Geekscape Recaps: ‘Arrow’ – Unchained

Note: Check out our recaps of The Flash, and last week’s Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow!

Well, it looks like we’re in for a roller coaster of a season. Last week, I wasn’t shy by expressing my disappointment in where the show was going and how the show’s characters were being treated. This week, however, we were treated to a pretty good episode. We had multiple appearances by prominent DC characters and yet another candidate for our “Who’s in the grave?!” segment. So let’s get to it!

Warning: Spoilers Ahead! 

This episode moved steadily along. While I felt the flashback scenes were a little dull and frankly tiresome, the plot and subplots happening in the present day was welcomed with open arms. First, we’ll start with Felicity’s dad.

The Calculator

We knew it was coming. Even if you caught on right before Felicity muttered, “Dad,” the reveal was still pretty great. In the comics, Calculator is pretty evil. In his first go at being a super-villain, he would travel the country, fighting any hero he came across. Whenever he lost, he would have his suit analyze whatever hero was fighting him and would then return to engage in another fight. This time, because of his suit, he was able to win. In doing so, he was able to take down the likes of Atom, Batman, Green Arrow, Black Canary, and Elongated Man. Eventually, he was caught and was forced to serve nine life sentences. However, he didn’t stay behind bars for long.

Calculator eventually caught on to the fact that heroes were talking into an earpiece whenever they were out on the field. After investigating, he found that these heroes were talking to Oracle. This inspired Calculator to become an “Oracle” of sorts, only for super-villains instead. In this sense, he became Oracle’s greatest enemy. With his genius-level intellect, Calculator was able to recruit, hire, and even work with a variety of super-villains. This lead to a membership in The Society of Super-Villains, where he also recruited the likes of Mr. Freeze.

Calculator is very much a Gotham villain, but it’s not the first time we’ve seen a case like this on Arrow. Also in the comics, Calculator does indeed have a daughter. Wendy is a graduate of MIT. Afterward, she got a job working at Titans Tower. There, she helped rebuild Cyborg. After an attack by Wonderdog, Wendy was sent into a coma. She eventually recovered, but was paralyzed from the waist down. Currently, Wendy works under the name Proxy. In this sense, Proxy closely resembles Felicity.

Cadmus

During Calculator’s attack, the “internet nuke” was planted physically on a console. Before Roy destroyed it, we got a good look at some of the parts labeling.

It’s unclear if one of these parts was stolen from Cadmus, or if Cadmus is working with the Calculator in some way. In any case, an appearance by Cadmus is huge. In the comics and various DC storylines, Cadmus is responsible for genetic cloning, most notably Superman. Cadmus is directly responsible in creating Superboy and Golden Guardian, while also being responsible for the death of Ted Kord, aka Blue Beetle. In the Justice League cartoons, it was also revealed that Terry McGinnis, aka Batman Beyond, was also in part created by Cadmus to ensure that Batman would live on past Bruce Wayne. It’s also important to note that Amanda Waller has been involved with Cadmus in some sense. With any luck, maybe it was Waller’s clone that was killed last week. Wishful thinking, I suppose. Still, the fact that Cadmus exists in the Arrowverse is really exciting. I would expect to hear from them in the future.

Lotus

One of the subplots this episode involved Nyssa running around looking for something called the Lotus. By the end of the episode, we found out that Lotus is in fact a counter-agent to the Lazarus Pit, developed by the League’s enemies. These enemies, I presume, currently back Nyssa. After all, she informed her colleauge that should she not retrieve the Lotus, to “tell the others that the war is over.” It was also really cool to see Katana guarding what we presume to be Lotus in Japan. I honestly thought Katana was gonna go the way of Waller and get unnecessarily killed off to make room for her theatrical counterpart. Luckily, that wasn’t the case.

Nyssa claims that it can cure Thea, who is slowly dying, but only if Ollie kills Merlyn. Once again, Oliver is faced with a difficult decision. If only Sara Lance could take a break from time traveling and let Nyssa know she’s been demon free since 2015.

Mr. Terrific T-Sphere

It was awesome to see Curtis attempt to hold his own against Arsenal. In the fight, he threw his prototype T-Sphere. While it did backfire, the fact that it works to some extent is reason to be excited. Here’s to hoping he has a more stable sphere by the end of this season!

Oliver’s Son

During this episode, we heard Oliver remark on how going back and forth between Star City and Central City has been one of the many distractions causing him to lose focus on Thea. While this could just be a remark on the crossover event a few weeks ago, I took it as Oliver making reference to his trips visiting his secret son. This was a nice shout-out, and it’s one that will eventually have a large payoff.

Who’s in the Grave?!

Well, add Thea Queen to the list of candidates. Thea is slowly dying because she’s not killing anyone. This week, Oliver set up a meeting with Darhk in hopes of offering a trade to save Thea’s life. It’s hard to gauge exactly what Oliver was willing to trade. I highly doubt he would offer himself has a trade, because that didn’t really work out last time. Instead, I think Oliver was and is willing to give up in the mayoral race for Star City, thus relinquishing his control of the city as Oliver Queen to Darhk’s wife. It’s a risky trade, but one I know Oliver would take.

While Thea is in a coma, I still find it hard to believe that she’s the one in the grave. For now, I’m sticking by the theory that the person in the grave is Felicity’s mom.

That’s all for this week! As always, thanks for reading!