Arrow "Broken Hearts" (REVIEW)

written by Justin Prince (@prince_justin)

It’s the end of the road for Olicity… after the events of “Taken” Felicity and Oliver have ended their engagement. While on the bright side, Damien Darhk is in police custody and he faces preliminary hearings set to determine whether or not the case will be taken to trial.

Olicity: 2015-2016

Of course, this is Star City where the wicked never sleep. Cupid returns, and unlike her previous love loving self… the death of Floyd Lawton and (apparent) death of the Arrow has left her jaded. Rather than obsessively stalking those her doki-doki feels catch in her sights… she’s instead slaying anyone who is stupid enough to still believe in love.

Not wanting to put any other innocents at risk, Team Arrow devises a plan to fake Ollie and Felicity’s reconciliation to lure the villainous archer out of hiding. This whole scene may have hit me harder if I was a fan of Olicity, but honestly… and maybe this is the comic book fan in me who knows that Oliver and Laurel are in fact OTP end game material, but I’m not broken up over Oliver and Felicity calling it quits. Their relationship did further the development of both characters, but it felt doomed from the start.

Cupid has a new goal in mind

While most of Team Arrow tackles the Cupid situation, Laurel takes her justice sans mask in the courtroom, facing Damien Darhk in a decidedly non physically confrontational way. Captain Lance acts as the driving force behind their prosecution, but this will end up costing him his badge since much of what he did for Darhk was illegal.

Going to the flashback scenes, these moments all season have been growing more disconnected from the main episode’s narrative. This makes me wonder how much longer this split narrative can last on Arrow. Oliver is in some cave hunting down a relic and getting into some deep shit as per usual… makes me miss season one and two island scenes, even the lackluster Hong Kong chapter was better than most of this entire season’s flashbacks.

there's an idol... and a cave... and yeah

Overall, it was a satisfying episode but did very little to further the core conflict. Damien Darhk is behind bars, but the details behind his master plan are still unknown. All we really know is he wants to raze Star City to the ground… something every criminal mastermind since season one.

I love Arrow and it still is one of my favorite shows on TV. While The Flash has eclipsed Arrow in many respects, I still want to be optimistic about this series.

It's Cupid... stupid