Who the heck is Vixen? Will Felicity walk? Will Diggle get a decent disguise?

Arrow S4:E15 Taken Recap starts now!

Felicity has had the bio-whatever implant that Curtis made for her put in, and is in physical therapy attempting to walk again for the first time. Curtis’s husband Paul is her physical therapist, and Oliver is also there to support her. She tries and fails to get her legs to support her. Paul tells her that he and Curtis met when Curtis sustained an injury while in training for the Olympics (he was a decathlete). He was so determined to get better and got increasingly frustrated, but the only thing he could do was give it time and let himself heal.

As they are leaving the clinic, Oliver and Felicity talk in the car park. Felicity asks Oliver if he is alright, getting in first before he can ask her. He turns it back on her, and she tells him she is disappointed, that she really wanted to walk down the aisle at their wedding. “I’m enough of a geek to know science fiction when I see it,” she tells him. Damien Darhk appears out of the Darhk (ahem), and gives them a slow clap. “You two just melt my stone cold heart,” he says, “You almost make me believe in love again.” He asks them how their Christmas was, Oliver goes for him and Darhk stops him with his powers, closing up his throat. “Sorry about the limo, love the wheelchair, might I suggest motorised?” he says to Felicity, letting Oliver go. Felicity threatens him with their powerful friends and he doesn’t know who he is messing with. Darhk tells them the messing ends today.

Darhk lists all the ways he has tried to bring Oliver into his fold, the things he has done, the people he has hurt, but none of them have worked. He now holds a trump card, he has Oliver’s son, and sends him a video to his phone to prove it. Felicity is confused, and Oliver is horrified. Darhk tells him that at 6pm on Friday, Oliver will hold a press conference and announce he is withdrawing from the mayoral race. And he is to throw all his support behind Ruve Adams. Do this, and Darhk will return William. He leaves, and Felicity says “Who’s William?” Oliver turns to her and says “He’s my son.”

At the Arrow bunker, Felicity is in disbelief that Oliver would not tell her something so important. “I cannot hear another lie,” she says. “It’s complicated,” Oliver replies. “God Oliver, you are the only person on the planet that considers the truth complicated.” Oliver explains the ultimatum that Samantha gave him about keeping William a secret, to keep him safe. The rest of the team arrive and Oliver tells them about William. Diggle and Laurel are shocked, Thea not so much. Felicity is not pleased to find out that Thea also knows, even less so when she finds out that Barry Allen and Malcolm Merlyn do too. Oliver gets a call from Alex in the office telling him that Samantha has arrived, and he heads upstairs.

Samantha asks Oliver if she knows what has happened to William, and he tells her he is doing everything he can to find him. She tells him that she knows it was a mistake to let him into their lives, and that as soon as she realised William was missing, she knew that Oliver was involved somehow. “You need to tell me what the hell is going on, and you need to get me my son back, right now!” Oliver tries to calm her down, and get her to tell him what happened. She tells him she went upstairs to get him for dinner and he was gone. She called the CCPD, but they couldn’t find anything, but then a CSI working the case told her she should talk to Oliver. It was Barry Allen. “What can you do, Oliver? What can you do that the entire police force hasn’t been able to do?” He’s tells her he’s the Green Arrow, and takes her down to show her the bunker and introduce her to the team.

Samantha recognises Laurel, who Oliver was actually seeing at the time William was conceived. Laurel gives her her sympathy, and Samantha apologises for cheating with Oliver, saying that she was young, stupid and selfish. “I should have been honest with you.” “No,” replies Laurel, “Oliver should have been.” Copping it from the ex too, sheesh.

The team tries to come up with a plan to defeat Darhk’s magic, they won’t get William back until they do. Diggle suggests Constantine, but Oliver tells him he’s in Hell. “I mean, he’s actually, literally, in Hell. But I might know someone else.” Oliver tells them about a friend of his called Mari McCabe. Mari is a vigilante from Detroit, and she has powers she gets from a magical totem necklace. Codename, Vixen.

In Detroit, Vixen terrorises a gang of criminals, chasing them around a warehouse. Her totem gives her the power to summon the spirit of any animal and use their specific skills and characteristics for a period of time. She chases the men, various animal noises ringing out, until she takes them all down. One sneaks back up behind her, but he is taken out by an arrow. It’s Oliver, “I had that under control,” Mari says. “What, not enough in Star City to keep you busy?” “I need your help,” replies Oliver.

