ARROW Season 4×17, “Beacon of Hope” recap

31 Mar

Welcome back, Arrowheads! So Felicity has broken up with Ollie, only to go to another level by leaving Team Arrow. Damien Darhk is looking at a trial, so how’s that going to go for HIVE’s big “Genesis” plan? And have you lost interest in the flashbacks this season like I have? Suppose we should get that out of the way…

God Complex. So in flashback land, Ollie and Taiana fight Reiter, find out he’s impervious to bullets, and that he can’t suck the life from Ollie. Reiter disappears, but the duo decide to prevent his sacrifice of the prisoners he had by saving them. See? Not much this episode.

Appointments. In the now, we check in on inmate Brie Larvan, aka the lady with the mechanical killer bees from that one episode of The Flash last season that had Felicity in it. She is doing some computer hacking with the jail computer to get her sentence reduced to…um, tomorrow it seems. You think the prison Internet would be a bit safer. At Arrow HQ, the team is having a big sparring exercise, and Ollie is really REALLY focused. After that, Thea mentions Alex (remember him? When Ollie was running for mayor?) is being seeked out for a job…in Ruve Adams’ mayoral campaign. That’s not cool for Thea, so Laurel suggests pitching him to work at Palmer Tech by talking to Felicity, because, she heard about the company needing an advisor, from, um, somewhere.

So Thea goes over to see Felicity at her office, just as she’s excusing a flu-sick Curtis from work. Another unexpected arrival comes from Donna, wanting to see her daughter about her breakup. Jeez, who else is coming to see her today? Um…

(Cue Walking Dead joke) “So while we wait, how about I sing some Tom Waits for you?”

Without a HIVE. At jail, Darhk gets a visit from Malcolm, who has some news: HIVE has decided to let their formerly mystical powered boss rot in prison, because he’s a dick and all. I suppose that’s pleasant in comparison to Darhk ending up in a fight with a lip-sewn shut prison boss and his goons. But back to Palmer Tech, as the board are waiting to have another meeting, when Brie shows up and one of the board members has bees explode out of his body. She’s interested in talking to Felicity Smoak about that chip that is curing her paralysis (you know, THE ONLY CHIP OF ITS KIND), which, wouldn’t it be easier to ask for an appointment?

The Swarm. Brie cuts into the building’s TV feed and tells Felicity she needs to show herself or she’ll start killing the board members. And just in case running was an option, a giant swarm of Brie’s mechanical bees swamp the Palmer Tech building. At Curtis’ home, him and his fiancé are watching the news, and Curtis decides he has to help Felicity. What he doesn’t tell his boyfriend is he’s going to get the Green Arrow’s help. So he rigs a phone he talked to Green Arrow to as a way to locate the Arrow HQ. Well, he finds the secret entrance, just as the already aware of the news Ollie, Laurel, and Diggle are suiting up (oh, and Quentin’s there!). Curtis is surprised to see who Team Arrow is, and more from the flu than shock, he passes out. This day is going well.

At Palmer Tech, Felicity, Thea, and Donna are making their way to a safe room to figure out what to do,while evading those killer robot bees and all. After hooking Curtis up with an IV, they wake him up, and he wants to help save Felicity. Of course, he can’t do much but man the computers, so him and Quentin are left at the HQ while the Team arrives at the building. Curtis takes over one of the bees, and contacts Felicity, letting them know he’s clearing a way for the Team to get them out. Well, that goes bad when the bees outside in the alleyway where the escape is taking place form a actual suited masked man and Ollie gets stung. And from the looks of it, that sting really hurts.

Stung. The Team brings Ollie back to the HQ, and he’s in severe pain. It’s worse than just a sting, though: the bee is inside of him, and is replicating INSIDE OF HIM! Curtis has a solution, which is using a sonic blast to destroy the robot bees multiplying in Ollie. Hey, good thing Laurel has that sonic scream, because she uses it to save Ollie’s life.

