Josh recaps Season 4 Episode 22 of Arrow, titled Lost in the Flood, which has Oliver and Diggle working to stop Darhk in the Ark while trying to rescue Thea. Felicity, meanwhile, works to stop Darhk’s plan by hacking back into Rubicon, while she deals with her parents bickering at each other. Check out our thoughts on the episode after the episode recap, down below!
Diggle and Oliver Work to Save Thea in the Ark
The previous episode of Arrow left Oliver and Diggle trying to take down Darhk, and this one picks up right where that one left off. Unfortunately, Darhk is able to take the two down and make an escape. Meanwhile, the temple-looking area collapses, with Diggle and Oliver narrowly escaping.
Meanwhile, we see Thea’s father, Malcolm Merlyn, has taken her prisoner. Alex is also dead, which we discovered last episode was probably the case. Of course, he tries to tell her that he is trying to save her—yet again. He also tells her that he doesn’t want to use the mind-controlling drug on her, but Thea refuses to give in.
Merlyn later has a meeting with Ruve who seems set to blame Merlyn for Oliver and Diggle’s meddling. She tells him he better take care of this problem.
Oliver is concerned about not being able to contact Thea, so Felicity gets a GPS ping on her. Oliver and Diggle head out to find her, and she is nowhere to be found at the location of the ping. Then Oliver and Diggle figure out what is going on—they find a grate that goes several feet underground. They have discovered Darhk’s “ark.”
While looking around this town, they seem to get an eerie feeling, because of the mind-controlled people. They find Alex’s body, and then they find Thea. Thea is not as happy as you might think to see Oliver, and begins fighting him. It looks like Merlyn did use the yellow pills on her. She also calls Merlyn, as she aims a gun at Oliver.
Merlyn shows up, and a fight ensues. Diggle works to take down the Ghosts, then Oliver and Diggle make an escape to regroup. They wind up in a family’s house, where they hide from Ghosts chasing them, but the family living in the house discovers them. They try to calm the family down, but Ruve appears on TV, and tells the people of the ark about the two fugitives—Diggle and Arrow. The family then reveals that they aren’t even using the mind control drug, and just believe in what Darhk is doing. Their constant praise of Darhk’s plan starts to get under the skin of Oliver, and particularly Diggle.
The two end up zip tying the family, when Ghosts attack. Oliver heads out of the house, and is attacked by Thea. He manages to get Thea to see clearly though, and they head back in to help Diggle, who was battling some Ghosts. Merlyn has arrived, and Thea has some words for Merlyn.
Machin Has His Own Plans for the Ark
Then to make matters even more chaotic, Machin gets on TV and says that he has Ruve, as well as Darhk’s daughter, and will be killing them in 20 minutes, and then following that, blowing up the Ark. Oliver and the team head to stop Machin, and Oliver tells Merlyn to help the people of the Ark escape.
Oliver gets to Ruve and Machin, and Machin explains he has the Ark rewired, and it could blow from any stray shot. Then Ruve winds up being stabbed by Machin using an arrow that Oliver had shot at him. Machin also sets off the explosion, and Diggle, Thea, and Oliver start to fight Machin. Oliver is able to save Darhk’s daughter. Oliver tries to save Ruve, but Ruve tells him to just save her daughter. Oliver and the team escape with Darhk’s daughter.
Darhk, meanwhile, learns about the explosions, as the city starts to collapse. Outside, above the Ark, Team Arrow sees that there is a crater where the Glades used to be.
Felicity Spends Quality Time With Noah to Stop some Nukes
Meanwhile, HIVE has recruited someone from Felicity’s past to help solve their lockout of the nuclear weapons–Felicity’s ex-boyfriend.
Moving on to Felicity, she and her dad are at her apartment, when Curtis comes by to visit. While Felicity is still pretty irritated with her father, Curtis is very excited to meet one of the best hackers of all time. Felicity then gets to working on figuring out what “Rubicon” is.
Felicity leaving opened the door for her mom to come over, and Curtis calls Felicity about an emergency. When Felicity gets back home, her mom and dad are fighting. Felicity’s mom is baffled that Felicity would be working with her father, which escalates into Felicity having to admit that she is working with the Green Arrow to stop a nuclear attack. Her mom seems upset that this was kept from her, but Felicity has to get back to work to save the world.
Curtis comes up with a plan to help stop Rubicon, which is to overload its servers, hopefully making the program dysfunctional. As they try to do this, Felicity’s parents go back and forth at each other.
Felicity’s Ex-Boyfriend is a Pain
Then, to make matters worse, Cooper, Felicity’s ex-boyfriend, is able to take control of the computers that Felicity and her father are using. Curtis comes up with a plan to get around that though, and winds up blowing up Cooper’s computer, and knocking Rubicon offline. Of course, Darhk is not happy about that. Felicity and her father celebrate their victory, which leaves Donna, her mother, feeling a little jealous, it would seem.
