Arrow: Unchained
February 8, 2016 10:26 AM - Season 4, Episode 12 - Subscribe
The team faces off against a formidable villain nicknamed The Calculator. Meanwhile, Nyssa makes her move and Roy Harper returns to Star City.
In addition, Thea's rage remission turns out to come with a price. Turns out that was less a problem in and of itself - unless it's you she's stabbing, that is - than a symptom the Lazarus Pit put in place to make sure she keeps feeding the need for death her cure demands.
This leaves a lot of questions. Is this the miracle of compound interest? Get 100 "hit points" restored and you have to keep making payments of 10hp from weaker folks every month for 27 years before you're actually paid off? Does it matter if you do the killin' or could someone just stab someone you're currently hugging? Could you just kill 20 rats instead of one person? Fifty pigeons? Do the bacteria you kill when you pour alcohol on a cut count towards your debt? Who knows? Magic!
Cool reveal at the end about the Calculator.
Top "what wasn't this said?" line missing from the episode: "Okay, then why are we not calling Constantine again?"
Runner up: "If Roy could do this with an arrow how come Deadshot couldn't manage?"
In addition, Thea's rage remission turns out to come with a price. Turns out that was less a problem in and of itself - unless it's you she's stabbing, that is - than a symptom the Lazarus Pit put in place to make sure she keeps feeding the need for death her cure demands.
This leaves a lot of questions. Is this the miracle of compound interest? Get 100 "hit points" restored and you have to keep making payments of 10hp from weaker folks every month for 27 years before you're actually paid off? Does it matter if you do the killin' or could someone just stab someone you're currently hugging? Could you just kill 20 rats instead of one person? Fifty pigeons? Do the bacteria you kill when you pour alcohol on a cut count towards your debt? Who knows? Magic!
Cool reveal at the end about the Calculator.
Top "what wasn't this said?" line missing from the episode: "Okay, then why are we not calling Constantine again?"
Runner up: "If Roy could do this with an arrow how come Deadshot couldn't manage?"
the comic-book world has always have one supervillain duo that to defeat, would require all of them to work together: trademark and copyright.
posted by numaner at 1:11 PM on February 8, 2016
posted by numaner at 1:11 PM on February 8, 2016
I think the Calculator's plan they foiled was going to be revenge for Felicity being put in a wheelchair. And, his mini-arc will be trying to do right by her (villainously) only to be extra proud when he finds out she's been the one foiling him.
posted by humans are superior! at 3:42 PM on February 8, 2016
posted by humans are superior! at 3:42 PM on February 8, 2016
I think the Calculator's plan they foiled was going to be revenge for Felicity being put in a wheelchair.
Are you familiar with the comics, or not?
Cool reveal at the end about the Calculator.
A major fan theory since day dot.
I enjoyed the episode, and it was nice to see old Fair Play again.
posted by Mezentian at 4:09 AM on February 9, 2016
Are you familiar with the comics, or not?
Cool reveal at the end about the Calculator.
A major fan theory since day dot.
I enjoyed the episode, and it was nice to see old Fair Play again.
posted by Mezentian at 4:09 AM on February 9, 2016
It was nice to see Roy back and I'm looking forward to more about the Calculator and Felicity.
While I'm intellectually interested in the Lazarus Pit stuff (has Oliver learned his lesson? will he tell Thea about the offer? is she going to be in the coffin in the flash forward?) emotionally I'm kind of over the Lazarus Pit. Though I'm looking for clues here about what's going on with Sara in Legends of Tomorrow.
posted by immlass at 11:20 AM on February 9, 2016
While I'm intellectually interested in the Lazarus Pit stuff (has Oliver learned his lesson? will he tell Thea about the offer? is she going to be in the coffin in the flash forward?) emotionally I'm kind of over the Lazarus Pit. Though I'm looking for clues here about what's going on with Sara in Legends of Tomorrow.
posted by immlass at 11:20 AM on February 9, 2016
Man, I used to complain how little Roy got to do in the series, but once he was back I realized how much I've missed him. Our Roy of sunshine, everyone's favorite flippy little brother. Please let them lure Colton Haynes back for longer. Maybe he can hang out in Central City with the other red-suited hero. SOMEONE needs to teach Barry some hand-to-hand combat.
It was a night of family reunions all around. Nyssa's back! I am 100% on her side when it comes to carving out Malcolm's heart and eating it in front of him! (Not that this will faze him, because Barrowman is immortal.) Please sign me up immediately for the Nyssa Conquers the World spinoff.
I am more than happy to eat crow after complaining last week that TV Katana was sure to be killed off in this episode. Tatsu lives! If she never appears again, she's still escaped Star City's manpain meat-grinder.
posted by nicebookrack at 12:10 PM on February 9, 2016
It was a night of family reunions all around. Nyssa's back! I am 100% on her side when it comes to carving out Malcolm's heart and eating it in front of him! (Not that this will faze him, because Barrowman is immortal.) Please sign me up immediately for the Nyssa Conquers the World spinoff.
I am more than happy to eat crow after complaining last week that TV Katana was sure to be killed off in this episode. Tatsu lives! If she never appears again, she's still escaped Star City's manpain meat-grinder.
posted by nicebookrack at 12:10 PM on February 9, 2016
Are you familiar with the comics, or not?
