S04.E21: Monument Point

[looptab]

About the yellow eyes thing, I actually thought Reiter's got white in previous episodes. So they were doing the difference between good and evil, but then Poppy's became yellow too, so who knows, maybe I'm misremembering. I don't want to watch either, haha.

[quarks]

With the Palmer Tech storyline, maybe they were thinking of what just happened this year with Sumner Redstone, who with his family remains the majority owner of Viacom and CBS, but who got ousted out from the executive chairman position of both companies in February 2016 - more or less when Arrow would have been breaking/writing the scripts for this episode.

Granted this is not really a good comparison since that happened after a court ordered psych evaluation, and also CBS and Viacom are not, as far as I know, trying to give away groundbreaking medical equipment at a discount. Also, to be fully honest with you, I have yet to witness anyone flying through a window or showing me a secret elevator during any visit to various CBS and Viacom subsidiary offices, let alone working on buildling flying robot suits. 

[looptab]

1 hour ago, quarks said:

I have yet to witness anyone flying through a window or showing me a secret elevator during any visit to various CBS and Viacom subsidiary offices, let alone working on buildling flying robot suits. 

Well, that just sucks :(

[kismet]

Not to discredit everyone's most likely valid scientific evidence as to why the Nuke should be not detonated in water, because they all seem very logical and sound. But Quantico just pulled out the need to pseudo-TV science detonate a Nuke in water, although per their science this one had to be at least 100 feet underground to minimize damage. So there is the TV/Movie precedence that detonate nukes in water = saves lives. No redirecting a missile this time, someone had to go down with the bomb, they only had 4 minutes to decide where to take it, not enough time to remove the core. I think he picked the Potomac or whatever river is closest to Quantico. All I have to say is if Havensport is near Virginia, it's been a rough week for that region on the TV-Nuke front.

For TV/Movie pseudo-science maybe it makes a difference it is a nuclear missile v. nuclear bomb? Just thinking out loud.

[KirkB]

I think the larger issue is Felicity only had a couple of minutes to redirect the missile AND could only redirect it like 20 miles. Even if she wanted to drop it into the water there wasn't any within 20 miles of its initial impact target. In addition, if I remember the scene correctly, because she was working on a deadline and there was so much other stuff going on she couldn't even aim it. She was basically randomly changing the GPS target coordinates so it wouldn't hit Monument Point and was surprised/horrified when she realized too late the new target was also a city.

[dtissagirl]

Yes. Imo "redirect" is not even the best word to use here, because it implies Felicity taking over the actual missile and driving it somewhere else, which she tried and couldn't do. She could only make it so the GPS system thought Monument Point was 20 miles off where it actually sit.

[apinknightmare]

She didn't even have a couple of minutes, did she? It seemed more like 30 seconds or less. I figured that since nothing else was working, she just put in the coding that she knew would work because she'd used it before, and then hoped for the best. 

[Carrie Ann]

Right, and basically 20 miles in any direction from most inland cities (especially cities with millions of residents, like Monument Point apparently) is suburbia. She could have moved it in any direction and the result would have been the same, just a different suburb name.

The more I sit with this episode, the more I dislike the nuke thing in the first place. As DR said at the con this weekend, Arrow shouldn't be dealing with nukes. That's just not the scale of the show, and it shouldn't be, IMO. If it were a crossover with all the Flarrowverse involved, then maybe. But this is just too much. It's too big and too drastic for this show to handle, and the amount of drama and story you should get out of a nuke will be wasted here. To me, it seems like what they are going to get out of it is more motivation to defeat DD (unnecessary) and possibly actual assistance from the government for once (the only important piece, if this actually comes to pass), maybe some changes to ARGUS going forward, and then trauma/guilt for Felicity. You could have accomplished that with a regular bomb, not a nuke, and your viewers wouldn't be just rolling their eyes as you completely ignore the huge repercussions for the affected region, country, and whole world after a nuclear bomb was dropped. (I know DD's plan involves nukes, but this could have just been the test run for that, or something.) And because I've watched this show before, I know they will basically ignore those things after a few episodes. Had it dropped somewhere near SC, then maybe we would see more of that, but it's all the way across the country. It just makes it all so pointless. I wish these writers understood how to ramp up drama without just going for the absolute biggest/worst/most melodramatic thing they can imagine.

Edited May 16, 2016 by Carrie Ann

[quarks]

My thought is, and I may be entirely off base, that the long term idea here is to make sure that Felicity has a similar sort of inner darkness/guilt carried by Oliver. That's been a running theme of the show - Oliver pointing out to Felicity and Diggle way back in season two that neither one of them were considering the death count, and then, this season, Felicity saying that she loves being a vigilante/helping people, with Oliver countering that he doesn't know how to do this without going dark, and Felicity counter-countering that yes, he can always find a way.  There's an understanding gap on her side that I think the show wants to bridge.

So this is partly to give Felicity the other side of this - the death count. I'm not sure that nuclear bomb was the way to go - regular missile probably would have been as effective - but it does give her that similar guilt.

[dtissagirl]

This looks to me as one of those cases in the writers room where someone goes "ooooooh, if it's a nuke we get a mushroom cloud", and that's the whole of the why it's a nuke. The imagery won over actually thinking about the consequences [outside the scope of the show/characters] of this happening.

[apinknightmare]

It's also a way to allow DD to kill a shit ton of people to gain his power, and not really have it make a permanent difference in Star City, since their residency is dwindling. 

[Carrie Ann]

14 minutes ago, quarks said:

So this is partly to give Felicity the other side of this - the death count. I'm not sure that nuclear bomb was the way to go - regular missile probably would have been as effective - but it does give her that similar guilt.

This was what I was trying to say. I understand how this action will serve certain purposes, like DD powering up and Felicity feeling major guilt and trauma, but I don't think it needed to be a nuke. Two have been dropped in the history of the world on populated areas. This is too big for this show at this moment, IMO, and I just feel irritated at the writers for being such hacks sometimes.

