‘Arrow’ 4.16 Episode Recap and Review: Broken Hearts

Arrow is back from hiatus and so am I!

Also reappearing, Carrie Cutter, aka Cupid. When her relationship with Floyd Lawton came to an explosive end some time ago, Cupid’s obsession with love went even darker than it had before. Now she’s kidnapping and killing high profile couples in order to prove to everyone that “love is a bullet to the brain.”

High on her list of priority targets? Oliver and Felicity. Well, not so much anymore, since the wedding has quietly been called off. So quietly that the rest of Team Arrow wasn’t yet aware. Talk about your communication issues. Felicity’s had time to pack up the loft and go through scads of physical therapy, but Oliver’s own sister hadn’t heard the big news yet. Nice.

Since the press hasn’t yet gotten wind of the big Olicity breakup, Team Arrow (okay, Oliver) decides to go ahead with a faux wedding in order to draw Cupid out. They get pretty far into the ceremony before Carrie actually shows. Certainly far enough for Oliver to plead his case via his vows and a serious case of the puppy dog eyes. Cupid crashes the wedding armed not only with her usual heart-tipped arrows, but also with a heck of a lot of C4. Felicity manages to talk her most of the way down with her own version of Oliver’s “I still love you” speech. The requisite episodic fight scene ends with Carrie in cuffs and oddly believing in the Power of Love once more. So… yay Team Arrow? I think?

While the majority of the team has been chasing down Carrie, Laurel’s been fighting her own battle in the courtroom. Damien Darhk’s lawyer has filed a Motion to Dismiss on the grounds that there’s no proof that he is, in fact, Damien Darhk. No one who was at the ill-fated Queen holiday party is willing to testify other than the folks associated with Team Arrow. Diggle takes the stand first, but gets shredded pretty thoroughly on account of some of his nighttime, city-saving activities. Laurel refuses to put Felicity or Thea on the stand, since continued scrutiny could lead pretty rapidly to exposure of their vigilantism.

The only person left to testify against Darhk is Quentin, but in order to do so, he’ll have to implicate himself in a lot of the things that have gone down this season. Laurel finally agrees to let him take the stand, and it’s his testimony that gets Darhk’s motion denied. Quentin loses his badge pending an IAB investigation, but he’s adamant that it’s worth it to get Darhk behind bars.

Back in the lair, Oliver takes Diggle and Thea’s advice to face Felicity head on and tell her that he doesn’t want to let her go. Felicity agrees that she still loves him, but that she knows he’d never be able to keep his promise not to lie to her again. She gives him the ring back, this time for good, and quits Team Arrow on top of that, leaving Oliver alone in the lair.

Speaking of rings, Darhk still has his wedding ring. Given the Evil Smirk™ he gives the camera after putting it back on in his cell, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that it means more to him than just a symbol of his strong marriage. Just saying.

Okay, so this one had its ups and downs. The best part of this whole episode for me was the trial. It moved the primary story along and showcased Laurel actually being effective for once. I would love to see more of this Laurel. I also loved how much we got to see Quentin doing his thing. That being said, this was also a pretty strong argument for Papa Lance being the one in the grave at the end of the season, especially with some of the spoileriffic set photos that have surfaced in the last few days.

As for the Cupid plot, I just wasn’t on board. Bringing her back specifically for this storyline seemed just this side of a cheesy sitcom plot to me. I get that we kind of needed a reason to force Oliver and Felicity to talk it out one way or the other, but having a fake wedding to draw out a recurring villain just seemed super contrived to me. We can do better, guys.

Arrow 4.16 Episode Recap and Review: Broken Hearts

Best Quote:

Oliver: “Hey, we need to get married.” (Chosen largely because I nearly headdesked myself into a low-grade concussion.)

Things to Ponder:

• So now that Oliver no longer has a Sugar Mamma, are we going to see him get a real job, or what? And props to Arrow for finally acknowledging that no one paid Diggle to keep bodyguarding for more than a season.
• If Thea didn’t know, is it a safe assumption that Donna doesn’t know yet? Because this is a confrontation that I want to see go down.