Arrow: Season 4, Episode 6 – “Lost Souls”

“Lost Souls” is primarily about Felicity Smoak (Emily Bett Rickards), and her relationship with Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell). So far in season four, it’s been quite peachy between the two, known to many as “Olicity”, but in this episode they hit their first real rocky patch.

After deciphering a coded message in her phone, Felicity, with help from Curtis Holt (Echo Kellum), finds out that not only is her former love interest Ray Palmer (Brandon Routh), a.k.a. The Atom, alive, but he’s also in trouble. When Felicity tells Oliver, he’s pretty nonchalant about the news. Oliver pretty much tells Felicity that he’ll handle it later.

Felicity doesn’t take Oliver’s rebuffing well. She let’s him know that his apathy towards finding and helping Ray is wrong, especially since Ray has been alive and in trouble for months when Olicity were off traveling the world. Felicity begins to think that maybe she’s “lost” herself by being with Oliver.

But Oliver’s lackadaisical attitude towards the situation changes when he discovers that Damien Darhk (Neal McDonough) is holding Ray prisoner. Plus, the explosion at Palmer Technologies at the end of last season was Ray messing with his A.T.O.M. exosuit’s shrinking functionality, which results in him now being only a few inches tall.

Oliver and the rest of Team Arrow, including Sara Lance (Caity Lotz) fresh off her soul restoration, infiltrate Darhk’s hideout. The action sequence that follows is fun to watch thanks to some nifty choreography and clever camerawork. Meanwhile, Oliver allows himself to get captured by Darhk as a diversion while the rest of Team Arrow take out the Ghost soldiers.

While Darhk thinks he has Green Arrow right where he wants him, he soon realizes his error and flees. A short time later, Team Arrow reach Ray and, after some quick troubleshooting, enlarge and rescue him. Later, following a heart-to-heart with her mother, Felicity smoothes things out with Oliver, and Olicity lives on for another day.

WHAT WORKED

Ray Palmer is back, and that’s exciting. He adds a certain boyish charm to the show that’s absent from the other characters. It’s intriguing how much of Arrow and The Flash this season are essentially working to set up the upcoming Legends Of Tomorrow series.

WHAT DIDN’T WORK

Speaking of Legends Of Tomorrow, another member of that show’s team, Sara Lance, a.k.a. White Canary, is done with Star City. After the team spent the last few episodes bringing her back to life, Sara seems to be suffering from the same murderous bloodlust that infected Thea. This causes Sara to violently break the neck of a Ghost during Team Arrow’s mission to rescue Ray. She tells the team that she needs some time to herself and has decided to leave Star City. It leaves an empty feeling knowing how much time and energy this season has spent dealing with her character’s resurrection, and she ends up leaving before this “new” Sara really has time to develop into anything interesting.

Felicity was completely right to be upset at Oliver for brushing off the news of Ray’s fate. It’s odd considering that, if Felicity told the same thing to, I don’t know, Batman, I’m sure the caped crusader would have leapt into action. Ray is an ally in their quest to save Star City, and Oliver’s “we’ll handle this later” reaction seemed very un-superhero-like.

NUGGETS AND TIDBITS

Felicity’s mom, Donna Smoak (Charlotte Ross), shows up this episode for some reason. The cameo isn’t too painful as she’s primarily involved in the Olicity storyline, but Donna ends up flirting with Captain Lance (Paul Blackthorne) in a bar at the end. If this leads to a romance between the two, that would be very weird and unnecessary.

Speaking of unnecessary romances, Thea’s bloodlust storyline seems to have faded into memory. In this episode, she pretty much spends her brief screen time flirting with Oliver’s new political advisor. But is this new political advisor to be trusted? I have my doubts.

The flashbacks were actually entertaining in this episode. It seems that those drug lords might be after something other than drugs, perhaps something supernatural. Oliver kills a worker, who was likely ordered to attack Oliver, and is caught literally red-handed. With no ally left on the island after John Constantine’s (Matt Ryan) departure, it’s going to be tough for Oliver to get out of this predicament.