ARROW Season 5×20, “Underneath” recap

4 May

Welcome back, Arrowheads! When last we left Team Arrow, they were still on the hunt for creepy ‘ol Prometheus, but they had some distractions of late. The big one being Felicity’s involvement with HELIX causing some friction between her and Ollie, and by happenstance, Diggle and Lyla over ARGUS’ recent activities. But it’s the former couple we need to discuss, because as Felicity’s using the special tracer she got from HELIX to find Adrian Chase, her and Ollie are caught an explosion inside the HQ! Did they survive? Well, YES obviously, but let’s see how…

Dinner Date. Its eleven months ago, after Damian Darhk got killed, and things are going normally in Arrow HQ. Ollie takes off to deal with a bad guy looking to fill the power vacuum of crime in the city (not his last time doing this in a year), while Curtis notes there’s still some sexual tension between her and Ollie. Which is probably why Curtis sets up a little time alone in the HQ for both of them with some wine and Chinese food. Heck, after a impromptu education on the salmon ladder, it seems our wayward couple are back together…until you remember that this is before she gets a boyfriend. After a little tryst, Felicity realizes she can’t be with him because she…wait for it…wants complete trust from him. Sigh. Anyway…

Just reminding us: this was a thing. Its not quite a thing anymore, even though some fans want it. I won’t judge you either way.

Locked In. In the present, Ollie is coming to and finds all the lights are out in the HQ. He quickly scans the floor for Adrian (he was supposed to be in there when that bomb went out), and Felicity has come to and figured out an EMP bomb was set off, frying the electrics in the building. She also had her mobility chip fried, so she can’t walk either. This also means the entire HQ is locked down, so no one can get in or out, which is bad news, considering the limited amount of air that is in there. Ollie tries to pry the elevator doors above them open by climbing up the elevator shaft (against Felicity’s advice), and he falls, getting a nasty impalement in the back.

Above everyone, Quentin is having kittens over some possible fallout from the DA who put a lot of criminals away is a serial killer (you know, like a lot of criminals hitting the streets), and wondering where Ollie is. Rene gets in touch with Curtis, who figures out something has knocked out the electrics in the building. The rest of Team Arrow go to brief Diggle on what’s happening, and stumble upon some slight tension between him and Lyla. Awkward time to come over, but yeah, there’s trouble at HQ!

Clearing The Air. As the rest of the Team finally get on the same page, Lyla leaves to get some cutting equipment they need to get into the bunker. While Rene and Curtis start to try to cut the elevator shaft doors open, Dinah tells Diggle that maybe Lyla was not being honest about all of ARGUS’ activities because it wasn’t necessary to say it to him. True.

After Felicity patches up Ollie’s big back wound, she suggests a new idea: charge up the system by hooking it to one of the motorcycles. Ollie does bring up the whole HELIX thing, and it’s like Felicity has heard this record before, but unlike a good record, really does not care to hear it again. Then things get worse when the motorcycle goes kaput, and puts some shrapnel into the pipes of the room, specifically the pipes full of methane! And that kinda stops Rene and Curtis’ plan to cut in, as now the place could be lit up by them cutting through! Lots of problems!

Curtis: “I think we’re still in this episode, guys!”

Flammable Materials. Realizing they may have about twenty minutes before they suffocate on methane, Ollie and Felicity come up with an idea to escape into an air shaft, but to do it, have to blow a vent open…very very carefully. Somehow they don’t blow themselves up, and make their way down the shaft. There, Ollie collapses and in his delirium, really talks about why he can’t trust Felicity as much as he wants to: because this whole torture by Adrian earlier made him think he couldn’t trust himself. That makes sense, but Felicity reminds him spending ten years in that darkness didn’t make him into an even worse human being than the hero he is now. Accentuate the positives, Oliver.

The Team is still trying to figure out how to get inside the bunker, and even using metal eating acid, it would still take too long. But Lyla has brought along something that could help: mainly some ARGUS-tinkered T-Spheres that NO ONE (even the creator of them) knew about! I’m sure Diggle isn’t happy about that, but once again, that pesky “trust” subject comes up, and maybe that’ll get him rethinking his stance. Also, those Spheres find Ollie and Felicity, and give them more bad news: if they don’t get the venting fans up soon, the place may explode, so either way, those two have to get out now!

The Bomb Around Us. So injured Ollie has to carry Felicity to where they’ll meet the Team to get out: the giant shaft to the venting fans! Is this place the interior of Cloud City, because it is HUGE! Ollie almost passed out again from his injury, but thanks to Felicity putting a shot of adrenaline into his heart, he’s able to take her the rest of the way. Diggle repels down and gets the two, and after a few scares, the trio gets to safety. Oh, and the HQ doesn’t blow up. I think.

“Say something, Oliver!” “(gasp) Something!” missed opportunity for a Pulp Fiction joke. Hang your heads in shame, Arrow crew.

Halfway There. At ARGUS, the Team is resting up (the smell of methane takes a while to get out of your workplace), and Diggle is willing to patch things up with Lyla again. And good thing Felicity’s walking chip is up and running again, because Ollie wants to see her. He’s out of surgery and alive, but he wanted to clear the air over what they talked about. Felicity understands why he would be so secretive a bit more now, and maybe, they can start to patch things up between them.

Oh, and Ollie’s in hiding son, William, gets a visit at his school bus stop by Adrian. That’s no good. And we got three episodes left this season!

–Comic book connections: None this week, but let’s discuss the Kodo and Podo reference. Yes they are references to The Beastmaster, which started season 3 flashback baddie Marc Singer.

–Also, The Beastmaster was helpful for Curtis in terms of discovering himself. Hey, whatever works.

–Diggle’s bedside manner is a little lax this episode. “Oh boo hoo, you got burned, stop whining.”

–Are we sure HELIX wasn’t behind the EMP blast? Just saying, that possibility is still there.

–“It’s like Oliver’s dropped off the face of the Earth…again.”

–“What? I don’t judge your DVR.”

–“Are you still Felicity Smoak?” “Yeah.” “Then your math is always right.”

–“Nerdapalooza.”

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