ARROW Season 2×14, “Time of Death” recap

27 Feb

Welcome back, Arrow-heads! What you need to know: Sara Lance is back, and now free from her connection to the League of Assassins. Not that Laurel’s happy, because she’s still a wreck and blames Sara for ruining their family’s lives since she went missing. In other family troubles, Felicity finds out about Thea’s secret parentage and tells Ollie this at probably the worse time. He promises to keep that secret to Moira, but wants nothing to do with her outside of her mayoral campaign. And Slade’s planning to deal with Moira Queen in what way, exactly? Well, let’s just see what happens…

On A Clock. Two men break into a Kord Enterprises building, taking orders from someone on an ear mic who really knows a lot about timing. The men steal a package under guard and almost make it out clean, except one goes off his boss’ clock and ends up killing a security guard. The men escape to head back to their boss, a Mr. Tockman (played by go-to bad guy actor Robert Knepper), who’s not happy that one goon went off plan and in T-Bag/Prison Break style, shivs the man dead with a clock arrow. What was in the package he stole? Well, the equivalent of a skeleton key that can be used to open all kinds of tech, like say, bank safes. Keep that in mind as we go.

With all those workouts, I'm shocked Felicity doesn't bring in some Febreze now and again.

With all those workouts and all that sweat, I’m shocked Felicity doesn’t bring in some Febreze now and again.

Cocktail Party of the Dead. Besides Ollie and Diggle having a new sparring partner and comparing scars (of which Felicity only has wisdom teeth removal scars), Sara is getting a cocktail party at the Queen mansion for not being dead. Things aren’t going any better between Ollie and Moira (and probably the fact he’s having the party at her house isn’t mending that wound), but Quentin seems to think Dinah’s still interested in him after all these years. But Quentin gets called away to investigate that dead goon being dumped in an alleyway, and Ollie and Sara in gear drop by later to hear what happened to said goon from Quentin. They piece together the whole skeleton key theft is not good, and need to find the man behind it fast.

The Clock King Strikes. Mr. Tockman has another robbery put into play, and Ollie and Sara head to that bank to intercept it. One problem: Tockman figures out someone else, being Felicity, is in the computer networks, and lets Arrow know about a city bus full of passengers that has been put into peril. Good thing Sara is there to stick around the bank to see Tockman escape as Ollie stops that imperiled bus. But Sara quick move of injuring Tockman gets a blood sample which shows he’s dying of a respiratory disease. When based on that info, Team Arrow discovers who Tockman is, they discovered why he’s stealing from all those banks: to make sure his sister has enough money to fight her cystic fibrosis. They follow a lead to where he lives, except when Ollie and Sara get there, they realize that Tockman hacked the Team Arrow computers and Felicity is there to watch the system blow itself out.

Odd Woman Out. This brings me around to Felicity’s issues this episode. She’s feeling like the fifth wheel in Team Arrow with Sara being way more cooler than her, and with the computers blown out, less useful. Diggle thinks this has something to do with her being uncomfortable with Ollie and Sara’s relationship, and he’s probably right, but she blows it off and goes back to fixing the computers. Meanwhile, Ollie sets up a trap for Tockman by liquidating some Queen Consolidated shares and placing them in a bank to be stolen. Felicity however, decides to go to the bank to supervise things herself, and Team Arrow arrives just in time to catch Tockman and his goons breaking in. Everyone gets split up dealing with Tockman like: Diggle stopping a gas main from exploding, Arrow fighting Tockman’s goons, and Sara and Felicity facing off against Tockman. In the mess, Felicity gets shot in the shoulder, but she’s still able to use that computer virus that knocked out Arrow HQ to turn Tockman’s cell phone into a taser to knock him out. After getting patched up by Sara and given some “aspirins” (being oxycodone) by Diggle, Ollie lets her know that despite Sara being around, Felicity will always be his girl. I was expecting something more awkward in a conversation with a drugged up Felicity, but still…awwww…

Even in the fictional town of Starling, people have problems with their new iPhones.

(Dysfunctional) Family Dinner. Quentin has a genius idea when asking Laurel to join a family dinner, where he hopes to reconnect with Dinah, and absolutely is not using it to also mend the rough patch between Laurel and Sara. They have dinner at Laurel’s place, and things don’t start on the right foot when Ollie is asked by Sara to come along. Strike two comes when Dinah isn’t really up for going back to live in Starling, with her career and boyfriend and all. The “strike three and you’re out” comes when Laurel figures out Sara and Ollie are seeing each other and gets all kind of pissed at everyone. She leaves, but gets intercepted by Ollie, who gives her a cold glass of “your family and me isn’t the problem, you are” to drink up. Later on, she visits Sara at her new job at Verdant being the bartender and feels bad for heaping her guilt onto her not dead sister. They make up, and afterwards, Sin drops by to see Sara happy and crying that her sister doesn’t hate her guts anymore There’s a nice talk about Sin being Sara’s little sister, which brings us to…

A Brief Island Visit. Its of importance to talk about the flashback because a plane flies by while Slade, Ollie, and Sara check out Ivo’s freighter, and gets shot down by said freighter. The pilot is still alive, but barely, and Sara stays behind while the guys go to get medical supplies. She talks to the pilot about his life, and mentions how he wants someone to look after his little daughter, who he has a picture of. And as we see years later and in the flashback, it’s a young Sin in that picture! The pilot dies, but Ollie thinks they have a way into the freighter when he finds a parachute in the wreckage.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Queen.” Ollie gets a call to head home, and Moira says she didn’t send the call. Ollie thinks Thea is behind this, as she has been noticing how little mother and son have been talking as of late. Of course, that may not be the case, as Moira is busy having a business meeting in the mansion. She decides to introduce Ollie to the man she’s meeting with: a Mr. Slade Wilson. Slade shakes Ollie’s hand, and Ollie looks like he’s about to brick in his pants. Well, see you next time!

“I izzz been shot. Woo-hoo! Another ‘aspirin’, please!”

–Comic Book Connections: Kord Industries may be referring to Ted Kord, one of the few people to be the Blue Beetle. The Clock King is not a higher-tier villain in the DCU, but you may recognize him in a different form in an episode of the 90’s Batman animated series.

–Sara is nice enough to give Felicity advice on what style of fighting she should take up. By the way, if you’re into Team Arrow being shirtless and/or in workout clothes, this episode is for you.

–Diggle finally gets to do some work this episode, and what I hear, will be doing a bit more in an upcoming episode with some people you’ve seen this season.

–Quentin apologizes for making Ollie out to be a murderous vigilante. Yeah, best to put that in “awkward conversations for later” when Quentin finds out he was right. Also, despite being wrong about Dinah, he does get one victory in Laurel finally coming to one of his AA meetings.

–“My own scar. Yay.”

–“I love when people come back from the dead, you know. Juices my zombie fetish.”

–“All those scars, you never been hit by a grenade?” That constitutes small talk at Arrow HQ.

So, what did you think? Leave your thoughts and theories below as we come back next week for “The Promise”…