Felicity Gets a Nickname in Our Arrow Episode 4.11 Recap

In a rare turn of events, Diggle and Lyla enjoy a night out, but as nights out in Star City tend to go, they’re confronted by ARGUS agent Alan Chang. Chang is in trouble and needs them to relay a message to Amanda Waller, but the man is soon abducted right in front of them. At their loft, Oliver carries Felicity down the stairs and helps her with her medicine. Oliver tells her that she’s a vital member, but she’s not ready to come back to Team Arrow just yet. Oliver gets a text filling him in on what happened and takes off to the Arrow Cave for a team briefing. They decide it wasn’t HIVE in this case and everyone says they could use Felicity’s help. Oliver relays her ‘not ready’ message. Everyone breaks to track down a different lead and Diggle takes Andy some food. While chowing down, Andy asks John how he got involved in the superheroics, but John corrects him, they’re just helping out.

We flashback, but not to the island, to Afghanistan in 2005 where Andy and John are recruited to stop a shipment of opium. En route, they’re ambushed by a truck and shot at with an RPG. Diggle thinks on his feet and puts a gas can and C4 mine in the path of the truck and Andy runs out to lure them toward the explosion, which he does. In the loft, Felicity goes about her business but then begins to hear a condescending voice who appears to her physically as Goth Felicity from a season three flashback. Meanwhile, Laurel goes to a crime scene and talks the cops away in order for John to get a closer look and identify the body. It’s Alan Chang all right, and he’s been tortured and had an eye plucked out.

John and Lyla go to see Amanda Waller to tell her what they know, but she won’t give them anything. She offers her hand to Lyla and expresses a modicum of emotion in Lyla no longer working for her. When they exit, Lyla reveals Waller palmed her a flash drive. Felicity continues to argue with her Goth self, who taunts her about her life choices. In the Arrow Cave, they open the files and realize who they’re dealing with: Shadowspire, organized crime masquerading as a special forces unit who were previously taken down. Diggle has a history with them. That opium shipment? He was guarding it with Andy when Lieutenant Joyner (wearing the Shadowspire patch on his shoulder, subtle) tries to get them to take some of the drugs for extra cash. Andy declines in so many words. In the present John, confronts Andy about it who admits he has no ties to them anymore, but admits he knows how they work and where they’re probably hiding.

Thanks to Andy, Team Arrow tracks down Shadowspire to the ports which they’ve decked out with security. Oliver calls Felicity for some help who manages to get the doors open for them while her doppelgother babbles in her face. The team gets inside where Laurel and Thea go for the remaining ARGUS agent hostages, who they find are already dead. They head for the exits, but John and Oliver get separated by a trap door. The Shadowspire soldiers surround Diggle who gives up his gun and is confronted by none other than Joyner. Oliver thinks on his feet and blasts a hole in the door and rescues John. Felicity frets over not being able to help in that moment. Oliver returns to the loft and tells her its okay and it becomes clear they both blame themselves. She laments that she feels trapped and can’t be part of the team. When Ollie tries to talk to her, the hallucination keeps talking too, causing her to lash out.

John and Lyla bring Andy to ARGUS to help out with the case. Waller comes to speak with him about Shadowspire and reveals they’re after a shipment of Railguns. Andy corrects her because Shadowspire isn’t that simple, they’re using the Railguns as a diversion from what they’re really after. In the Arrow Cave, Laurel and Oliver spar and as usual it becomes clear the frustration in the sparring is due to real-life frustrations. Oliver blames himself for what happened to Felicity and has been tortured by the idea of what Barry Allen told him of changing the past (he also casually mentions that Barry can time travel and Laurel doesn’t immediately throw up or scream). At the height of his self-blaming, Diggle calls with details.

In the loft, Felicity reads the very on-the-nose choice of “The Shining” and is yelled at by her gothelganger about how just like Oliver, she put on a mask and hid her true self from the world once before, and look where that got her. Meanwhile, Team Arrow watches over the Railguns (from Kord Industries!), Waller and Lyla butt heads over the ethics of running a secret government agency, and John “babysits” Andy in his cell. It’s all quiet and we see Andy was right, the real target wasn’t the guns but ARGUS and Shadowspire has entered using Andy Chang’s plucked-out eye. After busting in and taking the room hostage, Joyner asks for the “Rubicon Codes,” and when Waller refuses he executes an agent. He gives her twenty more minutes. Lyla transmits the security camera feed to the televisions outside Andy’s cell. John notices and works on getting the video to transmit outside, a trick he learned from Felicity. Back in Afghanistan, John sees Andy talking to Joyner and confronts him, but Andy talks his way out of the accusations.

In the Arrow Cave, Oliver tries to contact Diggle since they didn’t run into any Shadowspire. He’s soon joined by Felicity, who talks about her angry old self and that what happened to her isn’t the fault of either of them, but Damien Darhk. They’re going to pick back up and stop him, because it’s what they do. Just then the transmission from John comes in and they see the real target was ARGUS. Joyner enjoys a drink from Waller’s office as a goon warns him of an unauthorized comm which he tells him to check out. Waller makes it clear she won’t give any codes up and Lyla chimes in that she’s not playing. Joyner then reveals that he isn’t playing either and kills Waller with a bullet to the head in the most anti-climactic and pointless death in the entire series, which is saying something. Diggle sees this happen and is ready to leap into action and save Lyla, but Andy has a plan.

Team Arrow dives into the ARGUS halls where Oliver christens Felicity with her own codename, Overwatch, revealing “Oracle is taken” (a cute shout out to fans who thought Felicity might take on the Barbara Gordon namesake, but also maybe a reference to executive producer Marc Guggenheim’s novel of the same name?). Shadowspire soldiers find Andy who talks his way out of his cell and to Joyner’s presence. He tells them John is crawling through the vents and if they find him then Lyla will give up the codes. Team Arrow fights soldiers on one end of the compound and Diggle is captured on the other. Joyner puts a gun to his head, but Lyle agrees to hand over the codes. Though they don’t know what the larger threat is, Felicity is able to prevent her from handing over the codes, back in the habit. When Joyner prepares to execute John, Andy strikes and a full on brawl breaks out. Oliver, John, Lyla and Andy all stand victorious and the Diggle brothers share a handshake.

That night at the Arrow Cave, the team makes a toast to Amanda Waller, the most recent casualty of the Suicide Squad movie. Diggle laments he’s still not sure what to do about Andy. We flashback one more time where Joyner hands over a bonus to Andy who gets to meet the boss, none other than Baron Reiter, who traded the opium for a new prize: a map to Lian Yu. In the loft, Felicity reveals her Goth past to Oliver via a photo from episode 3.05. They both talk about how they’ve grown and she sets the picture aflame. Oliver brings up the obvious thing about living in a world where The Flash, Rip Hunter, The Atom, and The Lazarus Pit exists: they’ll find a way to cure her. At the Diggle house, John has made a decision and he brings Andy home where he finally meets his niece, Sara.

You can watch a preview for next week’s episode, titled “Unchained,” using the player below.

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