No time to grieve
While back at the loft apartment, Felicity is clearly upset about the bombing of Havenrock, but as her father reminds her, there’s no time to wallow in grief right now. They have a window of time where Darhk’s nukes are held at bay but that doesn’t mean their job is done. In fact, even as they speak, Darhk is bringing in his backup: Felicity’s evil ex-boyfriend Cooper Seldon, also recently escaped from prison.
But before Felicity can really dig in (with the help of Curtis, now that he showed up and excuse me, but wouldn’t he have been valuable last week?? Where ya been, Curtis?), she gets a text from Thea. HIVE has her and she needs help from Team Arrow. So it’s off to the bunker to tell the team and trace the text, leaving Curtis and her father to get working on cracking Rubicon once and for all.
No time for Olicity either
Oliver and Dig watch in horror as Damien Darhk absorbs the power from the souls extinguished in the bombing of Havenrock and they are utterly powerless to stop him. In fact, they get beat down quite a bit before Damien scarpers off for his ark, called Tevat Noah. Back at the bunker, we get a brief but entirely delightful hug between Felicity and Oliver and she thanks him for not dying.
Oliver looks stunned at her physical affection and as though he wishes they had more time to talk. Because I think he can see she is finally ready to talk. Maybe he can see that there is hope for them yet. Unfortunately, Darhk and his evil plans beckon and there’s no time for that now.
Go get Thea!
Felicity gives Oliver and Dig an address near the Glades, saying her tracking program places the text as coming from there but when the boys arrive, they find an empty street. A street with sewer access, that is. Felicity confirms the access isn’t on city plans and the two blast their way in and walk through the corridors until they open a door that leads them to… a suburban neighborhood. They found the ark.
From there, they find Thea, being held in one of the houses. Oliver is quick to jump to her rescue, only to find that Malcolm got to her first with Darhk’s infamous mind control pills. She is convinced, via Malcolm’s suggestion, that Oliver is the bad guy and pulls a gun on him. Dig’s intervention saves Oliver’s life but Thea and Malcolm run off into the eerie suburbia. Before Oliver and Dig can find her, Ruvè puts out an APB on the two vigilantes and our heroes have to fight their way through flower beds and shrubbery (in full Spartan and Green Arrow disguise, even!) before holing up in a house with a Stepford Family in attendance.
Malcolm and Thea show up there and Dig fights Merlyn while Thea fights Oliver. Oliver pleads with his sister to fight the control. And it works, thank goodness, because Malcolm is about to put an end to Diggle. Phew! That was close.
Family squabbles
What better time than the apocalypse is there for some good old fashioned family in-fighting? Felicity is called back to the loft by Curtis, only to discover the distress call was because Donna showed up and she and Noah are going the rounds with one another. It became very clear, very quickly, why these two split up. Bickering feels like such a mild word. Felicity is reluctant to reveal the reason for the dire circumstances, or she is until Donna incorrectly guesses that her daughter is pregnant.
Horrified, Felicity puts an end to that by telling her mother that she works with the Green Arrow and has for three years now. The bombing on Havenrock is very much her business and she needs to stop that from happening all over the world now.
Donna is hurt by the deception but at least seems to understand that now is not the time. Still, the snipping between the ex-spouses continues as Curtis, Felicity and Noah all fight to regain control of Rubicon once Cooper starts working his own mojo from the ark control room. The baddie gets the upper hand, briefly, fighting back against Felicity’s hacking. It’s not looking good!
But never underestimate Felicity Smoak; with Curtis’ brilliant ideas, she’s able to turn the tables and fight back, regaining total control over Rubicon. The nukes are safe!
Donna comes clean
Watching her ex and her daughter work so well together upsets Donna so she retreats upstairs to fold laundry. Felicity follows and coaxes a confession from her mother. It turns out that Noah didn’t abandon them when Felicity was seven years old: Donna is actually the one who left. She saw her husband as a dangerous man who would bring that danger to their daughter. So she took Felicity and ran.
Felicity actually takes this in stride, considering, and gives her mother a hug to show that she isn’t holding it against her. But one can’t help but think that maybe this is making her rethink her own troubles with Oliver. Those thoughts have to be only encouraged later when Curtis points out similarities between her fight with Oliver and her parents squabbles. Is a reunion on the horizon? God, I hope so.
Anarky in the Ark
Remember Anarky? Thea was fighting him at the end of the last episode of Arrow and he’d gravely injured Thea’s boyfriend, Alex. Well, it turns out that Alex is in fact dead and while Thea was mourning, the baddie fled into the suburbs (this neighborhood is the easiest place disappear from, I swear to god). He still really wants to shut the ark down, for what reason we never really find out. Except that he’s Anarky and he likes to cause trouble. He gains control of the command center, where Ruvè and Darhk’s daughter are holed up and he threatens to kill them. Oliver demands that Merlyn evacuate the residents of Tevat Noah while he and Thea and Dig go to confront Anarky.
The confrontation is pretty amazing, actually but a stray arrow hits something it really shouldn’t have hit which causes the whole place to basically start to fall apart. In the chaos, Anarky stabs Ruvè with an arrow and then the ceiling caves in and if she wasn’t dead already, now she’s trapped under all kinds of rubble and the place is moments from annihilation. Ruvè begs Oliver to save her daughter, giving her one last moment of altruism. He does so and the team gets out just before the entire dome implodes. They all stand looking at the crater left behind in shock. Felicity is relieved that her team (and Oliver, no doubt) are safe and while Oliver reveals that the ark is destroyed, he knows the fight is just beginning.
Oh yeah. FLASHBACKS.
The flashbacks have been painfully dull this year, guys. It’s so easy to forget they’re there. That said, the contents this time were at least mildly interesting as we watched Taiana become consumed by the power of the idol and start snapping necks, much to Oliver’s horror. She faced off against Reiter at the end of the episode and I’m left hoping against all hope that she will kill Reiter and then Oliver will have to kill her and then he can FINALLY GO TO RUSSIA. I need Bratva flashbacks in season 5, folks.
The beginning of the end
Donna warns Noah off, telling him to leave before he hurts Felicity. It feels a bit like meddling and Noah tries to protest but he folds under Donna’s insistence. If Oliver can’t stand up to her, what chance does Noah have? But I have a feeling we’ll see Papa Smoak again someday. I have hope for some more interaction (and more answers about why Donna felt he was dangerous!) in season 5.
Inside the loft, Donna and Curtis and Felicity are ready to decompress when they’re interrupted by none other than Damien Darhk himself. He’s rattled and upset by the destruction of the ark and the death of his wife, plus his daughter is missing. It’s an interesting inverse of the havoc the man has wreaked on Oliver and Felicity: Darhk is responsible for nearly killing Felicity and being at least a little complicit in the kidnapping of William. And now the tables have turned in the worst way. But I don’t believe Darhk is there for revenge. Or at least not just for revenge: I believe he wants Felicity to get his nukes back online. Ark or no, Damien wants to see the world burn.
Rut-roh!