12 minutes ago, dtissagirl said:

This looks to me as one of those cases in the writers room where someone goes "ooooooh, if it's a nuke we get a mushroom cloud", and that's the whole of the why it's a nuke. The imagery won over actually thinking about the consequences [outside the scope of the show/characters] of this happening.

Basically.

[kismet]

5 hours ago, KirkB said:

I think the larger issue is Felicity only had a couple of minutes to redirect the missile AND could only redirect it like 20 miles. Even if she wanted to drop it into the water there wasn't any within 20 miles of its initial impact target. In addition, if I remember the scene correctly, because she was working on a deadline and there was so much other stuff going on she couldn't even aim it. She was basically randomly changing the GPS target coordinates so it wouldn't hit Monument Point and was surprised/horrified when she realized too late the new target was also a city.

Yeah, I totally got & understood that part of the story. I was just giving support to some of us who initially wondered why the writers didn't manage to find a way to drop it in water since that is what we have seen in other movies/TV shows. There were very good counter arguments & explanations as to why water is not a good option. I just found it interesting that a few days later another show decided to drop a nuclear bomb in the water and everything seemed OK because that pseudo-TV science worked out. I know Arrow wanted to get a big kill count, so they went BIG. But I felt a little better after seeing Quantico that when I initially watched Arrow and thought what about putting it in a water source like the ocean, I was not too far off from a common TV/movie solution, even if its not a good IRL solution.

Edited May 16, 2016 by kismet

[AudienceofOne]

6 hours ago, dtissagirl said:

This looks to me as one of those cases in the writers room where someone goes "ooooooh, if it's a nuke we get a mushroom cloud", and that's the whole of the why it's a nuke. The imagery won over actually thinking about the consequences [outside the scope of the show/characters] of this happening.

You can't hack a virus. They needed Felicity to be the one in the chair at the end. That's the only purpose.

[dtissagirl]

12 minutes ago, AudienceofOne said:

You can't hack a virus. They needed Felicity to be the one in the chair at the end. That's the only purpose.

I don't understand what you mean. I know there are narrative consequences to Felicity. That's not what I'm talking about. I was wondering why they went with a *nuclear* device in particular.

Spoiler

Although SA mentioned at the con this weekend that the nuclear explosion will have ramifications in S5, and possibly on the other two shows as well, so now I know there was more than just imagery in it.

Still, a mushroom cloud in the US is not something you see regularly on broadcast TV, so I still think the visuals were a factor.

[ComicFan777]

...maybe they wanted to go nuclear because they wanted more than just a body count (ie. radiation giving humans mutant powers, new tech to get rid of radioactive materials to make it inhabitable, motivation for irradiated villains who are dying and come back for revenge)...

Edited May 16, 2016 by ComicFan777

[hogwash]

It actually reminded me of the particle accelerator explosion from S02. Team Arrow is so out of their depths though. My first thought after Felicity's hacking magic didn't stop it was this is the perfect setup for a superhero group who can deal with these global threats... Then I remembered all the LOT setup and no thanks to that crap again.

[Thundercatmary]

1 hour ago, hogwash said:

It actually reminded me of the particle accelerator explosion from S02. Team Arrow is so out of their depths though. My first thought after Felicity's hacking magic didn't stop it was this is the perfect setup for a superhero group who can deal with these global threats... Then I remembered all the LOT setup and no thanks to that crap again.

It might be interesting to see team arrow out of their depth, I mean we've seen they can't always save everyone or always win this is just on a larger scale. I'm looking forward to seeing Felicity work through this and hopefully with the help of Dig and Oliver. 

[BkWurm1]

17 hours ago, Carrie Ann said:

This was what I was trying to say. I understand how this action will serve certain purposes, like DD powering up and Felicity feeling major guilt and trauma, but I don't think it needed to be a nuke. Two have been dropped in the history of the world on populated areas. This is too big for this show at this moment, IMO, and I just feel irritated at the writers for being such hacks sometimes.

Basically.

 

10 hours ago, dtissagirl said:

I don't understand what you mean. I know there are narrative consequences to Felicity. That's not what I'm talking about. I was wondering why they went with a *nuclear* device in particular.

  Hide contents

Although SA mentioned at the con this weekend that the nuclear explosion will have ramifications in S5, and possibly on the other two shows as well, so now I know there was more than just imagery in it.

Still, a mushroom cloud in the US is not something you see regularly on broadcast TV, so I still think the visuals were a factor.

I think the reason they went with the Nuke is because it isn't something that is seen on TV and I'm not talking about the visual so much as they wanted to not go with another missile.  Shows do missiles ALL THE TIME.  I think they went with the nuclear device because it does push the envelope.  It's disturbing.  We still recoil at the idea of it actually happening and as awful as the reality of missiles and other bombs are, nothing equals the horror of anything nuclear. 

I was shocked they went there and I'm a jaded TV viewer.  Very little shocks me.  I was sure they were going to send it to outer space far enough so the fallout wasn't an issue but close enough that the explosion would create an EMP that knocked out all electricity in the US thus the cities all going mad because on TV no power = chaos lol. It would still have had consequences but I couldn't imagine them actually allowing for a nuke to go off on land.

And that's why they did let it go off, because it really is horrifying and every show keeps pushing to find new ways to horrify us. I can't say I was upset that they went global because I couldn't have handled ANOTHER year where once again Star City is attacked come May.  This way Star City is not really any more at risk than any other place.

Now next year, I think they need to pull way back and only make it personal and leave the world alone.  But this year with DD, I think the nuclear option works to sell the scale of what they are facing.  I don't have a problem with them saving the world this time.  It may normally be way more than they would be worrying about, but as long as the show isn't habitually saving the planet, I don't have a problem with the very grand scale high stakes this time.  Batman gets to stop muggers and planetary supervillains so why not Team Arrow as well?  

The trick is not to worry about raising the stakes next year.  As long as they don't view this as a challenge to up the body count next year, I don't have a problem with them going there. 

