Arrow Beacon of Hope

Season 4 Episode 17 of Arrow, titled Beacon of Hope, involves a familiar villain from The Flash — Brie Larvan! Check out Violet’s recap of the episode below, as well as both Violet’s and Josh’s thoughts!

Arrow Season 4 Episode 17: Beacon of Hope Recap

Don’t need the Arrow episode recap for Beacon of Hope? Click here to jump directly to Violet’s thoughts on the episode!
To see Josh’s thoughts on this week’s Arrow episode, Beacon of Hope, click here to get directly there!

Brie Larvan, or “Bug-Eyed Bandit”

Read about Brie Larvan’s appearance on The Flash

This episode sees the debut of Brie Larvan, aka the Bug-Eyed Bandit, in Star City, though you’ll recognize her if you watch The Flash. Brie hacks her way into the prison’s computer system and grants herself an early release.

Over at the Arrow Cave, Oliver is pushing the team pretty hard with their training. Laurel suggests to Thea that she tell Alex about a PR job opening at Palmer Tech, rather than work for Ruve Adams.

At Palmer Tech, Felicity’s mom stops by to see Felicity. Thea shows up as well, to talk to Felicity about Alex.

Malcolm Merlyn visits Damien Darhk in jail and reports that Darhk’s “resources” aren’t very supportive of him, and that HIVE is moving forward with Genesis — without him.

Laurel tells Oliver that she’s there for him, to help him get through the pain of his breakup.

A man collapses at the Palmer Tech board meeting, and bees come out of his mouth. Brie Larvan shows up and demands that they hand over the implantable spinal biochip prototype — even though the only one they have is inside of Felicity.

Brie takes over all the monitors in the building and jams all communications, as well as surrounding the building with bees. Meanwhile, Curtis, who has gone home sick, see what’s happening at Palmer Tech on TV, and tries to go for help.

Captain Lance goes over to the Arrow Cave. Oliver and the team suit up to try to get into Palmer Tech.

Brie transmits a video message to Felicity, saying she’ll continue to “vote out” board members until she gets the chip. Felicity, Donna, and Thea are trapped in Felicity’s office.

Curtis finds tracks a signal to the Arrow Cave, and collapses.

Over at the jail, Damien Darhk is attacked, but guards step in and save him.

Felicity, Donna, and Thea get out of the office through an air vent, then realize that bees are after them.

Curtis wakes up in the Arrow Cave, and is surprised to find out Oliver’s and Laurel’s secret identities. He is amazed at the set up. Curtis volunteers to hack the bees so that he can get the Arrow Team into Palmer Tech.

Felicity, Donna, and Thea hide in a maintenance closet. A bee gets in — but it’s actually a bee that Curtis has hacked, and he is able to communicate with them and let them know that the Arrow Team is on the way. However, just as the team is about to get in, Curtis gets kicked out of the system and is no longer able to control the bees. The bees converge into one large robot. Oliver gets stung by a bee.

The Arrow Team brings Oliver back to the Arrow Cave, and they realize that the bee is inside him and is replicating.

Brie sends a video message to Felicity from her office that she’s going to give her 5 minutes before she starts getting rid of board members.

Curtis figures out they need to disrupt the bees’ connection with an ultra high frequency. Laurel emits her Canary Cry — and it works. Oliver is saved.

Since Brie is no longer in the board room, Felicity realizes they can get the board members down to a secret room. Felicity, Thea, and Donna go down the elevator and stop in between floors – then Felicity uses explosives to make a hole in the wall. Felicity and Thea stay in the board room, while Felicity sends Donna and the board members down the elevator to the secret room.

Brie brings Felicity and Thea back to Felicity’s office, and pulls a gun on them, demanding the chip. She suddenly stumbles, and then confesses that she has a tumor on her spinal cord, and the only way to get it out is by a surgery that will leave her paralyzed. Brie demands the microchip specs, and Felicity tells her that the blueprints are on a hard drive in Curtis Holt’s lab.

Back at the Arrow Cave, Curtis gets excited that Donna and the board members were able to make it out. However, Oliver suddenly gets angry at Curtis for his enthusiasm, being that Thea and Felicity are still in danger. Laurel takes Oliver aside and tries to calm him down, then gives him a pep talk.

Some guys come to Darhk’s cell to attack him. However, one of the attackers turns on the other two attackers. Darhk tells the attacker that he may now call his organization and have a certain message delivered.

In Felicity’s office, she and Thea talk. Felicity is firm in her decision not to come back to the team.

Curtis makes a plan to upload a virus that the bees will transmit to the rest of the colony via a special arrow.