He takes her back to Star City, and introduces her to Team Arrow. “I have gotta get me one of these”, she says, looking around. Samantha asks how Mari is going to help save her son, and Mari explains how she gets her Vixen powers from the totem. Mari asks is she has anything of William’s that she can use to track him. Samantha produces William’s favourite Flash figurine, and Mari begins to smell it and see if she can get his scent. “Don’t you dare tell Barry about this,” says Mari. “He’s in the city, I think I can find him.” Laurel heads off to read her father Captain Lance in, Thea goes to see if she can ask Malcolm what he knows and Felicity stays with Samantha to work on a search profile. Oliver, Diggle and Mari head off to follow the scent.

Thea goes home and finds Merlyn waiting for her, he’s hiding in the shadows, embarrassed by his hand, or lack thereof. She tells him she heard what went on when she was unconscious, that she knows Merlyn chose not to save her, more worried about holding onto the Demon’s Head ring and leadership of the League of Assassins. Thea asks him about William, and he denies having any involvement. Pants on fire, Merlyn.

Vixen flies through the city, tracking William’s scent. Oliver and Diggle talk about William, and what it means to be a father. Diggle tells him that being a father means always being there, he knows where his daughter is every minute of the day, and he’s always there for her. He keeps her close, and that’s how you keep your children safe.

Samantha gives Felicity a description of William, and when she tells her that he was wearing a baseball cap, Felicity says “Oliver likes baseball too, here’s hoping that the fatherly influence stops there.” Samantha explains that not telling Felicity was totally her idea, that Oliver really had no choice, “Just try and remember that I was the one who made him choose between you, and knowing his son.”

Laurel goes to see her father, and tells him about William. She is upset that Samantha fell pregnant, while she was with Oliver. Even though it happened a million years ago, and she knows he used to cheat, it still stings. Captain Lance consoles her, and Laurel gets a message from Oliver, telling them that they know where William is being held.

Diggle and Oliver zip line their way over to a rooftop, and take out several of Darhk’s Ghosts. Laurel and Thea take out the ones inside, and Oliver crashes through Darhk’s window. Darhk, somehow, still does not know that Oliver is the Green Arrow, and tells him he was waiting for Oliver to sick him onto him. Darhk found out they were coming, and has had William moved. He tells him there is no use trying to attack him, they have been through all this before, and Arrow can’t defeat his magic. “This time’s different,” Oliver says and rolls away.

Vixen attacks Darhk, but is powerless against him. He recognises her necklace, and tells her he hasn’t seen it in a donkey’s age. She presses on the necklace and summons the spirit of a gorilla, but Darhk is still able to overpower her. Darhk kicks both their asses and throws Oliver out the window, Mari pulls him up and Thea and Laurel arrive. Mari has lost Darhk, he’s protecting himself with his magic, and can no longer track William.

Back at the bunker, Darhk calls and tells him that the schedule has now stepped up and he has to withdraw from the race, right now. Oliver demands to talk to William, but Darhk tells him he’s the one calling the shots. “I’m sorry”, says Mari, “I know you brought me here to fight magic with magic but I-,” Oliver replies “Mari, this is not on you. There is still so much we don’t know about Darhk’s powers. We don’t even know what the source of it is.” Mari tells them that he recognised her totem, and perhaps he has one of his own. Captain Lance tells them he has seen Darhk looking at some kind of idol in a cabinet, and offers to sketch it for them.

Oliver calls the press conference, and announces his withdrawal, and places his full support behind Ruve Adams. Felicity comes to talk to Oliver, and tells him that Samantha has spoken to her about the ultimatum. Oliver tells her about his talk with Diggle, and that he wishes he had done things differently, and they both had the chance to have William in their lives. She asks if he has heard from Darhk yet, and Oliver’s phone buzzes. “Speak of the Devil, literally,” says Felicity. It’s not Darhk, it’s Mari and she has found something.

A professor friend of Mari’s has been able to recognise Captain Lance’s drawing of Darhk’s idol,  and it is very rare, and very powerful. In order to work however, the idol’s power needs a constant connection to ley lines. “I never thought I would say this but, huh?” says Felicity. Mari explains the ley lines on the map, and they decide to plot Darhk’s previous known whereabouts and see if they can narrow down a location.