Well apart from the part where it's just not the way it works AT ALL.  Though I guess I have to assume that we are on Earth 4 and poor foolish Earth 1 where Arrow and company reside, that IS how nuclear missiles work.   It also explains how they can have the owner of a company fired or why the ADA need friends to explain how to do her job.  ;) 

Edited May 17, 2016 by BkWurm1

[bijoux]

Also, SC being far off could sort of work for the city next season. Survivors will likely evacuate the area. No reason why some of them can't end up in SC, a metropolitan area which has decreased in populace over the past few years, so we know there is available housing. Additionally, it's far enough away not to be impacted by the radiation. 

[romantic idiot]

4 hours ago, BkWurm1 said:

 

I think the reason they went with the Nuke is because it isn't something that is seen on TV and I'm not talking about the visual so much as they wanted to not go with another missile.  Shows do missiles ALL THE TIME.  I think they went with the nuclear device because it does push the envelope.  It's disturbing.  We still recoil at the idea of it actually happening and as awful as the reality of missiles and other bombs are, nothing equals the horror of anything nuclear. 

I was shocked they went there and I'm a jaded TV viewer.  Very little shocks me.  I was sure they were going to send it to outer space far enough so the fallout wasn't an issue but close enough that the explosion would create an EMP that knocked out all electricity in the US thus the cities all going mad because on TV no power = chaos lol. It would still have had consequences but I couldn't imagine them actually allowing for a nuke to go off on land.

And that's why they did let it go off, because it really is horrifying and every show keeps pushing to find new ways to horrify us. I can't say I was upset that they went global because I couldn't have handled ANOTHER year where once again Star City is attacked come May.  This way Star City is not really any more at risk than any other place.

Now next year, I think they need to pull way back and only make it personal and leave the world alone.  But this year with DD, I think the nuclear option works to sell the scale of what they are facing.  I don't have a problem with them saving the world this time.  It may normally be way more than they would be worrying about, but as long as the show isn't habitually saving the planet, I don't have a problem with the very grand scale high stakes this time.  Batman gets to stop muggers and planetary supervillains so why not Team Arrow as well?  

The trick is not to worry about raising the stakes next year.  As long as they don't view this as a challenge to up the body count next year, I don't have a problem with them going there. 

Well apart from the part where it's just not the way it works AT ALL.  Though I guess I have to assume that we are on Earth 4 and poor foolish Earth 1 where Arrow and company reside, that IS how nuclear missiles work.   It also explains how they can have the owner of a company fired or why the ADA need friends to explain how to do her job.  ;) 

The issue is not going with a nuke. The issue is them going with a nuke when there is no chance that they'll be able to deal with the gravitas appropriately.

[kismet]

4 hours ago, bijoux said:

Also, SC being far off could sort of work for the city next season. Survivors will likely evacuate the area. No reason why some of them can't end up in SC, a metropolitan area which has decreased in populace over the past few years, so we know there is available housing. Additionally, it's far enough away not to be impacted by the radiation. 

Are you implying that perhaps the writers nuked another city so that they could increase their population? That is some pretty diabolical city planning. The marketing of losing the "ling" did not work, let's just bomb another town and people will have to come. I know Ruve was Mayor and all, but that is some ballsy writing/decision making.

I'm mostly joking, but it does make me wonder if the writers didn't think the refugees have to go some where right? SC has to look better than a nuclear wasteland.

Edited May 17, 2016 by kismet

[dtissagirl]

So, they're gonna use the nuke as Arrow's particle accelerator explosion? The radiation makes a bunch of folk into the freaks of the week for S5?

[apinknightmare]

I'm pretty sure they went with nukes just because there aren't really a whole lot of other man-made and controllable things that can kill that many people at one time, and their show canon required Darhk to kill a huge amount of people so as to become "unstoppable." 

[kismet]

Freaks of the weeks is too upbeat for Arrow.

It's Arrow, I think we're headed for tragic medical diseases... Spikes in Cancer, infertility, radiation burns, infectious diseases, bone marrow, CNS disorders and perhaps a few genetic changes. That one hospital room and 2 doctors are gonna get some major action. I do wonder if Curtis will find a way to save them all and that is how he becomes Terrific.

I imagine a dramatic retelling of the R.E.M's "Everybody Hurts" video - which coincidentally I think could be on the unofficial Arrow soundtrack for mood purposes.

[bijoux]

1 hour ago, kismet said:

Are you implying that perhaps the writers nuked another city so that they could increase their population? That is some pretty diabolical city planning. The marketing of losing the "ling" did not work, let's just bomb another town and people will have to come. I know Ruve was Mayor and all, but that is some ballsy writing/decision making.

I'm mostly joking, but it does make me wonder if the writers didn't think the refugees have to go some where right? SC has to look better than a nuclear wasteland.

I don't think it was primary motivation, but it could inadvertently result in an influx of people, both good and bad. I mean, there was Baby Canary with just as much as a grudge againt GA as against HIVE. It gives you fresh VoTW and, if there is some chip change for extras in the couch cushions, simply more people around.

BTW, where is Ivy Town in relation to all this? I've sort of been waiting for Laura Hoffman to turn maniacal since the season premiere.

[ComicFan777]

Yeah, I was surprised that we didn't see the evil Hoffmans in Ivy Town down under.

[BkWurm1]

6 hours ago, romantic idiot said:

The issue is not going with a nuke. The issue is them going with a nuke when there is no chance that they'll be able to deal with the gravitas appropriately.

I'm curious, what would be the appropriate gravitas? 

Because of the show's timeline, five months will have passed by the time the show picks up and no matter what kind of disaster occurs, 5 months is enough for the story to move to the back page in real life.  Plus since the nuke went off on the other of the country, while it may never completely leave the minds of anyone on the team or even anyone just that had been alive while it happened, it wouldn't continue to affect day to day life.  I imagine that even where it happened, the population would be evacuated back to a safe distance and then their lives would start to find a new normal as well.  People aren't going to forget, but most people will keep moving forward. 

Yet I don't think a time jump equals a lack of appropriate gravity paid to the situation. Yes, a lot will have happened off screen but I'm sure we will get something that reflects the weight of the situation in the next episode and really, what are the rules for such a thing?  Is there such a thing as an appropriate way to respond to something so huge and tragic?  The only thing in my lifetime to compare it to is 9-11 but apart from following the coverage relentlessly or maybe contributing to the aid fund, there wasn't a lot that could be done halfway across the country. 

