The Arrow fandom is split into two separate factions. There are those that absolutely hate the Olicity (Oliver + Felicity) relationship and think it is ruining the show. There is another group who watch the show almost solely for Olicity. “Broken Hearts” is an episode of Arrow that is for the latter group, not the former.
This episode is devoted all to Oliver and Felicity’s messy break-up. For Olicity fans, there is a plethora of great heart-wrenching relationship moments that remind the audience why the two are so good together. (It also reminds the audience why it is dumb that they have broken up.) For non-Olicity fans, there’s about two fight scenes and Laurel talks a lot so… yeah. This is probably going to be a divisive episode of Arrow, but let’s dive into it.
Breaking Up is Hard to Do
Picking up in the aftermath of Oliver and Felicity’s big break up, the engaged couple is handling things better than you’d expect. At the very least they are being very mature about it, or at least Felicity is. She has moved out but is still talking to Oliver and remaining on the team. Oliver is vainly hoping that Felicity will get over it sooner rather than later. Since Oliver never gets what he wants, this means it will be quite a while until Felicity gets over it.
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Cupid, meanwhile, is back in town and isn’t handling her “break-up” with Deadshot (on account of his death) very well. Cupid is going around Star City and murdering happy (famous) couples because in her words, “love is dead.” So yeah, Cupid is still crazier than a bag full of cats and I’m still inexplicably in love with ridiculously campy villain and performance.
American Canary Crime Story
Oliver, Dig, Felicity and Thea try to track and capture Cupid. Laurel is not among them. Thankfully this isn’t Arrow‘s usual Laurel disdain at work here. Laurel is actually doing something very important, if not particularly well. She is the lawyer for the prosecution in Damien Darhk criminal hearing. She is trying to prove that there is enough evidence to imprison Darhk. Sadly for her, Laurel’s star witnesses are vigilantes and they aren’t the most reliable of witnesses. Even if Laurel is mostly losing this hearing, it is still a lot of fun seeing her being a bad ass in trial. I demand more of this, post haste.
Quentin volunteers to be Laurel’s witness because he is not a vigilante, he is just vigilante adjacent. Laurel refuses to put her father on the stand though, because that would force him to admit to criminal activity. This would (probably) put him in jail and Laurel is not too down with imprisoning her own father. I am totally am though. I fully support anything that cuts down on time watching Quentin’s pompous duck face.
Eventually though Quentin is able to talk Laurel into him testifying. Quentin’s trouty pouty face testimony lands a number of crimes at Darhk’s feet. This finally lands Darhk in jail (for now). Quentin himself is suspended until the force decides what to do with him.
Red(ish) Wedding
Team Arrow, with Felicity’s help, find that Cupid has set up shop in a wedding dress factory. There are two things about this fact that I absolutely love. One, that wedding dress factories are a thing that even exist (at least on Arrow) and two, it is just stupid, campy and perfectly Cupid. Inside the creepy lair, the team discovers that Oliver and Felicity were next on Cupid celebrity couple kill list.
Oliver proposes, to Felicity’s dismay, that they put their wedding back on. They will stage a private ceremony and it will draw Cupid like a crazy moth to a crazy flame. Felicity and Oliver have their fake wedding while Dig and Thea hide outside. Felicity has no patience for the whole thing until Oliver says his “vows.”
I won’t bother repeating them, mostly because they’re really long, but the point of Oliver’s vows is that he is sorry. He apologizes to Felicity to lying to her and he will never do it again. He loves her and always will and she has inspired him to be a better person and he will always want to be with her. (I’m not crying because that would be pathetic, so let’s just say I’m leaking from tear ducts.) Cupid interrupts this happy moment and we go to…
Flashback Break
Back on the island, Reiter has Tiana and Oliver come with him to some underground chamber. Inside there is some kind mystical bust on a pedestal. Neither the chamber nor the bust is particularly impressive. It is all very Indiana Jones and not the good movies. It is somewhere between Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Temple of Doom. (That’s right Temple of Doom sucks, fight me about it!)
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It is unclear what exactly the bust does, but since Reiter wants it, it can’t be good. Oliver and Tiana manage to escape with the bust and run farther into the caves. They try to destroy the bust but nothing happens. A few guards run after them and they manage to knock them out and steal the guns. So I guess that story is going somewhere interesting… finally.
The Break-Up 2: This Time It’s Serious
Cupid commences her attack on Oliver and Felicity at their fake wedding. Cupid momentarily knocks Oliver out and Felicity is left alone with the deranged psychopath. Felicity goes off on her own monologue about her love with Oliver. (Again, I’m not crying it is just leaking from my tear ducts.) This speech moves Cupid so that Thea and Diggle can come in attack. Cupid is dragged out in handcuffs.
Later, Oliver and Felicity are left alone together in the Arrow Cave. Oliver asks Felicity if she meant what she said to Cupid, if she still loves him. Felicity says she did and she does but they can’t be together. She wants to be married to Oliver but she just can’t do it. According to Felicity, Oliver will always isolate himself and go back to the man he was on the island. They will never work together as a couple. While that might be technically true, it’s still dumb way of keeping them apart. Felicity, effectively, quits the team. She tells Oliver it’s not fair to either of them to see each other and not be together. So that’s the depressing stupid end to the episode.
Arrow airs Wednesdays at 8pm on The CW.
(Image 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.
