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[sc:astop]
Welcome to Arrow Squad! If you’re just finding us for the first time, we’re glad to meet you! Come introduce yourself on our Facebook group and find fellow Arrow fans who will commiserate and celebrate with you. If you’re a long time listener, you know we love you. This week, Podcast Overlord, The Shadow, and myself (Miss Ice) are discussing Arrow Season 4 Episode 9 “Dark Waters”. This episode originally aired on December 9, 2015 and is the winter finale with one heckuva cliffhanger.
Before I get into some random thoughts on the episode, let’s take a look back at the three seasons prior to this one and remember the winter finales.
Season 1: Episode 9 “Year’s End” (December 12, 2012) – The Hood faces off with the Dark Archer, who is revealed as Malcolm Merlyn. Oliver believes the real threat to the city is the author of the list his father gave him.
Season 2: Episode 9 “Three Ghosts” (December 11, 2013) – Suffering from hallucinations from the life-saving rat poison Barry used on him, Oliver is visited by three ghosts from his past as he tries to save Roy from Cyrus Gold. Barry leaves a mask for Oliver and returns to Central City, where he is struck by lightning from the particle accelerator explosion.
Season 3: Episode 9 “The Climb” (December 10, 2014) – Oliver battles Ra’s al Ghul on a mountain top and loses, falling down a mountainside after getting stabbed through the chest by the sword of Ra’s.
In this season’s episode 9, appropriately entitled “Dark Waters”, Oliver faces off against Damien Darhk when his friends and family are taken from the holiday party at campaign headquarters. Recruiting Malcolm and Laurel to aid him in the infiltration of HIVE’s alleged headquarters,
Oliver manages to rescue his friends and get the upper hand. But Darhk retaliates and his ghosts decorate the limo Oliver and Felicity are riding in after a proposal gone well, and the fate of one Felicity Smoak hangs in the balance.
Of the four seasons thus far, this winter finale surpasses them all in my mind. It was a genuine cliffhanger, one in which we do not know the outcome of the final, lingering question. Will Felicity survive?
Dark Waters
With an episode title like Dark Waters, we knew there had to be a potential for a murky outcome. The concept of dark waters is no joke. My family has a cabin on a lake in northern Minnesota and even though there’s nothing in that water that could literally kill me, being in the water after dark is really freaky. It’s like swimming in black water.
But beyond the tragic events of the episode’s conclusion, this episode outlined just how much Star City has come to resemble dark waters. Since returning from retirement, Oliver has been held accountable by his friends to fight Damien Darhk in the light. This episode was just another extension of that, and trying to help all of Star City come out from the darkness and murkiness of oppression by the ghosts by finally putting a name and face to the leader of that organization trying to wipe out the people of Star City.
On Island
We don’t spend a lot of time talking about the flashbacks in this podcast, but I do want to outline a couple aspects to the short sequences we got. First, Oliver brings Taiana back to the half-sunken ship where Oliver and Sara once injected Slade with Mirakuru. He needs diving instructions to retrieve a set of maps from inside. He believes that what he can obtain will help force Conklin and Reiter to pay for what they’ve done.
Second, Oliver is attacked by a shark. A shark! Ok, so TVGuide.com released an article a couple years ago with an overview of Oliver’s scars. The article claims that the teeth marks were identified as wounds inflicted by an Australian Secret Intelligence Service Agent in Season 1 Episode 5 “Damaged”. Without rewatching the episode I can’t say for certain, but I sure don’t remember that happening… I guess that’s a good enough excuse to rewatch!
But most importantly, by the end of this episode, Conklin knows that Oliver did not kill Taiana. Whatever happens next, it does not bode well for Oliver. Oliver said something to Diggle about how several weeks in a cage can change a man’s perspective, “he should know” (he, meaning Oliver), so either that’s referring to time he’s already spent on the ship behind bars, or we might see him locked up again on the island.
Personally, I enjoy the flashbacks. They don’t carry a story like they did in the earlier seasons, but I like getting a little bit here and there about Oliver’s past. In the years he was missing, Oliver learned a lot really quickly, and now he’s hit a point where he can utilize those skills. Everyone in the world believes him to be dead, so his affiliations are loose.
Lend a Helping Hand
One of our own, the Scarlet Cougar (aka Karen), my co-host on the Maid of Steel podcast, needs our help. Karen has chronic health problems that have put she and her husband into a financial crunch. If you have the means, we are asking, with her permission of course, for you to contribute to the Lindsay’s GoFundMe campaign. Arrow Squad will be contributing funds we’ve received through our Patreon campaign, and each host is contributing as well. Whatever you are capable of giving, or find in your capacity to give, please consider!
See You in 2016!
We’ll be back when Arrow returns at the end of January! Until then, stay in touch through Facebook and Twitter, where there will be many fans commiserating and consoling one another as we await news of Felicity’s Fate.
