The soap opera element of Arrow is present as ever with the inclusion of this week’s subplot of Donna and Lance hashing it out over the importance of the truth, with a capital-T. Lance is prepared to sign an affidavit stating he did not know Laurel was the Black Canary. Doing so will get his badge reinstated but Donna can’t stand the thought of the man she loves, and yes they make a big deal out of this being the first time she uses the L-word with him, lying especially about loved one when it soils the memory of what Laurel did as the Black Canary. She’s convinces him that telling the truth may not end his career as a cop, but telling the truth will ease the burden on his soul. Or something to that effect. At first I was set against her idea. Lance getting back on the force seemed more important than honouring his dead daughter’s memory in such a minor way, but when Lance acquiesces, signing instead an amended document acknowledging his part in Laurel’s double life, it’s Paul Blackthorne once again making me give a shit as Captain Lance struggles to figure out what the “right” thing to do is in a world without Laurel as his rock.
At Palmer Tech, Felicity meets with her mother in a decision that seems odd when she could literally have met her anywhere, to discuss Ravenspur. But as chance would have it, one of the Palmer Tech executives was there to remind Felicity that she is still the CEO of a billion dollar company and that she hasn’t been playing her role. The meeting with mommy at the office suddenly made sense. Donna, with nauseating detail, explains Ravenspur spur is a cabin she and Kuttler used to go to, you know, make little Felicity’s. Team Arrow gets to Kuttler, apparently a woodsman now, just before Brick and his gang of HIVE goons can off him.
Down in the artificial town built under Star City, Thea is confronted by her father and told of Darhk’s master plan to wipe out the world in nuclear fire and rebuild it with the denizens of Darhk-ville. Thea is once again exasperated by Merlyn’s inability to care about other human life, whilst putting her at the centre of his schemes. Merlyn is all aboard Darhk’s bus to crazy town, citing that his Genesis plan is simply another version of his Undertaking from season one, only on a global scale. She doesn’t have much time to process this though as none other than Anarky aka Lonnie Machin has somehow got into the subterranean suburb (seriously, how?!) and wants to kill Darhk and ruin his plan by destroying the oxygen processors in the dome, something Thea cannot stand by and allow as many of the people inhabiting the town are brainwashed. Not that Machin wasn’t already two sandwiches short of a picnic, but he goes a special kind of psycho when he realises Thea Queen is Speedy, the woman who scarred up his face. He calls her mommy in that way the celebrity obsessed refer to their idols as if they were figurative popculture parents and if it was meant to make my skin crawl, it worked. Machin then goes after Thea’s brainwashed beau Alex, thinking he needs to free her from the men in life — making this scenario extremely oedipal very quickly. Thea manages to take Machin out, but not before Alex gets a shock stick to the chest stopping his heart. I guess we’ll never know what made him become a political operative.
Back on the surface, Kuttler advises Felicity that he can stop the nuclear launches, but only using a special piece of gear from Palmer Tech. When Felicity goes to get it, she’s escorted from the building by security as the board have voted on their absentee CEO and fired her. With the clock ticking down, Team Arrow are forced to break in to Palmer Tech and steal what they need. Why Felicity didn’t just ask Curtis, who presumably still works there to get it I don’t know. It’s as if he’s fallen from the face of the earth since we last saw him.
With everything they need, Felicity and her father set up at a server farm and beginning the process of shutting down Rubicon, just as Darhk’s men lay siege to the building. Thankfully Lyla turns up with about five ARGUS agents to help them, because it seems this government agency isn’t taking point on stopping this potential worldwide catastrophe but instead providing some red shirts for HIVE to cut down. Team Smoak manage to shut down all the launches except one, a Russian nuke headed for the titular Monument Point. Felicity has one last trick up her sleeve, an old “prank” she did years ago that realigned people’s GPS making their devices think they were 20 miles west of their actual location. She can stop the nuke hitting Monument Point, instead dropping on the town of Havenrock, saving millions and the cost of tens of thousands. Honestly, this is huge. Felicity so often represent the fluff on this show. She now has the highest killing count of any member of Team Arrow. How are they going to have this affect her?
The flashback this week were very poorly cut into the episode I thought, showing us nothing new, just Reiter being impervious to bullets again. Not until Oliver and Taiana make a run for it with the idol do we see that its power has begun to affect Taiana, all glowing eyes. But mostly the flashbacks serve to remind us that even with a handful of death’s, the wielding of the idol can become extremely powerful. Oliver and Diggle, sorry, Green Arrow and Spartan race to City Hall having figured out the reason Darhk wanted his wife to run for mayor of a city he planned to destroy was because there was a magic chamber under it (of course). The Team may have thwarted the nuclear apocalypse, but they arrive just in time to see the energy’s unleashed by the destruction of Havenrock pour into Darhk, as he mockingly tells them they’re going to need something bigger than arrows to stop him now.
Written by Nick Whitney, ARROW Beat Writer -- Click to read Nick's posts
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