“Beacon of Hope” was undoubtedly Arrow‘s silliest episode ever. Everybody was speaking in freakin’ bee puns. The villain, Brie Larvin (Emily Kinney, reprising her role from The Flash‘s “All Star Team-Up“), was lifted straight out of latter-era Smallville. I lost count of the number of times someone forced “beacon of hope” into conversation. Curtis and suspended-Captain Lance ran away from a bee in the Arrowcave. Let me say that again: a major action sequence in this episode involved the two people left behind in the Arrowcave running away from a bee, director Michael Schultz showing us the pursuit from the mechanical bee’s point of view.
It was even worse for Oliver, Diggle and Laurel. When they encountered Larvin’s swarm of mechanical honey-mongers the little buggers actually came together to form a giant robot nicknamed Exoskeleton. In the end, when Oliver failed to defeat Exoskeleton in hand-to-hand combat Felicity electrocuted the dang thing and celebrated her defeat of Larvin by declaring, “Stay down, beeatch!” Oliver’s immediate and harsh look of disapproval was meant to mirror our own. Finally, that was one bee pun too far!
After all of that silliness, the episode then had the gall to direct us to an online PSA about what we can do in the fight against paralysis. That’s like a raunchy comedian closing out a set with, “But, no, seriously, we need to have an honest conversation about women’s rights.”
And yet “Beacon of Hope” was probably my favorite Arrow episode in quite a while.
Wait. Hold on. Where are you going? At least hear me out.
Yes, this was the silliest, campiest, most Silver Age-y Arrow episode of all time. However, this was also an episode which was fully aware of its own absurdity. We’re in Die Hard with bees, Felicity ruefully told Thea. Suspended-Captain Lance can’t believe his life now involves fighting a swarm of mechanical bees. New Arrow team member Curtis voluntarily made an intentionally bad bee pun and was repeatedly pinching himself over the increasingly bizarre reality of the case unfolding in front of him.
This led to quite possibly the show’s best use of Laurel’s sonic scream
I have railed against this show many times for departing from its original mission statement and morphing into something completely unrecognizable compared to what it was 4 years ago. However, a huge part of the problem was that as Arrow’s storylines became progressively more comic book-y the actual tone of the show remained the same. It was still taking everything so seriously, which actually made the transition even harder to take. For example, I needed to know the show realized how silly it was to have everyone talking about “mirakuru.”
Here in season 4, Arrow‘s “Beacon of Hope” flat out tells us multiple times, “We get it. This is our world now, and it’s super silly. But let’s have some fun with it.”
And if you can give into that the episode is indeed insanely fun. You can groan every time someone makes a bee pun. You can marvel at just how big Emily Kinney plays Brie Larvin. And you can laugh incredulously at the show for trying to turn Brie into an actual human so, so late in the game by revealing her plight as someone with a tumor on her spine.
However, you can also appreciate that awesome opening training sequence or the way episode splits its characters up, with Thea, Felicity and Donna under attack and Oliver, Diggle, Laurel, Quentin and Curtis working to save them. The topic of Oliver and Felicity’s break-up comes up multiple times, but it’s far from the focus of the episode. In fact, it probably factors more heavily in Oliver’s portion of the story than Felicity’s. Donna actually has her own hair shoved back in her mouth to shut her up when she tries to bring up Oliver. This episode isn’t really about Olicity, and it does Felicity good to get away from that for a week.
Isn’t Felicity the one who went crazy in suburbia without crime fighting in her life? Hasn’t she repeatedly stated how important her Team Arrow works is to her self-worth as well as, obviously, you know, the overall safety of the city and her friends?
Yes, but Felicity was freakin’ paralyzed. Arrow didn’t treat that storyline nearly as seriously as it could have, but the girl still almost died and faced a life sentence in a wheelchair. That’s bound to inspire some re-assessment of priorities. Plus, Felicity’s position as Palmer Tech CEO has been shockingly underutilized this season. When all is said and done, she’ll probably end up back on Team Arrow eventually, just like the last time she quit the team. Why not give her a chance to pursue her own version of Oliver’s mission, actually explore the idea of someone in the Arrowverse helping the world through their civilian guise instead of their superhero life.
We sometimes forget this, but other than Thea no one has known Oliver longer than Laurel. It’d be a shame not to take advantage of that shared history when Oliver needs someone to call him on his bullshit. The end result of it in “Beacon of Hope” is that she gets to playfully congratulate him after he actually offers something close to an apology to Curtis.
CONCLUSION
“Beacon of Hope” was Arrow‘s second consecutive break-up episode. “Broken Hearts” was Oliver and Felicity’s official break-up; “Beacon of Hope” was Felicity and Team Arrow’s break-up, most directly explored in her conversations with Thea. Just like “Broken Hearts,” it brought back one of the Arrowverse’s campier villains, but this time out it remembered to have fun with it. That sense of self-aware joy might just be temporary. The season is nearing its end, and the stakes must be elevated. Plus, you only get the one time to make everything seem so fun because Curtis is viewing the Team Arrow world for the first time and geeking out over the things we take for granted. But enjoy it while you can.
THE NOTES
1. Weekly Update from Pointless Island: Oliver and that one girl fought that one guy, but he has magical powers which make him invulnerable to bullets. He would have killed Oliver, but his magic juju ran out forcing him to make a hasty exit and leave his soldiers behind. Don’t worry – Oliver and his gal pal will kill all of them because, remember, Oliver used to kill people.
2. Favorite Line: Mama Smoak: “From now on I am wearing flats. These assaults are weekly. This is ridiculous.”
3.Second Favorite Line: Laurel reacting to Curtis geeking out over her sonic choker: “Yeah, we get it, it’s badass.”
4. Third Favorite Line: Quentin: “Just like Independence Day [everyone looks at him] What? I can’t watch movies, too?”
5. Nitpicks: What’s the board going to say about that weird secret lair Felicity sent them to? The same goes for her mom. We’ve all seen that lair before. It’s clearly a bit more than a standard panic room, but I suppose that’s what they’ll think it is.
6. Nitpicks: Is it really a nitpick if the episode itself lampshaded this? Either way, why didn’t Felicity think to use the emegency elevator right away?
7. Sarcastic Prediction: The Palmer Tech board unanimously votes Felicity out as company president the moment they hear her new plans and realize she means to take a hatchet to their profits.
8. Serious Prediction: Curtis dies next week. He literally just joined the team as Felicity’s replacement and bonded with everyone. However, Oliver made that standard Oliver speech about the potential cost of their lifestyle, which inspired Curtis to eventually go home to re-embrace his husband. Then he coughed because of that lingering cold and, for no real reason, said part of his comic book name aloud to an empty room: “Terrific.”
They are leaning super, super hard into setting him up to now die, perhaps related to that cough. Then again, maybe they are leaning so hard into him as misdirection to throw us off the scent of the real dead man/woman walking. Plus, if Curtis dies why would Barry Allen make an appearance at the funeral? Those dudes don’t know each other.