Check out Violet’s recap of Season 4 Episode 2 of Arrow, titled The Candidate, where Oliver’s family friend announces her candidacy for mayor — and runs into some trouble as a result! Following the recap, both Josh and Violet share their thoughts about the episode.
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Episode Recap of Arrow, Season 4 Episode 2: The Candidate
The episode begins with Canary, Speedy, Green Arrow, and Diggle taking down some Ghosts, as Felicity locates the bomb. Green Arrow goes to the ground floor and uses a device to disable it.
When they return to the Arrow Cave, Oliver has a talk with Thea about her aggression.
Oliver and Thea meet with some old friends for breakfast, Jessica Danforth, and her daughter Madison. Jessica tells them that she’s running for mayor and asks for their support.
Meanwhile, Felicity shows up for her first day as the boss at Palmer Technologies. She starts off with a meeting with the Board, and learns that they want to lay off people.
Jessica Danforth holds a press conference to announce that she is running for mayor. Only moments into her speech, shots are fired toward her. Thea goes upstairs to investigate, and finds that it is just a gun that has been rigged, and no one is there. Oliver goes to protect Jessica, and finds that a guy is posing as part of her detail. He pushes the guy over the balcony, then chases him down when he runs off. However, Oliver collides with a car, and loses him.
Back at the Arrow Cave, Oliver has brought back the windshield of a vehicle the guy touched so that they can run his prints. However, Felicity says it looks like his prints are a mishmash of several prints.
Oliver heads over to the police station to talk to Captain Lance, who has assigned 24/7 protection to Jessica Danforth. Oliver offers to help. However, Lance isn’t convinced that this time around will be any different.
Felicity calls in Curtis Holt discuss his algorithm. Just then, a woman enters the room, and guesses correctly that she has been called in to be fired.
Meanwhile, Laurel and Diggle are sitting in a van outside of the police station. Diggle confesses that an organization called HIVE killed his brother, and believes that Darhk’s Ghosts are HIVE.
Mr. Machin, Jessica’s attacker, reports back to Damien Darhk. However, Darhk is unhappy with Machin’s performance. Machin gets Darhk to agree to give him more time to make sure that Jessica Danforth does not run for office, but Darhk warns him that HIVE does not give third chances.
Back at the Arrow Cave, Felicity runs another test on the prints and finds cellulose, which came from Palmer Technologies’ paper mill that was shut down. Green Arrow and Speedy ride their motorcycles there and question the homeless people there. Thea gets a little too aggressive with a guy, breaking his arm. Oliver tells her to leave, so she gets on her motorcycle and drives off.
Felicity identifies Jessica’s attacker as Lonnie Machin. Just then, Oliver and Thea return, and Oliver reprimands her for what she did, saying she went overboard. They get into a fight, and Diggle and Laurel have to pull Thea off of Oliver. Thea stalks off angry. The others wonder why it has taken 6 months for the Lazarus Pit at Nanda Parbat to affect her.
At Palmer Technologies, Felicity has another list of more people to fire. Holt is on the list.
Oliver visits Jessica at the police station, but she still refuses to drop out. He wonders where Madison is, and Jessica says she went to the library, but with police escorts. Oliver tells her to try to call Madison. We see Madison’s phone ring, and several dead police officers laying on the ground beside a police car.
Jessica holds a press conference, begging for the man who took her daughter to bring her back. Oliver tells Lance the name of the guy who did it is Lonnie Machin, and demands that he let them help.
Machin reports back to Darhk, who asks where Jessica Danforth’s daughter is. Machin looks toward a trunk, implying that she’s inside of it. Machin is confident that this will cause Jessica to drop out. However, Darhk is not pleased with the lines Machin crossed, and says he was sloppy. Darhk tells him to clean up the mess, and concludes their relationship.
At Laurel’s place, she asks Thea what happened on Nanda Parbat. Thea tells her about the Lazarus Pit and its side effect.
Lance goes to see Damien Darhk, outraged about what happened to Madison, saying that he’s “out.” However, Darhk reminds Lance about his daughter’s vulnerability. Darhk gives Lance the address where Madison is located.
At the Arrow Cave, Oliver and Felicity talk, then Oliver gets a call from Lance with the address. Lance tells him this is his chance to prove that things are going to be different.