Not really with the Calculator, no. I only remember him from various super villain team ups and/or cross overs.
posted by humans are superior! at 2:37 PM on February 9, 2016
Not really with the Calculator, no. I only remember him from various super villain team ups and/or cross overs.
posted by humans are superior! at 2:37 PM on February 9, 2016
In the comics (aside from not being related to Felicity, because she doesn't exist, unless she does now) they made him into a right bastard, basically an evil version of Oracle for bad guys (albeit with legs), trading data foir favours (and a commission).
If they go with anything approaching that character, he's more likely to pay someone to shoot Felicity again.
But, damned if I can remember much about what they said about her father in the show.
posted by Mezentian at 12:25 AM on February 10, 2016
If they go with anything approaching that character, he's more likely to pay someone to shoot Felicity again.
But, damned if I can remember much about what they said about her father in the show.
posted by Mezentian at 12:25 AM on February 10, 2016
Mezentian: according to the series so far, Felicity's father was incredibly intelligent and tech-savvy like Felicity, he abandoned her and her mother when Felicity was a child, and Donna Smoak raised Felicity as a single mom in Las Vegas. It's also implied that he was a criminal or bad person; Donna says something like, "If your father were here—" Felicity: "He'd be in prison." Fan speculation has since run rampant on potential pre-existing villains who might fit that identity.
A lot of fans, including me, assumed Damien Darhk would be Felicity's father once he was announced as a villain for season 4, because in the comics Darhk is a minor villain associated with computer crime. But Felicity and Darhk obviously have seen each other without recognition. Once the Calculator was announced as a forthcoming character on Arrow, the fandom was basically like, "YEP, THAT'S FELICITY'S DAD."
posted by nicebookrack at 7:31 AM on February 10, 2016 [1 favorite]
A lot of fans, including me, assumed Damien Darhk would be Felicity's father once he was announced as a villain for season 4, because in the comics Darhk is a minor villain associated with computer crime. But Felicity and Darhk obviously have seen each other without recognition. Once the Calculator was announced as a forthcoming character on Arrow, the fandom was basically like, "YEP, THAT'S FELICITY'S DAD."
posted by nicebookrack at 7:31 AM on February 10, 2016 [1 favorite]
Also IIRC since Arrow premiered, Felicity Smoak has been re-introduced in the Green Arrow as a character similar to the one in Arrow. In older comics, Felicity Smoak was a pre-existing minor DC character: Firestar / Ronnie Raymond's stepmother, who owned some kind of computer company.
In Arrow's first season, the writers named the Queen Consolidated computer tech "Felicity Smoak" as a DC Easter egg for the computer connection, since she was meant to be a oneshot character for one episode. But fans and execs responded so positively to the computer geek girl and her screen banter with Oliver that Felicity was brought back as recurring, and by then they were stuck with the character name.
posted by nicebookrack at 7:43 AM on February 10, 2016 [1 favorite]
In Arrow's first season, the writers named the Queen Consolidated computer tech "Felicity Smoak" as a DC Easter egg for the computer connection, since she was meant to be a oneshot character for one episode. But fans and execs responded so positively to the computer geek girl and her screen banter with Oliver that Felicity was brought back as recurring, and by then they were stuck with the character name.
posted by nicebookrack at 7:43 AM on February 10, 2016 [1 favorite]
I mean, Emily Bett Rickards brings a perfect adorkable style to the show that it's hard to not like her.
posted by numaner at 8:06 AM on February 11, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by numaner at 8:06 AM on February 11, 2016 [1 favorite]
I hope the money they're saving on these slapdash scripts is going to the combat coordinators, because the fight sequences on this show keep getting better and better.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:03 PM on February 21, 2016
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:03 PM on February 21, 2016
A web nuke? Cannot. Roll. Eyes. Hard. ENOUGH.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:12 PM on February 21, 2016
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:12 PM on February 21, 2016
I think at this point, when it comes to parents of characters in the Arrowverse, unless they have died on screen, been shown as a definitively dead corpse , and maybe even been cremated or ground into sausage live on screen, they are probably coming back.
Even then, there is the Lazarus Pit. And apparitions. And other magic.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 6:45 AM on February 22, 2016
Even then, there is the Lazarus Pit. And apparitions. And other magic.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 6:45 AM on February 22, 2016
Also: why does the secret plan of seemingly every big bad in this universe revolve around the destruction of a shabby little analogue of Baltimore?
posted by DirtyOldTown at 6:51 AM on February 22, 2016
posted by DirtyOldTown at 6:51 AM on February 22, 2016
I would have appreciated a little fanwank as to why Constantine couldn't come back. I mean, besides the IRL explanations of lawyers, because that should have logically been the first thing out of someone's mouth. They couldn't just say "we can't find him?"
Why the smack is Nyssa still calling Oliver her husband?
(a) she doesn't love him
(b) pretty sure she only likes girls or at least isn't isn't into Oliver like that
(c) it was a forced marriage
(d) probably not legal either.
Of course the genius hackers are related. I can't wait for Felicity to diss his evil villain name to his face.
posted by jenfullmoon at 6:45 PM on March 11, 2016 [1 favorite]
Why the smack is Nyssa still calling Oliver her husband?
(a) she doesn't love him
(b) pretty sure she only likes girls or at least isn't isn't into Oliver like that
(c) it was a forced marriage
(d) probably not legal either.
Of course the genius hackers are related. I can't wait for Felicity to diss his evil villain name to his face.
posted by jenfullmoon at 6:45 PM on March 11, 2016 [1 favorite]
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John Constantine is held prisoner by something more powerful than wizards, warlords, or villains of the week: lawyers.
posted by Servo5678 at 10:53 AM on February 8, 2016 [3 favorites]