Is it that the show won't be concentrating on showing the many steps toward recovery?  Is that the concern, that without showing the full and intimate extent of the fallout, that the level of the disaster trivializes what happened?  

[romantic idiot]

The show started this storyline leaving it up to "an IT girl, a criminal and 2 men in Halloween costumes". Not trying to get other people involved, super powered or otherwise. I'm just extrapolating and going by past mistakes. 

[Carrie Ann]

It's not about trivializing it in the pearl-clutching, 'oh the humanity,' sense, for me. It's...pretending a nuke is just a bigger bomb. This act would reshape the country, and have a huge impact globally. That entire densely-populated region would be evacuated, much of it in an essentially permanent way. Where do those millions of people go? Katrina refugees had a hard enough time and that was a few thousand, many of whom could eventually move back to LA. Does DC have to evacuate? What happens to the national/global economy? Does the whole country/world go into a state of panic? What happens then? Do we finally move toward disarmament, or the opposite?

They could have selected any number of deaths that would have made DD incredibly powerful--just killing Laurel seemed to give him enough to make him pretty damn strong, so I would have believed that, say, 5,000 would have been plenty to make him god-like. So, yeah, I still don't think it had to be a nuke, and in terms of having a differentiating factor--ooh, a nuke, not just a regular ol' bomb!--my point is that I don't feel like the show is ultimately going to address it that way, so then what is the point? Any ol' bomb killing a bunch of people would have been enough to rock Felicity's world and provide the necessary motivation for the team and whatever government forces might suddenly decide to GAF about this. Didn't need to be the kind of bomb that has only been dropped twice in history and leads to the kind of long-term consequences this show doesn't care about (and I don't WANT it to care about). It doesn't fit with the scale of the show, or of the fight so far. That's a Justice League storyline, maybe, not an Arrow storyline. JMO.

But hey, maybe the fallout from this bomb will be completely central to the S5 storyline and beyond, in which case, okay! Otherwise, I wish they would get a handle on how to write drama on a more reasonable scale. I mean, where TF do you go from nuclear bombs, right?

[bijoux]

6 hours ago, ComicFan777 said:

Yeah, I was surprised that we didn't see the evil Hoffmans in Ivy Town down under.

The husband is probably on the up and up. Or chilling in their basement meat locker. After all, we only heard about Laura driving all day to get to the engagement party. I definitely find her suspect.

[wonderwall]

5 minutes ago, Carrie Ann said:

But hey, maybe the fallout from this bomb will be completely central to the S5 storyline and beyond, in which case, okay! Otherwise, I wish they would get a handle on how to write drama on a more reasonable scale. I mean, where TF do you go from nuclear bombs, right?

I think it was David who said at the con that the events at Havenrock will be explored in season 5 as well... IDK how accurate this is because it's coming from an actor and not an EP. So hopefully what he said is true..

[kismet]

They glossed over PTSD, alcoholism, spinal cord paralysis, people caged for experimentation, mass killings, bombs, super soldiers, drugs and thousands of killing, my guess is they'll work it in about as much as any those. I guess the nuke thing didn't bother me so much because it feels like a lot of shows are dropping nukes this season. 

For me personally, I wish they would return to more grounded stories. But it's their finale trilogy- go big has always been Arrows motto. I do hope they cover some of the fallot both on the personal level for the team & on the more national/global scale. However, I'm glad they nuked the finale & not the premiere because watching a place recover from a nuclear attack would be deprssing and the writers inability to be accurate would probably bug me. 

[Thundercatmary]

I think Arrow works better with a smaller core team (OTA in season 1&2) with others visiting or showing up here and there but not staying (like Sara, love her <3). I have nothing against Thea, and I wouldn't want her gone because she's Oliver's sister, but I don't think she brings anything to the team that they don't already have.

Likewise I wasn't happy about Curtis becoming a regular, love the actor though Echo is dope, last thing we need is a bigger team imo.

[BkWurm1]

Thea should bring more than they have been letting her character bring.  They finally are addressing how she's never allowed to finish her battles but I fear they are going to go too far with and have her try to be more Malcolm like.  I'm also afraid Thea will continue to get the dull side stories that have no tie to the rest of the show (Alex anyone).  Hopefully I'm wrong. 

[TimetravellingBW]

On 18 May 2016 at 5:50 PM, Thundercatmary said:

I think Arrow works better with a smaller core team (OTA in season 1&2) with others visiting or showing up here and there but not staying (like Sara, love her <3). I have nothing against Thea, and I wouldn't want her gone because she's Oliver's sister, but I don't think she brings anything to the team that they don't already have.

Likewise I wasn't happy about Curtis becoming a regular, love the actor though Echo is dope, last thing we need is a bigger team imo.

 

On 18 May 2016 at 9:22 PM, BkWurm1 said:

Thea should bring more than they have been letting her character bring.  They finally are addressing how she's never allowed to finish her battles but I fear they are going to go too far with and have her try to be more Malcolm like.  I'm also afraid Thea will continue to get the dull side stories that have no tie to the rest of the show (Alex anyone).  Hopefully I'm wrong. 

I think that Thea could fit in with the OTA dynamic. She could play the Watson, is funny enough to provide some levity, can actually work in a team (cough Laurel), has a genuine connection to Oliver, F/T is a great lady friendship and Diggle/Thea feels like a fun dynamic. But successful bonding takes time (a la OTA) and the writers haven't let her get to know the team this season because she's been stuck only talking to Laurel. (Who acted as a block to stop all the team talking to each tbh, because she became pep talk central). The writers need to put in that time with Thea bonding ON SCREEN. I really like OTA and would like more focus on them next season, but I don't think it's difficult to incorporate Thea, at least some of the time.

