TV – Arrow Season 4, Episode 12

Steve Taylor-Bryant checks back in with the goings on around Star City as he finds everyone Unchained...

Oliver Queen: So a web nuke needs to be deployed somewhere. We need to know where the Calculator wants to install it.

Felicity Smoak: I am not calling him that on principle, because it is a lame codename.

Nyssa is still imprisoned by Ra’s Al Malcolm in Nanda Parbat but is helped to escape by an underling of Ra’s, kills some guards, has some masked friends help her fight, and eventually escapes. Back in Star City, the team are chasing down a parkour efficient burglar. Speedy traps him on the roof but faints, allowing the crook to escape. Oliver is blaming himself for Thea becoming ill. Felicity is doing a dummy run of a presentation for Palmer Tech’s new lifelong battery and messes it up. The board member present asks Curtis, the battery’s designer, to leave the room and then asks Felicity to stand aside and let someone else do the presentation to the press and investors. The company is broke and they can’t mess up any potential financial support that could come from the tech. Malcolm is playing dad to the poorly Thea and explains to Oliver that she must kill or she will die. The blood lust is not just a side effect of the Lazarus Pit but is a twisted consequence with it and, when Thea confronted Darhk, it was only a temporary fix. Oliver is called away to chase the burglar and catches up with him only to find out the burglar is Roy! Roy though escapes yet again.

There is panic in the Mayoral campaign office as Alex tells Oliver that someone else has thrown their hat into the ring, a Ruve Adams, who Oliver recognises as Damien Darhk’s wife. Flashback and Oliver is being tortured by Baron Reiter who is shot by an arrow - it’s Shado! Green Arrow arrives outside Ruve’s office and asks her for a private meeting with Darhk, as he wants to ask a favour. Felicity thinks that Roy is going to build a web bomb. Roy breaks into Palmer Tech to try and pinch the battery only to be confronted by Curtis and a fight ensues. Oliver turns up and shoots Roy with a tranquiliser arrow and takes the body to the ArrowCave. Roy had been tech enhanced by someone called The Calculator, who was blackmailing him with outing his identity, as Roy is still considered a murder suspect and the actual Green Arrow. Flashback and Shado has rescued Oliver but she is a vision due to Oliver’s injuries and tells him he must learn to let go of the darkness. Nyssa arrives at a temple in Japan and runs into Tatsu. They start fighting before realising it will never end as they are both so good. Nyssa asks Tatsu to listen to her.

Oliver has told Roy about Thea so he goes to visit her and he starts to see her old wound come back, Thea is definitely getting worse. Felicity has hacked into The Calculator’s system and is talking to him. The Calculator is planning to destroy the city with his web bomb so Felicity wants to try something to stop him. At Palmer Tech Curtis tells Felicity there are two of her; the brilliant go-getter one and the weak, crumbling one. He prefers the force of nature Felicity and she should be that more often. Oliver tells Thea about his plan to ask Darhk for help but Thea and Malcolm are agreed that this is Thea’s fight and she must deal with it her way. Felicity finds where The Calculator is and The Calculator sees Felicity in the system. TeamArrow, including Arsenal, fight the soldiers and are eventually joined by Green Arrow. The bomb needs to be shut down and destroyed manually so Arsenal stays behind to detonate it, barely getting out alive. Flashback and Oliver is confronting his darkness and tells Taiana that he was the one that killed her brother. Felicity does the presentation and it goes really well but The Calculator is in the audience. Roy decides he must leave Star City and goes to say goodbye to Thea. Thea slips into a coma with a bad prognosis for recovery. Meanwhile The Calculator turns out to be Felicity’s dad! Oh and Nyssa turns up and tells Oliver she can counteract the effect of the Lazarus Pit and save Thea but only if he kills Malcolm Merlyn.

There was a lot to like this week and so many returning characters I’ve been wanting to see for a while. They haven’t all returned for no reason though, they are back to drive narrative and that’s pretty cool. Nyssa’s return will start another Oliver versus Malcolm story, I miss those, and Roy coming back is always welcome, even if it was to introduce Felicity’s dad as a bad guy. That will surely run and run as well, but it’s nice to see that Felicity got her brains from somewhere other than Donna. The parkour scenes were excellent, the fight scenes as consistent as the rest of the season and multiple stories are now ongoing but with that buzz you get knowing that they will all culminate in one hell of a finale later in the season.

Image - IMDb