Apocalypses are a funny thing. They create all kinds of situations that normally wouldn’t exist. Of course, I’m assuming this because I’ve never lived through an apocalypse or even a near apocalypse. However apocalypses happen all the time on TV and that is certainly the case at the end of season 4 on Arrow. Team Arrow has upgraded from protecting an entire city to the entire world by facing the plans of Damien Darhk. Confronting the reality that they are up against an unbelievable strong foe, the characters of Arrow look for help.
They go not to Flash, Firestorm or literally any of the other numerous people they know with literal superpowers. Instead, they turn to Felicity’s father, Noah Kuttler, a villain with the worst name ever, The Calculator. Okay, so it doesn’t sound impressive, but Tom Amandes is awesome in the role. Plus, the relationship that Felicity has with her father is wonderfully twisted and it makes this episode “Monument Point” easily one of the most entertaining and tense episodes of Arrow ever.
Just Smoak Problems
It’s finally happened, there’s something Felicity can’t hack. If Team Arrow wants to stop Darhk’s plans to create a totally nuclear meltdown, they are going to need Noah Kuttler. Apparently, Noah is literally the only hacker in the entire multiverse who can do this too. While Oliver and Dig look for Noah, Darhk hires the very chatty (read: annoying) Brick and the ever-silent (read: super creepy) Murmur, to track Kuttler down as well.
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Unfortunately, this subplot becomes kind of useless. Ollie and Diggle are able to find Kuttler pretty quickly and steal him from right out from under Brick and Murmer’s evil noses. Now that Kuttler has been secured another obstacle has to be thrown in Team Arrow’s way. You know besides that whole they’re trying to save the world from the apocalypse obstacle.
So when Felicity goes to Palmer Tech to get some kind of MacGuffin that will help them, she is informed that she has been fired as CEO. This isn’t exactly surprising since Felicity is pretty much an awful boss who almost never goes into the office, but it does create a complication. Team Arrow can’t access the do-hickey they need to save the world. So Felicity, with the help of her father and the rest of the team, must sneak in and steal the device herself.
Thea Gets in Way Deep
Ollie, Felicity and Dig aren’t the only members of Team Arrow dealing with a little bit of a situation. Things are getting really creepy in the underground bunker that Darhk plans to rebuild humanity from and not just because things are bound to get really incestuous in a few generations. Everyone is wearing bland jumpsuits and drinking Darhk’s delusional kool-aid, including Thea’s bland boyfriend, Alex. Though I guess being brainwashed by a maniacal genocidal wizard and his wife does make Alex slightly more interesting. Maybe.
In any case, Thea is confronted by her own father-of-the-year, Malcolm. Malcolm tells Thea that he plans to save her, no matter what she wants, but he kind needs a favor. Anarky (AKA the crazy guy who Thea accidentally burned) has made it to this bomb shelter of a suburb. He is loose and getting ready to bring all of Darhk’s plans to an end by blowing them up and everyone inside the bunker. It’s because of the creepy connection that Thea has to Anarky that Malcolm wants her to help.
Thea and Malcolm find Anarky where he has set up a few bombs. Thea and Malcolm manage to disarm the explosives, but when Malcolm attacks, Anarky escapes. Thea goes back to the home she is now sharing with Alex to find the latter collapsed on the porch; the handiwork of Anarky. Anarky tells Thea that she needs to stop being defined by the men in her life, which would be fair point if this was a few seasons ago.
Thea is no longer that person and Anarky is at the level of crazy that he is now calling Thea, “mommy,” so, we aren’t going to take his word for anything. Thea starts whipping Anarky’s ass but he shocks her with a gigantic electricity weapon (which by the way is super awesome). As Thea is momentarily incapacitated, Alex wakes up, buth then Anarky shocks him real good in the heart. Thea gets back up, knocks out Anarky and then rushes over to check on Alex. It’s unclear if Alex is dead or alive, but it’s clear to me that I don’t care in the slightest either way.
Flashback Break
Okay, flashback break. I know, I don’t really care either, but it seems vaguely important. Oliver is still fighting against Reiter, who, by the way, is not dead. This is apparently some kind of perk of holding on to that really cheap idol that Darhk currently is using. It makes you kind of immortal. Anyway, with Tiana’s help, Oliver is able to wrestle the idol away from Reiter and they run away. However, when they get far enough away, Tiana starts to scream in pain. The idol is now taking a hold of her body and her eyes glow yellow. Yeah, I really don’t care about if she is now dead or “alive.”
How to Save a Life (From Nuclear Annihilation)
Back to the things and the people I do care about living. Felicity is working with her father to destroy all the missiles. Sadly, Brick and Murmur find them. This means that Oliver, Dig and Lyla, who is controlling ARGUS, must protect the two hackers as they try to save the world. Again, Brick and Murmur are pretty much useless, or at least useless in the sense that Oliver and Dig don’t have too big a problem defeating Brick. There’s a lot of kicking and spinning involved, which looks really cool as far as fight scenes go, but Brick does pretty much nothing. (Right now, “Sesason 3 Brick” is weeping somewhere since it took a literal army to take him down in that season.)
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Dig and Oliver are less successful with Murmur who finds Noah and Felicity. Murmur attacks them and while Noah manages to save their lives, it distracts from that whole stopping-the -nukes thing. Murmur is neutralized, but one nuke still remains in the air. There is no way to stop it and it is heading to a major city: Monument Point. Felicity decides to hack the GPS on the nuke and then sets it off course from a direct hit with the city. The nuke crashes and blows up a town of thousands, but it is a lot smaller casualties than the millions it would have been if it hit Monument Point. This is still super dark and I kind of love that Arrow is willing to go there.
Though how much this really matters is left up to interpretation. Oliver and Dig track down Darhk who is in a chamber with his creepy idol. Powered by the deaths of thousands, the idol is glowing and is absorbing all of the souls. These souls go into Darhk’s body and he looks very happy, which cannot mean anything good for Oliver and Dig.
Arrow season 4 airs Wednesdays at 8pm on The CW.
(Images courtesy of The CW)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
Derek is a Philadelphia based writer and unabashed TV and comic book junkie. The time he doesn’t spend over analyzing all things nerdy he is working on his resume to be the liaison to the Justice League.