If Thea's plot/screen time is more outside of TA next season, it needs to be interesting. I want them to return to S1&2 style but even then the writers has a problem with writing the Team Arrow/A plot well and then had the B plots outside the lair feel superfluous. (E.g Laurel's plot 95% of the time). Unfortunately in S3 the writers reacted by shoving everyone into the Team Arrow plot, having nothing outside the lair and harming why TA was good in the first place. Non-Team Arrow stuff for Thea could be good if they write it carefully. Moira's stuff was always interesting (reason #453 why S3 sucked), Tommy's arc was compelling, Quentin and Sara were heartbreaking, the Thea/Roy/Sin team up was great. If Roy was still around, having Roy and Thea off doing stuff in the B plot, while OTA was the A plot in a lot of episodes would work. As it is I don't want to see Thea stuck with Malcom again this season. 

[tv echo]

Between 420 and 421, Felicity crossed over to guest star on Legends 114. Therefore, I'm posting my transcriptions from that Legends episode as well as this episode...

DC's Legends of Tomorrow 114 (River of Time) – In a flashback scene, Felicity and Ray Palmer have a conversation before he joins the Waverider crew and goes time-traveling:
(Felicity in a wheelchair wheels into her office at Palmer Tech to see Ray at her desk.)
Felicity: "I am really gonna have to beef up our security around here."
Ray: "It was pretty easy to bypass the system, considering I designed it."
Felicity: "You like my ride?"
Ray: "Those are some pretty hot wheels."
Felicity: "Yeah."
Ray: "Maybe that's your new name. (Felicity laughs) How you feeling?"
Felicity: "I'm okay. What are you doing here?"
Ray: "I came to drop off a note." (Shows her note)
Felicity: "Let me guess. It says, (Deepening her voice) 'Hey, Felicity. I hope you're well. I'm off to travel through time and fight an immortal bad guy.'"
Ray: "Is that me?"
Felicity: "Yeah."
Ray: "That was pretty good."
Felicity: "Thank you."
Ray: "So, obviously, Oliver told you."
Felicity: "Don't let his broodiness fool you. He can be quite chatty sometimes. He also happened to mention that you're going on this suicide mission because you think there's nothing for you here."
Ray: "You think it's a suicide mission?"
Felicity: "I don't think going after Vandal Savage is a vacation. But don't change the subject. You have a life here, Ray."
Ray: "Actually, everybody thinks I'm dead. Nothing puts things in perspective more than seeing yourself become a ghost."
Felicity: "You're not a ghost. You just need to come back to the world."
Ray: "And I will, after we take out Savage. I became the Atom to make the world a better place. And I'm pretty sure that saving it counts."
Felicity: "I'm pretty sure it does too. See you soon."
Ray: "You know, I would've stayed for you."
Felicity: "I do. But who knows? Maybe the future Mrs. Palmer is out there somewhere in the past, the future, some parallel universe."
Ray: "Ah, I'm off to save the world, not fall in love."

421 (Monument Point) [90th Episode] – Oliver Queen’s voiceover intro:
Oliver (voiceover): "My name is Oliver Queen. After five years in hell, I returned home with only one goal - to save my city. But my old approach wasn't enough. I had to become someone else. I had to become something else. I had to become the Green Arrow."

421 (Monument Point) - Team Arrow and Lyla discuss how to stop Darhk from launching nuclear weapons:
Lyla: "Russia, Markovia, Corto Maltese, us, every NATO ally - Rubicon has control over all their nuclear systems."
Diggle: "You mean H.I.V.E. does."
Felicity: "I know it's a little late for this, but whoever created an algorithm that could override any country's nuclear weapons really screwed up."
Lyla: "That would be Amanda Waller."
Oliver: "How much time do we have?"
Lyla: "We? Oliver, I'm the director of Argus, and this goes way over my head. This is executive level, and this is Department of Defense."
Oliver: "Right, right, right, right. But how much time?"
Lyla: "There's a start-up sequence before Darhk can actually launch a nuke."
Felicity: "We have just under 21 hours."
Oliver: "You're gonna have to find a way to interrupt that sequence."
Lyla: "Rubicon is a failsafe against nuclear Armageddon. Argus designed it to be 100% unhackable."
Oliver: "No. She can do it. She's the best."
Felicity: "Well, actually, that would be my father as far as Rubicon is concerned. It uses Fourier protocols. Noah practically wrote the book on them. The world is facing nuclear Armageddon. My pride and my general dislike for my father can take a backseat for the next 20-plus hours."
Diggle: "Felicity, this isn't about pride. Your father's a criminal. He can't be trusted."
Felicity: "I'm not saying we should trust him. I'm saying we need to."
Oliver: "Okay. He got out in Darhk's jailbreak. How do we find him?"
Felicity: "I'm already running a search."
Oliver: "Can you try to get in touch with Thea, too? Please. We need her back here. John, can I talk to you for a second? (Pulls Diggle aside) How're you doing?"
Diggle: "Been better."
Oliver: "Well, I'm not gonna pretend to understand what you're going through."
Diggle: "Well, Oliver, you've been through this with your mother, which is why I can't quite understand why you're putting the fate of the world in the hands of another evil parent."
Oliver: "I'm not trusting Kuttler. I trust Felicity, and we should just let her do her job, okay? We have one of our own."
Diggle: "Yeah, stopping Darhk."
Oliver: "His magic is powered by death, so if even one of those nukes hits -"
Diggle: "He will be unstoppable. Okay. What's your play?"
Oliver: "Well, if he is planning on harnessing all of this death, he's gonna be in something called a nexus chamber. Basically, it's a collector of magic."
Diggle: "And here I thought earthquake machines were as strange as it got."
Oliver: "Esrin Fortuna told me that one of these chambers exists in Star City. I'm betting it falls on a ley line."
Diggle: "What did Vixen call them - Wi-Fi for magic?"
Oliver: "Yeah."
Diggle: "It's a big city, Oliver. We got 21 hours."
Oliver: "One step at a time."

