Demolition Team lives up to their name
I don’t know if this is a comic book reference or not, but either way, as a Villain of the Week, they were fairly lame. I mean, sure, they demolished stuff. Starting with a building that Quentin Lance was called to via a bogus dispatch in an attempt to kill him. Laurel saved him which was good because I like Quentin and sure would like him to stick around.
The team fought them again, after Felicity traced the bogus dispatch call to their headquarters, and while no one was killed, no one won either. It was a draw, with Thea making off with a laptop containing blueprints for the crew’s next target.
Which happened to be, of course, the theater where the mayoral debate was being held. The team leapt into action, evacuating the theater, neutralizing the charges and taking out the demolition team and serving them up to the cops. Job well done, Team Arrow!
#SmoaknLance hits a rough patch
Arrow‘s second most popular ship (or is it third? I like #Dyla pretty well…) had their first major hurdle this week. Quentin takes the threat against his life by Damien and the rest of HIVE pretty seriously after a building nearly drops on his head. He tries to pump the brakes with Donna a bit, telling her has a gambling problem and owes money to some people who could hurt her.
Donna Smoak is no fool, however, and sees through this lie pretty easily. She’s heartbroken after breaking things off with Quentin and he’s not terribly happy either. It’s clear the two of them have actually fallen in love and it’s rather adorable to behold. Felicity tries to reassure her mother that what she has with Quentin is worth giving him some trust.
Later on, at Oliver and Felicity’s engagement party, Quentin shows up and pulls Donna aside. He tries to explain to her what the real story is, telling her as much as he can so that she’ll understand why he pulled back. He is scared to lose her and he’s scared to lose Laurel. Touched by his concern, Donna kisses him and like that, all is forgiven and #SmoaknLance is back on again!
Olicity is as strong as ever… for now
We get one last loving look at Olicity as a united front, a team within a team, before the lie about Oliver’s son inevitably rips them apart. From start to finish in this episode, we see these two characters supporting each other, joking together, and loving one another. Their love is inspiring even for other characters, as we saw when Donna admitted to living vicariously through them.
Between a sweet little call back to how they met, to fears about Donna going overboard with their engagement party and eventually their wedding, to having each other’s back in Team Arrow situations, we saw that Olicity is a well-oiled machine right now. Of course the show thinks it’s the perfect time to mess with that perfection.
The engagement party, for all it’s ostentatious feathers and balloons and pink, is yet more sweetness. It culminates in Curtis Holt arriving to present Felicity with an early wedding gift. It turns out, the little chip he has given her is a biostimulant. When implanted in her spine, it should help her walk again, just in time to walk down the aisle at her wedding. Felicity is moved, almost beyond words. Oliver is visibly choked up as well, telling Curtis that he is terrific. I’m inclined to agree. Curtis, you sir are a fandom hero.
Babymama Drama rears it’s ugly head
Amidst everything else, the mayoral debate against Ruvè Adams is looming. In an effort to dig up some dirt on Lady MacDarhk, Alex and Thea instead dig up some dirt on Oliver. What they find is a copy of a check Moira wrote to Samantha Clayton for $1 million dollars that was never cashed. Oliver tries to brush it off but Thea does some more digging because she’s a good campaign manager. What she finds is William and she’s no dummy. 1 + 1 = 2 and she tells Oliver that she knows William is his son.
Oliver unloads the guilt he’s feeling about keeping William from Felicity. Thea assures him that he’s not lying and what he is doing is the right thing: he’s keeping William safe. I want to throw something hard at the television (specifically: Thea’s head). This is terrible advice and rather out of character for Thea, who was ready to burn the world after her family kept secrets from her in season two. Now she’s encouraging it? It assassinates her character, leaving the fans angry at her.
Malcolm Merlyn, who has it in for Oliver after last week’s episode, knows about William so there’s no way the kid is safe. I’m amazed it’s even a question. But I get that the show really wants have this particular storyline be a thing, so I’m rolling my eyes and handwaving a lot of it. I just hope the secret-keeping bites Oliver more in the butt than this heart-to-heart with Thea seemingly implies.
Of course, I’m proven correct when the final moments of the episode show Damien Darhk introducing young William to his daughter, Nora. Yep, he has kidnapped William and brought him to play with his daughter? I mean… Good grief. So that’s gonna completely blow up next week. Should be a lot of fun.
