An ‘Arrow’ villain’s plan finally works, and lots of people die as we hurtle to the season finale

It’s a true testament to an episode’s insanity level when a five-figure death toll brought on via nuclear missile isn’t even that night’s cliffhanger.

“Monument Point” is a madcap chapter of “Arrow,” mashing many of the series’ interpersonal arcs together amid a pending nuclear holocaust above ground and the near-death of thousands of people below in H.I.V.E.’s safehouse. The results are mixed.

Felicity is forced to make a horrible decision in the episode’s closing sequence. By teaming with her father (the returning Calculator), the hacker family is able to stop all but one of the missiles Damien Darhk launched by hijacking Argus’ algorithm, which can control most of the world’s nuclear armaments (yeah, we’ll get to that). The rogue missile is headed for the episode’s namesake, a city we’ve never heard of called Monument Point, but Felicity has one last-gasp idea to trick the weapon into landing somewhere nearby.

This is, or should be, a crazy tense moment. Felicity has to essentially play God. People are going to die; she just has to decide how many and where. But instead of the briefest moment of panic as she’s forced to weigh that decision, Felicity simply clicks a button, dooms the people of “Havenrock” and then has about 10 more seconds of screen time to be racked with guilt — all so we can cut to a scene of Oliver about to get his lunch handed to him by Darhk. Again.

This scene certainly accomplishes a lot. Putting Felicity in a situation like this opens up a few dramatic pathways for the series’ future, including the chance of a permanent Ollicity breakup. It also gives Darhk even more credibility as a villain: He’s the first of the series’ big bads to pull off his evil plans since Merlyn in Season 1.

On the other hand, a moment that should have had enough gravity to pull the sun out of orbit gets all of 60 seconds of screen time. Instead of focusing on the impossibility of Felicity’s situation, the time is given to yet another Darhk-Oliver standoff (but hey, Neal McDonough is glowing this time!) and the continually mundane flashbacks.

Does it ruin the episode? No. But it certainly feels like a wasted opportunity, especially given the sheer ridiculousness of the Darhk storyline. Already burdened by the show’s flailing attempts to explain magic, we now get to see the ridiculousness of Argus’ creation of the Rubicon (“Arrow”-speak for nuclear launch code MacGuffin). I don’t know why such a thing would exist. Neither does Felicity, and when your characters are asking questions that are directly critical of your plot, that strikes me as a problem.

To enjoy “Arrow” these days is to divorce yourself from the silliness of some of the show’s fervor for apocalyptic storylines. It works better stripped down to the slick action sequences that have been crucial to the years-seasoned success. Returning villains Anarky and Brick are used well here. Anarky’s reappearance as a Thea foil and possible nuisance to Darhk is welcomed, producing a great hand-to-hand brawl in H.I.V.E.’s underground Mayberry, and Vinnie Jones is always great playing a one-note stock goon like Brick. I’ve always loved his “take me down and I’ll let you live” approach, although his brawls with Oliver felt a little undercooked here because he’s playing third or fourth fiddle in the villain pecking order.

Outside of the fisticuffs, the interplay of Felicity and Calculator’s family issues with their need to function as a hacker duo hit all the right notes, playing on the father’s regret over his life choices and Felicity’s persistent rejection of those apologies. Calculator taking a bullet for her was beyond predictable, but Emily-Bett Rickards’ charm is more than enough to overshadow any headaches associated with her storylines.

Two episodes to go people...

Left In The Quiver:

• Between Felicity questioning the insanity of the existence of Rubicon, Thea noting that Merlyn’s motives are overly predictable and Merlyn pointing out the sameness of every villain’s plan in this series’ history, I’m starting to wonder whether there’s someone in the writer’s room who shares all of my grievances with this season.
• Did an episode with so much going on really need to pump up minor relationship drama between Quentin and Donna Smoak? This might be the setup for Quentin to permanently lose his badge (and coupled with Laurel’s death, could send him into a Season 5 doom spiral), but the impetus just seems a little wacky to me. I understand that Donna and Felicity take extreme issue when the men in their life lie because of their past experiences with Calculator, but am I really supposed to buy that Donna would take such umbrage with Quentin’s white lie that she’s willing to force him to risk his career, right after his daughter was murdered, just to appease her?
• Did Curtis get abducted by aliens or am I missing something here? The heist scenes at Palmer Tech were fun, but couldn’t Felicity have just sent him in to steal the quantum whenever they needed? We haven’t seen the eventual Mr. Terrific since he learned Oliver’s true identity.

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