‘Arrow’ Recap: Thea & Felicity Expose Susan & Oliver’s Reaction Is Unexpected

Thea and Felicity take things into their own hands when they find out Susan’s shady dealings, but when her investigation is exposed, Oliver has a strange reaction to it all.

Children, gather. It’s the “airing of grievances” time. Yes, this is an Arrow recap… ish. Honestly, is there even that much to recap with an episode that touts some majorly awesome villains coming back to town, and then doing practically nothing with them? Anyway, let’s make this fun, regardless of the happenings of the episode, because it’s better than the alternative.

Oliver visits Justin Claybourne’s mistress, who is supposedly Prometheus’s mother, to try and get Prometheus’s name. She’s not receptive to her son being “caged up” despite knowing that he’s a sadistic killer. She basically gives Oliver the “he’s just misunderstood!” excuse and it’s all very eye roll worthy. In fact, Oliver might have even rolled his eyes if he wasn’t furrowing his brow so hard.

Next up? Cupid, China White, and Liza Warner, who happen to be prison pals, overtake the guards on their bus and they escape and set the rest of their fellow prisoners free. How I wish this was an episode actually dedicated to their return.

Then, on this episode’s confusing mishmash of events, Susan confronts Oliver about being the Green Arrow. He says yes. But, he’s only joking, of course! Because Oliver is hilarious and the scenes between him and Susan aren’t awkward or painful at all. As it turns out, Thea is sorta, kinda snooping on Oliver via his assistant. The assistant sensed some tension between Oliver and Susan and so Thea felt the need to pry further. Oliver reveals that the tension might be because of the fact that Susan approached him about being the Green Arrow.

‘Arrow’ — Photos

After, Oliver and Quentin go to investigate the whereabouts of China White, but all they find is dead bodies. So… that’s not good.

Back at the lair, Thea tells Felicity about Susan Williams and they share a majorly cathartic hug. I needed that hug. Did you? You did. Anyway, the two women then discuss the fact that shady Susan accused Oliver of being the Green Arrow. They then proceed to hack her to find out just what she knows, and Felicity makes a hilariously snarky comment about Susan being “so original” because her passwords are reflective of her uninteresting personality. Was that harsh? I ain’t sorry.

Back to the lady villains and their misdeeds. Oliver and Quentin find the trio and they fight. But, that’s all for naught when the police come, let them go, and then corner Oliver (as the Green Arrow) tell him he’s under arrest for Detective Malone’s murder.

The police make him drop his bow but he poofs out of ther with one of his handy dandy trick arrows. When he gets back to the lair, he consults with Felicity, Quentin, and Digg and tells them he has to handle this Green Arrow warrant for arrest because he’s the mayor. So, he does. Oliver calls in Captain Pike to the office and asks him about they they’re arresting the Green Arrow when Detective Malone’s case was basically closed. Apparently, there was a new medical report that points directly to the Green Arrow. Oliver and Quentin try to throw the captain off his scent it doesn’t work. To make matters worse, Oliver thinks Prometheus sent the medical examiner report to the Captain, since the envelope came from Opal City where his uncooperative mother is from.

Making a comment on having a “bad day,” Oliver finds a clearly downtrodden Susan in his office. She’s pissed. Apparently someone set her up to look like she had plagiarized the last two years of work that she’s done and her career is virtually ruined, on top of getting fired. She once again asks Oliver about being the Green Arrow and Oliver once again denies it. Turns out Susan isn’t fond of his lies and walks out of his office.

Oliver then confronts Felicity in the lair. Using his big, mean voice, he invades her personal space, asking in an especially accusatory tone if she hacked Susan. In what is possibly one of the rare, few moments of electricity in this drag of a damn season, Felicity stands up, not at all intimidated by Oliver’s invasion and the two go toe-to-toe. She confesses that she did hack Susan, at the request of Thea, and that they did so for good reason. Apparently Oliver isn’t of the same mind, though.

Oliver then takes his argument to Thea. In so many words, Thea knew that Oliver was going to be way too trusting of Susan and so she felt she had no choice but to handle the situation before it got out of hand. Basically, she tells Oliver that he’s dumb. Oliver then basically tells her she’s terrible for doing this to Susan. In summary, the two siblings are not so fond of each other at the moment.

Unfortunately, Oliver has Captain Pike to attend to, so Thea takes a back seat. He tries to appeal to him, explaining the Green Arrow’s plight in the death of Malone, and asks him to not investigate further. He wants him to let the Green Arrow be the hero the city needs.

Speaking of the hero that the city needs, China White, Cupid, and Liza are out wreaking havoc again. Remember them from earlier in the episode? Yeah. Team Arrow fights against them and their army of petty criminals in a showdown that ends with the police catching the trio. But, the real win here is that despite Captain Pike and the police seeing the Green Arrow in plain sight, they let him go.

Back to Thea. Literally. Oliver shows up at her office, considerably cooled down from his previous overreaction. He explains that his main motivation in his disapproval of what she did was that she reminded him of their mother (RIP, Moira). He explains that whatever happens with Susan, happens. It’s his baby sister that he’s worried about. (Uh, thank god. All that “passion” for Susan alone would have been both ridiculous and nauseating considering she’s the worst). He warns her about not making Moira’s same well-meaning and protective, yet still bad decisions. She apologizes to him and the two make amends.

It isn’t an episode of Arrow if it doesn’t end without some sort of tragic moment. This time? Oliver is prompted to turn on the news, where he, the mayor, is being investigated for trying to cover up the Green Arrow’s murder. Uh oh.

The WTF Moments

Oliver is furious with Felicity, but mostly Thea, for ruining Susan’s career with their hacking and framing tactics in the name of keeping Oliver’s secret. Did Oliver conveniently forget that in October, he broke a man’s neck to keep that very same secret? Because, funny story… I didn’t forget. The hypocrisy and inconsistency in logic is mind boggling.

Also, there’s something to all of this Susan madness that isn’t adding up to me. Was Oliver mad because he was doing investigating of his own? Did Thea and Felicity foil his plans? That’s what I have to hope is going on, otherwise I can’t seem to understand Oliver’s sudden epiphany that he cares for a woman who has shown almost no redeeming qualities.

HollywoodLifers, what did you think of Thea and Felicity’s strategy?