Bee-con of Hope, and Other Terrible Puns: Arrow Season 4, Episode 17 Review
Please say it's not bees. Anything but bees. I'll take all the Arrow villains combined, seasons 1-4, over swarms of killer bees.
Mechanized killer bees at that.
It's Brie Larvin again, from The Flash crossover: blonde tech genius - and bee preservation environmentalist with a spinal cord tumor, as it turns out - who wants something another blonde tech genius has.
Blueprints for the miracle microchip that enabled Felicity to walk again.
Problems include a) there's only one, and b) it's implanted in Felicity's spine.
Oh, and c) it was a wedding gift.
We've been waiting forever in Arrow time see Felicity, Mama Smoak, and Thea in scenes together, although we never quite expected an apiari ambush at Palmer Tech.
What we totally expected was Green Arrow swooping in to save the day. Breakup or no, a hero's work is never done, and regardless Oliver will never stop protecting the loved ones in his life.
Doesn't hurt that Oliver is in better fighting shape than he's been since season 2, clearly working out the pain of his breakup with Felicity. Since when can he take down John Diggle in one move?
These robotic bees are another story, though.
Things we learned in this episode
(Besides they could've called it "Arrow Storyline Clarification.")
Alex and Thea are still an item.
Andy Diggle either betrayed his brother again, or is playing double agent within HIVE.
Malcolm has been involved with Damian Darhk and Genesis all along.
Somebody other than Felicity uses the term "Holy frack!"
Things we now know will happen
(They also could've called this episode "Arrow Storyline Setup.")
Curtis "kid in a candy store" Holt will keep working with Team Arrow - he even introduced his own code name "terrific," albeit ironically - and helping them will cause friction in his marriage.
Palmer Tech will save the world by making these spinal implant devices cheaper and accessible to more people with spinal injuries. (I half-way expected Brie to say that her health insurance wouldn't pay for experimental treatments.)
Alex will go to work for Palmer Tech instead of for Ruvé Adams' mayoral campaign, and will do PR for this new product line, not knowing its back story.
Donna and Felicity will continue to get closer. She already knew about the breakup, which hilariously she misspelled, although her funniest line was while running from the bees: "From now on, I'm buying flats!" Felicity put her in charge of keeping the Palmer Tech board members safe, and she did.
How much longer can Felicity keep the Team Arrow secret from her mom, since Donna Smoak and Captain Lance are still going strong?
This episode was so full of callbacks, it wasn't funny. Thea gets thrown by a villain and breaks another glass table à la Ra's al-Ghul. Mr. Mouth Sewn Shut is silently working for Damian Darhk in prison.
For the first time in Arrow history, Laurel is growing on me, beside the fact that the Canary cry gave Curtis the right frequency to disable the robotic bees. Although the writing itself was terrible, she gave Oliver not one, not two, but three pep talks.
That despite their history Laurel can tell Oliver sincerely that he's a beacon of hope, and he should keep some of that hope for himself, is the wisest thing that's ever come out of her mouth.
For Laurel to go out at the top of her game brings her Arrow storyline full circle. Did I mention she's the one in the grave?
Except...the Arrow 4x18 promo "Eleven-Fifty-Nine" has her announcing the time of someone else's death, at the "end of an era." Arrow writers, what are you playing at?