Machin has Madison standing up with her arms restrained. He talks to her and acts like he’s going to let her go, then tells her he changed his mind, and starts to hurt her. Just then, Team Arrow bursts through the glass ceiling. However, Machin fires a flamethrower at them and gets away. But they are able to rescue Madison. Diggle and Laurel take Madison, while Thea and Oliver go after Machin, with their bows and arrows drawn. Machin, hiding, electrocutes Thea with an electric baton, knocking her out. Machin and Oliver fight, and Machin gets Oliver with the electric baton too. Just then, Thea comes back fighting. She knocks him into flammable liquid, which gets all over him, then she uses his electric baton on him, which lights him on fire. Oliver shoots at an overhead pipe, which releases steam, extinguishing Machin.
Madison reunites with her mother at the police station. Jessica decides to withdraw her candidacy. Lance is unhappy with Oliver and lets him know that he’d be booking him for murder if Machin had died.
Felicity calls a Board meeting to report that she is no longer firing people, and has hired back the people she fired. She calls Holt into the meeting, and tells the Board that Holt has been working on a revolutionary technology. Felicity and Holt talk privately, and it turns out she doesn’t have an idea for this technology, but is confident he’ll come up with one.
Oliver goes to Laurel’s place to talk to Thea, and says they’ll get through this together. Laurel has an idea for her and Thea to get away for a girls weekend. After Oliver leaves, Laurel tells Thea they’re really going to Nanda Parbat.
Lance investigates a crime scene. Machin’s ambulance didn’t make it to the hospital. They look in the back and find dead, bloody bodies, with the Anarchy (or Anarky) symbol painted in blood on the inside wall.
Oliver and Felicity talk out on the balcony. Oliver tells her that he’s going to run for mayor.
Laurel and Thea go to the cemetery and dig up Sara’s grave.
In the flashback, as Oliver arrives back on the island, he kills the soldier that finds him, then contacts ARGUS for further instructions. They tell him to infiltrate. He tears his clothes and rubs dirt on himself, then throws the body of the guy he killed onto a landmine. The other soldiers find him, and he tells them his real name, and that he’s been on the island for 3 years since his yacht crashed there. They take him to their superior, who tells Oliver he can’t send him home. He offers Oliver the job of the soldier who died. We see Oliver as a clean cut soldier, acting like a jerk toward the people they have working for them in the fields.
Violet’s Thoughts on Season 4 Episode 2 of Arrow: The Candidate
So Thea really started going off the deep end this episode. I guess they kind of started alluding to it last episode, but things apparently got worse this episode, so much that she and Oliver actually got into a physical fight over it! It is kind of odd that it has taken 6 months for any symptoms to manifest, but I suppose you could argue that it builds up over time. In any case, it was a convenient way for the show to bring up Nanda Parbat and the Lazarus Pit and what it can do. I guess I didn’t realize that Laurel didn’t know what had happened with Thea. But now that she does know, of course her immediate reaction is to want to bring her sister, Sara, there and bring her back to life. Despite any consequences that go along with it. I’m guessing that the trip to Nanda Parbat, in addition to reviving Sara, will also result in some sort of solution to curbing back the crazy in both Thea and Sara.
After meeting Damien Darhk last episode, we meet another villain this episode, Lonnie Machin, aka Anarky. It seems like Darhk will be a perpetual villain this season, while maybe Anarky might just pop up every now and again. We also got confirmation that Damien Darhk is HIVE, if anyone had any question about that, plus we got confirmation that the reason Lance is working with Darhk is so that he won’t go after Laurel. But other than villains, we met a new ally, Curtis Holt, who will eventually become Mister Terrific. It seems like he and Felicity will make a pretty cool team.
Feeling pretty good about this season of Arrow so far. Really interested to see how things will go for Oliver when he tries to run for mayor!
Josh’s Thoughts: Arrow, Season 4 Episode 2: The Candidate
The first thing I thought about this episode, when I heard this woman was going to run for Mayor, is that she eventually will not be running for mayor, but Oliver will be. By the end of the episode I was right. I thought this was an interesting twist in the show, as this season is really demonstrating that Oliver wants to do more for his city than just be a masked vigilante, and provide a sense of hope for his city. I think this could play out well.
It will be interesting to see how Oliver handles this mayor gig, if he gets it, because he would possibly be in danger, as the rest of the politicians in Star City are, and he will have to figure out how to balance his fighting ability so he doesn’t give away his secret identity.
I feel for Felicity and her having to axe people. But I wonder how she will be able to turn a profit, as she doesn’t seem to have a game plan yet. There has to be enough smart people in the company to figure out something they can invent.
Who I feel even more for though, is Thea. She seems to be in a bad place now. I wonder how much of what is going on is the result of the Lazarus Pits and how much is influenced by the chaos she has been through the past season. Team Arrow seems to blame the pits, and I wonder if anyone can come up with a solution. Despite seeing these problems though, Laurel seems to think it is a good idea to bring Sara down. I guess we will see how that goes…
