuity

Ollie makes reference to Anarky's attack on Damien Darhk's family (410), HIVE's attack on other mayoral candidates (402) and their attempts to take over the Queen Campaign (407).

HIVE's plan has entered Phase Four.

Phase Five if HIVE's plan requires their controlling City Hall.

Malcolm Merlyn is now part of HIVE or is, at least, being allowed to sit in at their meetings.

Arms dealer Milo Armitage - last mentioned in 303 and last seen in 212 - is part of HIVE.

Thea discovers the check that Moira Queen wrote to Samantha Clayton in the flashbacks for 220.

Lyla Michaels is apparently now the head of ARGUS in the wake of Amanda Waller's death in 411.

In the flashback, Oliver refers to torturing General Shrieve in 323.

Felicity refers to the encrypted cel phones used by HIVE, one of which Merlyn gave her in 409.

Felicity makes reference to 103 and how the first time Oliver met her he asked her to pull information off of a damaged laptop.

Oliver names Quentin Lance as his inspiration for running for mayor and quotes Quentin's speech to him about saving the city in the light of day from 402.

Oliver is agreed to have won the debate by most pundits afterward.

Laura Hoffman - Felicity and Ollie's neighbor from Ivy Town - appears at the party at the end.

In the final scene, we find out that Damien Darhk has kidnapped William .


The Bottom Line

A mixed bag, once again. The script and the villains-of-the-week are unusually weak with very little of the wit we've seen this season. Despite this, the cast manage to sell everything, though there's little emotional investment in the Quentin/Donna romance given how little time they've been given over the season.  And how anyone on this show can possibly think keeping secrets from their loved ones won't blow up in their face is beyond me at this point. That being said, the action sequences here are some of the best the show has ever seen and the episode is, on the whole, enjoyable.

Arrow Episode Guide: Season 4, Episode 13 - Sins Of The Father

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.




Plot

With Thea's bloodlist having sent her into a coma, Oliver is desperate for anything that might cure her condition. Enter Nyssa Al Ghul with a solution and an offer - kill Malcolm Merlyn and the cure for Thea's condition is yours!. But can Ollie easily sell out Merlyn, who - in spite of everything that has passed between them - has proven to be a reliable ally where Thea is concerned? Meanwhile, Felicity tries to mend the bridge between herself and her estranged father, not knowing that he is the murderous master-hacker known as The Calculator.


Influences

Green Arrow: Year One (the flashback sequences on Lian Yu) and Hamlet (Oliver's conflict on whether or not he can justly kill Merlyn mirrors the central conflict of the play.)


Goofs

Again, we have to wonder why Nyssa hasn't killed Laurel, given her role in resurrecting her beloved as a soulless monster. Logically she should hate Laurel second to no one but Merlyn at this point.

Calculator's arrest at the end of the episode was incredibly anti-climactic.


Performances

Katrina Law gives her usual stellar performance as Nyssa.

Charlotte Ross hasn't been given much to do besides play comic relief as Donna Smoak. But she nails the speech where Donna advises Felicity that people don't change. You see that bubbly facade fade away and see the woman who - though she's not too bright - was determined to give it all to provide for her daughter after she was abandoned by the man she loved.

Stephen Amell gives a Shakespearean performance here, really making Oliver's conflict over what he must do in this situation apparent without descending into angst.

While verging into melodrama occasionally, John Barrowman's turn as Malcolm Merlyn in this episode reminds of the vicious insanity of the character, which hasn't been apparent in recent episodes. It isn't subtle but damned if the performance isn't effective.


Artistry

The fight scene in which Team Arrow finds themselves on the streets of Star City, caught between two groups of assassins with innocent people in the crossfire was amazing.

The script for this episode is very well written, with multiple levels and thematic parallels and a lot of witty dialogue. The key question of this episode - Can People Change? - is repeated throughout both storylines and goes to the very core of what Green Arrow is about. Because what is Oliver Queen's story if not that of a man who tries to change himself for the better?