421 (Monument Point) – Team Arrow searches for Noah Kuttler:
Oliver (over comms): "There's no one here."
Felicity (over comms): "I found a deep-trunk fiber optic hookup with polymorphic encryption. Noah is there, trust me."
Diggle: "I think she's right. Look. Whoever rigged that up didn't want to be surprised."
Felicity (over comms): "I'm tracing the Bluetooth signal. Head southwest."
Oliver (over comms): "He's not here."
Felicity (over comms): "He has to be."
Oliver (over comms): "He was."
Diggle (over comms): "Looks like he bolted and in a hurry."
Felicity (over comms): "Bolted from whom?" 
Oliver (over comms): "This was 20 minutes ago."
(They watch surveillance video of Noah leaving and then Brick and Ghosts entering.)
Diggle: "Looks like Kuttler wasn't the only one that left Iron Heights."
Felicity: "Those are Ghosts with him. What does H.I.V.E. want with my father?"
Brick (on video): "Okay. Find that scrawny son of a bitch, and when you do, kill him."

421 (Monument Point) – Felicity finds a reference in her father's server to Ravenspur:
Diggle: "You're right. Kuttler's the only one that can stop Rubicon."
Oliver: "That's why Darhk wanted him dead. You all right?"
Felicity: "Yeah. The word 'conflicted' comes to mind."
Oliver: "Well, at least we know he got away."
Felicity: "But not much of a head start. I hacked Kuttler's server to see if there was anything in there that could point us to where he would run to, and he cleared the cache, so I can't recover any files, but there is a root directory called 'Ravenspur.'"
Diggle: "What's Ravenspur?"
Felicity: "Don't know. Does sound familiar. I just don't know why."
Oliver (sighing): "We're running out of time."
Felicity: "The whole world is, so yeah. Meantime, my ley line algorithm kicked back a possible twenty on a magical clubhouse for Darhk."

421 (Monument Point) – Felicity has a run-in with Mr. Dennis at Palmer Tech and finds out what 'Ravenspur' means from her mother:
Felicity: "Oh, Mr. Dennis."
Dennis: "Ms. Smoak. You haven't returned my calls."
Felicity: "Yes, I am sorry. I've been busy."
Dennis: "So have I. Running your company. Do I need to remind you of your responsibilities to Palmer Tech?"
Felicity: "No, you don't. But you're just gonna have to believe me when I tell you that what is on my plate right now is much more important.... (Donna enters) Hey!" 
Donna: "Hi. Um, uh, should I come back?"
Felicity: "No, no. Please stay."
Dennis: "Miss Smoak, the board- -"
Felicity: "Can wait."
Dennis: "Whatever's so important, I hope it's worth it." (Leaves)
Donna: "Hi. I like your tie. It's very - awkward. (To Felicity) Hi."
Felicity: "Thank you for meeting me."
Donna: "Of course, my baby girl. Oh, my God. Ha ha ha! Are you kidding? I'm always here for you - as long as there's no bees around."
Felicity: "No bees."
Donna: "Are you okay?"
Felicity: "Does the word ‘Ravenspur’ mean anything to you?"
Donna: "If this is something to do with your father, honey -"
Felicity: "So it does. I remember the two of you talking about it."
Donna: "Not just talk. It's a - it's a cabin in Cypress Cove we used to like to go to. We'd, you know - we'd nurse a bottle of wine, make love to Lionel Richie. I was his 'penny lover.' You know, your father could go all night long." 
Felicity: "Okay. That's enough. I don't -"
Donna: "You know what? Actually, I think you were conceived in Ravenspur."
Felicity: "Ohh, please make it stop, please." 
Donna: "Seriously, honey. I want to be serious for a minute. If this is anything remotely to do with your father -"
Felicity: "Don't worry. I have it handled." 
Donna: "I wouldn't be a Jewish mother if I didn't worry. (Felicity hugs her) Heh. Baby, what's that for?" 
Felicity: "With any luck, you'll never have to find out."

421 (Monument Point) – Oliver and Diggle have a heart-to-heart talk about lying to someone you love:
Oliver: "There's nothing here."
Diggle: "What, you think he was gonna put up a sign?"
Oliver: "I was thinking more along the lines of Ghosts with automatic weapons."
Diggle: "Maybe we should have brought our work clothes."
Oliver: "Can I talk to you about something?"
Diggle: "Yeah."
Oliver: "I spoke to Lyla. She's worried about you because you said that you shot Andy in self-defense." 
Diggle: "Oliver, I don't want to talk about this."
Oliver: "You just never said anything about self-defense to me, John."
Diggle: "Couldn't tell Lyla the truth and have her look at me the same way anymore." 
Oliver: "Come on. You don't know that." 
Diggle: "Oliver, you're the last person on earth to lecture someone about lying to the people they love."
Oliver: "I'm not lecturing. I'm worried. You're better than me at this, and you're hurting worse than I have ever seen you. Don't compound that by lying to your wife. The fact that I lied to Felicity does not give me less credibility. If anything, it should tell you that I know what I'm talking about." (Cell phone rings) Yeah."
Felicity (on phone): "Noah's at a cabin in Cypress Cove."
Oliver (to Diggle): "We got him. We're on our way."

421 (Monument Point) – Team Arrow rescues Noah from being killed by Brick and Ghosts:
Brick: "You're a hard man to find, Kuttler. Come out now. We'll make it painless. Make us work for it, we'll make it last. I hate it when they run."
(Noah shoots at them and then runs, with Brick and Ghosts in pursuit.)
Noah: "Rahh!"
Brick: "You make me chase you anymore, I'm gonna put a bullet in you."
Noah: "Isn't that the plan?"
Brick: "I'm willing to give you a sporting chance."
Noah: "I heard about this game while I was in prison, Mr. Brick. You let me walk if I take you down."
Brick: "Darhk said you was a smart bloke. So what do you say? It's the end of the world as I understand it."
(An arrow whooshes in and knocks the gun out of Brick's hand. Oliver and Diggle fight Brick and Ghosts, while Noah runs to the road and almost gets hit by a van driven by Felicity.)
Felicity: "Don't just stand there. Get in!  (Over comms) I got him."
Oliver: "Spartan, fall back!"

