Before we dive into this week’s episode of Arrow, I feel it necessary to give a mini summary of this week’s episode of The Flash, because Felicity and Ray popped over to Central City for a spin. It seems that The CW mucked up the airing order a bit, because I do believe the episode of The Flash takes place before last week’s episode of Arrow. Because Felicity and Ray are hunky dory, being adorkable all over Star Labs.
In fact, while they both ramble their way in and out of accidental innuendos, Caitlin declares, “There’s two of them,” because, truly, they are similar in their weirdness. However, not everyone welcomes them with open smiles, causing Felicity to ask Barry why he’s being all broody; that’s Oliver’s gig.
While the Starling City duo is there, an army of killer bees with unnaturally specific targets and deathly venom becomes an immediate threat. Felicity tells Barry to “beeee careful” because she’s the cutest and instructs him not to die. Like most of the men in her life, he doesn’t listen and gets pretty dead, but luckily his suit has the ability to do whatever he needs it to do in the exact moment he needs it and he came back to life.
Other point of interest is when Felicity, Ray, Barry, Iris, and Iris’s Boyfriend go on a five-way date and Felicity basically hits on Iris.
Despite Barry’s resistance, Felicity eventually convinces him to let her help, and she uses her superskills to hack the bees to death. (They ended up being robot bees, controlled by a cute but evil scientist who was really into bee-themed puns.) She also manages to convince Barry that Caitlin and Cisco are good guys, because she is the best one.
Relevant of nothing, one of my favorite things about Felicity is her inability to keep the things she thinks from flying out of her mouth, like when she told Caitlin that dating Ray is like dating Barry in Oliver’s body.
All in all it was a fun episode, and if you’re watching Arrow but aren’t watching The Flash, you’re doing it wrong.
And now for the main attraction!
Previously on Arrow, Ra’s al Ghul offered Oliver his position as Demon’s Head but by “offered,” I mean “asked politely but then aggressively sabotaged his life to try to force him to say yes.” And because of these shenanigans, Oliver got arrested, but Roy stepped in and “confessed” to being the Arrow to take Oliver’s place behind bars.
Because Starling City isn’t experiencing enough chaos at the moment, a gentleman with laser beams for eyes decides to stroll in and start robbing banks. He almost looks like he could be related to the Twelfth Doctor, excepting the glowing red eyes of course.
Across town, Lance marches Oliver past a group of picketers and into the station, telling Oliver that he can’t let an adorable ex-street rat take the fall for his vigilantism, and Oliver says he doesn’t intend to. But before he can sign a confession, Laurel storms in saying that the DA ordered Oliver be released, because she won’t let her father get away with his lunacy.
At Palmer Tech, Ray goes in to see Felicity and starts awkwardly trying to apologize for using the “L” word so soon, claiming he just meant love like luv not love like LOVE, you know? He rambles on a bit and then leaves her before she can ramble back, but Felicity looks conflicted at best.
Oliver goes to visit Roy in prison and Roy tries his hardest to insist he’s okay. He’s felt like he needed to be punished since he found out he killed that cop, and somehow this just feels right; he’s serving his time and he’s helping a friend, all in one go. He promises he’s going to be just fine.
Oliver’s next stop is to see Thea and she’s relieved to hear that Oliver is very anti-Roy in jail and that it wasn’t his idea in the first place. Oliver’s ready to suit up and get him out, but Felicity says they have a more pressing matter at hand: There’s a metahuman in Starling City. Oliver sends Felicity to call Star Labs to see if they know anything about them. (See, you should be watching both shows.)
Captain Lance interrupts this save-the-world party with a SWAT team, a warrant, and a bad attitude. Team Arrow watches despondently as Lance and his men tear apart the Arrow Cave, like an addict hunting down another hit. I guess that makes sense though, doesn’t it? When Sara died the first time, Lance turned to alcohol, an addiction he could drown his pain in. He’s sober now, but he’s grieving again, so it’s not that surprising that he’s becoming almost manic in his determination to take down the Arrow. This is his new addiction, his new outlet for his pain.
But Felicity is too smart to let Lance win that easily, so she and Diggle had wiped the place clean of all fingerprints besides Roy’s.
Lance shakes with rage but tells them he’ll be ready to pounce as soon as they make a mistake.
Oliver too is becoming manic, but it’s because he’s itching to get Roy out of jail. Every minute Roy is behind bars because of Oliver is like a stone placed on his chest. Since he can’t help Roy, he’s ready to go stop the metahuman, but Diggle reminds him that he can’t really do that either. Oliver tells Felicity to call Barry, but Barry is dealing with his own stuff right now, so Oliver says they have to ask Ray instead. And asking Ray to help is like asking a puppy if he wants to go on a walk.
Roy is taken from his cell, whistled at all the while because he’s beautiful, and led to the visitor phones to see Thea. Roy didn’t want Thea to have to see him like this, and he didn’t want to have to lie to her. But he does anyway, and tells her he’s going to be fine.
Meanwhile, Ray uses science to get a good shot of the metahuman’s face, and they identify him as Jake Simmons, a former citizen of Central City. Oliver’s ready to head out again but Ray reminds him that he’s in the kennel now, it’s the puppy’s turn to shine. Besides, he can handle it; superpowers are just science and science is kind of his thing. Oliver is wary, but knows it’s his only option right now.
