Previously on Arrow, Roy remembered that he murdered a cop because of the Mirakuru, Felicity and Oliver took a stab at dating but Oliver gave up because it was hard, causing Felicity to join Queen Consolidated. Also we met Cupid, a beautiful redhead with archery skills to boot.
We open in a flashback, six months ago in the middle of the battle with 300 Mirakuru soldiers. On the way to the bridge, Oliver makes Diggle stop the van and gets out to save a handful of people from a soldier. One of the women he saved picks up his arrow after he leaves and stares at it like a One Direction fan staring at a lock of Harry’s hair. Present-day Oliver meets Detective Lance at a crime scene, where Isaac, the baddie from last week, is dressed in a green hood and dead as a doornail. Lance points out that this is obviously a direct message for the Arrow; someone is trying to get his attention. Oliver says, “He’s got it” because he’s still a little sexist despite the fact that he has worked along some extremely badass chicks. The only evidence left on the scene is an arrow with a red tip that Lance says looks like a spade because sometimes even the good guys don’t get things right the first time.
Felicity goes into Ray McSkeevy’s office and finds him doing that impossible-looking bar-jump exercise and is stopped dead in her tracks. After he stops distracting her with his muscles (which even I have to admit are pretty impressive) he invites her to a work dinner, promising it would be platonic and giving her a couture dress he bought just for her. She tells him she’ll go, but only because she looks great in blue. Oliver walks into Arrow HQ to find Roy researching the cop he killed. Oliver tries to make him feel better about it, saying it wasn’t him, but Roy remains unconvinced. He runs off to help Thea with her club opening and Felicity comes in with info on the man Oliver’s “not so secret but very crazy admirer” has captive. Unfortunately, that’s all she knows. Oliver tells her he needs her focused on this task, but she tells him she needs the night off for her work dinner. He huffs about it but knows he has no right to interfere since he blew his chance with her. He tells her it’s “fine,” the way people do when it’s not fine at all.
At Verdant, Thea is auditioning DJs for her grand re-opening when some jerk tries to cancel the auditions because he’s the one Thea’s looking for. Thea tells the cocky asshole to shove it because she’s in charge here and she will not be bossed around. At the Arrow Cave, Felicity found the owner of the phone left for Oliver. Her name is Carrie Cutter, and she was the first woman on a SWAT team in Starling City. Oliver thinks she looks familiar and Felicity points out, correctly, that she’s attractive for a psychopath. Felicity all found photos of Carrie at random crime scenes the Arrow has been to, and tells Oliver that Cupid’s hobbies include stalking and gardening. With this in mind, Oliver and Roy head off to a greenhouse near Carrie Cutter’s apartment in hopes of saving her hostage.
When they get to the greenhouse, Oliver and Roy split up, and as soon as they do, Carrie grabs Roy and uses his intercom to talk to Oliver, calling him “lover” and telling him they’re meant to be together. He finds her in a room with an unconscious Roy on the floor and the hostage strapped to a bomb and hung from a rope. She tells Oliver all she wants is him, and when he says that will never happen, Carrie kicks the chair out from under the bomb-strapped man and runs for the hills. Oliver rips the bomb off the man and throws it up into the air, shooting an arrow to detonate it, and luckily the blast doesn’t take down the whole greenhouse.
Diggle, back at Arrow HQ, tells Oliver that Carrie has a history of a one-track mind, and got taken off the force back in the day because she had a similar obsession with her partner at the time. Oliver asks where Felicity is, and when Diggle reminds him that she’s on a not-date with Ray McSkeevy, he decides to go on a solo mission to talk to a psychiatrist…about Carrie, of course. Diggle can see his boy hurting, so he goes to the newly christened Palmer Technologies to talk to Felicity.
Diggle tells her that Oliver is having a hard time with her spending so much time with Ray, but Felicity points out that Oliver made his decision, and if he wants to change his mind he has to tell her himself. Before Diggle leaves, she assures him (and us) that there is no “thing” between Ray and her. Strictly business.
The Arrow pays a visit to Carrie Cutter’s old therapist and almost scares the pants right off her. The therapist tells him that Carrie has an attachment disorder and that lying to her would be a dangerous decision; before Arrow leaves, she throws some shade at his costume and is lucky he didn’t pin her to the wall with his arrows, what with the mood he’s in.
