Last time on Arrow, Felicity’s newfound independence gave her the power to walk again, and the first thing she did was walk right out on Oliver after having done what he does best: Lie about important stuff. Of course, the followers of the Arrow-verse didn’t believe the tragic break up to be true when they saw images online of Felicity in a wedding dress #omg. No, but seriously. She’s done with him.
Stupid Cupid
It seems that the Green Arrow’s stalker archer, Cupid, returns this week around the same time as she did last year, wreaking havoc in the wake of her beloved Deathstroke being crushed by a building in one final mission of Arrow’s version of the Suicide Squad. Since then, she’s begun a killing spree of high profile newlyweds, and her chipper attitude and sulking about the death of love kind of brings down any impact that the fallout of Oliver and Felicity breaking up could have had. Surrounding all the weekly investigation procedure and bike stunts on Team Arrow’s part, the majority of this primary plot line is occupied by Oliver coping with Felicity’s losing faith in him, and how the break up affects the team. Despite the fact that he genuinely believes they can still make it work, Felicity makes it clear through every moment she can in this episode that there’s no way she can see him changing from his old habits.
Of course Oliver has a bright idea that he can kill two birds with one stone, so to speak. He suggests luring Cupid into a trap by staging an early, private wedding between himself and Felicity. This idea is mostly because he couldn’t come to terms with his relationship being over, and therefore couldn’t cancel his arrangements, but also gave him an opportunity to tell Felicity his genuine vows he’d prepared for their actual wedding, just moments before Cupid dropped in as they’d expected. He insists that he’d meant every word he said in their staged wedding, and she insists that her words were quite the opposite. At least all those cards are on the table, and she’s still a part of the team. Yay, team.
It’s nice to see Emily Bett Rickards portray Felicity in a situation where she’s more sure about her decision more than any she’s made in a long time, and the character comes across as stern and downcast as opposed to the blubbering mess we’d seen from her before. Of course, this makes sense, because she sees Oliver more clearly than she’d ever seen him before, declaring by the end of the episode that he’ll always be the Oliver Queen that was stuck on Lian Yu. Of course, she said this implying that he believes that he can’t trust anyone and must force himself to work alone, but in the same statement suggests that he may just be destined to be alone forever.
Denouncing Darhk
Meanwhile, this week is the one where Damien Darhk is finally put on trial for all the crimes he has committed in Star City in command of the HIVE organization, and Laurel successfully prosecutes him into being held without bail, but at a cost. Darhk’s defense attorney has him flying under an alias to an unassuming judge and jury, and continues to pokes holes in Laurel’s accusations throughout the sub-plot. The team comes to the desperate point of putting one of their own on the witness stand, and even though Diggle, claiming to be Oliver Queen’s bodyguard has direct eye-witness accounts, it is here that the insanely excessive amount of cocaine that Thea bought with Diggle’s help months ago (that was so outrageous that I had pointed it out myself) came up to bite Diggle in the ass here.
Luckily for Arrow’s viewers who also happened to watch the entire second season of Marvel’s Daredevil last weekend, Paul Blackthrone comes in to makes this episode’s courtroom drama feel like something of at least minor significance and to service specific characters, as nothing can compare to the excellent law practice depicted by Foggy Nelson and Matthew Murdock on the praised Netflix series. The only thing that our heroes of Team Arrow could do to ensure that Darhk was incriminated was to allow Captain Quentin Lance to testify, and reveal he was working as a double agent for Damien Darhk for the better part of a year. Laurel didn’t take this suggestion very well, especially considering that she would be the one performing his direct examination in the courtroom. Paul Blackthorne once again sold me on his character’s nobility as he aired all his dirty laundry and his grievances against Damien Darhk, knowing full well that it would end his career in the Star City Police, despite the fact that he was being blackmailed to save the life of his daughter.
FLASHBACK 4.16
→) Ryder leads Oliver through the tunnels and foolishly reveals some mystical mumbo jumbo statue, that heroes eventually steel and attempt to escape through the tunnels.
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→) Bad guys get beat up, and Ryder gets beat over the head with his voodoo statue.
Rating: (7/10)
Are you a fan of Arrow, The Flash and Supergirl? Check out Ally’s review of this week’s other episode in the DCTV Universe!
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At the end of every week, Evan and Allyson meet up to chat about the weekly happenings on our podcast TYF DC Debrief, available on several platforms! You can join the conversation with us every week on Twitter @EvGriff42 @AllysonAJ and @TYFOfficial
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