Let me start out by pointing out the one giant flaw in this episode: you name an episode "Taken," and you don't even have Oliver-as-Green-Arrow growl out, "I will hunt you down and I will kill you," Liam Neeson-style?
Other than that, this episode was actually pretty good, despite what I predict will be very mixed reviews. I was spoiled for the ending of this episode about three weeks ago, so while that scene wasn't necessarily a shock, I was actually impressed with how well the actors worked with this material. Both Stephen and Emily expressed their desire to explore the fatherhood and disability storylines respectively, a little more thoroughly. Having been given a limited time to do so, with both coming into play fairly late in the season, watching them work through the material has been hard at times but also very interesting.
This episode also worried me a little bit more about who is in the grave...but more on that later.
Making a valiant effort, Felicity is taking her first steps with Curtis’ bio implant, with Oliver and Curtis’ physical therapist husband by her side. Though she stumbles almost immediately, Curtis’ husband gives her a pep talk and honestly, can we have more of them? They’re such precious bundles of sunshine. On their way out, they have a heart-to-heart in the parking garage, during which she admits she’s worried about not being able to walk again.
So, naturally, Damien chooses that moment to show up. Using The Force (or telekinesis, if you want to get technical), he keeps Oliver captive, unusually smug as he “apologizes” to Felicity before letting Oliver go...only to torture him further and show him a video of William playing calmly in Darhk's mansion. At Darhk’s smugness and Oliver’s frantic worry, Felicity questions the importance of this little boy, and Oliver tells her it's his son.
In the lair, he’s begging her to listen, but she’s upset with him for lying to him. Though he was told to keep it a secret, Felicity’s anger is brewing as he tells the team Darhk is holding his son captive. And her ire grows with the revelation of every person who knew about William, despite Oliver being told to keep it a secret. Upstairs, Samantha is also freaking out over William’s disappearance. She’s regretting having let Oliver in, sure this was his fault. In an effort to calm her down and gain her trust, he admits he’s the Green Arrow (side note: Alex may be the only person in Star City who doesn't know he's the Green Arrow. Well, Alex and Darhk, apparently). He brings her downstairs to reconvene with the team, where she comes face to face with Laurel, the girlfriend she helped Ollie cheat on, and Felicity, his new fiancee. She apologizes to Laurel, who gives Oliver the glare but reassures Samantha they’re going to find William.
At a loss, Oliver decides to call on Vixen, a fellow vigilante but one in possession of a magic token. He brings her downstairs, introducing her to the team and Samantha. Turns out Mari can channel the spirit of any animal and, sniffing one of his favorite dolls, believes she can track him. The team splits up, Thea taking on Malcolm first. They have their first meeting since the showdown over the League and her life. She questions him about telling Darhk about William, but he avoids answering the question, trying to make her feel guilty for questioning him about it in the first place. Has he met himself? I wouldn’t trust Malcolm with a ZZ Plant--and you can’t even kill those.
Oliver and Diggle take surveillance, Diggle confronting Oliver over keeping his son a secret. When Oliver tries to take the martyr route, Diggle tells him to stop taking everything on and just focus on finding his son. Providing backup from the foundry, Felicity and Samantha are working on generating a search profile for William. Samantha can tell Felicity is upset at Oliver’s secret, but Samantha pleads with her to understand that Oliver admitted she was in his life and that he wanted her to know but she forbade him from telling even her.
Rounding out the team's efforts, Laurel and her father get the SCPD on the case. Though Lance is not surprised Oliver had a son, Laurel is more affected than she originally let on. She’s not sure why it’s bothering her when she knew he wasn’t faithful, but seeing the evidence and knowing he has a son hurts more than she imagined. Look, I’m not Laurel’s biggest fan, but even I think it was a little cold of the writers to not let her get the chance to confront Oliver about this or give it more time to play out between the two of them.
They manage to track down William, the team taking out the guards one by one. Oliver manages to make it to Darhk, and he and Vixen put up a good fight, but Darhk still manages to get one up on them, throwing Oliver out a window and nearly killing him in the process. Vixen saves him in the nick of time, giving Darhk the perfect opportunity to escape...and causing Vixen to lose William’s scent in the process.
