Just in time for the next episode, let’s have a look at last week’s happenings on Arrow!

Episode Summary: We see some flashbacks from Felicity’s college days, when she was into goth style and tried to hack into the Federal Department of Education to erase student loan data with her college boyfriend (who ended up getting arrested for it.) In present day Starling City, Ray Palmer shows up at Felicity’s house to discuss business, followed by her mother who has decided to come by for a visit. Oliver visits Thea in her lavish new digs that she purchased with “Malcolm Merlyn’s estate” money and warns her that she is using blood money and it could be dangerous because he is still alive.

Suddenly, power goes out all around Starling and then the tvs come back on with an evil-looking eye and an ominous message for Starling residents. Riots break out around the city, and Captain Lance and his office are having a hard time with all the calls coming in. Laurel is made acting DA during the crisis and flaunts her inexperience with style. The Arrow team realizes that the police are making bad decisions on how to act (thanks Laurel), so Roy and Oliver suit up and head out to take control of the rioting city. Meanwhile, Felicity analyzes the virus uploaded to the banks and comes to the horrifying conclusion that it’s her virus she wrote back in her “Hacktivist” college days, and is basically uncrackable, and she’s unable to determine who might be using it. After a trip to the office to chat with Ray and getting in a fight with her mother, she goes home to clear the air with dear old mom and the two are nabbed by some guys with guns.

Oliver and Diggle send ARGUS to Felicity’s home when they can’t reach her. Felicity and her mother have been taken captive by Felicity’s not-so-dead ex-boyfriend, who is behind the virus and the situation in Starling. He explained that his death was faked so he could work for the NSA, and he’s now decided to exact his sick sense of justice on the world. With a gun to Felicity’s head, he forces her to draw out a treasury department truck so he can take the cash. While he is distracted, Felicity uses the wireless signal on her mom’s smart watch (a handy gift from Ray Palmer!) and calls for help. The Arrow shows up to save the day and Felicity and mom have a tearful reunion. Oliver and Thea also make up and decide to live together.

In the last seconds of the episode, we see Roy clearly distraught while dreaming. He sees Sara, moments before her death, facing him asking “What are you doing here?” and then we see Roy throwing arrows at her, impaling her to death. He wakes up, horrified at this revelation that he may somehow have killed Sara without being cognizant during the act.

Epsiode Review: Honestly, this episode was kinda lame until the last minute or so. But, first things first.

This episode had a strange tone in the beginning. The scenes with Felicity and her college boyfriend were ultra campy and gross, and I can’t understand why she was with him or what she saw in him at all because he didn’t treat her very well. Felicity is a CATCH, yo.

I am starting to have mixed feelings about this season’s “strong independent woman” theme. Don’t get me wrong, I love strong and empowered female characters. They totally make a show for me. But I feel like this show is slapping me in the face with them. Is it kind of cool that Felicity pistol-whipped her ex (who, of all things, became her enemy because she GOT A JOB?) Yeah, it was a fun moment. But Laurel doesn’t THINK about what she’s doing, which has been my problem with her this season. She’s scary partly because she’s unpredictable and does not use her brain! That makes her the opposite of independent, because other people have to fix her mistakes.

I also do not feel like Felicity’s mom added anything to this episode. Nothing. It could just have easily been done without her, and there was enough going on that she didn’t need to be there. But I think it went along with the “strong independent woman” theme that Felicity was raised by a single mom, and that’s why she was there.

Now let’s talk about Roy. I did note that he seemed aloof and uncomfortable in the episode 2 review, right after Sara was found dead. I wrote him off as the killer though, because he walked in with Oliver to find Sara’s dead body, although I guess that doesn’t mean they were glued together all night. It seems like Roy was brainwashed into killing Sara. Is this Ra’s al Ghul’s doing??? If not him, then who? We can only speculate for now….

Worst line(s) of the episode:

There weren’t really any ultra-heinous lines in this episode. But…

Why is it when Arrow character talk about family they always have dumb lines?

Oliver: “You know, earlier today, Thea told me that she literally HAS to put up with me. Because it’s family that’s precious. And it’s love in spite of everything that makes it precious.”

Favorite happenings:

• ARGUS taking a break from catching thugs like Deadshot to…pick up Sara Diggle from her babysitter. What has ARGUS become?!?! Seems like an abuse of power, Diggle.
• The very silly scene of Arrow attempting to thwart motion sensor guns and actually succeeding. This whole scene was ridiculous and I have nothing else to say about it.
• Ray trying really hard to be Felicity’s BFF. Or something. I think he actively sought her out three times this episode. What’s his game plan? And do I like Felicity better with Ray or Barry? Decisions, decisions…

• Felicity: “Old lovers have a way of opening old wounds.” (*cue me, cringing at the tv.*) “Lovers…sounds creepy no matter how you say it.” (THANK YOU Felicity for validating my feelings!)
• Thea wearing crop tops EVERYWHERE…and actually pulling it off. I’d normally make some kind of nineties fashion joke here, but it actually works for her. And Felicity wore a crop top at the end of the episode, too!!!
• Felicity with black hair, goth makeup, and wearing an amulet. I can get behind everything besides the hair (I should write an article about the hair of Arrow characters…) but her transformation into pumps and blonde hair and glasses and nice clothes at the end of the episode was still pretty darn odd. You don’t just pull that stuff out of the closet.  Maybe she went to Nordstrom and got a personal shopper? Also, every girl who has experimented with hair dye knows that you can’t just dye your hair blonde from black in one afternoon. It literally just doesn’t work like that- the colors are so extreme that she’d have to stop at a mid brown/red along the way for a while. Not sure what kind of sorcery the Arrow makeup and hair crew is trying to pull…

Overall Episode Score: C+