Trivia

The episode's title comes from a phrase repeated throughout The Bible (primarily in the books Exodus, Deuteronomy, and Numbers), regarding the mistakes of one generation passing on to the next.

We're told Felicity had a stuffed toy bear called Mr. Square Bear whens he was a girl. Square Bear was also the name of one of the bears on the classic cartoon Help!... It's The Hair Bear Bunch!

Nyssa and her group of assassins are based in an abandoned complex located at 7th and Rucka. This is a nod to writer Greg Rucka, who co-created the character of  Nyssa.

One of the stores we see in the background during the street fight sequence is called Janson's Collectibles. This is a nod to writer/artist/inker Klaus Janson, who co-created the character of Nyssa.


Technobabble

Felicity describes Curtis Holt's T-Sphere as an autonomous communications device, three generations beyond Bluetooth. There are no seams in the casing, as it was built from a single piece of aluminum. The entire surface connects to an induction charger. Calculator inquires as to how they achieved the heat sink but Felicity doesn't answer him.

Calculator tries to leave an IR burst receiver - an incredibly advanced device that can suck the data out of any room you put it into - in the Palmer Technologies R&D lab.


Dialogue Triumphs

Oliver: If you cared about Thea, then curing her bloodlust wouldn't come with any conditions.
Nyssa: Thea is my sister-in-law. You are my husband.
Oliver: I'm not your husband!
Nyssa: But war does not know family bonds nor friendly sentiments.
Oliver: Who are you at war with?
Nyssa: I just told you I want you to kill Malcolm Merlyn. Try to guess.
Oliver: If you have a problem with Malcolm Merlyn, deal with it yourself! Do not involve me or my sister!
Nyssa: You put the Demon's Head ring on Malcolm's hand! You—
Oliver: You can't defeat him.
Nyssa: But you can. You have!
Oliver: And that was before I knew that he was my sister's father.
Nyssa: So he dies so his child might live. Didn't your father make a similar bargain? I'm sorry, Oliver. I would not resort to this if I had any other choice.
Oliver: Nyssa, my sister is dying because of something that your father did. I think you have every choice.
Nyssa: Thea is dying because of what her father did. I am only following events to their inevitable conclusion.

Calculator: And you know why the police were after me? The type of criminal I was?
Felicity: Mom never went into detail. I assume petty stuff. Anything else requires commitment.

Assassin: We found her (Laurel) at the perimeter. She claims to be a friend.
Nyssa: And she speaks the truth. At least until she defiled my beloved and stood idly by while I was left to rot in a dungeon.

Felicity: Is it possible that he's not the guy we thought he was, that maybe he's better than we thought he was?
Donna Smoak: No. Felicity, I would love to think that your father didn't show up with some ulterior motive in your life right now, but I've been where you are more times than I care to admit, and it always ends the same way. He tells you exactly what you want to hear, and you get sucked in, and the next thing you know, you have no job, no money, and a sweet 7-year-old daughter who needs a new pair of shoes and wants to go to Space Camp. People don't change, even if you want them to.

Nyssa: You come dressed for battle, Al Sa-Her.
Merlyn: Just for the occasion.
(Merlyn slips the Ring of Ra's Al Ghul off his hand and holds it up.) 
Merlyn: In exchange for my daughter's life.
Nyssa: (holding up the bottle of The Lotus) I'm glad you've finally seen reason.
Merlyn: Sadly, the only thing I have seen is your quick and speedy death.
Oliver: Malcolm!
(Merlyn's assassins enter the room.)
Nyssa: I knew you couldn't be trusted!
Merlyn: You knew? And yet you didn't prepare. And here you are out-numbered, out-gunned, out-maneuvered. Per usual.

