Arrow - 'Dangerous Liaisons'

Nothing good ever came of a sudden switch to double the mascara and a shirt
with no shoulders. Not on TV anyway.

And we're back to keeping pace with Arrow, at least for this episode.

Prometheus is exposed, but in the wind, and the city is unimpressed that the throwing star killer turned out to be the DA. Team Arrow are determined to catch him, roping in ARGUS to help in the hunt, but Chase continues to give them the slip and wrecks up some priceless vintage arcade machines in the process(1). Helix tracks a warning sent to Chase from inside ARGUS, but the leak is killed when Alena hacks an elevator in order to steal his security key. She explains that she is trying to rescue Cayden James, the greatest hacker evor, from ARGUS custody and that the death was an accident due to her not understanding physics and anatomy as well as she does computers. She seems sincere, hiring a mercenary snatch team to get a second key without accidents. She also explains that James created a biometric tracking system that can find anyone based on their heartbeat(2), which prompts Felicity to ask Oliver to let the mercs get away with the Key.

ARGUS try to set a trap for Helix, but Lyla's double-blind bait and switch backfires when Helix figure out where the extra-secret illegal black site is, but Team Arrow aren't in the loop. Helix hack the black site's automatic defences, disable the guards and rescue James. Team Arrow almost stop them, but Felicity puts herself in front of Oliver's gun – not loving his 'not ready to Arrow yet' look; it's sort of Spartan lite – and allows Helix to escape. They promptly decamp, deeming her connections too risky, but leave her the biometric tracking programme. She and Oliver have one of many super-tense conversations, then run the programme, which reveals that Prometheus is, like a serial killer in an urban legend, in the building with them.

Alena is definitely rocking a Root vibe.

And then the bunker asplodes.

Also, Quentin 'persuades' Rene to get back in touch with his daughter(3) and start the legal process to regain custody, which is lovely. Also also, John and Lyla have a falling out over her basically turning into white Amanda Waller, which is less lovely.

'Dangerous Liaisons' is a troublesome episode in a lot of ways. It pushes Felicity's turn to the dark side, but so far Helix still doesn't look that dark and indeed the show goes to great lengths to paint Alena as driven, but basically decent. She's not that cut up about the dead guy, but he was working for Prometheus, so no-one else is exactly weeping, and honestly it comes off more as a disconnect from the reality of the action. Alena is used to working remotely with precise systems and predictable outcomes; it's easier to read her as 'in shock' than 'a psychopath'. Since Team Arrow make few bones about their disapproval of illegal, unsanctioned black sites established by anyone other than themselves or STAR Labs, it's not like ARGUS's concerns over Cayden James seem that irrefutable either. Lyla calls him 'more dangerous than Snowden', linking him with a figure hailed as a hero by as many people as call him a villain, and whose actions many incarnations of the Green Arrow (I'm thinking especially of the Justice League cartoon version) would have lauded as admirable. At present, Helix has sinister implications, but are looking way less dark side than ARGUS.

(1) To the sorrow of Curtis, Felicity and Alena, which I think may have been thrown in just in case this episode cast too many doubts on her geek girl credentials.

(2) So, apparently he's a wizard then.

(3) And by persuades, I mean invites her to the office then calls Rene for a meeting.