ARROW Season 4×14, “Code of Silence” recap

18 Feb

Welcome back, Arrowheads! So last week, in order to avoid a League of Assassins civil war on the streets of Star City, Team Arrow had to decide between killing Malcolm or letting Thea die. So Ollie took Malcolm’s hand and Nyssa dissolved the League, and clearly a psychopath like Malcolm understood that, right? Well, no, because he cozied up with HIVE and Damien Darhk by revealing he knows about Ollie’s secret son! Also, Darhk’s as evil wife has entered the mayoral race, and wedding bells may ring sooner than later, because Ollie and Felicity want to get to that soon! So, let’s jump in…

Dig Deep. In the flashback this episode, Reiter has set up a dig spot in the prison for the slaves, and the slaves are still a bit peeved about Ollie killing Taiana’s brother. After explaining what happened, he’s offered a chance to prove he’s loyal to them: by killing Conklin, which he doesn’t want to do, but reluctantly will have to do. He gets the opportunity when Reiter takes Ollie to his office and explains that Ollie might be the key to unearthing the mystery weapon he is looking for. Ollie’s left alone with Conklin in Reiter’s office, and Ollie makes his move when removing his handcuffs. The fight between ends with Ollie stabbing Conklin dead, with the latter promising Reiter is going to kill the slaves once their mission is done. So, after getting chided by Reiter about killing Conklin, Ollie gives Taiana the bad news, and now, need to solve this dilemma fast.

Candidate Research. Back in present Star City, both the Queen and Adams camps are walking an auditorium being set up for a mayoral debate, and Ollie decides to follow Ms. “Adams”, with the help of Team Arrow. They’ve been doing it a few times already, but there’s a deviation in that route that puts into the Team into a HIVE trap that Ruve has lead them to. The Team fights off a bunch of HIVE goons, and, that’s that? Just a few goons? That’s the best you could dish out? Ollie knows something big is up with this, but what, exactly?

At Darhk’s swanky new HIVE hangout, he’s having a conference between his fellow HIVE bigwigs (which includes Malcolm now, because, HE HAS TO DIE), and a member teleconferencing that there’s doubt Darhk’s wife can even win the election (which is part of their big plan). Darhk Force-chokes that member across continents, and is asked about Ollie’s son. Darhk says he’ll get to that shortly, but since learning of Quentin’s betrayal, is going to deal with that loose end.

Does HIVE have a hiring problem with their goons, because they are losing a LOT of them to Team Arrow.

Blow The Roof Off. Donna is over prepping this big engagement banquet at Ollie and Felicity’s place. Thea drops by to talk to Ollie about some stuff the investigators have on Ruve, which is barely anything. But Thea noticed a curious thing…in research done on Ollie. Like say, an uncashed million dollar check made out to Samantha, the mother of Ollie’s son. Ollie says its not important, which, probably not the smartest thing to say to Thea.

At the precinct house, Laurel drops by for some father-daughter time with Quentin, when he gets a call to check out a break-in into a building. Laurel tags along, concerned something’s wrong with this once seeing this building is empty. Suddenly, explosions go off in the building, and the two escape just as the building collapses behind them. They head back to the HQ, and Ollie suggests Quentin stay in Arrow HQ for a while as the Team investigates this apparent HIVE murder attempt.

Uncontrolled Demolition. Quentin sees Donna at Ollie’s campaign headquarters, and suggests taking a break to deal with his gambling problem we know he doesn’t have. She thinks he’s blowing her off, and leaves in a huff, and Felicity wheels in with some news for him (along with wondering why her mom left that abruptly). The call wasn’t made from the police band, but from an office building in town. The Team arrives and stumbles upon a trio of commandos, who end up being a match for our heroes. Some bombs are armed, but Thea stays to collect the evil team’s abandoned laptop as the rest of the Team run. Thea just barely escapes from the office with the laptop before it goes up in smoke.

Back at HQ, Diggle has a talk with his brother (who’s still in prison? Maybe?) and Lyla (who is running ARGUS now? Oh, well, congrats.), where he learns the trio is a collection of ex-black ops agents known as the Demolition Team, who, duh-doy, blow up stuff. While Felicity is trying to get data from the damaged laptop, she enlists Curtis to help out, but he seems to be busy preparing a secret wedding gift for Felicity. Secret wedding gift, huh? Hmmmm…

“Maybe now’s a bad time to say this, Dad, but Sara’s on a time ship with some guy from the future traveling through time!” “WHAT?!”

