The Bug-Eyed Bandit is one of the stranger Arrowverse villains. Arrow has had a man whose tattoos turned into exploding playing cards and Bug-Eyed Bandit is still a weirdo. She might be described as Felicity’s arch nemesis on The Flash but no one was really asking for her return on The Flash or for her to crossover to Arrow. Yet here is “Beacon of Hope” and Bug-Eyed Bandit is back. The result is surprising awesome episode that is undeniably silly but also undeniably fun. After all the Oliver and Felicity angst, “Beacon of Hope” is kind of necessary.
Bee-ware the Bandit
Felicity is trying to figure out a way to mass produce the miracle chip inside of her that allows her to walk. (Sidenote: I haven’t mentioned how ridiculous it is that Felicity is walking again but it totally is and I hate it.) In any case, it proves that miracle technology is expensive and not exactly feasible to mass-produce. This does however make the chip very expensive and valuable.
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It is so valuable that Brie Larvan, the real name of the Bug-Eyed Bandit, (yes that’s really her name) breaks out of prison to get it. Brie breaks into Palmer Tech, which apparently has no security, takes the members of the board hostage and traps the entire building under a cloud of robot bees. (Yes, that’s really what happens.)
This hostage situation by robot bees traps Felicity, Donna and Thea inside and away from Team Arrow. This trio of ladies is a team-up I never knew I needed to this moment and it is the definition of perfect. Think the first Die Hard but with less Alan Rickman and with three very attractive funny and bad-ass ladies instead of Bruce Willis.
Under Bee Siege
While it would just as awesome to see Thea, Felicity and Donna’s efforts to survive the robot bee swarm, Team Arrow has to be involved somehow. Curtis, who is off sick from Palmer Tech, finds a way to trace the location of the Arrow Cave. Curtis finds his way inside and comes face to face with Oliver, Laurel and Dig. Curtis quickly sits himself down in Felicity’s chair and starts taking over Overwatch’s duties.
Curtis tells Team Arrow that he can hack the bees so they are allowed to get into the building. This works … kind of. Curtis does hack the bees and Team Arrow does get inside the building but Brie’s bees quickly get more advanced. They form into some kind of humanoid enforcer who promptly wrecks Laurel, Ollie and Diggle. In the fight Oliver is stung and he is rushed back to the cave.
Inside the cave Curtis discovers that the bees are multiplying inside of Oliver! He can no longer hack them but he does figure out a way to stop the robots. They need to disrupt and kill them with high radio frequency blah, blah, blah. The point is, they use Laurel’s canary cry and she screams the robots out of Oliver. It’s way cooler than it sounds.
Bee Takeover
Inside Palmer Tech, Felicity finds a way to use the secret elevator inside the building to save the board members and her mother. Felicity and Thea rescue these hapless civilians and stay behind with Brie. Brie then decides to reveal her master plan which is not totally selfish. She has a tumor on her spine that can only be taken out with paralyzing surgery. She wants the blueprint for the chip so that doesn’t happen.
Felicity gives Brie what she wants and then tries to hack into the swarm on her own. This starts to work but Brie discovers something when grabbing the blueprint. Felicity is the hacker who took her down in Central City and landed her in prison in the first place. This is now personal.
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Curtis figures out a way to take on the robots that doesn’t involve Laurel’s cry or hacking them. He gives Oliver a virus payload arrow that if shot near one of the bees, it will cripple the entire swarm. It will allow Curtis to take control. It’s silly, sure, but this episode wasn’t really going for realism anyhow. The plan works. Oliver breaks into Palmer Tech. He uses the arrow and Curtis is able to take control of the bees from Brie and take down Brie herself.
New Bee-ginnings
As the day is saved, Felicity decompresses with Thea. Thea, as the voice of the audience, tries to convince Felicity to come back to Team Arrow. Felicity says that she isn’t interested in doing that anymore though. She just wants to help people and she can do that just as well, if not better, as the CEO of Palmer Tech. Felicity reaffirms her decision to quit Team Arrow and starts a new venture as a philanthropist.
Felicity isn’t the only one starting a new-ish job. Malcolm is shown talking to someone in a limo. He tells this mystery man that he heard he can help him complete HIVE’s mission. It is revealed that he is talking to Diggle, Andy Diggle. This is quite possibly the lamest reveal in Arrow history.
Arrow season 4 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.
