Arrow, Season 4, Episode 15: Taken
Back to Arrow for a bit. I have to admit, my interest in the show has kinda waned somewhat, especially with the Flash, Legends of Tomorrow and Agents of SHIELD being far more entertaining and well-written. And it's a shame, considering how well-done the first chunk of season four has been. Having watched some of episodes that came after this one, I think this episode is the first when the Oliver-Felicity shipping thing once more became an all-encompassing plot tumour that just refuses to just stay in the sidelines and drags down the show. It's honestly not at all that apparent in this episode, but as the Arrow/Flash crossover foreshadows, the whole Oliver-keeping-his-secret-baby-a-secret-from-Felicity thing finally comes to bite him in the ass. Big time.
The fact that Darhk (with a bit of help from Malcolm) kidnapped William, Oliver's illegitimate son, has single-handedly caused Oliver to drop out from the mayoral race as well as absolutely nuke his relationship with Felicity. Again, as Barry had told Oliver so many episodes ago, he really needs to tell Felicity about his kid. It's not the fact that Oliver fooled around and got a girl knocked up, not really, but it's because he's keeping such a big secret from Felicity after spending three seasons' worth of "SECRETS ARE BAD!" as episode morals.
Yes, we get a Taken-style series as Oliver goes apeshit and goes on a rampage, and we get a very welcome guest star in Vixen, finally in live-action. Vixen previously starred in an animated spinoff (and Stephen Amell is very obviously trying not to laugh as he utters the giggle-worthy line 'we had an animated encounter') a couple of seasons ago, and she shows up here. Because John Constantine is apparently in hell. Literally. Um, okay, that's a reason why Oliver hasn't called up his far more powerful magical ally, I guess. You go, Constantine. I'm rooting for you.
Vixen shows up, and, well, she's an okay supporting character, I guess. Experience with the Flash gave us some nice little visual effects as she channels animal auras, but nothing honestly too impressive compared to what we see in Flash and Legends. And not even Vixen's fun little guest starring, nor Green Arrow and Vixen finally taking down Damien Darhk and smashing his magic totem, really felt cohesive in this episode. It really feels more of a 'about damn time' as Darhk and Oliver has been playing a game of cat-and-mouse over the past 15 episodes and frankly it's getting annoying. Bringing a big gun like Vixen basically solves everything as she overpowers Damien Darhk with her animal channeling, which really begs to question why Oliver hadn't done it sooner. It kinda portrays Team Arrow as being kinda shit is all.
It's hard to pinpoint where exactly in this episode that it failed to really deliver. I think it's mostly because the episode is all to formulaic and we don't really get a sense of the threat to anything other than the Olicity ship, which I'm honestly getting quite toxic about since it's yet another regurgitation of something from season three. Not even Darhk's hamminess managed to save this episode from mediocrity, because as much as Oliver has failed to take down Darhk throughout the season, Darhk's access to magic dark side force powers hasn't done him any favours either since he really kinda looked incompetent in failing to deal any kind of lasting damage to Team Arrow, godfather-style shoot-out that crippled Felicity aside. Which is reversed this episode thanks to Curtis's thingamagig finally doing its job and allowing Felicity to walk again.
Malcolm is also kinda nonsense, showing up to spout some 'this is for your own good' bullshit to Thea, and while John Barrowman is still a great actor, Malcolm being cryptic and shit and manipulating everything without any clear goal in sight is also yet another thing from Arrow that I can totally do without. I thought he would be delegated to a lesser role after that Nyssa episode, but noooo....
The only real meaningful moment in this scene is Vixen and Diggle playing as angel and devil to whether Oliver Queen should be a father, or if he should protect William from the danger that being the Green Arrow's son would cause him. It's great to have Diggle offer a great perspective that none of Oliver's other friends are able of doing since Diggle himself is a father, and a damn good one at that. Oliver's speech at the end, recorded to be told to William when/if he gets to be an adult, is touching. Oliver's spat with Felicity later on? Not so much.
So yeah, other than that scene with Oliver trying to be a good daddy, overall the only real good thing from this episode is bringing in Vixen from animated form to live-action (portrayed by the same person in both appearances to boot!). Vixen was entertaining. The rest of it, really, felt kinda flat, since the Arrow/Darhk conflict has grown absolutely stale. At least they had the sense to shove Darhk away to prison, without totem powers, because at least this way we might get something fresh for him to do. There's, of course, the disruption of the status quo via the shattering of the Olicity ship, but fuck that. It's 100% Oliver's fault for keeping it a secret, too, but it's also the writers' plot for regurgitating a plot that no one but the shippers are invested in, and it's not even a compelling or unpredictable plot twist. It's just a romantic plot tumour for the sake of a romantic plot tumour and ugh. You'd think after three episodes Oliver would learn, but no... he's just dumb in this sort of things, I guess.
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