Debate Prep. Thea starts doing some debate rehearsal with Ollie, and brings up Samantha and some more info she dug up. It’s obvious to Thea that Samantha was paid off around the time she was in college with Ollie, and he admits to everything regarding William and his promise to keep his identity secret. Thea is concerned about not telling Felicity about this, but sees why Samantha would make Ollie agree to such a promise. Samantha only knows him as that immature rich bachelor, not as the Green Arrow, and that knowledge could make William a target (spoilers: Thea’s dad kind of spoiled that). Ollie thinks he knows what to do now, and as we learn later, doesn’t tell Felicity about William.

Felicity sees Donna, and finds her reflective about her engagement party plans and relationship with Quentin. Felicity tells her that maybe Quentin is lying about things for a reason and maybe needs to know he has support from her. Good advice. Meanwhile, Ollie and Diggle follow a lead on the explosive compound used by the Demolition Team, and find a B-I-G amount of the stuff has gone missing. So where will they strike next?

Grand Performance. At the auditorium for the debate, its a few hours before it starts, and Ollie is prepping with Felicity, mother Smoak, and Thea. Felicity gets a note from Curtis about some floor plans found on the Demolition Team’s laptop…the floor plans for the auditorium! Ollie and Felicity figure out the plan is to blow the place up during the debate, and somehow Ruve will survive and basically win the election. Thea sets off the fire alarm to evacuate the place, Felicity gets her mom out, and the rest of the Team suit up to find the three points where the bombs are to be placed.

Quentin arrives, not wanting to stay on the sidelines, and Team Arrow faces off against the Demo Team in a pretty spectacular three-pronged fight. Our heroes win the day and knock out the bad guys, then disable the bombs. With that taken care of, the debate is back on, which…we learn afterwards, Ollie’s the winner in public opinion. Seems a bit of cheat, because I was curious what “Adams”‘ platform was. Clearly it wasn’t “I will destroy this city”, was it?

Darhk: “Anyone who has a problem with my newest plan, raise your left hand! Oh! Sorry Malcolm! Just raise your stump!”

Wedding Gifts. At the big engagement party, Donna tells Quentin to not worry about things, because she’s tougher than she looks. He tells her about that HIVE connection (not about Team Arrow, though), and they seem to make up. Curtis and his boyfriend drop by to give Felicity her wedding present early: a bio-repair chip that can eventually fix Felicity’s paralysis! Ollie calls Curtis “terrific”, and we all agree. Curtis is like, Mr. Terrific!

Meanwhile, in case you think this ended on a happy note, we cut to Darhk visiting his daughter, who is working on a coloring book. He says he has someone with him she should welcome over as a guest: William! Um, what happened to Samantha? What will Darhk do with Ollie’s son? Seriously, Ollie, why didn’t you off Malcolm when you had the shot? I guess we’ll get answers next week!

–Comic book connections: Oliver’s son in the DCU was relatively unknown from Ollie up until the kid was in his late teens.

–The Demo Team member with the nail gun (which by the way, those are nasty injuries for Laurel and Thea to take during that climatic fight with her) I recognized from Stargate Atlantis, a show I may recap eventually once I get done with Stargate SG-1, which, yes, I get will back to for you NerdLush readers soon.

–Thea has been kinda the MVP of this episode, which has me dreading her future, as in being above ground if you get what I mean.

–Diggle uses a cool magnet on the sledgehammer wielding baddie and then takes him out with his own sledgehammer. Daymunnnnnnnnn!

–Donna may have overkilled the engagement invite with it exploding glitter. Or she’s into glitter bukkake. It’s not my thing to judge.

–In reference to Thea’s calling “Adams” to “Mrs. Darhk-Deceitful”: “The name ‘Adams’ probably polls better with voters.”

–“She’s probably playing Pin the Junk on the Hunk. Don’t ask, don’t ask, don’t ask…”

–“Boobear, what happened to you?”

–“I knew we should have had Slade Wilson do the party planning.”

That’s it for now, but come back next week for the recap of “Taken”…