Recap / Arrow S 4 E 14 Code Of Silence

Oliver prepares for his mayoral debate against Ruvé Adams and the team attempts to trail her to find out where Darkh is hiding to no success as she instead leads them into an ambush, which they defeat but she escapes. Doing research on Oliver, Thea discovers the check Moira wrote to pay off Samantha and despite Oliver's denials that he knows anything about it, discovers the existence of William, but agrees with Oliver's reason why he can't tell anyone. Quentin is nearly killed in a building collapse after being led there by a fake call for help, only escaping because Laurel happened to tag along. The team quickly realizes the collapse was an attempted assassination made to look as an accident by a team of mercenaries called the Demolition Team hired by HIVE. Quentin, now knowing for certain HIVE was targeting him for betraying them to Green Arrow, takes refuge in the Lair and instigates a break-up with Donna to keep her safe. The team tracks down the mercenaries to HIVE's former headquarters and recover a damaged laptop, which Felicity takes to Curtis to get the information off of. Just in time for the debate, they discover the mercs plan on bringing down the theater the debate is to be held in, killing Oliver while leaving Ruvé as a "miraculous" survivor. Team Arrow defuses the bombs and captures the Demolition Team, and Quentin and Donna reconcile when Quentin reveals he didn't want her to be a target. Oliver apparently destroys Ruvé in the debate and is heralded as the winner. During the party to celebrate, Curtis reveals his wedding gift for Felicity: an implantable microchip that may allow her to walk again. Damien Darhk shows up at his home with William.

In the flashback on Lian Yu, Oliver is set to work with the other prisoners excavating, but they want to kill him for his killing of Vlad. Taiana steps in and defends him, and Oliver explains that Conklin had forced Vlad to attack him, and he'd only killed in self-defense. Taiana and the prisoners say the only way he can gain their trust is by killing Conklin in revenge. After a meeting with Reiter, he's left alone with Conklin, escapes his handcuffs, and kills him in a knife fight, but not before Conklin reveals Reiter plans on killing all his prisoners when he gets what he wants. Oliver convinces Reiter Conklin had attacked him, but Reiter warns him that although he needs him alive, there are definitions of "alive" he wouldn't like.

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• Adapted Out: The Demolition Team is a Five-Man Band in the comics. Here, they're a Terrible Trio as Scoopshovel and Steamroller are nowhere to be seen.
• Aesop Amnesia: Thea finds out about William, but supports her brother's desire to keep his existence a secret from everyone including Felicity. While there are good reasons for doing so, it's strange that Thea and Oliver never discuss how his own 'protective' lies caused them to become estranged at the end of Season 2, with obvious implications for how Felicity will react should she find out.
• Affably Evil: Reiter once again is nothing short of polite towards Oliver.
• Ambiguous Situation: The final scene shows William in the care of Darhk. What happened to his mom beforehand is not shown.
• And Your Little Dog, Too!: Conklin gloats that he will kill Taiana and every other prisoner once Oliver is dead. Just before he bites the dust himself, he taunts Oliver with the news that Baron Reiter intends to do the same.
• Are You Pondering What I'm Pondering?: Team Arrow leaps into action with Diggle going to grill Andy for information, Felicity working the computers, and Oliver...being intercepted by his campaign manager as he steps into the lift.
  Thea: Going to go work on your debate prep?
  Oliver: Yeah. Debate prep. Just took the words right out of my mouth.
• Ascended Meme: After all the Magneto jokes regarding his helmet, Diggle reveals that it has magnetic capabilities.
• Badass Normal: The Demolition Team. These guys are just Elite Mooks with a construction worker theme. But each one posed a significant threat to Team Arrow. Even Green Arrow himself took a few hits from the guy he was fighting, when the episode before he utterly dominated the fight with Malcolm Merlin. Thea and Laurel had to double-team the woman with the nail gun, as she was kicking their asses in melee. Diggle was greatly overpowered by his sledgehammer-wielding foe until he got a few good hits in and then nailed the guy with his own hammer.
• Bad Boss: Dahrk kills one member of the HIVE council simply for stating his doubts in Ruvé to become mayor.
• Because Destiny Says So: Baron Reiter justifies the reason why he's keeping Oliver alive as due to how destiny caused Oliver to set off a chain of events that will eventually lead Reiter to the sought-after mystical place. The map and the decoding stone from Oliver reinforced Reiter's belief in destiny.