Oliver tells Mari that he has doubts that Darhk will live up to his end of the bargain, that he has done this to them before. Mari tells him that they will get William back, but when they do, she thinks the best thing Oliver can do is to leave William alone. Let him have a normal childhood, her parents left her when she was young to keep her safe, and it was the best thing they could have done for her. “I can’t imagine a greater sacrifice, isn’t that what parenthood is?”, she says.

Felicity has managed to track down Darhk to a compound in Sky Woods. Darhk calls Oliver and tells him to meet him at Nelson Plaza in three hours, and William will be there. They decide there’s no guarantee this will happen, and it could be a trap, they still have to try and take his magic out, and end him for good. Samantha agrees and tells Oliver “Get him back, and take this son of a bitch Darhk out”.

They go to the compound, Oliver shoots some flares, and the other attack Darhk’s Ghosts. While they are all distracted, Vixen flies in and crashed through the roof, straight to Darhk himself. “Cute! Bye bye!” says Darhk and throws her across the room. He comments on her necklace again, telling her he will put it to much better use. She activates her powers, connects with the spirit of a cheetah, jumps over his head and steals the totem, which was conveniently right there on the table. “Well. That happened,” says Darhk.

Darhk emerges from the house and fights off Laurel, Thea and Oliver. He has them all suspended in the air by their throats. Mari has the totem, but separating it from Darhk has had no effect. She channels the spirit of a gorilla again, and smashes the totem down repeatedly trying to smash it. William appears behind Darhk, “Please don’t hurt them!” but Darhk just raises them higher. Mari finally smashes the totem, and they all drop down out of his grasp. Oliver beats Darhk down, as a scared William looks on. Oliver gives William a nod as the police begin to arrive, and then makes his escape.

Samantha is reunited with William at CCPD, and Captain Lance tells her that he is fine. Samantha gives him back his Flash figurine, but William asks “I’m kind of over the Flash. I want a Green Arrow action figure.” Oliver and Thea, watching in the background, smile. “well, the Green Arrow is pretty amazing,” says Samantha to William, while looking at Oliver. Lance comes over to speak to Oliver. “Darhk didn’t take him, it was a guy with a missing hand.” Thea gives an eye roll for the ages, and heads off to confront Merlyn.

Oliver and Vixen say their goodbyes, and she asks him if he has thought about what she said. “The best things my parents ever gave me was freedom. Well, that and this totem that makes me a total bad ass”. “You don’t need a totem for that,” Oliver replies. “Damn right I don’t.”

Thea tells Merlyn that she knows that he took William, and he tells her that he did it for them. She tells her their relationship is over, and that she wishes she never made the choice to recognise Merlyn as her father. “You would be dead ten time over, if it wasn’t for me. I turned you from a delicate, spoiled brat into a warrior. And all I’ve ever got from you in return is your venomous SPITE!” Merlyn yells. He tells her she doesn’t know what they are up against, that she is incapable of seeing the bigger picture. “I would rather that you hate me and be alive, than love me, and be dead.”

Oliver records a video message for William, telling him everything. About being his biological father, being the Green Arrow and why he hasn’t been around. He tells her it was his decision to send he and his mother far away, to keep them safe, somewhere even he doesn’t know about. It was also his decision for his mother not to give him this until his 18th birthday. “I wanted to give you a real childhood. I wanted to give you that gift. Goodbye, son. I sure hope it’s not forever.” Alright, who’s cutting onions?

Felicity comes around the corner, having heard most of what Oliver has just said. “Oliver, we need to talk,” she says. The most dreaded words in the English language. Felicity takes off her engagement ring and lays it on the table. She tells him that while everything was happening she had to table what she was feeling. But now she has had time to think, she realises that she needs space. She understands the impossible decision he had to make, but he should have told her. That’s what marriage is, a partnership, leaning on each other when things get complicated. “I don’t think that you know how to do  that,” Felicity says. “I’m trying,” replies Oliver. “Now, you’re sending William away, and I understand why. But once again you have left me out of the decision,” she says.

Felicity is distracted by her foot suddenly jerking, and she is able to move it onto the floor and slowly stand up. “Oh my God!” they both say. Then she turns and walks away from him, and out the door.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oEvcLR_ndo