Who’s ready for the apocalypse?! Arrow‘s stakes have never been higher, and this week’s episode, “Monument Point,” certainly made that clear. Let’s get straight into this recap, because we’ve got a lot to discuss.
HIVE now has control of every country’s nuclear warheads, thanks to Dahrk stealing the Rubicon code from Lyla’s arm last week. But Felicity knew the only man who could hack the unhackable codes was the Calculator, a.k.a. her father Noah, so she put her personal pride and resentment on hold and searched for him to get his help. There was one hiccup in her plan, however. Dahrk knew about the Calculator’s abilities, so he sent his henchmen after him too, with the instruction to kill him. Meanwhile, Oliver knew he had to find the place of nexus that Dahrk was using for his idol to cut off his magic by searching all the lay lines in the city, but the priority was Rubicon at this point since the warheads were set to launch in 21 hours.
In Dahrk’s “Ark,” a.k.a. his dome protected from the nuclear apocalypse, Thea was not surprised at all to see that she was joined by Malcolm Merlyn who tried to explain to her Dahrk’s plan of Genesis: burning the world down in order to build up his own. Merlyn even admitted it was much like his plan for The Glades from season one, but on a much, much larger scale. Of course, Thea didn’t want to hear his apologies or explanations for why he had the brainwashed Alex kidnap her and bring her to the Ark, so she demanded to be taken to Alex instead. How Merlyn hasn’t given up yet on getting Thea to love him like a father is just astounding. You can’t deny that the dude is committed!
But there was someone else who snuck into the Ark: Lonnie Machin, a.k.a. Anarky. He was still looking for revenge on Dahrk, and wanted to sabotage the system that oxygenates the dome to kill him. That’s not good, since Darhk already filled the dome with the people and families he wanted to survive the apocalypse. So many innocent people would die! Thea found Lonnie in the control room and revealed her identity to him, hoping that she could convince him not to kill all the innocent people, since he was, after all, obsessed with her (and is still calling her “mommy,” ew). She even offered to help him take down Dahrk, but Merlyn intervened and shot him with an arrow. Turns out Merlyn saw that Lonnie set explosive charges to take out the equipment no matter what Thea said, so a thank you was in order (just this once, though).
Thea found Alex unconscious outside, with Lonnie waiting for Dahrk to arrive to get his revenge the old fashioned way. He also made a comment about how Thea needed to stop acting like a pawn with the men in her life because she’s a Queen (Get it? Yeah, she got it), and he was actually making some sense. But then it came time to fight! Fists started flying, and Alex woke up just in time to see her acting pretty badass, but his timing couldn’t be worse. Lonnie, pissed that Thea kept worrying about a man instead of herself, electrocuted Alex with his staff. Is he dead?! Nooooo!
Meanwhile, while snooping through Quentin’s things, Donna found an affidavit that Pike wanted Quentin to sign to get his suspension lifted, but it would force him to lie that he didn’t know that Laurel was the Black Canary. Quentin didn’t think anything of it since he wanted to get back to work at the SCPD, but Donna knew that even a small lie was still a lie. She had been burned by her ex with lies too many times before, and didn’t want Quentin to make the same mistakes. So, he edited the affidavit so it was true and honest, and Donna was proud of his choice, even if it meant he wouldn’t be a cop again.
Felicity called her mom to meet to try and get any information on where her father could have run to, and she came right when the Palmer Tech board president was giving her grief about not giving the company the right time or commitment it needed. She basically told him to go away, but what he was saying was too true. That’s probably going to bite her in the butt pretty soon. But her mom gave her the info she needed to find her father, who ran away to a cabin they used to stay at back when they were together (and where, as Felicity was shocked to find out, she was conceived).
While out searching for Noah, Oliver told Diggle to stop lying to Lyla and tell her the truth about how he killed Andy—not in self defense but in cold blood. Their heart-to-heart was cut short, however, when Felicity called to tell them about the location of Noah’s cabin. They found it just in time to save him from Darhk’s men, with Felicity driving the getaway van. Noah agreed to help hack Rubicon, but he needed the computer system she developed at Palmer Tech. When she tried to get it for him, her earlier flippancy at the board of directors came back to bite her in the butt when they arrived with security to terminate her position, effective immediately… meaning she couldn’t grab the computer. Oops!
Oliver came up with a plan to have her and Noah steal the computer from Palmer Tech, and they actually worked pretty well together. Noah also tried to use their time together to his advantage, talking to her about how he never thought he’d be a good father, which is why he sabotaged their first reunion by stealing her tech, but she wasn’t exactly ready to listen. They tried to duplicate the tech they needed using Noah’s cloning device, but security thwarted them and they couldn’t get it all in time, only 90 percent. He had to put together the remaining 10 percent at ARGUS and hack into Rubicon from there, but it transmitted their location to HIVE. Felicity worked with Noah to continue trying to shut down the nuclear launch while Oliver and Diggle worked with Lyla and her ARGUS team to set a perimeter to protect them from HIVE.
The HIVE ghosts arrived right on cue, and Team Arrow and ARGUS put up a pretty good fight keeping them away from Felicity and Noah, but one of them got inside and got a shot off. Noah dived in front of Felicity to save her and took the bullet for her, an the distraction, one nuke launched, headed straight for Monument Point (they said the name of the episode, drink!). Lyla reported an end time event for Monument Point to start evacuations even though she knew everyone couldn’t get out in time. They then heard that the mayor’s office in Star City had a “gas leak,” and Oliver realized that Dahrk needed it empty because that’s where his nexus is. Bingo!
Meanwhile, Felicity was able to recalculate the coordinates of the missile so it missed Monument Point, but still hit Haven Rock. Tens of thousands of victims were killed in the blast … which was millions less than Monument Point, but it was still a big loss, and it was felt by the whole team. One victory? Oliver and Diggle found Dahrk’s nexus point and his idol, but he already recharged with all his magic. Yikes. Guess it’s not a victory after all.
In the island flashbacks this week (yes, we’re back to those … ), Baron Reiter didn’t die in the tunnels, much to Oliver and Taiana’s shock. His magic grew even more powerful, and Oliver tried to fight back, and even stabbed him, but it didn’t do anything. Taiana stole his idol while they got away, and left Reiter alive in their escape. But while on the run, Taiana was taken over by the idol. Yawn. Does anyone actually care about this season’s flashback storyline?
What did you think of “Monument Point,” Arrow fans? Tweet me your thoughts at @SydneyBucksbaum!
Arrow airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on The CW.
Images: The CW
