‘Arrow’ 4.17 Episode Recap and Review: Beacon of Hope

Arrow 417 Recap

There’s a familiar face from Central City lurking around Arrow this week, and it’s not a friendly one. Brie Larvan, aka “The Bug-Eyed Bandit”, hacked into the Iron Heights computer system to secure her own early release (what judge didn’t see this coming?), and she wants something from Palmer Tech. Specifically, she wants Felicity’s fancy new spinal implant, and she wants it badly enough to kill one member of the Board of Directors and take the rest hostage until she gets it.

Felicity wasn’t with the Board, but she’s still trapped in the building with Thea and Mama Smoak. Fortunately, she’d sent Curtis home sick earlier. He tracks down Team Arrow’s semi-secret lair and offers his services in getting Felicity back. Oliver isn’t particularly amused that Curtis now knows everyone’s secret identities, nor that he’s even temporarily taking Felicity’s place, but they make it work.

An initial rescue attempt by Team Arrow leaves Oliver with the now Borg-like bees self-replicating inside his body. Curtis is able to modify the Canary Cry to get rid of the bees that were killing Oliver, but says that they’ll have already adapted to the new frequency, so trying that out back at Palmer Tech is a non-starter.

Back in the building, Felicity and Thea have managed to sneak Donna and the Board out through the old temporary lair and are now on their own up against Brie herself. It turns out that Brie wants Felicity’s implant because she has a tumor on her own spinal cord and removing it would leave her paralyzed from the waist down, just as Felicity was. Felicity tells Brie where to find Curtis’s blueprints, which turns out to be a mistake, as Brie also finds evidence that tells her that Felicity is the hacker that sent her to prison in the first place. Oops.

Team Arrow breaks into the building for a second rescue attempt, this one somewhat more successful than the first. Oliver takes a bullet to the Kevlar for Felicity, while Curtis hacks the bees and turns them back on Brie. And once again, Townsville is saved thanks to The Powerpuff Girls Team Arrow.

Meanwhile, back over in Iron Heights, Merlyn has come to visit Damien Darhk to let him know that their mutual friends (presumably HIVE) will not be exerting themselves to get him out of the clink. After one rather spectacular beatdown by Murmur and his two minions, Darhk rather quickly establishes himself as a top dog by threatening one of Murmur’s family members. Obviously Darhk has resources outside of HIVE.

One of those resources, as it turns out, is Andy Diggle. One of the final scenes of the episode shows him meeting with Merlyn and being called Darhk’s “ace in the hole.” It would appear that things between the Brothers Diggle are not all that they seem.

Okay, it happens once in a while. You guys, I hated this episode. I can think of two, maybe three important moments in the entire thing, and they weren’t even part of the main story. It’s good that we found out that 1.) HIVE is leaving Damien Darhk to twist on his own and 2.) Andy is definitely a bad guy. Past that? A one-off villain from another show happens to have an illness that leaves her needing Felicity’s technology, and she has no idea that Felicity was the hacker who stopped her last time? Did we run out of licensing for DC villains this season? Arrow has definitely done better.

From what I hear, the next episode will certainly not be filler. Big things are going down, so stay tuned!

 

Arrow 4.17 Episode Recap and Review

Best Quote:

Quentin: “That is an army of robotic bees. Yeah, that’s my life now.”

 

Things to Ponder:

  • According to the promo, next episode is when we finally find out who’s in the grave. For those of you who haven’t seen the spoiler photos, what are your final guesses?
  • For a cocktail waitress, Felicity’s mom sure has a lot of PTO and airline miles to spend on visits to Star City.
  • Echo Kellum has been promoted to a series regular next season. Think we’ll be seeing more of Curtis in the Arrow Cave, or is he becoming more important to Palmer Tech?

Responses

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *