The CW’s Arrow season four episode six had a fair share of love connections, the near-dissolution of one fan favorite relationship, and a still out-of-control Sara. The episode also revealed the entirety of Ray’s message which sent Felicity into a shame spiral (no showers, no sleep, but lots of junk food) because she didn’t realize he was attempting to reach out to her while she was off gallivanting around with Oliver. One of the better Arrow episodes, “Lost Souls” tied up one storyline while opening up the possibility that one supporting character might emerge as more of a player than fans anticipated this season.
Arrow Season Four Episode Six Recap:
The episode kicks off with a flashback to Palmer Industries six months ago. Ray (Brandon Routh) is working on his suit when something goes wrong and there’s a massive explosion.
Present day and Thea (Willa Holland), Oliver (Stephen Amell), and Alex (Parker Young) are sitting around figuring out Oliver’s platform. Felicity ((Emily Bett Rickards) is supposed to be handling the budget but she’s slammed at Palmer Tech. Oliver leaves and Alex asks Thea out on a date, but she tells him her life is just too complicated right now. Alex thought there was something between them and is embarrassed, but Thea assures him it was nice to be asked.
At Palmer Tech, Felicity is playing Ray’s last message – “I’m alive and I’m in trouble” – over and over again. Curtis (Echo Kellum) finds her doing it wile surrounded by munchies, and it’s clear Felicity isn’t making any headway. Curtis tries to get her to take a break, but she refuses. In walks Oliver and Felicity introduces him to Curtis. Immediately, Curtis tries to figure out if Oliver is Green Arrow by blocking out the top half of his head with his hand. He tells Oliver Green Arrow showed up when Oliver came back to town. Curtis decides they are not the same person because Oliver’s jaw’s not right.
Curtis leaves and Oliver asks Felicity why she didn’t come to the campaign office. She plays him Ray’s recording, and Oliver says it’s not possible Ray survived. Felicity says the message was sent six days ago so he has to be alive.
Back in time on the island, Oliver leads the bad guys to a secret area and they uncover a “message from the ancients.” Oliver’s charged with leading an excavation on a beach at a cove by a mountain until the “gift” is uncovered.
Sara (Caity Lotz) calls her mom to check in as Laurel (Katie Cassidy) and her dad, Quentin (Paul Blackthorne), seem super happy to have her back and reunited with her soul. Sara’s still very emotional and her dad and Laurel are supportive as she deals with being back among the living.
Oliver takes Felicity home and she’s pissed because his response to learning Ray’s alive was to tell Felicity she needs a shower and a nap. Felicity doesn’t want to listen to either Oliver or Curtis, and she’s uncharacteristically snappy and sarcastic. Then, she backs down a bit, asking for a shoulder massage. Before she can hop in the shower, an alert sounds about the back trace she set up. She and Oliver check out her laptop and after some pixelation, Ray is there and tells them he’s being held against his will by people who want his suit. He doesn’t know where he’s being held, but he says his suit worked a little too well. The camera pulls out and we see that Ray is now only a few inches tall and in a glass case on a table in a laboratory.
Felicity and Oliver head to Team Arrow’s new lair and Felicity replays the message for Laurel. Felicity has to head back to Palmer Tech to pull up schematics, and when Oliver volunteers to go with her she quickly shoots him down.
Back on the island, Oliver is in charge of a group of captives who are trying to find the hidden gift. When Oliver’s not around, Conklin (Ryan Robbins) makes some kind of deal with one of the captives.
Curtis is geeking out over miniaturization and Felicity has to remind him Ray’s being held hostage. Curtis can build what’s needed except he needs a quantum manifold that has to come from the manufacture, which happens to be their biggest competitor. Just when Felicity thinks things can’t get worse, her mom shows up. Oliver agreed she could visit, believing it would help Felicity get some rest, but Felicity isn’t happy to see her. (Maybe this wasn’t a wise move on Oliver’s part.) Felicity tells Curtis to start building what they need and that the Green Arrow will get them the quantum manifold.
It’s nighttime and Green Arrow goes to KORD Industries for the manifold while Felicity oversees the action from their lair/command center. They’re still arguing over her mom’s arrival and Felicity is shocked he could stand up to the League of Assassins but not her mom. He explains that her mother said she missed her and texted him a single tear emoji. That sets Felicity off even more as she had no idea they were texting. Finally, the rest of the team – Diggle (David Ramsey), Thea, Laurel, and Sara – chime in letting Felicity know all of their lines have been open and they’ve heard everything. Felicity’s still fuming when she tells Oliver, who she temporarily renames Chatty Cathy, that the floors inside the building are pressure sensitive which means he has to handle the job. They will all have 90 seconds before they’re discovered. Oliver tells her when they’re done with this job they have to have a talk. Chatty Cathy hangs down from the ceiling and deactivates the alarm system, but after he lets everyone in the cameras come on. Chatty Cathy takes them out, but Felicity says they’ve upgraded their system which means they could be discovered even sooner. Everyone looks for the quantum manifold and Thea finds it. Just then armed guards come in and start firing, and Sara goes way overboard taking one of them out. They escape with the quantum manifold.
Ray shows up again and tells her he’s sorry the quantum manifold was so hard to procure. Before he can finish telling her what they need to figure out next, a shadow appears and Ray stops talking. Damien Darhk (Neal McDonough) slowly comes into frame, looking down on Ray in his box. The picture is cut off.
Diggle tells Felicity that Laurel and Thea took Sara home, and Oliver wants to make sure Felicity actually saw Darhk. She did, and she’s angry. Oliver says because Darhk’s involved Lance can get the location of where Ray’s being held. Felicity thinks Darhk could just squish Ray, but Diggle and Oliver think if he wanted to kill him Darhk would have already done it. The plan is to get Curtis the manifold first and then they have to wait to see where Darhk is holding Ray. Felicity doesn’t want to wait, and Oliver suggests they relax and have dinner with her mom. He even volunteers to cook, and Felicity says she knows he already made the dinner plans. Oliver briefly denies it and then admits he did. Oliver says it happened unintentionally, but Felicity says with Ray’s life in danger it’s not the right time for a dinner with her mom.
Back on the island, Oliver delivers food to the woman captive in the cave. He asks her if Reiter (Jimmy Akingbola) ever did anything mystical or magical, and she says he’s odd and religious. Oliver thinks drugs are a front and it’s not all about the drugs or money, it’s also about power.
Darhk tells Ray his engineers aren’t having any success and Ray doesn’t want to help them. Darhk threatens Ray that if he doesn’t help, he’ll hurt Felicity. Darhk also tells Ray they weren’t originally listening for a message from a dead man, they just lucked into it.
Felicity’s mom, Donna (Charlotte Ross), is drinking wine after ruining dinner because Oliver was late. When Oliver arrives, apologizing, he and Felicity use code words to talk about Lance’s mission. Oliver says he’s trying to figure out what he did wrong. Mom leaves and Oliver admits it was a bad idea to have invited her. He doesn’t like being shut out and Felicity says it’s her fault what’s happened to Ray. Ray was sending distress calls for weeks but she was off traveling with Oliver so she didn’t get them. She feels guilty because she was “swept up” in being with Oliver at the same time Ray was reaching out to her. She says she lost herself in Oliver and that’s not who she is. Oliver says, “This isn’t about Ray, it’s about us.” Felicity says no, then yes, then, “I don’t know.” Oliver says he’s going to give her space and leaves.
At the lair, Oliver can’t figure out the cameras and Diggle shows up. Oliver misses the Russian Vodka that was hidden in their old lair and Diggle whips out some Tennessee Whiskey. Oliver tells him all about what Felicity said and Diggle thinks Oliver is just jealous. But Oliver says everything has gotten super complicated and he has no idea why Felicity chose him. He can’t operate the computer system and Ray probably invented it. Diggle says Felicity didn’t choose Ray because what looks good on paper isn’t always the best thing. Diggle married a woman just like her and knows that Felicity will figure it out with time and space. Lance texts that he’s meeting with Darhk in 20 minutes.
Back on the island, the captive Conklin was talking to attacks Oliver.
Lance tells Darhk Sara is back but he still needs his help. Darhk gets back in his car and leaves, and Diggle follows him.
Felicity’s in bed and her mom comes in with hot milk. Felicity first sends her away and then calls her back in. They have a heart-to-heart about Felicity’s childhood and then her mom says Oliver is not the same as Felicity’s father who left them. Donna knows Oliver loves her, but Felicity says it’s too easy to lose herself in him. Donna says that’s how it’s supposed to feel when you’re in love and that Oliver has lost himself in her. Donna warns her not to get in her own way and that most people never find this kind of love. They laugh, Felicity cries, and Oliver texts that Diggle has Ray’s location.
Back at the lair, Felicity says the building is one of the most secured buildings on the west coast. They need what Curtis is assembling so that Ray can be resized and help them get out alive, and that means Curtis will have to go with them and assemble it in the field because he’s not done. Sara shows up and wants to help, saying she needs to know if she can control her anger.
At the warehouse, Green Arrow is knocked out by an armed guard. He comes to inside the building, chained up. Darhk has his bow and arrows and tells the guard to leave them. Out of Darhk’s sight, Diggle takes off his mask (he was the guard) and announces that the package was delivered. Thea, Laurel, and Sara are ready to infiltrate the building. Meanwhile, Felicity and Curtis are strapped together on top of a building ready to jump down. They do, and the chute opens so they glide down to their target while the rest of the team is involved in a gun battle (or arrow battle, in Thea’s case).
Darhk wants to peek under Green Arrow’s mask but Oliver stops him. Picking up his bow, he shoots at Darhk who easily deflects the arrow. Darhk uses his powers to strangle Green Arrow with the chains. Curtis and Felicity make it to Ray’s cube, but they can’t figure out how to open it.
Green Arrow gets free using a smoke bomb. Ray tells them the cameras in the box have to draw power from somewhere and Curtis says the dohickey is ready. He fires it up, shoots at Ray, and Ray busts out of the box back to his old normal size inside his suit. “I’m not dead,” says Ray, surprised.
The team is told Ray has been freed and it’s time to go, but Sara takes on one more bad guy. They try to stop her from killing him but can’t.
Green Arrow takes out a guy about to fire on Ray and they greet each other, with Ray complimenting Oliver’s new suit.
Back at their lair, Ray says the worst part was that everything was so big – including the cockroaches. Oliver’s glad Ray’s back to his old self and Felicity says his tests came back almost completely normal. Oliver tells him who Darhk is and Diggle says if they wanted his tech, it wasn’t a good thing. Felicity volunteers to take him home so she can catch him up on his company, but he says it’s still hers until he decides to officially come back from the dead. They leave and Oliver looks a bit forlorn.
Back on the island, Oliver’s in a life and death struggle. He wins and the other guy dies.
Sara knows this anger is a side effect and she can’t stop herself. She felt better after killing that guy, but she can’t keep doing this. She tells Laurel she owes her everything, but she has to go somewhere and start over. Thea tells her she doesn’t have to leave, but Sara says she’s going to visit her mom in Central City and travel until she figures things out. Laurel understands but she’ll miss her.
Oliver’s in bed reading a book when Felicity shows up. Felicity says she thinks they should clear the air and thanks him for helping to save Ray and being so understanding. Oliver apologizes for not being the best listener. It’s all new to both of them, and Oliver says it’s amazing they’ve made it this far. Felicity is sure they will be fine because they found themselves in each other. They kiss and make-up. Awww.
Lance is sitting at a bar when Felicity’s mom shows up. They talk about their kids and the reason why they’re drinking. They introduce themselves and it appears a love connection has been made.
At Oliver’s campaign headquarters, Thea tells Alex she needs a drink because she’s stressed. Then, she asks if they can get one later. Alex absolutely agrees to meeting her later. But as he walks away, Thea looks troubled.