• Blah, Blah, Blah: Curtis has a screensaver of Felicity doing this in speech balloons. Which she unfortunately sees.
• Bridezilla: Lampshaded when Donna apologises to Felicity for turning into "Momzilla" over the wedding.
• Call-Back:
  • Adams brings up how the Green Arrow set up a meeting with her husband yet never showed.
  • Oliver mentions his killing of General Shrieve in Hong Kong (although Maseo was actually the one who put him out of his misery following Oliver's torture).
  • Curtis states the microchip he developed for Felicity needed a small, long-lived power source to be developed before it was practical, namely the super-battery Felicity unveiled two episodes before.
  • When Oliver asks Felicity to extract data from a damaged laptop, Felicity reminds him that this is precisely what he requested her to do the very first time they met.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Though the audience has seen her since "Dark Waters", this is the first time we hear Nora Darhk speak on screen. She will grow up to play a major role in Legends of Tomorrow.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: The first time Team Arrow meets HIVE's demolition crew, they barely get out alive.
• Cutting the Knot:
  • When they discover the theater is the target, Oliver asks Felicity to hack the fire alarm system to get people to evacuate. Thea walks over to a pull station five feet away and sets off the alarm.
  • Diggle has a Booby Trap go off in his face when he tries to defuse the bomb with a neutralizing agent, so Thea and Oliver puncture the bomb canisters with arrows, causing the explosive chemical inside to leak out.
• Defiant to the End: A dying Conklin tries to unsettle Oliver by telling him that Reiter is going to kill everyone once he's done. But all this does is give Oliver a time-frame of when the slaves need to break out.
• Designated Girl Fight: Rosie mainly fights Laurel or/and Thea.
• Driving into a Truck: Inverted with Speedy driving her motorbike out of a truck during the attempt to tail Ruvé Adams.
• Elites Are More Glamorous: The Demolition Team are mentioned to be IRA, GRU, and Mossad veterans, which makes them Elite Mooks and Badass Normal by default.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Malcolm Merlyn might be willing to sink low enough in his pursuit of vengeance to sell William to Darhk, but he will not reveal Oliver's Secret Identity as the Green Arrow, presumably because this would also out Thea as Speedy.
• Evil Is Petty: Damien Darhk kills a member of the HIVE council just for criticising his wife. With her husband setting that kind of example, it's not surprising she can't handle a political debate.
• Heel–Face Turn: Andy is solidifying his off-screen as he's freely providing information that allows the team to identify and track down the mercenaries.
• He Who Fights Monsters: Taiana deliberately pushes Oliver towards this, as she thinks monsters can only be fought by monsters, so she uses Oliver to kill Conklin.
• Internal Reveal:
  • Thea finds out that Oliver has a son.
  • The other prisoners on Lian Yu find out why Oliver killed Vlad, and Oliver discovers Reiter plans on killing them all when he finds what he's looking for.
  • Donna finds out Quentin worked with HIVE.
• Irony:
  • At a time when Team Arrow is worried about Oliver's lack of political acumen, it turns out the other members of HIVE don't think much of Rue Adams skills in this area either. The fact that she loses the debate implies they are right.
  • Felicity urges her mother to continue to trust Quentin despite his lies, while Oliver is keeping a secret from her that threatened to break them up in "Legends of Yesterday".
• Ironic Echo Cut
  Oliver: Darhk did not try and destroy Star City so that his wife could be mayor. There's something that we're not seeing.
  Cut to Darhk: Oh, I can see it clear as day. You on the podium Thursday night vexing Oliver Queen with your political legerdemain.
• It's Not You, It's My Enemies: Quentin asks Donna to distance herself for a while, ostensibly because he has annoyed some gangsters over gambling debts. Donna can tell he's lying and nearly calls things off permanently until Felicity encourages her to give Quentin another go, which she does after he reveals the true reason.
• Killed Off for Real: Conklin is killed, by Oliver's hand.
• Killed Offscreen: The HIVE member who disses Ruvé's political skills is in Madrid and videoconferencing in. The camera is on Darhk when something happens to the man.
• Make It Look Like an Accident: Now that Malcolm Merlyn has confirmed his suspicion that Captain Lance is working with the Green Arrow, Darhk has him lured to an abandoned building on a fake call-out, then the Demolition Team bring it down on top of his head. Fortunately Laurel insisted on going along with him and gets her father out in time.
