Ollie and Barry looking over the mysterious grave CW
The fourth season of Arrow has been mostly an improvement over season 3 and with the midseason premiere finally here after the winter break, we finally return to Star City to hopefully learn the fate of one member of Team Arrow.
Since the first episode of this season, fans have been waiting to see who was in the grave that Ollie was visiting and we’re getting closer to finding out the truth.
So without further ado, let’s have a mini-recap before we dive into “Revenge.”
Spoiler Alert! The following will spoil the midseason premiere of Arrow, don’t continue if you don’t want to know what happens.
Previously on Arrow…
So Oliver, who is still running for mayor of Star City unopposed, continues to make fast enemies with Damian Dhark. Oliver has refused to be “partners” with Dhark and in response, Dhark lights up Ollie’s limo but miraculously gets away unscathed.
BUT! Not everyone was as lucky as Ollie. Star City’s favorite CEO and hacker, Felicity Smoak was in the limo and caught in the attack. And in typical Arrow fashion, we were all left wondering what Felicity’s fate will be….unless you saw the leaked set photos .
And now we get into the midseason premiere titled, “Revenge.”
The episode starts with the infamous grave scene from the first episode but instead of six months we’re now only FOUR months away…..guess we’re not going to find out who it is in this episode. :(
Barry is there to console Ollie again and our favorite vigilante says that he’s “going to kill him,” which we presume to be Dhark but our wonderful Arrow producers have been teasing otherwise.
Cut back to the present day with Felicity being taken into surgery as Ollie looks on in horror and we get cutscenes of the Green Arrow fighting ghost after ghost looking for Dhark.
Ollie returns to his lair where he asks Diggle to get information out of his brother, who if you remember is still being holed up in the Arrow lair. Diggle says it’s no use but Ollie insists he continue to try.
Laurel arrives to inform the two of them that Felicity is about to go into another surgery and that they can see her before she goes. Ollie says he won’t go because he needs to find Dhark and that’s what Felicity would want him to do. Ummm sure, Ollie.
We get a flashback, which admittedly have been so blah since season 2 and this week’s episode didn’t progress that story much so we’ll cover it now.
An injured Ollie is taken back to camp by the weird southern dude who has it in for him. The leader of this gang of mercenaries says to kill him but the souther dude instead wants to whip him, which activates the marking on his abdomen that Constantine put there. This makes Ollie valuable giving our hero the chance to grab a gun and threaten to kill himself if they didn’t insure the safety of his new lady friend. Of course they make the deal because they need him now and we end the flashbacks on the continued “when will she find out that he killed her brother?” dilemma.
Back in the present, Felicity wakes up to see Diggle, Laurel, Thea and her mother around her and reassures she’ll be ok. “I’ve never been happier to have a bunch of guys poking around inside me.” Classic Felicity.
She’s told that Ollie can’t make it but she understands why he’s not there.
Diggle goes back to Andy and starts wailing on him to get information. Andy asks what got into his brother. “Her name...is Felicity!” Diggle is the ultimate big bro and a lot of this episode is dedicated to how Felicity has changed everyone’s lives. It’s like they are getting the viewers ready for her death or something.
Ollie goes to Lance and he asks why he isn’t at the hospital with Felicity (good question, Quentin) but Ollie asks to get another meeting with Dhark. Presumably using this information, Ollie finds one of Dhark’s lairs to see Ghost bodies sprawled all over the floor. Ollie opens the door to see an Anarchy sign. Welcome back, guy that Speedy set on fire.
We go to the Diggle household where his wife, Lyla says that he should try reaching Andy as his brother and don’t treat him like a ghost. This is easily the best relationship on the show and it’s nice to have a stable relationship on Arrow considering the crazy CW drama.
Thea talks to Laurel at the hospital where she begins to doubt herself and how she blames herself for Dhark’s recent bloodlust because he sucked her bloodlust when they last encountered. (Not sure it works that way, Thea.)
Laurel and Thea walk in on Lance and Felicity’s mom getting feisty (good for you, Quinten) but Laurel is worried Dhark will figure out he is working with the Green Arrow. I’m still baffled how Dhark hasn’t figured it out yet.
Back in the Arrow Cave, the team figures out the blood used to make the Anarchy symbol in Dhark’s lair was from this old couple who went missing days ago. So did Anarky just have some of their blood on hand or did he bring their bodies? You know what, nevermind.
Figuring out the couples’ place of residence gives them a solid lead to where Anarky is and after some low-level hacking, they see Anarky going inside said house. When Team Arrow arrives, Anarky is just sitting on the couch watching tv in his creepy transparent mask. Says he’s happy to see Thea when two machine guns appear from behind the wall. The entire house is rigged.