While tracking Ray, Oliver watches Ray be adorkable and echos Caitlin Snow’s sentiment and suggests that Felicity and Ray could be related.
Ray manages to find the Mean Beam (yeah, we should leave the nicknames to Cisco), who absorbs energy from Ray’s suit and almost kills Ray, but luckily him and his supersuit flew away just in time.
Ray comes back still his cheerful self but injured. Oliver tries to growl advice at him, telling him that his bow and arrows are tools, but he’s the weapon. He tells Ray to trust himself first, and trust the tech second. The tone of it is not unlike when that old gruff dog tries to keep little Copper from having too much fun in The Fox and the Hound.
Lance’s next stop in his rampage is Thea’s apartment. One of Lance’s associates comes in and warns him not to get too carried away with this and throw his career away on a personal vendetta. Thea decides enough is enough and yells at him, demanding he get out of her apartment immediately.
Lance tells Thea that Roy was attacked in prison because a vigilante is not exactly a prisoner’s favorite fellow. He’s fine, but he won’t be safe behind bars. Lance, ever the gentle soul, tells Thea that her boyfriend will be next to be added to her brother’s bodycount.
Thea goes straight to Oliver to tell him about the attack, which only serves to make Oliver want to break Roy out even more than he did a minute ago. Diggle tries to stop him, warning him that he’ll lose everything, but Oliver says he’s already lost everything, because Oliver has this problem where he sees the negative of an image before he notices the positive. His rorschach test results would be very different than, say, Felicity’s.
Oliver storms out, but Felicity follows him. Oliver says he can’t just sit around and do nothing and Felicity says that he most certainly can. Sometimes saving people means scaling buildings and shooting arrows, but sometimes saving people means stepping back and letting other people help. Felicity asks him why he’s willing to give up being the Arrow, everything he’s worked for since he returned from the island, after he sacrificed so much, including his relationship with her. Oliver says a man can’t live by two names, but he can’t be the Arrow and he can’t be Oliver Queen. He doesn’t know who he is. But Felicity says his name doesn’t matter; he is the man she lo…..ves to believe in!
While this was going on, Roy was sciencing all over the place and figured out that the metahuman needs to use energy to recharge, and even located his power source. Felicity tells Oliver to “Stay! Good boy,” dons her trenchcoat and heads out into the field.
Captain Lance goes to visit Roy and scoffs at his BS signed confession. Lance says he’s spent the past few years trying to keep Roy from this path, but Roy says he killed a cop and deserves this punishment, and Lance says this won’t make up for that so don’t think he’s just absolved now. Because Lance is really trying to oust Byron Montgomery as The Worst.
Felicity asks a dude at the power plant for some help accessing their grid, but realizes a little too late that the man she asked is Beamer himself.
Ray realizes that Simmons has Felicity and panics, but Felicity escapes the baddie’s grasp and runs. Oliver wants to go save Felicity, since Felicity isn’t here to tell him to stay put, but Ray says his suit can fly faster than a speeding motorcycle, so they hook Ray’s suit up to Oliver’s brain like a virtual reality game and they work together to fight Cyclops. Eventually the connection is broken because of the smashing, but Oliver is the voice in Ray’s ear and tells him that he doesn’t have to be strong of body, just of heart, and Ray gets a few good hits in. As Simmons staggers, Oliver shouts “FINISH HIM” in his best Mortal Kombat voice and Ray takes the bad guy down.
Oliver goes to Thea’s, one of the few places he’s still allowed to go, and finds Lance talking to a crying Thea. He says Roy was killed a few hours ago in jail, and blames Oliver outright. Oliver, devastated, goes to the ransacked Arrow Cave and looks morosely at a broken arrow, contemplating it’s tragically beautiful symbolism. Felicity and Diggle come in and Oliver tells them that they were wrong, that he should have tried to save Roy. Diggle says he might never forgive him, but Oliver says he makes his own choices. But Felicity says that’s not what Diggle means and steps aside to reveal that Roy is just fine!
It was all Roy’s idea, and fortunately Diggle had a friend who was really good at making people seem real dead. Roy says Oliver has saved them all before, over and over again, and it was time for someone to save him. Oliver asks what happens to Roy Harper now, and the answer is that he’s leaving Starling City. He tells them to tell Thea that a) he’s alive and well and b) he’s sorry he didn’t get to say goodbye. He hugs them all and heads on his way, to make a new life. Hopefully to the Arrow spinoff, but we’ll see.
Felicity asks Oliver how mad he is, but Oliver says she was right, and that he needs to learn how to accept help when he needs it.
Felicity says he needs to stop seeing everyone as people he loves, but also recognize them as people who love him. Which isn’t easy, but it’s important. She touches his arm and goes back to Ray, who had watched the whole encounter with a touch of knowing sadness.
Ray heads to Central City to get his suit tuned up by the Star Labs crew and finds out that Simmons the metahuman, while from the area, wasn’t in town the day of the dark matter explosion…
In her apartment, Thea is mourning Roy over a glass of wine.
Ra’s al Ghul breaks in, but she’s not afraid. She tells him that Oliver will never accept his offer. She fights him, and while it’s beautiful and powerful, she’s fighting the man who trained those who trained her, so she’s ultimately overpowered and thrown her glass coffee table. He stabs her in the stomach with his sword and leaves her to bleed, as a very loud and clear message to Oliver.
What did you think of “Broken Arrow”?