• Mood Whiplash: The very end of the episode gives us Curtis walking in with an implantable bio-chip capable of making Felicity walk again (maybe)... and Darhk has William.
• Ms. Fanservice: Although Charlotte Ross has consistently played Donna Smoak as a highly attractive woman, in this episode she really brings it, including a dress with a prominent cleavage that she intentionally works in front of Quentin.
• Multitasked Conversation: Oliver and Ruvé exchange barbed comments in the guise of being amiable political rivals.
• Mythology Gag: Two in one scene. Curtis provides Felicity with a 'bio-stimulant', a microchip-type device that, when inserted into her spine, will allow her to walk again; besides being based on real technology being tested, this is how DC explained Barbara Gordon's return to being active as Batgirl in New 52 after she was crippled by the Joker. In astonishment, Oliver declares Curtis 'Terrific', a nod to Mr. Terrific, Curtis' comic book counterpart.
• Nail 'Em: The female member of the Demolition Team picks up a nail gun and uses it to shoot at Speedy, as well as putting several nails into the laptop.
• Never Trust a Trailer:
  • The promo featured Felicity's line that the building about to blow up is "this one," implying the Arrow HQ.
  • Laurel's injury from Rosie's modified nail gun is a minor one. The trailer made it look like a major one, implying her as the one on the grave towards the end of the season.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Only the news confirms that Oliver defeats Mrs. Darhk in the debate. The fact that she never thought Oliver would be alive to debate her probably had a lot to do with that.
• Oh, Crap!: The HIVE leader Darhk kills has an expression of growing terror on his face when Darhk starts talking about how he remembers the office in Madrid so well, he can almost imagine he's there.
• The Oner: Quentin and Laurel's escape from the collapsing building, with a quite impressive amount of effects.
• Outrun the Fireball: Not an actual fireball, but when Speedy stops to grab the laptop she has to earn her codename by fleeing as the building collapses around her in a huge cloud of dust.
• Properly Paranoid: Mrs. Darhk anticipated being followed by Team Arrow, and leads them into an ambush to discourage them from further attempts.
• Revealing Cover-Up: Alex tells Thea about the million dollar cheque from Moira that was never cashed, and from this Thea is able to Pull the Thread and work out that Oliver has an illegitimate son he is keeping secret. Ironically the secret of Thea's parentage came out thanks to a similar attempt by Moira to buy someone off.
• Right Behind Me: Curtis covers up what he's working on (Felicity's wedding present bio-chip) with a screensaver that unfortunately shows Felicity saying Blah, Blah, Blah. She says it had better be a good present if he doesn't want to be fired. Fortunately, it is.
• Screw Destiny: As opposed to Reiter, Oliver makes it clear that he believes in freedom of choice.
• Secret-Keeper: Although he's working with HIVE, Merlyn apparently hasn't revealed Oliver Queen is Green Arrow, the identity of anyone else in Team Arrow, or that he knows where the Lair is. Presumably this is to protect Thea.
• Shoot Your Mate: Played with. When the slave workers accuse Oliver of murdering Vlad, he admits that he did but it was in self-defense and Taiana vouches for him. What Oliver really needs to do is prove that he's not working for the slavers and as proof of this, they demand that Oliver kill Conklin.
• Shout-Out: Dahrk killing the H.I.V.E. Council member in Madrid is reminiscent of what Darth Vader's famous Force-Choke in The Empire Strikes Back.
• Smooch of Victory: Flashback!Oliver is surprised to get a peck on the cheek from Taiana after killing Conklin.
• Stealth Insult: After thwarting the bombing of the theater where the mayoral debate will be held, Oliver whispers to Mrs. Darhk to "bring the house down".
• Terminology Title: A code of silence is a condition in effect when a person opts to withhold what is believed to be vital or important information voluntarily or involuntarily.
• The Son of a Bitch Bites Back: Damien Darhk gets fed up with his partners in HIVE belittling him, so he kills one of them a continent away as an example. The partners then shut up.
• Villain Team-Up: Merlyn appears to have officially joined up with HIVE, given that he's seen in their Supervillain Lair, sitting in on a conference call between Darhk and the other leaders.
• Would Hurt a Child: Played with. Darhk kidnaps Oliver's son, but he's not harmed him and William doesn't appear to be in any duress; of course, the implication is that he's going to hurt him eventually, but is keeping him alive as potential future leverage against Oliver. Interestingly enough, he has William stay with him and his family, and introduces him to his daughter.