Oliver: Taiana, I know what you're going through. It's this feeling in the pit of your stomach. It's an emptiness—
Taiana: Don't you dare try to help me mourn my brother that you took from me!
Oliver: Please... just listen...
Taiana: You know nothing about how I feel! A man with a heart as small as yours is incapable of such things!
Oliver: My father sacrificed himself so I could survive. So that I could right his wrongs. He did it by pulling out a gun and shooting himself in the head, not three feet from me. Since that day I have lost four more people that I loved... that I cared so much about. It never gets easier. Ever.
Taiana: I could see it in your eyes. From the moment we first met.
Oliver: That I was good?
Taiana: No. That you were lost, shattered. (Breathes deeply) There is a Russian saying-- "Tot zhe molot chto drobit steklo, kuyet stal." "The same hammer that shatters glass forges steel." If you want to be the man that your father wishes you to be, then this is how you'll get there. You'll save us from Reiter. But you cannot do so shattered.

Oliver: You set a trap for him as a test.
Felicity: Unrestricted access to Palmer Technologies' R&D lab. He flunked with flying colors. I don't even know why I'm surprised.
Oliver: You're surprised because you're hoping that he's the parent you've always wanted him to be... the parent you deserve.
Felicity: In an extremely ironic role reversal, my mother was smarter than me. She said, "People don't change, no matter how much you want them to."
Oliver: Some people don't.
Felicity: Uh-huh.
Oliver: I'd like to think that there's hope for the rest of us. Or I did as far as Malcolm is concerned. John thinks I should kill him.
Felicity: If it'd help save Thea, I agree.
Oliver: Yeah, and I'd agree if he wasn't Thea's father, but he is.
Felicity: We are in this mess because of him on, like, a million different levels. Let's not pretend that this is a typical father-daughter relationship. He brainwashed her into killing a friend!
Oliver: I know all this. I do. And I'm still holding out hope that with--with-- with time and with how much he says that he loves her that maybe they have some chance at some type of normal relationship. If I kill him... my sister never gets that chance.
Felicity: Thea's father is no more likely to change than mine is.

Oliver: Malcolm!
Merlyn: The Lotus effect is wearing off. She will pass by sunrise. I would like to be by her side.
Oliver: This has to end. No more games! You give Nyssa the damn ring!
Merlyn: She was 4 months old when we first met. Your housekeeper... Raisa, I believe, was picking you up from our house with Thea in a stroller. I peeked my head into the bassinette and Thea, all of 16 weeks, she stuck her tongue out at me. I always knew I was connected to her... as if on some primal level I knew I was her father.
Oliver: A real father wouldn't let their child die just to keep his hands on power!
Merlyn: That is not what I am doing. What's unfolding here is larger than I and it is bigger than my daughter. It's not just her life that hangs in the balance, Oliver. For all your dealings with the League, you still remain ignorant to what it is they do for the world.
Oliver:  Enough about the League. You're a group of Assassins!
Merlyn: It is a force of change silently manipulating global events for hundreds of years, and I cannot, I will not put that kind of power into Nyssa Al Ghul's hands! (pauses) Let me ask you something. If Damien Darhk came to you and told you to lay down your bow, let him finish his plan for Star City, would you do it? Even if it meant saving William's life?
(Oliver looks stunned as Merlyn nods in confirmation that he knows.)
Merlyn: I know everything about you, Oliver. I am Ra's Al Ghul. But back to the matter at hand. You will never sacrifice your city to save your son, and believe me when I tell you that I am only making the same choice.
Oliver: I would look for another choice, and I wouldn't stop looking until there was a third option! (pauses) Malcolm, what if... what if you could have the Lotus and keep your ring?
Merlyn: I don't see how. Nyssa's forces are stronger than I care to admit.
Oliver: Not by herself. You challenge her to a trial by combat.
Merlyn: You do realize your plan would end in her death?
Oliver: We're all backed into a corner, Malcolm. Nyssa made her bed.

Merlyn: In deference to good taste, we will forgo the removal of shirts.