Darhk gives Oliver a call while the group is in the foundry. He moves the timeline up, asking Oliver to not only drop out of the mayoral race tonight but to endorse his wife, Ruve Adams. Mari has a realization that as her power--and that of all other magic-powered beings she’s encountered--has come from a totem, Darhk must have one, as well. Quentin remembers the hidden totem in a cabinet, and the two are off to try and find it.
As promised, Oliver calls a press conference, announcing the suspension of his campaign and his support of Adams. Alex looks on, disappointed. Turns out Oliver was leading the race by a wide margin. He doesn’t want an apology; he just wants an explanation, which Oliver can’t give him.
Fortunately, they’ve come across a spot of good news. Mari knows his totem and knows it’s powerful...but it needs a connection ("like wifi but for magic"), which means they’ve got a better shot at finding him. Unfortunately, Darhk still hasn’t lived up to his end of the bargain, and Samantha is not okay with this. Mari gets a chance to pull Oliver aside and tell him her feelings about his relationship with William. Though Diggle thinks Oliver should’ve kept him close, she thinks he did the right thing by keeping William away from this life and should think about keeping him out of this for longer, despite his instincts to keep him even closer now.
Felicity manages to track him down, right as Darhk calls Oliver to tell him he’ll be releasing William in three hours. They come to a crossroads: walk into another potential trap or track Darhk down and take out his source of power. They decide to take out Darhk directly, making their way onto his compound.
The team clears the outside, while Vixen quickly makes her way inside and right back out, taking Darhk's totem with her. Oliver, Thea and Laurel make their way to Dark, who hasn’t felt any of the loss of power. As he Force-Chokes the trio, Vixen channels her inner gorilla, smashing the totem to pieces. In a moment straight from The Wizard of Oz’s “pay no attention to the man behind the curtain,” Darhk, having lost his power, is pitifully small, going down with little effort.
The police arrive on the scene and check out William, who is delivered to his mom in perfect health. Lance breaks away from the family reunion to tell Oliver and Thea what we all knew: “Darhk’s not the one who took him. It was a man with a missing hand.” Outside the police station, Mari and Oliver say their goodbyes.
In her apartment, Thea confronts Malcolm about him having kidnapped William. Though he tries to manipulate her into thinking it was in an effort to save them, she asks him to cut the bull. When she tells him she wishes he had never come into her life, he gets mad and tells her he’s doing this for her and that she’s alive because of him, storming off in a childish rage.
In his apartment, Oliver is explaining via a recording that not only is he William’s father, but that he is also the Green Arrow and has asked Samantha to take William someplace no one, including Oliver, can find him in an effort to keep him safe. The video is to be shown after his 18th birthday, with the hope that William can one day forgive him and they can meet. Felicity rolls in at the end, having decided after hearing his video confession that she can no longer be with him.
“When your son was in danger, I had to table my feelings about everything. But now that I’ve had some space, I realized I need some space,” she tells him.
She’s not sure he knows what it really means to lean on a partner, which is the foundation of a marriage. To make this literally the worst week of Oliver’s life (and he was stranded on an island actually named “purgatory” for the better part of five years), she realizes she’s regained the ability to walk and uses it to head right out the door.
On the island, things get mildly interesting as the man Oliver killed comes back as some sort of “you shall not pass” cave troll, only to disappear in a cloud of smoke and letting him pass when his magic tattoo from Constantine begins to glow.
So...this episode. I knew the breakup was happening, and it still didn’t prepare me for it. Honestly, I’m torn; I never agreed with Samantha’s ultimatum and I hated even more how quickly Ollie caved to her wishes, but I also understand where their feelings came from. I wished Felicity would’ve been more understanding, especially after her conversation with Samantha, but who could blame her for feeling so hurt when even Malcolm knew the truth?
But regarding that scene? In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Rickards explained, “I think they are each other’s soulmates. I don’t think it’s that easy to let go of someone that you have shared such a deep connection with, even if they were hiding things from you. She might be able to take off the ring, but I don’t know if she can lose the intertwined connection of her heart, so we’ll see.” Of course, the ring is still missing in the flash forward while she and Oliver are parked outside the mysterious grave, so time will tell what is in store for this fan favorite couple.
Arrow returns with new episodes Wednesday, March 23 at 8/7c on The CW.