Episode Title: Monument Point
Original Air Date: May 11, 2016
With only two weeks until the season finale it’s up to Team Felicity to figure out some way to stop Damien Darhk and HIVE from carrying out their plan to wipe out all of humanity. Good thing Felicity has an archer on her squad.
Monument Point had a ton of issues. That’s the price the season has to pay when it’s squandered so many potentially great stories and subplots and failed to develop them enough to make these final episodes matter.
Realizing she couldn’t stop Darhk’s plan by himself, our hero Felicity had her sidekicks, Arrow and Diggle, find her father. Darhk figured there was only guy on the Earth capable of stopping him as well and sicced Brick and Murmur after him. Vinnie Jones’ character actually makes for a better henchman than main boss and it was good seeing him return.
Reunited with her father, Felicity has to break in to Palmer Tech — she was fired as CEO for being an absentee boss (not exactly undeserved) — and apparently lost Curtis’ number. While Diggle and Oliver battled HIVE’s troops, Felicity and Noah attempted to stop the nuke launch. One managed to get through and Felicity rerouted it to a smaller town where it would do less damage. This could have potential provided it marks a lasting change with Felicity struggling to cope with her decision. If she’s back to cutting jokes next week, it’s all a waste.
Now on to all the subplots:
Spliced together, the island flashbacks might add up to an episode and a half. That’s not nearly enough time to make this storyline work. And why has it taken Oliver so long to realize Darhk is using the same power he encountered four or five years ago?
Donna Smoak coming back to guilt trip Quentin into not signing paperwork about his knowledge of Laurel being Black Canary was ridiculous. She couldn’t even make Laurel’s funeral, how serious are we supposed to take their relationship?
Trapped at HIVE’s underwater sanctuary, Thea blew off Merlyn’s spiel and wanted to ensure Alex was alright. He’d been programmed by Ruve Adams to be more compliant, but honestly there wasn’t some major shift in Alex’s personality. That’s probably because he had such cursory character development despite being on the show most of the season. Merlyn needed Thea’s help as Lonnie Machin, aka Anarky, invaded the base and was planning to destroy it to kill Darhk.
It was odd that despite Malcolm Merlyn, he of the cold blooded assassin bad guy variety, had a clean shot and somehow missed a kill shot on Anarky. And also, there didn’t seem to be any indication of the wound or Anarky being affected from being shot in the chest at all during his fight with Thea. In the fray, Anarky killed Alex, which would’ve meant something had Alex been developed beyond Thea’s lame boy toy for the season.
Arrow and Diggle track down HIVE’s base just in time to see Darhk powering up thanks to the nuke strike fallout. But without Felicity there to take Darhk out, how in the world can Arrow beat his magically powered enemy?
Channel: Superhero 