Arrow wanted to make sure that each Olicity moment in this week’s episode, “Code of Silence,” was poisoned by the fact that we all know their engagement is headed for disaster. Every loving look they shared, everything they said to each other, every comment someone else made about their relationship just drove the point home even more that the secret Oliver is keeping from her about his son William is going to be the last straw that their relationship may not be able to recover from.
Of course, that didn’t stop “Code of Silence” from being one of the most entertaining episodes of Arrow yet this season. From all the smaller moments and quotes like, “You’re a bit of a ‘Dahrk’ horse yourself,” “You look good in glitter,” “Pin the junk on the hunk,” the “romantic” call back to Oliver’s very first IT request of Felicity, the return of the Hoffmans and their love of slow cookers, to all the big action scenes and stunts, this hour was fantastic. Or, in Oliver’s words, “just terrific.” Let’s recap it all!
After Darhk decided to take his plans for Star City to the next phase, his wife Ruvé Adams opted to run for mayor opposite Oliver. The Dahrk couple devised a plan to wage war on Oliver politically, as well as personally, and the timing couldn’t be worse—his first political debate against Ruvé came at the same time as his engagement party, thrown by Felicity’s mom Donna (who seriously needs to start her own party planning business, because those glitter bomb invitations were simply the best).
But Dahrk wasn’t just targeting Oliver; he also set his sights on Lance, since it’s become clear that he’s been helping Team Arrow fight against Darhk. First, Dahrk tried to collapse a building on top of him during a routine call on the job, but Laurel helped save him. Felicity tracked the fake dispatch call to a factory, and Team Arrow managed to recover a laptop from the building before HIVE agents demolish it. Major props to Speedy for making it out of the building alive, because that was the closest of calls. You could practically see the shock and relief in her eyes as she surveyed the damage behind her just as she cleared the building.
Since Dahrk was now attacking him, Lance decided to put some distance between him and Donna to protect her from his wrath. Donna got angry with Lance for not telling her the truth about why he wanted to take a break (he lied about having some gambling debts and loan sharks on his back, but she could tell he was BS-ing her). And while Felicity couldn’t argue with making sure her mom was safe, she didn’t like seeing her mother hurt. Felicity tried to cheer Donna up explaining that Lance is just trying to protect her, but it took more than that to heal the SmoaknLance relationship. We’ll get to that in a bit.
Meanwhile, while helping her brother’s campaign, Thea did some digging to make sure Oliver’s past was clean enough for the debate and the media’s coverage of him leading up the election. Along with her boyfriend Alex, they actually discovered Moira’s written (but never cashed) check for a million dollars to Oliver’s ex-girlfriend. Thea did some more digging and figured out that William is Oliver’s son. But instead of giving him good advice and telling him to let Felicity in on the secret, she made Oliver feel better about keeping him a secret from everyone, including Felicity. Thea said that she understood that anyone in the Green Arrow’s life would instantly be a target, so keeping William a secret is the only way to keep him safe. But seeing as how Malcolm Merlyn already told Damien Dahrk all about William, that’s not a safe assumption.
Right before the mayoral debate began, Curtis discovered blueprints on the destroyed laptop Felicity gave him from Team Arrow’s earlier mission; the blueprints were for the building meant to house the debate, meaning HIVE was planning to destroy the building during the debate, taking out Oliver and everyone inside. Team Arrow managed to take down the bombs and Lance arrested the demolition team, ending the night on a positive note. Oliver went on to win the mayoral debate and Donna saw Lance arresting the HIVE men, realizing he was still a good man.
Later that night, at Oliver and Felicity’s engagement party, Lance showed up to finally confess all about his involvement with HIVE to Donna, and she took him back. SmoaknLance is back together, y’all! And the happiness didn’t end there. Curtis gave Felicity her wedding present: an implantable biostimulant that, once it’s implanted in her spine, will help her walk again. Hopefully by the time she has to walk down the aisle.
Don’t get me wrong, no one wants to see Felicity happy more than me. But this seems to be way too soon to come up with a miracle cure for her paralysis. We only got one episode of Felicity struggling with her new life confined to a wheelchair, and since then she seemed to be totally fine and well-adjusted to her new reality. It wasn’t enough of an impact on her life, especially now that we know she might not be in the wheelchair forever. It would have had more of an emotional impact if Felicity stayed in the wheelchair for the rest of her life. Now it just seems like all that time spent worrying about her was for nothing. She’ll end up back to normal in no time, and that just feels like cheating.
But it’s not like reversing Felicity’s paralysis means she’ll live happily ever after. The end of the episode saw Damien Dahrk kidnapping William, meaning Oliver’s secret and lies about his son are finally going to come out, forever damaging his relationship with Felicity.
In the island flashback storyline this week, Baron Reiter’s men and the other captives all turned on Oliver. The only way he could convince them not to kill him was by promising to kill Conklin. He ended up doing just that, finally. But before Conklin died, he told Oliver that Reiter planned to kill everyone imprisoned on the island as soon as he got what he came for. Time is running out!
What did you think of “Code of Silence,” Arrow fans? Tweet me your thoughts at @SydneyBucksbaum!
—
Images: The CW
Arrow airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on The CW.