Felicity: When I was a girl, I hated myself. I thought I was broken! That no one could or ever would love me! It's the only way a child can grow up when their father abandons them!
Calculator: Felicity...
Felicity: All I ever wanted to know was why. What was so wrong with me that you would leave?
Calculator: There was nothing with you, sweetheart! There was everything wrong with me. The police, the FBI... they were never going to stop looking for me. I realized a life on the run, that wasn't the life that I owed you or your mother. So I disappeared.
Felicity: You thought you were doing the right thing for us.
Calculator: Exactly.
Felicity: I have waited my entire life for that explanation, And the thing is I don't even know if I believe it.
Calculator: It's the truth.
Felicity: There is only one part of your story that I know to be true, and that is that you are wanted by the police.
(Quentin Lance enters the room with a uniformed police officer.)
Calculator: Felicity...
Felicity: I just need you to know one thing. You are wrong. I am nothing like you.
(Felicity turns around and  leaves the office, holding back the tears as Quentin begins to read Calculator his rights.)

Merlyn: I thought of you as a son once, Oliver. I had more in common with you than my own blood. But that's not the reason why I'm not going to kill you. Neither the fact that you are my daughter's brother. The reason you get to live is because death would be a mercy compared to the debt I now owe you!

Darhk: I don't like to be kept waiting.
Merlyn: My apologies. I don't have the resources I once had.
Darhk: Yes. I'm aware of your recent reversal of fortune. I take it that's why you asked for this meeting?
Merlyn: Well, I haven't come empty-handed.
Darhk: So to speak.
Merlyn: I have some information that you might find of particular interest. I know who Oliver Queen cares about more than anyone in the whole world.
Darhk: Yeah, so do I. We did a pretty good number on her over the holidays.
Merlyn: It's not Felicity Smoak.
Darhk: Who?
Merlyn: His son... William.


Continuity

Nyssa refers to Oliver's defeating Merlyn in 123.

The Calculator abandoned Donna and Felicity 18 years earlier.

Calculator figures out that Felicity is Overwatch and reveals himself to her.

Oliver refers to his father's suicide from 101, as well as Tommy's death due to Merlyn's undertaking (123) and Sara's death (301). These are referred to several times by other characters as well.

In the flashback, Taiana gives the stone Oliver got from Shado after his dream vision to Baron Reiter.

Oliver says he mades arrangements with a family friend named Dr. Lamb to have Thea moved. Dr. Lamb was the Doctor who privately examined Oliver at Moira's request in 101,

Felicity had a stuffed animal named Mr. Square Bear when she was four.

Malcom refers to a queen family housekeeper/nanny named Raisa, who appeared in 101,

Malcolm knows about Oliver's son, William.

Oliver cuts off Merlyn's left hand.

Thea is cured of her bloodlust by The Lotus.

Malcolm tells Damian Darhk about William's existence.


The Fridge Factor

The main conflict of the episode is spurred by the fact that - despite being trained from birth in the League of Assassins - Nyssa cannot beat Merlyn in a straight fight and needs Oliver to kill Merlyn for her.


The Bottom Line

A solid script more notable for what it sets up rather than what it offers directly. Nevertheless, some effective performances sell it and the thematic elements - particularly Oliver's rejection of the idea that people cannot change themselves despite all evidence to the contrary - get to the core of everything this show and the character of Green Arrow is about.

Arrow Episode Guide: Season 4, Episode 10 - Blood Debts

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.



Plot

With Felicity in the hospital following HIVE's latest attack, Oliver begins tearing apart Star City's criminal underworld searching for Damien Darhk. But Ollie isn't the only one hunting Darhk. Lonnie Machin - now calling himself Anarky - has come out of hiding and he wants revenge on his former employer.


Influences

Green Arrow: Year One (the Lian Yu sequences), Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters (Oliver going over the edge dealing with people who nearly killed the woman he loves) and Batman: The Killing Joke (heroine is paralyzed to fuel hero's rage at villain).