421 (Monument Point) – Felicity tells Noah why they need his help:
Felicity: "Let's make this simple. This isn't a reconciliation, this isn't a reunion. This is you helping me save the world."
Noah: "And what makes you think I can?"
Felicity: "Damien Darhk thinks you can. That's why he sent last year's greatest hits to take you down. You're a smart man. I'm assuming you know what Rubicon is."
Noah: "And I'm assuming it's under Mr. Darhk's control."
Felicity: "We have 12 hours to stop it. (Noah sits down in front of computer) That's it?"
Noah: "You seem surprised."
Felicity: "I was expecting a quid pro quo."
Noah: "Felicity, I may be a terrible father -"
Felicity: "May?"
Noah: "But I'm not a monster. Terrible or not, I am your father. As long as you live in it, I have an interest in seeing that this world doesn't end. That said, I do need something."
Felicity: "Color me shocked."
Noah: "I can't hack Rubicon with this setup, not in the time we have. I'm going to need the quantum subluminal processor you developed at Palmer Tech."
Felicity: "How did you even know that we - God help me, if you are using the end of days to steal from my company again."
Noah: "I'm an excellent multitasker, but you can trust me this time."

421 (Monument Point) – Mr. Dennis tells Felicity that the Palmer Tech board has fired her as CEO:
Dennis: "Ms. Smoak." 
Felicity: "Oh! Mr. Dennis. Wow! You must be very desperate for me to talk to the board since you brought security to dragoon me." 
Dennis: "These men are not here to take you to the conference room. They're here to escort you out of the building." 
Felicity: "Heh. Excuse me?" 
Dennis: "The board has grave concerns about your plans to basically give away the biostimulant implant." 
Felicity: "Mmm." 
Dennis: "They wanted to discuss the matter with you." 
Felicity: "And I will talk to them."
Dennis: "It's too late for that. They voted to terminate you, effective immediately." 
Felicity: "Wow. Okay. Well, I just need to grab something, and I will show myself out, thank you." 
Dennis: "Uh, I'm sorry, but everything in this lab is proprietary. We cannot allow you to leave with company property." 
Felicity: "Excuse me? You have to be kidding." 
Dennis: "I'm very sorry. I had hoped that this would end differently."

421 (Monument Point) – Team Arrow and Noah execute a heist at Palmer Tech to 'steal' the processor:
Oliver: "You all right? Did you get it?"
Felicity: "I got fired before I could take the processor. I can't even show my face in there. Maybe we should call in a bomb threat, just empty the place. Or maybe plant an actual bomb. Just a small one, one that doesn't hurt anybody, but we have to -"
Diggle: "Maybe we should just go in."
Oliver: "It's - ehh - too risky to wear the gear in the daylight. What about the elevator at the old lair?"
Felicity: "Uh-uh. Mr. Dennis shut it down after the Larvan attack."
Oliver: "So John's right. We'll go in and help you and your father boost it from -" 
Felicity: "It's in Curtis' lab. You want me to help my father steal from me?"
Diggle: "Well, it's not exactly yours anymore, is it?"
Felicity: "Nope. Guess not."
(Oliver in regular clothes and wearing a ball cap enters Palmer Tech. Scenes cut between him, Felicity and Noah, and Diggle back at the Arrow Bunker.)
Oliver (softly, over comms): "Door's unlocked. Give me a count of 3 and then come on in."
Felicity (over comms): "Copy that."
(Felicity and Noah enter the elevator.)
Noah: "I love all this subterfuge. Might our guardian angel be the Green Arrow?"
Felicity: "This was a line item on the budget list, and it's still not fixed, and they have the gall to fire me."
Noah: "This is fun, working together."
Felicity: "Let's make this clear. This is not a father-daughter bonding exercise."
Diggle (over comms): "Felicity, we have personnel walking the floor. You might want to just go on my signal."
Felicity (over comms): "Copy that."
Noah: "Look. I know I've done what appears to be some terrible things."
Felicity: "You tried to steal from me."
Noah: "Are we not stealing from you now?"
Felicity: "No. 'A,' it's not my company anymore, and 'B,' we're trying to save the world."
(Elevator opens and they almost exit too soon.)
Diggle (over comms): "Hey. Didn't I say go on my signal? Okay. Now."
Noah: "I'm good at solving binary problems, but matters of the heart -"
Felicity: "Are not your forte, and stealing a processor to save the end of the world is not the right time for this conversation."
Noah: "On some level, I've always told myself I just didn't know how to be a father or a husband."
Felicity: "And for a smart guy, you don't seem to understand the concept of not the right time."
Noah: "I don't know why I tried to steal your company's tech. Habit, I suppose, or something deeper."
Felicity: "Gah! That son of a bitch! I've been fired for, like, 45 minutes, and he's already locked me out."
Noah: "You have an electromagnetic wave generator and battery tender?"
Felicity: "To force the restart. Yes. Yes!"
Noah: "Open sesame."
Felicity: "That's it."
Diggle (over comms): "Guys, I've got incoming, northeast stairwell."
Oliver (over comms): "On it."
(Oliver fights three Palmer Tech security guards in the stairwell and knocks them out.)
Felicity: "It's under a sublock. It won't eject. That never happens unless... (alarm blares) that happens. We can't leave without the processor."
Noah: "We can if we clone it."
Felicity: "Your sniffer device."
Noah: "We can copy the processor's operating code wirelessly."
Diggle (over comms): " More movement. Felicity, you must have tripped something because I have security coming to the lab right now."
Felicity: "We're running out of time."
Noah: "The device isn't finished."
Felicity: "Come on."
Noah: "It's almost there. Come on."
Diggle (over comms): "Felicity, you have to get out of there. Security's inbound."
(Palmer Tech security guards enter the R&D lab and find it empty.)
Security Guard: "The R&D lab is secure."
(Felicity and Noah exit the building and get into the waiting car driven by Quentin.)
Quentin: "I heard you needed a lift."
Noah: "You're the one who arrested me."
Felicity: "He's not doing that now."
Quentin: "You get it?"
Noah: "No."