Brie gets the blueprints. However, in doing so, she found out that Felicity was the hacker who sent her to prison.

Outside, the large bee robot shows up as the Arrow Team is trying to get inside. Oliver gets in and deploys the virus arrow. This affects the big robot, but he’s still up and fighting Oliver. Felicity electrocutes it with a lamp. Felicity thanks Oliver for saving her. Back in the Arrow Cave, there’s a bee loose. Luckily, Lance is able to squish it.

When the Arrow Team returns, Oliver apologizes to Curtis and tells him he is always welcome.

When Curtis returns home to his husband, he says he realizes that home is where he belongs, and promises no more disappearing acts.

Back at Felicity’s office, Felicity tells Thea about her plan to make Palmer Tech a Beacon of Hope.

In the final scene, Malcolm Merlyn meets with Andrew Diggle, who Darhk had told him was his “ace in the hole.”

Arrow Flashbacks

Taiana shoots Reiter, but the bullets have no effect on him. Oliver says he understands: Reiter is killing people to gain power. Reiter demands to know where they have hidden his idol, and flings Taiana aside with his powers. Reiter and Oliver fight. Reiter picks up Oliver by the neck, strangling him, but suddenly, Reiter loses his power. Oliver punches Reiter, knocking him out. When Oliver goes to check on Taiana, Reiter gets away. Oliver and Taiana go to look for her friends and are ready for battle.

Violet’s Thoughts on Season 4 Episode 16 of Arrow: Beacon of Hope

Oh, look what two characters are suddenly in this episode: Curtis and Donna. That would have been helpful last episode, when they were looking for witnesses who were at the Christmas party to testify against Damien Darhk. But anyway.

This was pretty much just another one-off episode that felt just that: off. Why bring back Brie Larvan? Was it really that necessary to introduce her in Arrow? I would have been fine with her appearance on The Flash being her only appearance in the DC TV Universe. She didn’t seem like that strong of a villain to me then, and she didn’t seem like that strong of one to me now. Is there some other reason she was brought over to Arrow, one that will come up down the road, or do the writers sometimes get lazy and want to recycle characters? I mean, I liked Emily Kinney as Beth on The Walking Dead, but her Bug-Eyed Bandit leaves much to be desired.

Then we have Laurel continuously offering Oliver relationship advice and pep talks throughout this episode. After seeing her break down in tears when she heard about Oliver having fathered a child while he was in a relationship with her, that already seemed to hint that the show might bring up romantic notions between Oliver and Laurel again. Now after this episode, it seems even more so. Ugh. I HATE Oliver and Laurel together. I hope this does not happen.

So… the whole point of Curtis being sick was just to get him out of the building so that he could stumble upon the Arrow Cave? I kept expecting there to be more to his illness. Guess not. Is Curtis replacing Felicity on the team now? He made it seem to his husband like he wouldn’t be continuing on the team. But was he lying? Or maybe not lying, but maybe he’ll change his mind later? Felicity seems pretty adamant about not returning to the team, so if she sticks to her guns, then they’ll need Curtis to help them. What will Felicity’s role in the show be if she’s not on the team though?

Meanwhile, Damien Darhk is up to… something. But what? Malcolm Merlyn is also up to something — with Andy Diggle. So, he’s a bad guy after all? Say it ain’t so! Hopefully next episode is more exciting than this one. Or the last one. Yeah, so that’s two episodes in a row with returning villains that no one really cared about (Cupid in the previous week). The next episode has to be better, right?

Josh’s Thoughts: Arrow, Season 4 Episode 16: Beacon of Hope

So, I absolutely hated this episode. This episode brings me back to bad 80s or 90s television, which might be intentional, but it really rubs me the wrong way. We really have a swarm of bees that can mutate into a massive bee-robot? That is able to take solid form but at the same time can’t be punched? How many bad puns involving bees can be made? Sign.

Seeing Curtis joining Team Arrow seemed interesting though. I felt bad for him when Oliver laid into him pretty harshly, albeit what Oliver saying was true–people were still in trouble. Regardless, he was still new to the team, and doesn’t know the mechanics of being a part of this team yet. I am wondering if this is something that will be a permanent thing or if there is a chance that Felicity will be coming back.

As for Felicity, it is looking like she might be leaving the team, which is making me sad. She is a character I really like, and unfortunately, I am beginning to worry if she is the person on the tombstone we haven’t learned about yet.

But please, please, let’s move away from this cheesiness, and try to avoid “filler” episodes. If we have to do filler episodes, please come up with better villains to do it with.