Violet recaps Season 5 Episode 20 of Arrow, titled Underneath, where Oliver and Felicity get trapped in the bunker and the Arrow Team tries to help them get out. Following the recap, both Violet and Josh share their thoughts about the episode.
- His thoughts on Underneath, Episode 520 of Arrow
- Her thoughts on Arrow, Season 5 Episode 20: Underneath
We pick up right where we left off at the end of last episode, with an explosion in the Arrow Cave. Felicity is unable to move her legs due to the explosion having been an EMP. There’s no sign of Chase though. It seems that they are trapped and running out of air.
Meanwhile, the rest of the Arrow Team is worried that they can’t get in touch with Oliver and Felicity. Curtis stops by outside the Arrow Cave, but he is unable to get in. He hears some explosions — which is Oliver shooting arrows at the door. But this doesn’t help them get out. They figure that if they’re trapped in the Arrow Cave, it’s because Chase is up to something on the outside. Oliver thinks it has something to do with his son, William.
Over at the Diggle household, Diggle is sleeping on the couch. Lyla and Diggle begin arguing, with Lyla saying that what she does with ARGUS isn’t much different than what he’s doing with the Arrow Team. Speaking of which, Curtis, Rene, and Dinah show up and tell Diggle there’s a problem at the bunker.
Oliver decides to go check out the elevator shaft, but this causes an explosion, and he falls, landing on a piece of metal sticking up. Felicity stitches him up, while she brings up what they were discussing before the EMP explosion: that she always supports him, but he doesn’t support her.
Curtis tells the others about the EMP, and Lyla heads out to ARGUS, telling Curtis to give her a list of whatever he needs.
Felicity’s plan is to generate electricity even though they don’t have any working electronics — using a motorcycle.
Curtis and Rene look around at the state of things at the bunker, while Dinah and Diggle listen in. Lyla stops by with all the things Curtis asked for.
Felicity’s plan seems to be working, but then it causes a pipe to burst — a pipe labeled as “methane gas.” Oliver gets up on a ladder and duct tapes it, but it doesn’t work. Felicity estimates they have about 20 minutes before they asphyxiate. Oliver takes a look at the map and discovers a room beneath the bunker. They just have to figure out a way to get to it.
As Rene and Curtis try to get into the bunker through the hatch, they cause a small explosion and realize that there’s methane gas inside. Dinah has an idea: use hydrocholoric acid to get through.
Meanwhile, Felicity puts some chemical powders together to make an explosive arrow for Oliver to shoot at the door they need to get through. It works, and Oliver investigates — it’s a two story drop.
The hydrocholoric acid is taking too long, so Lyla reveals something she had up her sleeve: an improvement upon Curtis’s T-sphere.
Back in the bunker, Oliver has Felicity on his back, and climbs down a rope, lowering the two of them down into the room two stories below. Then he passes out. Felicity runs to his side, telling him that he has to stay awake. He tells her the reason that he didn’t have her back wasn’t because of her, or because of lack of trust, it was him. Everything she and the team did was based on a lie — all they did wasn’t for him to be a hero, it was because he enjoyed killing. Then Oliver loses consciousness, as Felicity begs for him to come back.
Up above the bunker, Lyla gives Diggle a list of all the black ops she’s been involved in. She also questions why Diggle always stands behind Oliver no matter what, and why he can’t do the same for her, his wife. Suddenly, Curtis jumps up, saying he has figured out what to do.
Oliver wakes up, saying that he thinks his wound re-clotted. They continue the conversation about him enjoying killing. Felicity is confident that she knows what kind of man Oliver is, but he’s not so sure about it himself. All of a sudden, a T-sphere bursts through the wall, and Felicity and Oliver are able to talk to the rest of the Arrow Team through it. Curtis reports that the bunker’s generators have a doomsday scenario failsafe, which makes it so no one can prevent them from coming back on. If they don’t get the air vents back online first, they’re sitting underneath a four-story bomb, thanks to the methane gas. There’s about 12 minutes before the generators come on.
