Roy Harper is back this week!

Let’s lace up our leathers – the Arrow S4:E12 Unchained recap starts now!

At Nanda Parbat,  Nyssa is still in her cell as Ra’s al Ghul’s prisoner. A woman brings her a plate of food, even though the guard warns her that Nyssa will not eat it. The woman urges her to eat it, as the pepper grew in the garden, and the garden has grown strong in her absence. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. Nyssa takes the top off the pepper and finds a knife. She attacks the guard just as he goes to close her cell door and fights her way out with the help of the woman. The work their way through a number of members of the League of Assassins, some of which prove themselves to actually be on Nyssa’s side.

Back at the Arrow bunker, Felicity is helping Team Arrow to track down a burglar who is in the process of trying to escape. Canary and Diggle are inside and Felicity tells them she has good and bad news. The good news is the burglar is heading right for them, the bad news is the burglar is heading right for them. They chase him down until he runs up a wall and parkour flips himself away. Felicity lets Oliver and Thea, who are waiting on the roof, know that he is on the way up. He emerges from a staircase near Thea and she gives chase. They fight and the burglar goes to escape down the side of the building, Thea corners him but suddenly begins to lose consciousness and starts to fall from the roof. Oliver grabs her arm and pulls her back up. The burglar takes his opportunity, and makes a run for it.

After taking Thea home to rest, Oliver speaks to Laurel, Diggle and Felicity about how, once again, it’s all his fault. He should have noticed that Thea was once again battling with her blood lust, and how much it was taking out of her. With running for mayor, Damien Darhk and Felicity’s shooting, he has not had time for anything else. They reassure him it is not his fault, and Felicity takes her leave to go and practice a presentation she is due to give at Palmer Technologies, later that week.

At Palmer Industries, Curtis Holt and a member of the board are watching Felicity rehearse her presentation for their new battery tech. It’s a disaster, she flubs her lines, fluffs about, and eventually runs into the projector with her wheelchair effectively ruining the presentation. The board guy asks the speak to her alone, and tells her she might not be the most ideal person to make the presentation, being in a wheelchair and obviously not knowing how to fricking drive yet. He also tells her they need to put their best foot forward, oh no you didn’t! He offers to find someone else to make the presentation on her behalf.

Thea is resting at home when Oliver comes to check on her, Malcolm Merlyn is already there. Her sickness is being caused by her denying her blood lust for too long. After being brought back to life by the Lazarus Pit, she needs to kill in order to maintain a balance or she will die. Thea tells Oliver that the only time she has felt relief from the blood lust was when she fought Damien Darhk, and instead of him being able to kill her, he actually absorbed some of her blood lust. Oliver says that they need to find Damien Darhk and make him do whatever he can to help Thea. Merlyn tells him that he cannot ask Darhk for help, they still need to concentrate on destroying him.

Oliver gets a call telling him that the burglar has struck again, two blocks from where he is. He takes off, no time to squidge into his leathers, and quickly spots him running from the scene. After an epic parkour chase, Oliver tackles him to the ground. He pulls the mask from the burglar’s face, it’s Roy Harper! Roy promptly punches that pretty face, and runs.

Oliver reveals to Team Arrow that the burglar is Roy. They try and work out why he has come out of hiding to steal these pieces of tech. Oliver gets a call from Alex, who is working on his mayoral campaign, so he heads upstairs to see what he needs (yes, the bunker is below his office). Oliver appears behind Alex, who asks, “where did you come from?” “Oh er, I came in the side door to avoid the media” replies Oliver. Alex tells him that a last minute opponent has entered the mayoral race. A relative unknown, but one who has an office already set up and plenty of funding behind her. It’s Ruve Adams, Damien Darhk’s wife. Oliver see this as an opportunity to help Thea and approaches her later that night as Green Arrow requesting a meeting with Darhk, to put a proposal to him.

Felicity is back at the bunker trying to find a connection between the pieces of tech Roy has stolen so far, and works out that they can be used to make a web nuke, a virtual bomb that would destroy the internets (I feel faint). She thinks that there is only one more piece he would need, the exact battery that Palmer Tech has been developing, the one Felicity is due to present to investors. She realises that Curtis, who developed the battery, may be in danger and sends in Team Arrow to save him.

At Palmer Tech Curtis is working away, blissfully unaware that Roy is right behind him. Roy tells him he doesn’t want to have to hurt him. I don’t want you to hurt me either, replies Curtis. I need the battery, Roy tells him.  Looks like you’re going to have to hurt me then says Curtis, and turns and runs, battery in hand. Roy chases and attacks him, Curtis lands a couple of punches but is no match for the mad skills of Roy. Oliver arrives just as Roy takes the battery, and the rest of the team have him surrounded. Roy throws the battery out the window to a waiting drone. Felicity notices that Roy is not acting like himself and tells Oliver to shoot him. He shoots him in the chest with a tranquilizer arrow, knocking him out.

They take him back to the Arrow bunker, Felicity has noticed that he had a piece of tech in one eye. Oliver opens his eye and removes a contact, fitted with a tiny camera and communications devices. Someone else is having Roy do their dirty work, so it seems! Oliver injects him with a stimulant and Roy wakes. He explains that he was made while in hiding, by a man who calls himself The Calculator. He is blackmailing Roy, who previously faked his own death to protect the identity of Arrow, Oliver Queen (Oliver goes by Green Arrow now, just roll with it, okay?). Once again, Oliver gets the guilts and blames himself for everything that has happened to Roy. Get a therapist, man. The Calculator is unable to access any signals from the bunker, and they hope that they have tricked him into thinking Roy is dead. The only problem is that The Calculator now has the three parts he needs to make his web nuke.