Later, Felicity talks with her mom, and it looks like what Felicity knew about her parents’ break up is not quite right. Donna had taken Felicity, and left Noah, and let Felicity believe that Noah, her father, abandoned them. The two seem to reconcile though, with Felicity saying she would never leave her.
Things Might Be Looking Up for Team Arrow and Star City?
Felicity then tells Oliver that Rubicon is out of Darhk’s hands. Oliver tells Felicity that there are still people that need help.
Meanwhile, back with Darhk, Merlyn tells Darhk about Ruve’s death. Darhk is not happy about it, and plans to take down the world, despite not having an Ark anymore.
Donna and Felicity get a Visit From Darhk
Then Donna and Noah have a conversation. Donna tells him to leave, as it would be the best thing for Felicity. Then Donna and Felicity talk, with Donna telling Felicity that her father is going away for a while. But then Darhk shows up. It looks like Darhk might be requiring Felicity’s hacking expertise…
Island Flashbacks: Taiana Gets Power Hungry
In flashback scenes, Oliver and Taiana are making their escape, when Oliver is shot in the back, and falls down. Taiana also gets shot—several times—but does not seem injured. Her eyes begin to glow yellow from the effect of the idol she is carrying. Oliver has recovered at this point, and shoots both men. The “essence” of these men goes into Taiana, much like Darhk absorbs life-forces.
Taiana seems to be becoming under the influence of the idol. She tells Oliver about a man named Kovar, who is controlling her town back home in Russia, and that she wants to take him down. Oliver tries to convince her that they need to focus on helping the people on the island first.
Then a little later, Taiana and Oliver come across a wounded man, and Oliver wants to help him. Taiana would rather kill him to prevent him from slowing them down, and it would give her more power. Oliver tries to convince her to not kill the man, but Taiana does so anyway. Oliver and Taiana argue, when Reiter shows up.
His Thoughts on Arrow, Season 4 Episode 22: Lost in the Flood
This was a pretty exciting episode of Arrow. There were many feuds going on at the same time, which made it interesting. Machin seems to be just an agent of chaos, messing up both Oliver and Darhk’s plans.
But it seemed like Oliver was seeing a little bit of sympathy for what Darhk’s mission was. I don’t think he thought Darhk was right in any way, but certainly Oliver has seen the world in a negative light since coming back from the island, given how he initially came back to assassinate the people who “failed” the city. In a very cynical way, washing away the world’s sin makes sense. That is basically the story of Noah’s Ark anyway.
Donna was pretty harsh to lie to Felicity about her father for so many years. I am surprised that Felicity so easily forgave her, given how irritated she is with Oliver lying to her. I suppose Donna’s intentions were good, as staying with Noah might have gotten her and Felicity into some pretty scary situations given how conniving Noah seems to be. Someone would eventually come looking for him you would think.
Thea is probably going to be a mess again, since Alex is dead. But at least she is out from under Darhk’s/Merlyn’s control. I have a feeling we might be seeing Merlyn turn against Darhk again though, given that Darhk now wants to destroy the entire world. I think Merlyn’s self preservation and twisted love for Thea is going to have him flip sides.
But we will see what happens in the finale. I look forward to it!
Her Thoughts on Arrow, Season 4 Episode 22: Lost in the Flood
I thought I had heard Machin call Thea “Mommy” last episode, and indeed, this episode he continued to do so. Creepy. I suppose that was just another way to show how crazy this guy is. Sadly, his actions not only leveled the underground ark, but everything that was on top of it as well. The scene of the destruction was reminiscent of the destruction caused at the end of Season 1 – which Malcolm Merlyn was behind. So now Damien Darhk is still set on destroying the world, even though there’s nowhere to hide anymore. I’m hoping that the season finale will be an exciting one as we watch the chaos unfold and cheer Team Arrow on to save the world.
In other news, I’m a little frustrated at how Curtis keeps showing up an episode later than we need him. Like when they needed a witness who was at the holiday party to testify against Damien Darhk, but Curtis wasn’t even mentioned (or Donna, for that matter). Last episode it would have been nice to have Curtis around as well, after Felicity was fired from Palmer Tech, considering that the processor that they needed was in Curtis’s lab! It should have just been a simple call or text to Curtis asking him to get it for her. But anyway.
Hoping the season ends with a strong finale! I’m guessing Oliver will get to use some of his magic, considering we haven’t seen much of that, but we know he can do it.
Scenes from Arrow, Season 4 Finale: Schism
Preview of Season 4 Episode 23 of Arrow
Season 4 is a mess. I hope Season 5 is better!