Diggle, Dinah, and Rene go to the air vent shaft, while Oliver carries Felicity over there. However, on the way, Oliver falls over and passes out. Luckily, Curtis sends the T-sphere over there with some adrenaline, which Felicity injects into Oliver’s heart. He immediately gets back up and they continue on.
Diggle jumps across the ventilation shaft and grabs onto the ladder on the other side — but part of it slides off. Dinah and Rene throw him a rope. Oliver climbs up the ladder on their side, then reaches over and grabs Diggle’s hand as he jumps. While he does that, Felicity slips off, and is barely hanging on to Oliver’s hand, and Curtis gets the air vents turned on below. Diggle tells him to turn it off though. Oliver is able to pull Felicity up to his back again, and Rene pulls them back to the top.
They all go to ARGUS with Lyla. Diggle apologizes to Lyla and promises they’ll get through this. Curtis works on a temporary solution to get Felicity walking again. When Oliver gets out of surgery, he asks to see Felicity. She goes in to see him alone, and he thanks her for what she said down in the bunker. Felicity says that she got the tiniest taste of what he’s been through, and understands why he had to lie to her about William. She apologizes for judging him, and tells him he should figure out what kind of person he is.
Meanwhile, elsewhere, a young boy gets off of a school bus. Adrian Chase approaches him, calling him William. The boy replies that his name is Matthew. But Chase says he knows it used to be William, before he and his mother left Central City. William asks if he knows his mother, but Chase replies that he knew his father — who also knew his own father.
Flashbacks
Flashing back to 11 months ago, Felicity and Oliver are alone in the Arrow Cave. This is before they recruited the new members of the team. Curtis stops by with a device from Palmer Tech. After Oliver leaves, Curtis says that Felicity and Oliver should get back together, but Felicity tells him why it wouldn’t work. Curtis ducks out, leaving Oliver and Felicity with Chinese take out and some wine.
Later, Oliver helps Felicity up on the salmon ladder, then helps her down. She confirms that she’s had a lot to drink, and kisses him. They make out and begin taking off their clothes. Afterwards, they lay together naked and seem happy. But then Felicity sits up and says this doesn’t change things between them. She says that the problem is that he doesn’t trust her, or anyone. Felicity tells Oliver she loves him, but that’s why she can’t settle for anything less than his full trust.
The next day, Felicity says Oliver was right — they never talked about what that happened between them. She says she’s not ready for that talk quite yet. He replies that he’s not going anywhere.
Her Thoughts on Arrow, Season 5 Episode 20: Underneath
Ode to Olicity. That’s what it felt like this episode was. Whether you’re an Olicity fan or not, it was interesting getting this background information and a further explanation about Felicity’s feelings about the whole breakup situation. In case you’re wondering, I do like Felicity and Oliver together, and Felicity is the only person that I’ve actually felt was a good fit for Oliver. I never liked him with Laurel, or Sara, and especially not Susan Williams. The good news about this episode was that although we were back to flashbacks after a hiatus from them in the last episode, at least it actually felt more relevant and current, as compared to the recent Bratva/Russian flashbacks, which have mostly just bored me.
While I’m glad that Oliver and Felicity were given a chance to talk through their issues, at the same time, this trapping Oliver and Felicity together just felt a little too convenient to the show’s agenda to throw the two of them together to appease the Olicity shippers.
In any event, the show finally has decided to play that wild card it’s been keeping in its back pocket – Oliver’s son, William, who was prominently featured in Oliver and Felicity’s conversations throughout this episode. Apparently, Adrian Chase assumed that his plan to eliminate Oliver worked, because he tells William that he “knew” his father, implying that his father is no longer alive. But considering that Chase is always a step ahead of the Arrow Team, one must assume that he also must have recognized the possibility that Oliver would somehow get out and come after him. The question is, what does he plan to do with William in the case that Oliver had died, and what about in the case that he didn’t? I’m curious to find out, and looking forward to Chase and Oliver facing off again, in light of Chase’s recent absence from the past couple of episodes.
His Thoughts on Arrow, Season 5 Episode 20: Underneath
COMING SOON
Scenes from Arrow, Season 5 Episode 21: Honor Thy Fathers
Preview of Season 5 Episode 21 of Arrow