421 (Monument Point) – At the Star City Data Center, Team Arrow and Noah set up their equipment, but trigger a 'tapeworm" that alerts H.I.V.E. to their location:
Diggle: "Clear!"
Noah: "I'm gonna need the subnode taken offline."
Felicity: "Okay. I can do that."
Diggle: "I'll cover him."
Oliver (as GA): "I'll take care of him. Get to work." (Felicity and Diggle leave.)
Noah: "Nice to meet you. My daughter certainly has some very impressive friends."
Oliver: "How long is this gonna take?"
Noah: "Ideally, less than it takes Mr. Darhk to nuke the world. I'm not the man my daughter thinks, you know?"
Oliver: "Don't tell me. Tell her."
Noah: "I've tried. I tried explaining that there are two sides to me, the father and the hacker. She sees only the criminal. I mention this because you strike me as someone with experience leading a dual life. Any insights you'd care to share?"
Oliver: "Yeah. It doesn't work. You leading a dual life is why you lost her."
Noah: "You sound like you're talking from some personal experience." (Buzzer sounds) 
Oliver: "What's that?"
Noah: "Felicity's taken the subnode offline, and we've developed a new problem."
Oliver: "What?"
Noah: "Tapeworm in the Rubicon code, anti-hack failsafe, courtesy of your friends in H.I.V.E."
Oliver: "Can you override it?"
Noah: "I just did - but not before the tapeworm transmitted this terminal's location. Figure we have about 90 seconds."
Oliver: "Until what?"
Noah: "Till H.I.V.E. rains all manner of hell down on us."
Felicity (entering): "What happened?"
Oliver: "H.I.V.E. has our position. We have maybe a minute before they arrive."
Noah: "They're working on shutting me down, but I know a few tricks. This will go twice as fast with the two of us."
Oliver: "We'll hold them off as long as we can."
*  *  *
Lyla: "Establish a perimeter. Shoot to kill. I don't need to tell you what's riding on this. POTUS and SECDEF have taken us to DEFCON-2."
Diggle: "Just two? They're optimistic."
Lyla: "They don't want to cause a panic. The president asked me if the fate of the world is resting the hands of an I.T. girl, a criminal, and two guys in Halloween costumes."
Oliver: "They're not Halloween costumes.”

421 (Monument Point) – Felicity and Noah work feverishly to stop the nukes from launching all over the world and are able to keep all nukes from launching, except for one headed toward Monument Point:
Noah: "If this is the end of the world, I don't mind going out like this."
Felicity: "Don't you ever stop?"
Noah: "Not when it comes to my daughter, no."
*  *  *
Diggle: "That's a lot of firepower."
Oliver: "We don't need to beat them. We just need to buy Felicity and her father enough time.”
*  *  *
Felicity: "I think I got an algorithm down to 300 lines for the uplink."
Noah: "Have you tried to break the JSI encryption? That way, you can directly bypass the P.A.L."
Felicity: "Yeah, you're right."
*  *  *
Felicity: "Three minutes till Rubicon launches the nukes."
Oliver (over comms): "Overwatch, Amar is headed inside."
Felicity: "We're running out of time."
(Murmur enters the data center room and fires at them. Noah protects Felicity and gets hit in the shoulder. Oliver enters and shoots arrows to incapacitate Murmur. Diggle enters.)
Diggle: "Are you hit?"
Felicity: "No! (Alarm sounds)] No, no, no, no. Oh, no."
Oliver: "What's happening?"
Felicity: ""We got every nuke except one."
*  *  *
Felicity: "We lost one. It's in the air. Headed straight for Monument Point."

421 (Monument Point) – Team Arrow figures out why Darhk's wife ran for Mayor:
Diggle (to Noah): "The bullet went through, but I need you to hold still."
Noah: "I think we have more important concerns, such as preventing another launch."
Oliver: "I thought you two stopped Rubicon."
Noah: "Rubicon knows the missiles didn't launch. It keeps trying to send launch codes."
Felicity: "Which we have to override manually one by one."
Diggle: "It's kind of like whack-a-mole."
Felicity: "Except we don't get a stuffed animal if we win."
Lyla: "Is it true? There's one in the air?"
Felicity: "Headed straight for Monument Point."
Lyla: "Can you override?"
Felicity: "That is what I'm trying to do, while Noah keeps the missiles in their silos."
Lyla: "We need to start evacuations. There's not enough time to get everyone out. (On phone) This is A.R.G.U.S. director Lyla Michaels. I'm reporting an End Time event. Target is Monument Point."
Oliver: "Felicity."
Felicity: "I'm trying to hack their navigation systems."
Oliver: "What's that?"
Felicity: "Another hit in the ley line algorithm I set up. I cross-referenced it with news reports and - the mayor's office just evacuated City Hall due to a gas leak."
Diggle: "Like you said, why would Darhk's wife run for mayor of a city he wants to destroy?"
Oliver: "To gain access to City Hall for this exact moment. The nexus chamber must be beneath that building."
Diggle: "If he's hiding where he should be hiding to absorb the power of a nuke attack."
Oliver: "Let's go. (To Felicity) You need to divert that missile."
Felicity: "You are lucky I'm too busy to come up with a witty response to that right now."

421 (Monument Point) – Felicity realigns the GPS coordinates for Monument Point so that the nuke misses Monument Point, but it hits the smaller town of Havenrock instead:
Noah: "Got it. Mostly."
Lyla: "What?"
Noah: "Sent the remaining launch algorithms into an infinite loop. Should buy the world 24 hours, give or take."
Lyla: "What about the nuke headed to Monument Point?"
Felicity: "It's stubborn. There's a reason why these things were designed to be impossible to move off course, which is why I have to move Monument Point instead."
Noah: "GPS realignment."
Lyla: "What do you mean?"
Felicity: "As a prank, I once relocated a GPS satellite. Everyone on the eastern seaboard thought they were 20 miles west of their actual location."
Noah: "Do that to the missile, you avoid a direct hit." 
Felicity: "That's it. 
(Cut to shot of nuke hitting town.)
Lyla: "Direct hit on Havenrock. Maximum yield."
Felicity: "How many casualties?"
Lyla: "Tens of thousands. Monument Point would have been a couple million, Felicity."

Edited February 28, 2020 by tv echo