Goofs

Despite Oliver's restated commitment to not-killing, surely kicking a HIVE Ghost into a live electrical box is pretty darn close to lethal?

How is Speedy unaffected by the Canary Cry despite being between Laurel and Anarky when it goes off?

Anarky says that "the blonde called you Speedy", when is alone with Thea. In fact, Laurel called Thea by her real name when she was saving her from Anarky and never used the name Speedy until after Anarky was unconscious.


Performances

David Ramsey doesn't get a lot of time on-screen this week as Diggle but he nails every scene he's in, as usual.

Also as per usual, the scenes between Stephen Amell and Emily Bett Richards are the best parts of the show. Their chemistry is amazing and the final scene is all the more powerful for how different Felicity seems in the wake of everything that occurs four months from now. The contrast between how Felicity appears in that moment versus how she usually seems is truly astonishing.


Artistry

The fight sequences in the fifth segment - both the one between Anarky/Speedy and Green Arrow and the one between Green Arrow and Damien Darhk - are well choreographed.


Trivia

Oliver's battling not to lose himself in the wake of the woman he loves nearly dying is taken directly from The Longbow Hunters.

Felicity's being paralyzed mirrors what happened to Barbara Gordon in Batman: The Killing Joke.


Technobabble

Anarky's boobytrap in his foster parents' home utilizes motion-sensors hooked up to machine guns.

Speedy makes use of a bola arrow to catch Anarky.


Dialogue Triumphs

Laurel: How are you feeling?
Felicity: I have never been more ready to have a bunch of guys poking around inside of me. (realizes what she just said) Doctors!  Doing doctor things!

Quentin: So you're back to dropping bodies?
Oliver: It's just this one.

Lyla: How's Felicity?
John: She's in surgery. It's a long procedure. I'm going to go to the hospital in a bit but I needed to come here to get something first.
Lyla: What?
(John just leans forward and kisses her.)

Laurel: I thought we'd already worked past this.
Quentin: There's no working past a father caring about his daughter.

Conklin: Well, I count five guns. And you've got one. What are you going to do?  You can't run.
(Oliver clicks the safety and puts the gun under his own chin)
Oliver: I'm not running.

Laurel: Have you completely lost your mind?
Oliver: I don't have time for a debate.
Laurel: Good. Because there's nothing to debate. What you did-
Oliver: What I did? I did what I had to do after you made it neccesary.Machin was only arrested by the SCPD because you gave him up.
Laurel: You were holding a man prisoner as some sort of personal vendetta!
Oliver: Do you have any idea how many people Damian Darhk and HIVE have killed over the past six months? This may be a vendetta, but it's not personal.
Laurel: I don't know what's worse - you actually believe that or you expect me to.
Oliver: I put a tracker on Machin. He will lead us to Darhk. And then we will take both of them down.
Laurel: And when your master plan doesn't work, you just sent a murdering psychotic back on the streets!
Oliver: Like you did with Sara?
Laurel: That's not fair!

John: Oliver, I know you're hurting, man. But you should know that whatever your play is, I've got your back.
Oliver: But?
John: But you've come so far, Oliver. You've recovered a humanity that you'd lost when I first met you. I know you want payback for what Darkh did to Felicity. And you should. But don't lose what made her fall in love with you in the first place.

Felicity: Tell me you haven't gone off the rails.
Oliver: Well... I just... I can't help but think that... the reason that Darhk is winning is that I haven't been willing to go far enough. And that... if I had, maybe you wouldn't be in here right now. I don't know what the point of what I'm doing as Green Arrow is if I can't protect the people that are closest to me.
Felicity: Well, what's the point of doing it if you lose yourself in the process?
Oliver: Yeah.
Felicity: There's something else we need to talk about.  The doctors... they say that I'm, uh...
Oliver: I know.
Felicity: My point being is we didn't really exchange any vows, so the whole "For better or worse" thing really doesn't apply here.
Oliver: What are you talking about?
Felicity: And maybe the real reason you haven't been here is because...
(Ollie shakes his head, reaches into his pocket, and pulls out Felicity's engagement ring)
Oliver: The nurse... she took this off of you in the E.R. How dare she...
(Oliver slips the ring onto Felicity's finger and squeezes her hand)
Oliver: For better or worse.
Felicity: Okay.

