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Welcome back to Arrow Squad! We’ve broken the Code of Silence in order to talk about Arrow Season 4 Episode 14 “Code of Silence”, which originally aired on February 17, 2016. This episode revolved around the first Star City mayoral debate since RuvĂ© Adams joined the race. Oliver & Co. know who she truly is, of course, and have the jump of defending themselves against a half-hearted plot to take Oliver’s life before he can take the podium.
Code of Silence
I hope I am not alone (and I don’t think I am) in expressing my disappointment over Thea’s reaction to Oliver’s confession about William. This episode was setting something up, and even though it didn’t turn out like I thought it would (which, I suppose, is a good thing), it did disappoint me nonetheless.
It looked like the truth about William would either be revealed at the debate or at the engagement party. The more I thought about it, post-episode, the more I realized that a debate would not be the place to air such news. It could, of course, but dropping the bombshell at the engagement party is a much more likely scenario of the two.
I’m not disappointed the news wasn’t aired, I’m only upset with Thea. For a girl who hates being lied to and criticized her older brother very harshly for a very long time for keeping secrets, she knows better than to give her brother the advice she gave. There were a couple scenes, between Thea and Laurel, in which I was like, “Wait, have they been body snatched?!” At this juncture, Thea siding with Samantha does not make sense. We’ll see.
A Little Less Glitter?
Clearly Oliver didn’t learn anything from SNL. We need more Cowbell. And in this case, Cowbell == Glitter. Mama Smoak outdid herself in this episode, but she also showed us just how strong she really is! Just like Shadow said last week, beneath the chipper and quirky facade lives the heart of a woman who has seen a lot of heartache and learned a lot of lessons. How wonderful that they characterized Donna as a woman who could celebrate her daughter’s happiness in the midst of her own heartbreak.
Undoubtedly, the high point of the party was when Mr. Terrific pulls out the wedding present of the century. An implantable bio-stimulant. Wha-what?! We might finally learn why Felicity’s legs looked all glossy in the flash forward (according to one Arrow Squad host that shall not be named)! What do you think, though, is it too soon for Felicity to walk again?
Lance Family
It took a long time, but the Lance duo seem to be back on solid ground. At the very least they’re being friendly again and not the excruciating anger that emanated from Captain Lance following Sarah’s death. And resurrection.
The scene at collapsed building intrigued me. I wondered why the subterfuge of masking Lance’s death in an apparent building explosion, but it was nice Lance offered a suggestion himself: maybe they don’t want to take the heat for killing a police captain. Still, the lack of follow-up after their first hit failed was disappointing. Not because I want Lance to die, but because it is so uncharacteristic of Dahrk.
Then again, he’s likely not in any rush. He’ll try again.
The sign on the building also intrigued me. The screen capture is a little blurry, my apologies, but it says: “Unlimited Growth Increases The Divide”. This is a hotel in Vancouver, the Del Mar Hotel. There is a story surrounding the hotel, which tells of the owner’s commitment to maintain the hotel at a very affordable rate in order to accommodate the poor. It’s a sweet story, but part of the artist’s purpose for inscribing the phrase above on the front of the building is very relevant:
[The phrase] is directed at those who operate our free-market economy in their own interests, while excluding those interests that would be ‘responsive to the needs of the community’.
Interesting, considering who demoed the building, isn’t it? An organization who is operating the city for their own interests instead of what is in the interest of the common good?
Next Week
Season 4 Episode 15 “Taken”
Watch Promo”
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Welcome back Miss Ice! We’ve missed our Felicity!
I doubt Darkh killed Samantha because if he had I would expect William to be more upset in that end scene. The back and forth between Oliver and Ruave at the debate at the start was funny. “I find your lack of faith disturbing.” – ha Shadow! I agree with Kevin regarding how he felt about this episode; there were good points to it, but it didn’t feel as exciting as the previous two. As he says this isn’t to say this was a bad episode, but it wasn’t what I would call great like the others.
I love Emilee’s rant about the grave and it being a possible ruse. What clues do you think there have been throughout the episodes to suggest a ruse Shadow? Definitely disagree with Thea’s advice to lie to Felicity.
Clearly Shadow is going to have to start thinking of heatwave names now. 🙂
I agree with Shadow regarding Thea’s comment was more what Oliver wanted to hear not what he needed to hear. I agree with Green Butterfly regarding Felicity not getting married yet because Donna is in the grave, Donna champions Oliver so without Donna Felicity isn’t racing to be with him after his lies which I think William will factor into but not be the biggest action that causes the split; her being upset at Oliver could contribute to no ring because even if she didn’t have the wedding the ring should still be there, but angry Felicity and no Donna could definitely get us dark Felicity in the limo.