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It’s me again podcasters; I know I said previously I was only here for the crossover, but I’m in love with Felicity.
In my continued bid for viewership honesty, I have to say I hope Felicity doesn’t die because then I would stop watching this show. I’m in varying degrees of interest with Thea and Laurel, but I’m in love with Felicity. My attraction to her started with the adorable rant about the magnetic arrows in “Legends Of Yesterday” then turned into lust when she refused to let people treat her like she was an idiot or unjustly paranoid (calling out Barry over the test in the same episode, then became love when she confronted Oliver about the results. Felicity is just my full time treat with this series and I love it. This isn’t to say I disliked all the other characters, but Felicity just grabbed me.
I’m in intrigue with Thea who made me smile when she shot Vandal Savage and her attitude at times makes me smile at her. However, since this is only my second ever “Arrow” episode I’m lost to the events of Thea’s dark vibe, she reminds me a bit if Helena Bertinelli only I know way less on Thea so I can’t jump to say I understand or enjoy the darkness that’s comes from her character. Being a newbie viewer you may be asking “What dark vibe?”, but I just feel she went through something which was mentioned in “Dark Waters”, but I have no idea how it really affected her so I don’t know the full Thea, thus I’m only intrigued.
“Dark Waters” had me lusting for Laurel, just early stages of lust, when she gave her “I’m not a damsel” like speech to her father; I’m also interested in seeing how they do her version of the Black Canary since she’s not exactly Dinah Laurel Lance like I’ve read in comics, just as Huntress isn’t an exact version from them, but I can’t say I’d stay for she or Thea without Felicity yet. I know my rankings are questionable given my limited viewing but these just my feelings after the latest two episode.
On to this episode/podcast comments…
No moments of silence, only voices of “Save Felicity!” please.
When Felicity comes back, do you think she’ll come back relatively fine or do you think they might have her being paralyzed? I’ve seen some fans suggest she could become Oracle to round out the Birds of Prey roster and I have to say I would be okay with that to a point; I wouldn’t want them to use the codename Oracle unless it is clearly stated Barbara Gordon okayed it because huge part of Barbara and her journey, but I would be okay with an Oracle-esque plot if they’re not going to introduce Barbara as Oracle any time soon on any of the DC shows. What are your thoughts on a possible combination such as we see Felicity up and walking for most of the episode but at the end we see her getting ready for bed and she’s wearing a mechanical walking harness which also nods to how Barbara walked again, using Brainiac technology, so you get her appearing fine for the most part, but there’s physical fallout as well. If they use the Pit will she come out fine from it or will there be a darker side to her?
Some very interesting potential stories which are just more reasons not to kill Felicity. As you all stated, it’s one thing to break up Oliver and Felicity, which might be what happens with the William arc, but it’s another to kill her off completely; I still don’t think, based on the two episodes I’ve seen, Felicity would break up with Oliver just because William is in the world. As she said in the first timeline, “He’s a part of you, how could you think I wouldn’t love him?”; she’s rightfully going to be angry about the lying, but that doesn’t mean she’ll leave him. I just feel there’s so much still to do with her, both in and out of the couple, that it makes more sense to keep her around than have her be the permanent main exit.
I actually thought Thea might be the one who died in the episode when they had her having that sort of touchy-feely moment with her dad and she promised to be careful and said things were getting better; I don’t know if she’s someone they might kill off, as Emilee said everyone except Arrow is arguably expendable, but I though as a newbie viewer she had potential target moment. I also felt Laurel might as well, but since they already have one Black Canary gone and Black Canary/Green Arrow is a big pairing in the comics I felt she was more safe than the other two. I’ve seen some interesting debates regarding Laurel/Oliver/Felicity recently as well with some fans saying if Felicity died that’s an opening for Laurel which feels cheap and if I was Laurel would leave me feeling like second place while others have pointed out “Arrow” isn’t an exact copy of Green Arrow so Felicity could be his Dinah just as much as Laurel; lot of intense discussions going on about this event. I can’t say where I stay just yet on the shipping aspect, though I do like the two actors playing Oliver and Felicity chemistry together, but I’m definitely “Felicity be alive!”. I’m veering though, slight apologies, newbie viewer checking out the world.
Regarding Damien, that is a bad guy without question; I’m enjoying Neal’s performance but that character’s last name definitely fits. I loved the line back to Oliver when he says they had a deal “Bad guy remember?”, it was simple and refreshing because usually we hear a speech from them, but that was his speech. That was nice moment; however the rest of the time he had me shivering at his comments so they’ve got an intense villain there.
“Why weren’t they in a bulletproof limo?” – my thought exactly. The Canary Cry was cool. It looked like Felicity got shot once when Oliver moved off of her but for any other times, the car did bounce and was still being shot at so it’s not unrealistic she’d be shot potentially. I hope Karen gets better. Happy holidays!