Check out Josh’s recap of Season 4 Episode 14 of Arrow, where Vixen shows up to assist Oliver with Damien Darhk! Don’t forget to check out our thoughts on the episode!
Don’t need the Arrow episode recap for Taken? Click here to jump directly to Violet’s thoughts on the episode!
To see Josh’s thoughts on this week’s Arrow episode, Taken, click here to get directly there!
Episode Recap of Arrow, Season 4 Episode 15: Taken
This episode of Arrow begins with Felicity with Oliver at physical therapy, trying to walk after getting the chip she received from Curtis. It doesn’t go well unfortunately.
Oliver and Felicity head out, and Felicity seems bummed about the chip not working. They are interrupted by Damien Darhk though. Darhk seizes Oliver with his magic, and informs Oliver that he has his son. Darhk tells Oliver to drop out of the race, or William, Oliver’s son, will be put in danger. Felicity then questions who William is and Oliver admits–his son.
At the Arrow Cave, Felicity is irritated with Oliver for lying. Oliver tries to explain the situation, but Felicity isn’t feeling any better. Laurel, Diggle, and Thea show up, and Oliver says to have a meeting set up for his resignation. During this talk, it seems Felicity is further irritated with Oliver because Thea, Barry Allen, and Malcolm all know about his son.
Samantha shows up at Oliver’s office, and she is nervous about her son, and regrets giving Oliver access to meet him. She explains what happened, that William just vanished all of a sudden at her house. But Barry seemed to tell Samantha that she should talk to Oliver. Oliver then comes clean about who he is–the Green Arrow. He then takes her down to the Arrow Cave, and introduces her to Team Arrow. Samantha makes an apology to Laurel, as their fling was during the time Laurel was seeing Oliver.
Team Arrow wants to figure out how to beat Darhk, and their first thought is Constantine — but apparently he is literally in Hell. But Oliver comes up with another person who can help — Vixen. We get a preview of her abilities, as we see her take down some armed men. Arrow shows up to ask for some help.
Vixen is taken back to the Arrow Cave, and introduced around. She explains her ability to use her totem to use animal spirits to assist her. Vixen casts a spell to locate William. Oliver puts a search team together to assist Vixen.
Thea heads home and sees Malcolm has paid her a visit. Malcolm and Thea chit chat, and and Thea asks if Malcolm told Darhk about Oliver’s son–Malcolm refuses to answer the question, but insinuates he didn’t. Thea seems unconvinced though, given his track record.
Oliver and Diggle are out canvassing the area, and Diggle seems to understand why Oliver kept things quiet. Diggle tries to provide some advice though–keeping his child close.
Felicity and Samantha, meanwhile, work up a profile for William, and while doing that, the two seem to get along well. Samantha tries to actually take the blame for Oliver’s son’s mystery with Felicity.
At the precinct, Lance and Laurel talk. Laurel seems a little hurt about the cheating by Oliver even though it was long ago.
Oliver gets the team together though, as he has found where William is being held. He moves in, taking Darhk’s men down. Diggle provides cover fire, as Thea and Laurel enter a different way. Oliver confronts Darhk, and demands to know where William is held. Vixen joins the fight, and begins questioning Darhk. Darhk freezes both Vixen and Oliver, and seems to recognize Vixen’s totem. Vixen is able to release herself though, and Oliver and Darhk go fist to cuffs. Oliver is tossed out the window, but Vixen is able to grab him. Unfortunately, Darhk has made an escape, and William is lost from Vixen’s “radar”.
Darhk gives Oliver a call, and Darhk demands Oliver to resign now. He also tells Oliver to endorse his wife.
Meanwhile, Vixen seems to think Darhk must have a totem too. Lance seems to have seen it, and draws it for Vixen to identify.
Oliver, meanwhile, is going to resign from the race. Oliver gets in front of the camera, and holds a press conference. He announces he is suspending his campaign, and supports Darhk’s wife.
Alex, Oliver’s campaign manager, is pretty upset with Oliver as he cleans up the campaign office. Felicity shows up, and tells Oliver about her conversation with Samantha. Vixen seems to have come up with something, and at the Arrow Cave, Vixen explains it. Using information she found out, they think they can figure out where Darhk is holding his totem. Vixen tries to calm down Oliver, as he seems to be feeling pretty down about the current situation. Vixen says they will save William, but maybe letting go of William would be better to keep him safe.
It looks like Felicity has come up with a location. But Darhk calls and says he has William ready for pick up in 3 hours. Oliver has to decide to move now, or wait 3 hours. Oliver tells Samantha it is her choice, and she seems to be on the “take Darhk down” train.
Team Arrow gets ready to move in on the compound. Vixen flies in, and Darhk takes her down. But Vixen is able to move quickly, and snatch his totem. Diggle provides sniper support again, and Thea and Laurel come in on motorcycle. Oliver moves in and takes on some ghosts himself. Darhk shows up outside, and uses his magic to hold Thea, Laurel and Oliver. Vixen works to smash the totem to hope it cancels Darhk’s magic. It seems to work, and Darhk loses his ability. Oliver takes Darhk down.
Team Arrow heads out as the police show up. At the precinct, Samantha and William are reunited. Lance then tells Oliver that William said someone with a missing hand took him–Malcolm.
