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“Arrow” recap (4.12): Secret Garden

Previously on Arrow, Felicity got shot and landed in a wheelchair (I mean, she didn’t fall into-you know what I mean), Thea’s bloodlust was diminished by Darhk’s magic, but only temporarily, and once upon a long time ago, Merlyn entrapped Nyssa and held her prisoner at Nanda Parbat.

Speaking of Nyssa, we open with a woman bringing food to our very missed assassin. The guard says the prisoner won’t eat anything anyway, but the woman insists that Ra’s ordered food be brought in, so the cell door is open. She has a special message for Nyssa, about a pepper from the garden, which grows strong.

Nyssa looks inside the pepper and sees a teeny tiny knife, but that’s enough for her. She launches herself out the cell door and her sleeper cells all awaken, the flowers in her secret garden. They fight their way into the Pit Room and Nyssa’s helper says they’ll have taken the mountain before long. But “the usurper” will return, so they’ve gotta stay alert and get to work. And they’ve got to find the Lotus, which isn’t as dirty as it sounds.

In Star City, Felicity is helping Team Arrow follow a burglar, very specifically calling each of them by their code name. Upon Oliver’s request, Thea says, “Thanks, Overwatch,” with delights Felicity to no end.

They fight the burglar, and almost get him, but when Thea has him right on the edge of a roof, she passes out. Oliver catches her in time, but the burglar gets away.

When they get Thea to safety, they worry that Thea’s passing out has something to do with her bloodlust. Oliver starts to kick himself, as per usual, and Felicity states how amazing it is how he manages to make everything about him. Diggle even agrees, calling him the Guilt Arrow.

While they figure out what’s wrong with Thea, life must go on, so Felicity heads to Palmer Tech to practice giving a presentation. She’s clumsy and nervous and knocks over a podium with her wheelchair-it’s awkward. Curtis tries to be encouraging, but Mr. Board Man asks him to leave. He tells Felicity that when they give this presentation, they need to be-and I quote-putting their best foot forward. Which, rude. (But also I’ve totally been there; you never make a joke about a man with no hands until you’re standing in front of one, amiright?) Board Man says Palmer Tech is on the verge of bankruptcy, and thinks someone else-maybe someone not in a wheelchair-should give the presentation. Not used to this new discrimination, Felicity is rendered uncharacteristically speechless and agrees.

Oliver goes to visit his sister, and Merlyn is there, because he’s that goddamned mosquito you thought you killed but keeps showing up. He tells Oliver that if the life she owes the universe for using the Lazarus Pit doesn’t come from others, it will start to come from within. Which would have been nice to know a few months ago, Malcolm. Oliver is confused because Sara seemed fine when she bounced back, but Merlyn says the Constantine thing let Sara skip that so she could time travel in peace.

Thea tells Oliver that Darhk quelled the bloodlust, and Oliver is ready to invite him over for tea, but Merlyn points out that the HIVE has been quiet as of late. Oliver is stressed, plus he gets a text about the burglar being back in action, but Thea tells him to go put on the hood; she’ll be fine for an hour.

Oliver actually skips the hood and chasing the burglar up and down buildings, parkouring this way and that until he eventually catches him and pulls off his mask. It’s Roy! Roy welcomes Oliver with…a punch to the face. Then he runs away. FINE ROY BYE.

The team is just as confused as the rest of us as to why Roy is being shifty and stealing tech.

But while they figure that out, Alex the campaign manager asks to meet with Oliver because they’ve got a wee dilemma: Someone is running against him for mayor. And that someone is Mrs. Damien Darhk.

The Green Arrow goes to pay Mrs. Darhk a visit, and asks for a meeting with her husband. Should go real smooth like.

Back at HQ, Felicity has figured out that if you put together all the things Roy has stolen so far, he could make a tech bomb that could take down power grids, water mains, and pretty much the internet as a whole; even that one website that is only bouncing cats.

Laurel is confused. Roy wasn’t the sharpest arrow in their quiver. But Felicity figures he’s not working alone. Besides, he can’t do anything yet, they need a huge power source-kinda like the one Palmer Tech just finished making.

And sure enough, Roy goes to Palmer Tech to steal the power cell from Curtis, who is adorable in the face of danger, turns out. The Team swoops in to stop him, but Felicity notices something weird with Roy’s eye and gives them all a secret mission. Oliver shoots Roy with an arrow, and Diggle and Laurel prove they should keep their day jobs when they exclaim, “WHAT’D YOU DOOOOO” very dramatically.

They take Roy back to the Arrow Cave and take the tech contact Felicity noticed out of his eye. They had to pretend to kill him so that his boss wouldn’t know about the Team, which is why the terrible acting. Roy is excited to be not-dead yet again, but says he was sorry to hear about Felicity’s accident.

Turns out Roy got made and blackmailed by a mysterious emailer, someone who said they would expose him if Roy didn’t do everything he said, which would in turn expose the Green Arrow and Oliver Queen. The blackmailer calls himself The Calculator. A nickname Felicity hates; only Cisco should be allowed to name things, turns out. Anyway, this calculator can melt the internet, and Felicity loves the internet, so they make a plan and split.