“AAAGH! THAT WASN’T THE FLASH I KNEW IN BATMAN V SUPERMAN! WHO WAS THAT?”

Back at Palmer Tech, Brie sends another message from Felicity’s office that she’ll give Felicity a few more minutes to surrender before she starts killing the hostages. Felicity realizes that means Brie is not in the board room, so she concocts a plan to get the hostages out, using a secret elevator that leads to a panic room and a secret exit. The trio park the elevator on the floor with the board room on the other side, and blow a hole in the wall. The hostages get into the elevator, but Felicity and Thea send Donna and the hostages down as Brie shows up.

The Queen Bees. In Arrow HQ, Ollie is up and about, asking for help from Curtis to immobilize those bees. But Curtis’ happy geeky attitude is just rubbing him wrong, and he snaps at him to take this seriously. Laurel takes Ollie aside, and lets him know what’s up, by telling him that no matter what has happened to him because of this war with HIVE and Felicity leaving, he needs to have some hope. Hey, good advice from one of your ex-girlfriends, Ollie.

At Palmer Tech, Brie really wants that microchip from Felicity, and we find out why. Brie was diagnosed with a tumor on her spine, and the surgery to remove it would paralyze her. Felicity gives up the info to make the chip, which you would think would end all this. But Brie discovers familiar computer code while downloading those files, like that of the hacker that got her arrested! Felicity’s in troubleeeee!

A Touch of Honey. Darhk is still chilling in his cell when that sewn-lipped guy and his buddies come by to finish working on him. Darhk is a step ahead, because he extorts the sewn-lipped guy to kill the goons. He’s making some moves in the prison now, but to what end?

Meanwhile, Felicity is about to get a fatal sting from Brie’s bees, when the Team bursts in, and have to fight that creepy Voltron-like bee guy. Curtis and Quentin have to deal with a lone bee escape while resetting the bees to follow their commands. During the fight in Palmer Tech, Thea gets knocked out and Felicity saves Ollie from the bee guy by electrocuting it to death. And by this point, Curtis has gained control of the bees and they attack Brie. Suffice to say, she gets a few stings. The kind that put her into a coma, which, jeez, Team Arrow.

“Look at me. Do I look scared of jail time?”

Beacons. The Team returns to the HQ, and thank Curtis by giving him his honorary Team Arrow badge or something. Curtis comes home and his fiancé is worried about him, but Curtis assures him he’s gonna stay home (for now?). After hearing Donna’s getting a ride home with Quentin (suuuurrrrrreeeee), Thea and Felicity talk about what has happened today. Felicity is adamant about not being with Team Arrow anymore, but thinks her reasons for joining up, which was to make a difference in people’s lives, can be applied to running Palmer Tech for the greater good. Hey, good for her!

Before you can wrap all this happiness up, we see Malcolm meet with a mystery man who he heard Darhk call his “ace in the hole”. And that guy? Diggle’s brother! OH HELLLLL NO!

–Comic book connections: Another Neal Adams reference, who was a comic book artist responsible for legendary runs on Batman and Green Lantern/Green Arrow in the 70’s, and the artist of the famous Superman vs. Muhammad Ali comic.

–It’s the Bunker, NOT the ArrowCave. I’ll just call it Arrow HQ, thank you.

–Some people get nervous and stutter, but Curtis just refers to movies. Also, that crazy jump over the computer panels trying to avoid that bee was hilarious.

–I don’t want to suggest something that may not be there, but are we leaning towards and Ollie/Laurel re-hook up? Because, I am a little less against it than I was back in season one. Not completely, but less.

–The bee puns. Just had to use as many of them as possible, huh?

–“That’s an army of robotic bees. Yeah, that’s my life now.”

–“It’s just shocking you know who Voldemort is.”

–“After the B-R-E-A-C-K-U-P…”

–“How do you know that bee’s name?”

–“That’s right, ‘Bee’-oyatch!”

That’s it for now, but comment below and come back next week for “Eleven-Fifty-Nine”…