Sara and Kendra looked great in their uniforms!
“MISS ICE: You’ve been annICElated!”, a pink shirt with baby blue lettering and white icicle bordering like Mr. Freeze – Emilee so needs to make that shirt and Shadow model it so Overload can post the pictures on Twitter. 🙂
Blog post comments…
“I hope I am not alone (and I don’t think I am) in expressing my disappointment over Thea’s reaction to Oliver’s confession about William.” – CERTAINLY NOT! I agree William is safer away from Oliver currently, but if she was so understanding of reason doesn’t she think Felicity should have than chance to express the same? It’s Felicity; this is suppose to be the woman Oliver loves the most, the one her really trusts and he’s clearly upset about lying yo her, and even if she’s furious at him for keeping this secret for so long does Thea really think Felicity would risk William’s safety after she found out?! She allowed Oliver to be okay with his lie and that’s not healthy for him as she should know. I was with Thea on staying away until things with Darkh were solved and trying to keep his visits secret so William doesn’t get kidnapped in the future but she definitely lost me when she okayed lying to Felicity. That’ll be a double slam of pain if Felicity finds out Thea voted to lie to her as well.
“Just like Shadow said last week, beneath the chipper and quirky facade lives the heart of a woman who has seen a lot of heartache and learned a lot of lessons. How wonderful that they characterized Donna as a woman who could celebrate her daughter’s happiness in the midst of her own heartbreak.” – I’m so going to miss Donna when she goes; again who else would Felicity cry that much in the limo scene and turn that dark? Also Donna was one of the biggest wedding fans so her absence could factor into why the wedding appears to be currently off between Olicity in that scene.
“What do you think, though, is it too soon for Felicity to walk again?” – awesome plot wise, yes; outside of Barbara Gordon and maybe Raven Reyes from “The 100” we hardly see this long term type of plot, a handicapped character who’s trying to figure out a way to work with the physical changes in their life and it’s even more rare we see them doing it with a smile on their face like Felicity has. I’m sure she has more bad days than just the failed presentation run, but overall she’s shown saying “This will not beat me” where as with others of the same plot it’s about the anger regarding the injury and there’s a lot of dark elements before the light; yes Felicity was upset in the first episode we saw Oliver pushing her back to work and we know she’s mad at Darkh, but again that’s one episode versus how many times we see Felicity tackling these changes with a smile and figuring out ways to overcome? Granted it may be due to the nature of her injury, legs over hands which affect her skills more, that we see her so not angry all the time, but it’s still a fresh approach to the story. And again this just isn’t a story we see being told in long term beyond usually Barbara Gordon. I get Emily probably gets tired of wheeling around all of the time in her scenes, you get great arm muscles but it would wear anyone out, and it would be great to see Felicity walking and running around with the group again, but I’m really hoping we can have this plot for the rest of the season at least and if the chip does work we see Felicity having to adjust to it – how does it affect her walk given she can’t feel surfaces and when she might be heading for a slip to compensate; also can the chip be hacked to force Felicity into doing things she might not, such as hitting someone or causing pain in some way to them physically, since it will arguably be on her spine and various nerves run through there could someone affect her upper body also by stimulating the right nerves using the implant?
Also if the implant fails at times due to her maybe taking a fall in a fight or being slammed against things will we see Felicity being down and then back in the wheelchair until it can be repaired? I’d really hate to see her pop back up instantly because the chip is not her spine being healed thus if it’s out she should return to her paralyzed state. There’s just so much you can do with this plot and I hope the writers don’t forget about it in favor of easier shooting angles; I know those are important budget wise but this story is amazing and I feel it’d be fair to put it on the “Best Storylines Ever On Arrow” list…at least it could certainly be debated for a spot. We’ll see what they do long term future wise, but I do feel it’s a bit too soon to see her walking again; I do appreciate them having Curtis say that there could be issues with the install but IF it does work it’ll help so they have wiggle room for above things to happen, maybe that could be a plot for next season where as this season she’s in the chair until at least the finale since it’s a bit of a time jump. The writers have been doing well so far with this plot so I’m willing to see what they do next before I call for any flags.
“Season 4 Episode 15 “Taken”” – in which we get to see Felicity’s reaction to William and if Donna can still talk her into being with Oliver. Oliver is going to be in so much trouble if she’s the one to die given no one can really champion him to Felicity like Donna. I wonder if we’ll get any Donna telling Oliver to do better scenes in this episode because while she likes him no one hurts Felicity and gets away with it.