Nyssa and her friend go to Japan and find a temple garden situation, but Nyssa has to venture in alone. She goes in and finds a little shrine hut, where Tatsu is waiting for her, dressed as Katana.

They face off, but they are too evenly matched, and Nyssa knows it. Tatsu even takes off her mask, lest it interfere (or to see Nyssa’s face better, it’s anyone’s guess). Nyssa has a proposition: Instead of fighting until their arms fall off, Nyssa name drops Oliver Queen, saying that Tatsu should really just listen to her.

Back in Star City, Roy goes to see Thea, who is really not doing so hot. She gets excited to see him, but then gets too excited, and starts coughing like she’s got consumption. They notice the wound in her chest coming back, and Laurel gets hella worried. But somehow Malcolm knew it would pass, and sure enough it does, and the wound disappears with the pain.

At Arrow HQ, Felicity finds a flaw in the tech and just as she does, Calculator patches through, impressed by her work. She asks why he hates Twitter, but it’s not the internet he’s after. He has a much more concentrated target. He blocks her out, but that was helpful information, because now she knows he plans on killing everyone in Star City from his Ikea computer chair.

Felicity refuses to call him Calculator (probably because he’s part of the reason she couldn’t be called Oracle) and starts to get frustrated to be up against a foe almost as adept at technology as she is. But then she remembers that Ray invented something called the “battering ram” and that it will help her against the Bad Guy Who Shall Not Be Named.

Felicity zips over the Palmer Tech, getting what she needs from the lap, whipping around in her wheelchair with the grace and agility of Artie on Glee. He tells her that if she channels this Felicity, this badass-since-always version of herself, instead of the one whose confidence wavered during the practice presentation, that she could save Palmer Tech on her own.

Oliver goes to see his sister, and tells her that he plans to meet with Damien Darhk to try to convince him to zap Thea with his powers again. But Thea says it’s too risky. When he protests, she reminds him that this isn’t about him. It’s not always about him. This is her choice, and she’s asking him not to meet with Darhk.

Malcolm also hates all of this, but reiterates that it’s not about them. Anything they do against her wishes would be just to make themselves feel better. They have to let her choose.

At her Overwatch station, Felicity finds a solution to their Calculator problem, and calls the team to action, but Oliver is supposed to meet Darhk right about now. So the rest of the team goes and finds masked minions planting the tech. Felicity is using her magical ways to stall him, taunting the Calculator all the while.

Roy is loving being on the team again, and Felicity warns them that if they don’t stop him, the Calculator could kill at least 8,000 people. Calculator isn’t too worried, because he’s sure Felicity can’t stop him from her computer, but she has friends on the ground. Calc has mercenaries, but Felicity hasvigilantes-even Oliver showed up, having bailed on his meeting at Thea’s behest. Calculator tries to execute his plan once and for all, but Felicity stops him, and he is PWNED. (Her words, not mine.)

They need someone to detonate a bomb to finish this guy off, and Roy is willing to risk his life to do it. He doesn’t have a full season contract anyway. They all wish him luck and head to safety, but Roy barely even needed the luck. He ziplines out just in time, and everyone is juuuuust fine.

The icing on the cake: Felicity wiped out everything The Calculator had on Roy, so he can go back to living an anonymous life.

Felicity heads back to Palmer Tech, her self-confidence renewed. She’s going to do the presentation after all. Curtis tells her to break a leg like Ryan Seacrest trying to high-five a blind guy, but luckily Felicity’s a good sport about it.

Felicity rolls out, front and center, all charm and smiles.

She gives a lovely speech, all leading up to the introduction of the teeny tiny, super strong, 100% recyclable power cell. This little guy, around the size of a credit card, is powering the entire building. She does such a good job that someone leans in to comment on her amazingness to Oliver, who beams like a proud fiance-and has no idea that the person next to him is the Calculator.

Back at the apartment, Thea says goodbye to Roy, and it feels a little-okay, a lot-too much like a forever goodbye. I swear, if they kill Thea, I will RIOT. I mean, I don’t want anyone to die, even though I know probably someone has to be in that grave, but I really don’t want it to be one of our ladies.

Anyway, back at Palmer Tech, Felicity says goodbye to Oliver, and she is surprised to turnaround and see, standing before her, The Calculator. But not because she knows he’s the Calculator. Because it’s her father.

Dun dun dun NN NN. (I know this sounds sarcastic, but I actually had no idea that was coming, and was legitimately surprised. I may have clapped a little.)

Meanwhile, Thea gets worse and has to be taken to the hospital, where she falls into a coma. The doctors don’t love her prognosis, but then again they’ve never seen a chest wound appear and disappear at random intervals before. Once they’re alone, Oliver begs his little sister not to leave him. Nyssa steps out of the shadows and said she has something that will prevent that from happening.

There’s an elixir, a Lotus, and she has it, and she will happily give it to Oliver to save Thea-if he kills Malcolm Merlyn. Which seems like a win-win for everyone. Except maybe (the exceptional and delightful) John Barrowman.

OH! And, by the way, during this reunion episode, Shado came back!

But it was in the useless flashbacks, and it was a hallucination anyway, so I didn’t feel the need to elaborate.

What did you think of “Unchained”? Are you as excited as I am that Nyssa is back in our lives? Do you think she’ll stick around? Will she and Sara ever exchange words again?

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