Review- Arrow Season 4 Episode 16: “Broken Hearts.”

Check out Our Review [WITH SPOILERS] of Arrow Episode 16: “Broken Hearts”

Sometimes it’s good to take a break, and this week on Arrow, while the Damien Darhk plotline is still front and center, we get a good old fashioned superhero versus super-villain action fest because Cupid returns to Star City. And of course it’s Cupid, stupid.

And it was a fortuitous arrival by everyone’s second favorite deranged DC fatale, because the end of Olicitity is nigh. What better way to put a spark back in the Oliver Queen/ Felicity Smoak dynamic than with a little visit from Cupid. Sadly, this meant the death of some innocent power couples around Star City. So, Oliver and Felicity pretended their marriage was back on so Cupid would set her sights on them. There is some nice continuity from last season as Cupid was still reeling from the death of her newest obsession- Floyd Lawton, aka Deadshot.

Well, since her love is dead, Cupid wanted to make sure all love was dead around Star City. She would have succeeded in bumping off Oliver and Felicity if it wasn’t for some well-placed and sincere words by Felicity declaring her love for Oliver. Even Oliver bought into it, and after Cupid was taken down by Diggle and Thea, Oliver even believed that his spark was rekindled. Sadly, it was all a ruse and Felicity still walked (yes, she is still walking) away.

You know what? It is overdone, soap-operatic, and almost unbelievable, but the parting of Felicity and Oliver actually hurt- so it works. I also love Cupid and the whole episode plays out like a good Bronze Age comic. A superhero trying to maintain his love life taking on a gimmicky but deranged villain; it’s all just very classic and very engaging. It seems small but it’s all so very personal.

Meanwhile, the trial of Damien Darhk continued with Quentin Lance risking his career to make sure Darhk is locked up. Lance testified that he joined with Darhk for a time and witnessed the arch-villain commit all sorts of heinous crimes. This was enough to get Darhk locked away but of course, he still had some tricks up his sleeve. Or in this case, in his mouth. What the heck is that ring, huh? It is no Trial of Frank Castle, but the Trial of Darhk is pretty gripping and takes the Darhk story-arc to the next act. Fun stuff.

I still don’t know what the heck is happening in the flashbacks what with the soul sucking, the mystic idol, and all the fighting, but even that can’t bring me down because this week’s Arrow was a blast.