Darkh: Where's my family?!
Green Arrow: I saved them.
(There is a long pause as Darkh just stares at Green Arrow)
Darkh: I want to clear about something. I have shown you repeatedly that you cannot beat me. You saved my family? So I'll give you a few weeks to spend with yours. Enjoy your time. What's left of it.


Continuity

The episode opens with a repeat of the ending scene from 401, where Barry Allen meets Oliver by a grave side. The captions note that this scene occurs four months from now.

Taiana is confirmed to be Ukrainian.

Quentin Lance met with Damien Darhk on the 30th floor of an office building at 832 6th Street.

Lonnie Machin - last seen in 402 - returns.

Thea reveals that Darhk's life-sucking attack stopped her bloodlust to Laurel.

Laurel discovers that her father is dating Felicity's mom.

Laurel refers to the HIVE Ghosts scrambled DNA, which Team Arrow discovered in 403.

Lonnie Machin's foster parents are identified as Crystal and Michael Olguin. It is his blood he used to paint the anarchy symbols at HIVE headquarters.

Andy Diggle was apparently a drug-dealer before he joined the military and he only joined after John insisted in an effort to make his younger brother go straight.

Felicity is permanently paralyzed as a result of her injuries, according to the specialist who came in from Central City to perform surgery on her spine.

The magical tattoo that John Constantine put on Oliver in the flashback scenes in 405 flashes red when Oliver is being whipped. This causes Baron Reiter to order Oliver spared and agree to allow him and Taiana to live, albeit imprisoned, if Oliver helps him with finding what he's searching for on Lian Yu.

Damian Darhk's family lives in a place called Stonehaven.

Anarky escapes into the woods after his confrontation with Speedy.

Andy Diggle eventually gives John some information regarding Darhk. At the episode's end, the two play cards like when they were younger.

Thea reestablishes her romance with Ollie's campaign manager.

Damian Darhk's wife's name is Ruve.

Damian Darkh's wife has a fake ID and denies any connection to him when the police are called on their home. She is aware of his role in HIVE and their ultimate goals as well as whatever Genesis is.

Darhk buys out a hotel called The Fairmount for the month for his family to hide in.

The episode ends with another flash forward to four months from now and concludes with Oliver entering a car where Felicity is in the backseat and she cooling informs Oliver that he has to kill someone. This shows that whoever is in the grave, it is not Felicity.


The Fridge Factor

Felicity is paralyzed in order to give Oliver a more personal reason for hunting down Darhk.


The Winick Factor

It's hard to say what's stupider - Laurel's calling Thea by her real name in front of a villain (not that he notices - see Goofs) or Laurel's sudden decision to stand on ceremony and take Anarky into custody despite him being their best chance at hunting down Darhk because Oliver is indulging in a vendetta. It's not just stupid - it's hypocritical in the extreme given everything Laurel has done in the name of personal vendettas. And Ollie and Diggle both rightly call her on her bullshit given everything Laurel pulled regarding Sara.


The Bottom Line

Much ado about nothing. Anarky is as lame as ever and his efforts to get Thea to give in to her bloodlust are as pointless as they are nonsensical and nothing comes of them in any case. There's some minor progress between Diggle and his brother but most of that occurs off-camera. The Lian Yu sequences seem even more pointless than ever. Really, the only thing that saves it are the performances of Stephen Amell, David Ramsey and Emily Bett Rickards and all the magically little scenes between Ollie and Felicity.  I can't believe I'm saying this, but Olicity is the best thing about this episode.

Also - for everyone who told me I was wrong and Feliicty was sure to die?

Told you so. ;)