Nyssa has made her way to Japan to a shrine where she is seeking something called the Lotus. She finds Tatsu Yamashiro (a character from last season), now a member of the Crescent Order and wearing her Katana mask. They fight and find themselves evenly matched. Nyssa says they can either fight until one of them drops from exhaustion, or Tatsu can listen to what she has to say. And it involves Oliver Queen.

Roy goes to see Thea, and she is genuinely shocked and so pleased to see him. She starts to question what he is doing back in Star City, but she begins to cough and can’t breathe. The others rush in and Merlyn tells her it is the stab wound she received from the old Ra’s, the one that originally killed her, opening back up on her chest. Merlyn reassures her it will pass, and the wound begins to close up, but leaving Thea weaker than ever.

Felicity is back at the bunker trying to find a way into the tech from Roy’s eye, in the hope that she can trace it back to it’s owner. She finds a backdoor, and is almost immediately detected by The Calculator. He opens a line of communication and tells her he is impressed with her skills. Felicity tells him that they know what he is up to, and his plan to nuke the internet. He denies that that is his plan, “why would I want to nuke the internet, not only is it where I work, I’m also addicted to funny cat videos.  Let’s put it this way, if you want to make a statement, you don’t take down a system, you take down a city.” He shuts her out of his system, and Felicity quickly deduces his plan. Power grids, hospital equipment, water mains, he could kill everyone in Star City. They start trying to work out where he could be planning to use the nuke, when Felicity suddenly remembers that Ray Palmer was working on something called a battering ram, basically something that could crash through any cyber security system.

At Palmer Tech, Felicity bursts into Curtis’s lab which is still in disarray from Roy’s attack. She goes on a mad hunt for the battering ram. Curtis tells her that if only she approached her work at Palmer Tech with the same passion as she is showing now, the company could do with this Felicity. This Felicity is a force of nature.

Oliver goes to see Thea and tells her he has a plan to get Damien Darhk to help them. She tells him that he cannot put himself in Darhk’s debt, and that she would rather die. She tells him that this one is not his responsibility, it is her life and if she chooses not to give in to her blood lust, then that is her choice alone. Merlyn agrees with Thea, that they should not engage Darhk for any reason, and that it is her choice how she chooses to deal with her situation. “Oliver, sometimes the greatest act of love is no action at all” Merlyn says.

Felicity has broken into The Calculator’s system using Ray’s tech and has found out where the nuke will be placed, Flint Hill Data Farm. The team heads out, causing Oliver to miss his meeting with Darhk. Felicity speaks with The Calculator again as they hack against each other, he tells her that getting in his system was a good trick, but the only way to defuse the nuke is to actually be on site where it is located. “That’s what I have friends for” Felicity shoots back.

Diggle, Laurel and Roy find the nuke, and try and work out how to diffuse it. They are suddenly surrounded by The Calculator’s own friends, and forced to put down their weapons. Oliver appears, takes down about six guys with a few quick quivers to the head, and they get back to the nuke. Felicity manages to override The Calculator’s command to execute, and let’s him know it. Boom, baby!

Felicity works out that the nuke is hardwired in, there is no way of defusing it. They will have to blow the thing up themselves. Oliver attaches some C4 and a detonator, but The Calculator has jammed the radio waves needed to set it off. Roy offers to stay and detonate it himself, he was the one that brought them into this mess, and it’s his choice to stay. Oliver relents and says “see you outside kid. You run like hell.” The other leave and Roy fires his arrow at the C4, just as The Calculator manages to set it off. He runs and parkours his little butt off, and makes it out alive.

Back at the bunker, Roy tells them that he has to go, move somewhere else and go back into hiding. Felicity tells him that she managed to delete all the information The Calculator had on Roy before being shut out of his system so he will at least be safe from being exposed. He bids them farewell and goes off to say goodbye to Thea.

At Palmer Tech, Felicity takes control and makes the battery presentation herself, impressing the board and investors present. Oliver is also there for a proud fiance moment, and a man leans over and says to him, she’s something else isn’t she? Errrr, it’s The Calculator! You have no idea, replies Oliver.

Roy goes to say goodbye to Thea and he tells her he thought about staying, for her. Thea tells him that the best thing he can do for her is to go and have an amazing life. Get married, have a couple of kids, a minivan. Just go be normal. Roy says “you know, if I could do all of this over again, I would do every single one of those things with you.”” Me too” Thea replies.

Back at Palmer Tech, Oliver congratulates Felicity on a great presentation. He tells her he is going to see how Thea is doing, and Felicity says she is just going to finish up with Curtis and then she’ll be home. Oliver leaves in the elevator with a cheeky wink, and Felicity turns to find a man waiting behind her. “Oh my god” says Felicity “Dad?” Felicity’s real name is Felicity Calculator? No wonder they were so evenly matched.

Oliver has agreed to let Thea make her own choices, but she suddenly takes a turn for the worse. She is admitted to hospital and placed in a coma.  The doctor tells Oliver that the prognosis is not good. He takes a seat beside her bed and asks her to please don’t go. “There’s only one way to prevent that” says Nyssa appearing on the other side of Thea’s bed. “My father once told me of an elixir known as Lotus, capable of countering the effects of the Lazarus Pit” she says. “A secret weapon developed by the League’s enemies.” “Do you have it?” asks Oliver. “I do” replies Nyssa. “And I will freely give it to you on one condition. I want you to kill Malcolm Merlyn.” Dun dun dunnnnn.

So what’s it gonna be Oliver, kill Thea’s father to save her life? Or back to the Darhk side?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gclfADIiqkE