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TV REVIEWS: FTN Reviews Arrow Season 04 Episode 21: Monument Point

May 12th, 2016 by Todd Black Comments

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With three episodes to go, you knew there was a just of some stalling or buildup as we headed into “Monument Point”, and sure enough there was. But, what that there wasn’t in truly dramatic beats and questionable characters, it made up for in surprises.

First up, Rubicon was up and running within minutes of the episode starting. This was a nice change as we didn’t have “to stop Darhk before he uses it”, it was more of “we have to stop Darhk before the world is blown up!” A subtle but clear difference. Then, add to the fun the fact that Felicity’s father The Calculator was apparently the only one who could Rubicon from working and only 20+ hours to stop it, and you know we’re on the clock.

It was fun seeing the banter between Felicity and her father, as one was just trying to save the world while the other was trying to salvage his relationship with the other. It didn’t always work, but when it did, it was good. An unexpected twist was Felicity getting fired from Palmer Tech at a critical moment. I’m not sure they can do that personally…but whatever. Also, why didn’t they just ask honorary member Curtis to get the chip for them? He’s certainly smart enough.

Moving on for sanity’s sake. The quest to take out Rubicon was really turned up in the last few minutes, as not only did Hive come a knocking, but they failed to stop a missile! And Felicity had to reroute it to a less populated place. The lives of few, vs. the lives of the many. This was easily one of the darkest moments of Arrow history (remember, the Reckoning only killed 504 people) as an entire city was literally wiped out on screen. Much to Felicity’s horror.

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On the “Under the Dome” side of things, hearing Malcolm talk about why he joined with Darhk was predictable, but fun. As was Thea’s responses. Anarky’s arrival was cool, but it really wasn’t given much room to grow. And I’m not sure if Alex is alive or dead to be honest.

The flashbacks had some meat on them, as Oliver had to try and kill the Baron and save the others before it was too late, only for Elena to get “consumed” by the idol’s power. Something that was teased last week if you noticed. Odds are that Ollie will have to kill her before this is over.

I would like to note once again for the record my extreme hate of Donna Smoak. Oh. My. Gosh. Her talk with Lance was not only illogical, but really, really, stupid. Just when you thought she couldn’t go any lower, she pulls this. Oh, and that cabin chat thing was horrifying.

The final shot with Darhk was crucial, as it showed that not only did Felicity’s save not mean as much as we hoped, but tens of thousands of dead souls = one uber powered Damien Darhk. Oh boy.

“Monument Point” delivered some interesting moment, but did get weighed down by predictable moments and certain obvious outcomes. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t as good as it could’ve been.

3.5 nerds

Todd Black is reader of comics, a watch of TV (a LOT of TV), and a writer of many different mediums. He's written teleplays, fan-fictions, and currently writes a comic book called Guardians (guardians-comic.com). He dreams of working at Nintendo, writing a SHAZAM! TV series, and working on Guardians for a very long time!