Arrow
Season 4 Episode 15: “Taken”
Directed by Gregory Smith
Written by Keto Shimizu & Brian Ford Sullivan
Created by Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim, Andrew Kreisberg
Starring Stephen Amell, Katie Cassidy, David Ramsey, Willa Holland, Emily Bett Rickards, John Barrowman, Paul Blackthorne
The CW
Air Date: Wednesday, February 24th, 2016, 8:00pm

Last week on Arrow, Felicity’s mom went expectedly overboard with wedding preparations. Merlyn (John Barrowman) is on Damian Darhk’s (Neal McDonough) team now, confirming that Lance (Paul Blackthorne) was the mole. Darhk sets a trap. His wife ambushes the Arrow gang who thought they were being so stealthy. Thea (Willa Holland) figures out Oliver (Stephen Amell) has a son. Curtis (Echo Kellum) designed an implant that would get Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) to walk again.

Spoilers below.

Arrow 4.15 “Taken” review: This was a bad week for Oliver. It started out promising enough. Felicity tries to walk with the implant. She stumbles. Be patient, Felicity.

Then Darhk shows up, and spills all the beans. “The fourth time is the charm.” He kidnapped William to get Oliver to drop out the race.

Felicity: “Who’s William?”
Oliver: “He’s my son.”

Felicity could not even deal with that bombshell because a kid was in the hands of a magical maniac. Darhk wants Oliver to drop out of the mayoral race.

Oliver calls his old friend Vixen (Megalyn E.K.) to help him find William and fight Darhk magically. Megalyn E.K. was really great making the jump from her CW Seed animated series, Vixen. It was adorable watching them acknowledge the animation as reality: “Mari and I had an ‘animated’ encounter last year.” Punny. And Vixen sniffing William’s Flash doll to find him, “You tell Barry, I’ll kill you.”

While using her animal instincts to seek out William and fight Darhk, Vixen provided an opposite view on parenting to counter Diggle’s long love monologue to his daughter (rightly so). We all knew Oliver was going to take the Vixen path.

Very cool that Samantha tried to take the blame for Oliver’s secret.

Also very cool was the video message for his son in the future.

After a lengthy chunk of the season of Team Arrow basically getting their ass kicked by Damian Darhk and H.I.V.E., it was nice to finally see him take a real hit when Vixen stole his totem. I don’t want him to lose his awesome villainous demeanor, but it was about time they got a win.

Once William was safe, it was time for Olicity to confront the secret-son-elephant in the room. It was very cool (and convenient) that Felicity was able to get up and walk away from Oliver as she left the relationship.

Arrow returns Wednesday, March 23rd at 8:00pm ET on The CW.

The CW’s synopsis:

Arrow
Taken (Ep# 415)
VIXEN JOINS TEAM ARROW — Oliver (Stephen Amell) realizes he needs help battling Darhk (guest star Neal McDonough) so he calls in an old friend — Vixen (guest star Megalyn E.K.). Using her magical ability to summon animal powers, Vixen gets a lock on Darhk’s location and the team goes to war. Meanwhile, Thea (Willa Holland) has a heart-to-heart talk with Malcolm (John Barrowman). Gregory Smith directed the episode with story by Marc Guggenheim and teleplay by Keto Shimizu & Brian Ford Sullivan (#415). Original airdate 2/24/16.

Image Gallery

Video

Arrow | Taken Scene | The CW

Oliver seeks help from Vixen on a new Arrow, tonight at 8/7c!

Arrow | Inside Arrow: Taken | The CW

CW Seed’s Vixen makes the jump to live-action on a new Arrow, tonight at 8/7c!