ARROW Just Nuked an Entire Town in “Monument Point”

By Justin Carter

It’s never an easy day for the people of Team Arrow, and last week proved no different. While Oliver managed to find that he had enough light inside him to repel Damien Darhk’s magic, Diggle ended up killing his brother and Thea was stuck inside Genesis (the evil plan to destroy the world and save the “worthy,” not Phil Collins’ band).

“Monument” takes place pretty much right where we left off, with the nuclear warheads of the world getting primed to fire and nuke each other to hell, forcing Felicity to find her old dad Noah Kuttler (the Calculator), yes, seriously) who broke out of prison a few episodes back. Oh, and Thea is still in Genesis and has to hunt down Lonnie Machin, that guy she accidentally set on fire. Fun!

As crazy as it all sounds and eventually gets, there’s a bit of an order to all the chaos. The action and different plotlines are juggled pretty well, and it feels like the team are working together for the first time in quite some time. The diversion that gets Oliver, Felicity, Diggle, and Noah to pull off a heist at Palmer Tech is fun, and it allows for some solid banter between father and daughter as the former is trying to glean information from the latter, who can’t be bothered with his antics. Of course, the two of them never actually do hash out their family issues, but they do make an effective hacking team, and Noah only took a bullet to the arm, so maybe that’s being saved for next week.

While Oliver and crew hog most of the action spotlight, Thea’s story has no shortage of fighting. Lonnie (or Anarky, or whatever he’s going by these days) isn’t the best recurring villain the series has had, but he works as a good reminder of how far gone Thea was when she was going through her whole bloodlust phase. It’s appropriately creepy on multiple levels to hear him call her “Mommy,” and every scene the two share together is really sketchy. It doesn’t get into sleazy levels of creepy, but you can definitely tell that this is a guy who more than a little terrifies the hell out of her just by being there. He does make a good point about her needing to quit being tied to guys. (Of the women in this universe, it’s weird how the only one not to have her storyline revolve around a guy this year is the once-dead bisexual Sara). With him also alive and kicking, it’ll be interesting to see how this all unfolds next week, particularly since Lonnie still has a bone to pick with Dahrk.

Now, then, about the ending. Team Arrow is successful in stopping the nukes from being armed and launching, save for one. Felicity’s able to redirect it to the titular town Monument Point, which ends up wiping out tens of thousands of people. It’s definitely a bleak endingl, and a good way to raise the stakes for the final episodes. That said, it does feel weird that it’s not given time to settle in our heroes’ minds that they just literally nuked a town, and I’m not even sure that Oliver and Diggle are fully aware that even went down.

Still, that and some odd editing aside, “Monument Point” is a fun episode that gives a lot of forward momentum as the season is winding down. Here’s hoping the final pair of episodes continue this streak.

Additional Notes

• “I told the President the fate of the world was in the hands of an IT girl, a crook, and two guys in Halloween costumes.” “They’re not Halloween costumes…” Now is not the time to get defensive, Oliver.

• The flashbacks are still happening and…that’s all that needs to be said, really.

• Felicity gets fired from Palmer Tech, which is definitely the worst time to get fired.

• Malcolm finally has a prosthetic hand, it also just happens to look like something from a sci-fi movie.

• There was a brief preview of the new Ninja Turtles movie, and I’m still convinced that Amell isn’t playing Casey Jones and that this is all a long con.