With Oliver's son William kidnapped, Damien Darhk's demands are simple. Oliver has to pull out of the race for mayor and publicly throw his support behind Ruvé Adams. This explains why Darhk doesn't just kill him with his mind powers when he accosts him and Felicity in an underground parking lot, something I thank the writers for, keeping him alive for now serves Darhk's purposes.
Realising that they need to act now to get William back, Oliver gets all his team onside, immediately clueing them all into the fact that this kidnapped boy is his son. He even goes so far as to bring William's mother Samantha into his inner circle, revealing his secret identity to her. Whilst most seem to be on side with him, Felicity is mad that he lied to her and rightfully so. During the episode through they begin to unintentionally stack the deck against Felicity in the sympathy stakes. Diggle says he knows exactly why Oliver did what he did, as being a father himself he would do anything to protect his daughter. Samantha even asks Felicity to go easy on Oliver as it was her who imposed the ultimatum of specifically not telling her on Oliver. Despite this, she still has her issues with Oliver that she has to table until William is saved.
Understanding that they may need to fight fire with fire, Oliver decides to meet with Mari McCabe aka the Detroit based hero Vixen (played by Megalyn E.K.) to ask her for help as her powers are based in magic. It's suggested maybe they can call in John Constantine, but Oliver mentions he's in Hell. Not that he's going through some rough stuff, but literally trapped in Hell of the biblical sense, a nice nod to how they probably won't be seeing the character for a while (if at all).
Vixen debuted in the Arrow-verse last year as part of the spin off animated web series that was shown on CW Seed with Megalyn E.K. returning to play the live action version after voicing her in the cartoon. I remember looking her up when Vixen first came out and wondering if they'd ever let her play the live action version. Seeing it actually happen, an in canon cartoon crossing over with a live action TV show really got me hyped up. Granted the ability to summon the power of any animal by her ancestral heir loom necklace, Vixen was left to fight crime in her adopted home of Detroit at the end of her web series. Apparently she and Team Arrow stayed in contact, so they bring her in to rescue William, something that turns out to be pivotal in their war against Darhk. Not because she can use her animal powers to track William's scent, or that she can summon the strength of a gorilla or the speed of a cheetah, but because she recognises that like all magic users, Darhk's powers must come from some sort of totem, like her necklace.
Lance speaks up and informs Team Arrow that he once walked in on Darhk with some sort of idol, information that in Lance's defence may not have seemed relevant without Vixen's input. Coupled with the fact that the idol will need to be at an intersection of Ley lines (wifi for magic) means the team are able to track Darhk and William to their exact location to mount a final rescue attempt.
And it works! Distracting Darhk, Vixen goes for the idol and snatches it away. Whilst Darhk tries to Force choke the rest of Team Arrow, right in front of young William no less, Vixen uses her aforementioned Gorilla-strength to destroy the idol, rendering Darhk powerless, enabling the Green Arrow to finally take him out with a swift punch to the face. The cops arrive on cue and William is reunited with his mother. Alls well that ends well yes?
William is safe. Darhk has been defeated. HIVE can now be brought down, right? Ruvé Adams exposed as a villain now too, meaning the mayoral race storyline can be brought to a close? All these question go unanswered as the show runners really want to get back to how Felicity feels so betrayed by Oliver. After recording a message for William, only to shown to him once he turns 18, as the plan is for William and his mother to disappear with absolutely no-one knowing where they are going, Felicity decides to confront Oliver. The man is visibly destroyed and Felicity chooses this moment to give Oliver back his ring and walk out. And yes, I meant walk out. Curtis's bio implant that he gifted her last week miraculously starts working in the middle of this dressing down and Felicity just gets up and walks out the front door. It was mildly ridiculous and honestly, insulting to the intelligence. Felicity has been in the wheelchair for less than a month and she's already healed. People were worried the show may undo the choice to put her in the wheelchair once the implant was introduced, making light of her disability and taking away from the diversity she brought to the show. And they were right to be. In showing how strong she is, the show runners have made light of this major storyline and all the people who looked to her for inspiration. I think we've hit peak Felicity.
I just sincerely hope when the series returns, we get to see more of the consequences of defeating Darhk, the mayoral campaign, the fate of Star City and hopefully, more Vixen. She was awesome!
Written by Nick Whitney, ARROW Beat Writer -- Click here to read Nick's posts.
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