Oliver says his goodbye to Vixen. At home, Thea confronts Malcolm about William. He tries to say that taking him was for them both. Thea is pretty irritated, but Malcolm tries to say he was protecting himself and Thea. Malcolm fires back that he sees the bigger picture, and would rather have her hate him and be alive, rather than love him and be dead.
We then see Oliver working on a video, for William, which tells him he is the Green Arrow, and that he is not fit to be his father. He tells William that he told Samantha to move herself and William far away, for safety. Oliver also said that Samantha cannot show this video to him before his 18th birthday.
Felicity comes in right at the end of the video. She wants to talk. Her talk has her giving back her engagement ring. She isn’t happy about the secrets Oliver has kept. While she is explaining herself, she gets feeling back in her legs. She is able to stand up–and then walk out on Oliver.
Flashbacks:
Oliver is told by Reiter that his plan is nearly complete. We see some magical stuff happening, and we see Conklin–only his eyes are white and he is speaking a foreign language. Reiter and his men flee, but leave Oliver and Taiana alone with Conklin. But Conklin seems to say that Oliver is “worthy to pass”. Oliver heads into the cave that was behind Conklin, and Reiter instructs Oliver to head inside.
Josh’s Thoughts: Arrow, Season 4 Episode 15: Taken
So, the first thought I had about this episode was about the episode name–Taken. I can’t help but feel this was an homage to the movie starring Liam Neeson. I mean, it has a double meaning if you think about it—Oliver has a special set of skills to save his child. On top of that, Vixen has a specific set of skills brought in to help against Darhk. It certainly seemed like a wink to the movie franchise to me at least.
But Darhk is now without his powers. I am wondering of this is the end of Darhk, or are there more totems for Darhk to get his hands on. He is currently in jail, but I have a feeling his ghosts could be summoned to break him out.
On top of that, I wonder what is to come of Malcolm now. He seems to be turn-coating on Oliver again, and seems pretty bitter about what is going on. It seems like he picks whatever side looks to be winning when he chooses allegiances.
As for Felicity, I am surprised she is so harsh on Oliver regarding his son. He had to make this decision to keep quiet in order to maintain the relationship. I can see she her side of things—being frustrated that he has now sent his son away without consulting her, but to be far, this is not her kid—it is Oliver’s and Samantha’s. Felicity doesn’t have much say really.
The very sad thing about this episode was how Felicity was given the ability to walk again to literally walk out on Oliver. That has to hurt Oliver a lot.
Violet’s Thoughts on Season 4 Episode 15 of Arrow: Taken
For those who aren’t aware, Vixen is from the CW Seed animated show of the same name. I’ve never actually watched it, but I do know that characters from Arrow and The Flash have appeared on Vixen, and that they are all voiced by the same actors who portray them in their respective live action shows. Considering that Oliver wanted to bring in special help to save his son, I was expecting Vixen to be a lot more effective. Maybe it’s just me, but it seemed like she was mostly useless, and that her powers didn’t really help all that much. It felt like the only thing bringing her in accomplished was exposing Damien Darhk’s totem, since she has a totem, and then at the end when she used her powers to destroy the totem. But I think other strong characters could have accomplished the same feat. If CW was going to bring this character in for the purpose of trying to promote its CW Seed show, I would have expected that they would have Vixen accomplish more than she did. As it was, I felt like she was being thwarted and unable to do anything against Damien Darhk for the most part, making her presence almost irrelevant. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for powerful female characters, especially being female myself. But it doesn’t help the case of having so-called strong female characters if the show portrays them as largely useless.
I don’t want to get started again on my complaints about the ridiculous ultimatum that Samantha gave to Oliver, and the fact that Oliver stuck to it, despite so many other people knowing about his son. I am glad that Felicity pointed out how stupid the ultimatum was, though. I am proud of Felicity for being able to work amiably and effectively with Samantha, Oliver, and the rest of the team, even though she was feeling a lot of pain, considering her recent breakdown following her paralysis. I hope that Felicity and Oliver are able to work through this, because I think they are great together. This episode also brought up Laurel’s past relationship with Oliver, and she had more of an emotional reaction than I would have expected. I really hope that the show wasn’t hinting that she still has romantic feelings for Oliver, and that they might get back together. I have heard that Laurel and Oliver are supposed to get married in the comics, but I am hoping that doesn’t happen, because I don’t like Laurel and Oliver together at all.
So, Damien Darhk no longer has powers. Now what? That can’t be the end of this formidable opponent, can it? That would be too easy. I have a feeling he’ll be getting his powers back one way or another sometime soon…
Scenes from Arrow, Season 4 Episode 16: Broken Hearts
Here are scenes from the next Arrow episode, titled Broken Hearts:
I don’t really understand Felicity’s reaction either. She seemed to understand why Oliver kept things from her, yet still left. Coupled with Laurel’s random feelings about Oliver cheating after so many years, there were some strange reactions this episode.
Definitely agree about Laurel especially since she knew he wasn’t faithful i.e. He was with her sister
Glad I’m not the only one that didn’t really get Felicity’s reaction, although it didn’t make sense to keep it from her either. Hopefully there’ll be another series?!