Thea is hit with a small explosive when anarchy approaches her and tells her he won’t hurt her but that she saved him from himself. She gets ready to shoot him with an arrow -- and he wants her to -- but Laurel comes in using her canary cry to stop her, which still looks super unnatural. They really need to implement the Canary Cry better.
And it’s made even worse with lines like this: “You take voice lessons?” Just give me a Canary Cry to bust my eardrums.
Anywho, Laurel knocks Anarky out and they take him in where Ollie uses his patented interrogation technique of beating the crap out of you until you talk. I, honestly, miss this version of Ollie.
Thea stops Ollie to tell him that something went wrong at the hospital so Ollie FINALLY goes to see his fiancee. Diggle gets information out of Andy after saying how Felicity is a better person than both of them (guess that’s all it took?) and Anarchy starts to get under Thea’s skin but before she can do anything stupid the police show up to take him away.
Ollie shows up at the hospital and Felicity’s mother asks where has he been and says that the doctors gave a new diagnosis. The damage to her spinal cord is permanent and Felicity will never walk again.
A conveniently place television has the news on and shows Anarky being taken in with the help of Laurel who was opposed to Ollie taking a prisoner from the start. We then see Ollie continue his rampage and breaks Anakhy out of the police transport car and the two have a little chat about Dhark’s whereabouts or whatever.
Sorry, but all I could think of was where the drivers of the car were. All Ollie did was shoot an arrow to incapacitate the vehicle. Shouldn’t the driver come out and do something about the vigilante taking your prisoner?
Anyways, Ollie breaks Anarchy out and tells him to make sure Dhark is dead.
In the Arrow Lair, Laurel and Ollie get into an argument and Laurel says Ollie is doing this as a vendetta. Ollie acknowledges it’s a vendetta but doesn’t admit it’s personal. Laurel says he’s willing to put a murderous psychopath back on the streets and that’s when Ollie retorts with the sickest burn in Arrow history; “Like you did with Sara?”
Wicked burnCartoon Network
Diggle breaks it up and tells Ollie that Andy’s tip was a dead end but that he has his back no matter what, however, Ollie shouldn’t lose his humanity the part that Felicity fell in love with.
Thea goes to the campaign manager that she’s dating and talks about how she can’t be with him because of her anger issues. This relationship needs to go away quick, feels like it’s only there to give Thea something to do when she’s not being Speedy.
The tracker that Ollie puts on Anarky is lost and Oliver has no backup plan. Diggle says to go see Felicity and that they need each other right now. And FINALLY Ollie actually see Felicity and they have probably the best scene between them in the series. It’s a cute talk between them that turns really emotional when Ollie says that since he didn’t go far enough in taking down Dhark she got hurt. Of course, Felicity scoffs at the notion and comforts her fiancee but brings up her condition and pretty much says that they can’t be together but Ollie gives Felicity back her ring and for better or worse, he wants to be with her.
Andy’s lead brings Team Arrow to Dhark’s residence where Anarky has taken his family hostage. The crew gets there and thwarts him but not without Anarky putting up an awkward looking fight. But anyways he gets away but Speedy is on his trail before Ollie can follow, Dhark shows up and Ollie immediately goes after him.
The two fight it out as Dhark thinks he’s the one who took his family hostage but Ollie says they are the ones who saved them. Dhark, in the most deliciously villainous way possible, says “You’ve saved my family so I’ll give you a few weeks more with yours.” Awesome.
Anarky is tied to a tree by Speedy but gets away when she can’t pull the trigger and kill him but before he leaves Anarky knocks Thea out.
Back at the Arrow Cave, they find out that Dhark’s family isn’t really his family. But that’s a story for another episode, it’s time to tie loose ends.
Diggle goes to Andy and begins to play cards with him like when they were kids to build back his trust while Thea calls the campaign manager guy back to her place where she tells him that she’s stronger than she thought. Guess they are back together? Meh.
Felicity wakes up to Ollie and we get a scene with Dhark in a limo with his family. It’s revealed that the “wife” is seemingly the bad guy and she tells Dhark that he should have killed the Green Arrow even if he did save her. And when Star City is destroyed it’ll be hers.
But the biggest part of the episode is when the show revisits the grave scene from the beginning of the episode. Ollie gets into his limo where Felicity is sitting there waiting in tears. They ask each other if the other is ok and Felicity ends the episode telling Ollie he needs to “kill the son of a bitch.”
OK that’s a lot to take in. So Felicity is safe! Yay! But it’s another member of Ollie’s crew that will be biting the dust this season. From how Felicity asks Oliver if he’s okay, my money is on Thea. But we’ll likely get more clues next week on Arrow.
Did you like this episode of Arrow? Let us know in the comments section.