Felicity in her beautiful blue dress comes into Ray’s office and to top off the couture dress, he gives her a ten million dollar diamond necklace to wear along with it and our adorkable little tech geek is mighty overwhelmed. Speaking of tech geeks, Carrie Cutter has one of her own, who used some algorithms and such to triangulate where the Arrow’s home base is, and says it’s somewhere on the same block as the Verdant night club. Satisfied with this answer, she kills her little helper dead, giggling maniacally and kissing the computer because she is an actual looney toon.
Detective Lance finds the body and calls the Arrow, telling him that Carrie hired and killed a techie for heaven knows what, because all that was left of his computers were little bits and pieces. Oliver says they need Felicity, he doesn’t care where she is. Diggle asks if he really needs her or just wants her and Oliver admits that it bothers him that she’s out with McSkeevy but he made her choices, and she made hers, and that’s that. Diggle reminds him that he made the wrong decision because a unicorn like Felicity only comes around once in a lifetime if you’re even that lucky, but Oliver storms out to do Arrow business instead of thinking about the girl he let slip through his fingers.
Felicity talks Ray up, says that he’s not a businessman, just a man trying to make the world a better place, and you can tell she truly believes it, but I still think she’s being misled. I can’t trust him, I just can’t. Please tell me it’s not because I’m pulling an Oliver and am just jealous of him, please tell me he skeeves you guys out too.
Felicity somehow, in the short time she stepped away from the table, managed to remotely access the smashed laptop, find out that Carrie knows about Verdant, and give Diggle Carrie’s cell number. Oliver tells Diggle to go into the club and keep an eye on Thea, he’s on his way.
At Verdant, Carrie has Thea make her a “Cupid’s Kiss” and then makes eyes at her. Oliver calls Carrie and she doesn’t seem particularly surprised. He tells her to meet him anywhere except inside the club. She knows a place, but says that if he’s trying to pull a fast one on her, she’ll come back to Verdant and kill everyone inside, from the douchey DJ to the hot bartender.
Oliver meets Carrie in the alley where they met; he remembers meeting her now, remembers saving her. When she shows up, he tries to be honest with her, telling her he can’t be with her. Then he says he can’t be with anyone, he has to be alone, no matter how much he wants to be with someone, and that I believe was more for Felicity than Carrie. Carrie thinks he’s full of it and is none too happy about it. They arrow duel and fight and they end up falling into an underground subway tunnel. She’s heartbroken, and is ready to kill him so he can’t be with anyone else. She cuffs him to the subway track and stands tall as the train comes, ready to sacrifice herself so they can be together in death. Pure insanity. Quick on his feet (er, back?), Oliver breaks his hand, shimmies out of the handcuff, and dives on top of Carrie, getting them both out of harms way at the last minute.
Diggle, apparently bored with his settled down wife-and-baby life and intent on meddling in Oliver and Felicity’s life, tells Oliver about Felicity’s face when Oliver told Carrie he had to be alone. Diggle, I get it, you ship Olicity. But you need to let them make their own choices.
At Palmer Technologies, Felicity is working in her fancy dress, and Ray comes in to thank her for sealing the deal for him and for just generally being the best one. To thank her properly, he kisses her good and proper. Then apologizes for failing at that whole “platonic” thing. And I get that Felicity Smoak is actually irresistible, but I’m not sure it’s a wise decision for the president and vice president of a company to get involved. Anyway, of course the second their lips touch, Oliver appears, presumably to tell Felicity how he really feels, potentially to give them another shot. But it seems he’s too little too late. Oliver goes back to the Arrow Cave and starts breaking things in his frustration and anger. Roy joins him and they both decide to join Diggle for a nice family meal so that they can forget their troubles and maybe not break anything else.
Meanwhile, Ray “McSkeevy” Palmer is in his office with a 3D projection of a suit that looks like he will certainly be up to no good before long, thus proving my mistrust valid.
We end the episode much like we ended the episode before; with the next baddie promising to make trouble, lest Starling City sleep quietly for a single night. This guy has an ultra-sharp boomerang knife and some clever puns to go alongside it. Where’s that creepy girl from Intruders when you need her? “What goes around, comes around.”
What did you think of “Draw Back Your Bow”? Do you think we’ve really seen the last of Cupid? Are you as sad as I am that Sara only got mentioned once and in an offhand way? Anyone else worry that Operation Justice For Sara isn’t going so well with Nyssa gone?
