The episode begins with a really cool training montage as Oliver and Roy spar with those crazy stick things, Laurel tries to beat down Ted Grant, and Thea goes toe-to-toe with Malcolm Merlyn with actual swords. Roy claims to not be sleeping well when questioned about his sloppiness, Ted tells Laurel she isn’t fighting, just swinging, and Malcolm congratulates Thea on a job well done. At least we know where everyone stands in regard to their fighting abilities, but also their psyches for the entire series.
While all of this goes on, Felicity takes part in a workout tape back at her apartment when an unexpected knock reveals none other than Ray Palmer, who wants to repurpose the excess energy from Queen Consolidated and redistribute it to Starling City. Then another knock comes and it’s none other than Felicity’s high-strung mother, who immediately hits it off with Ray Palmer after recognizing him. She shows Ray that she bought one of his fancy computer watches and he gives her his prototype for the latest model – this is important.
We flashback, but not to Oliver in Hong Kong, instead to Felicity in her college dorm room, clad in black and right out of the 1995 film Hackers. Felicity, her hunky boyfriend, and his roommate are all up to no good and are trying to break into the Department of Education’s database. Hunky boyfriend, in a fit of Tyler Durden rage, decides to erase all of the student loan debt in America (please?), but Felicity stops him as that’s too big of an action to go unnoticed. He presents her with the quandary, do you want to be a hacker or a hero?
Oliver goes to see Thea in her brand new apartment, which is the sharpest looking pad I’ve ever seen. He questions how she can afford this and Thea reveals that the money from Malcolm Merlyn’s estate is hers now. “It’s blood money” Oliver tells her, and he says once Malcolm Merlyn comes back he’s going to expect something in return. As their argument comes to a head, a massive power outage blacks out Starling City, and a message from Sauren- er Brother Eye appears on all the televisions informing them they’ve taken over the Starling City grid. Clearly this is bad.
Team Arrow regroups at Verdant, but Felicity had to bring her mother along who ends up playing with Baby Sara as the team goes downstairs. Over at the Starling Police Department Laurel enters, curious why she was summoned, and her father says it’s because she’s now the acting District Attorney in the city. We flashback to Goth Felicity and hunky boyfriend who are having a bit of a tiff but quickly make-up just in time for him to get picked up by the FBI for his online shenanigans.
Brother Eye releases another broadcast saying they’re targeting the banks of Starling City and they’ll reduce everyone’s accounts to 0, which prompts Laurel to send a riot response team to the bank where naturally a crowd is gathering. Oliver and Roy show up in costume to disperse the crowd and when yelling doesn’t work, they toss out some tear gas arrows which gets the crowd to clear out. As Felicity continues to work on the Brother Eye virus, she realizes she can’t stop it, because it’s the virus she wrote five years ago.
Back at the Arrow Cave, Felicity tries to tell Oliver about her old hacker friends, which prompts Oliver to ask why she never told them about this before. Felicity counters by asking Oliver why he hasn’t told them about everything he did five years ago – apply cold water to the burn. Unsure of what’s going on, Felicity pins the whole thing on Hunky Boyfriend’s old roommate, just as Thea enters Verdant and tries to enter the Arrow Cave.
We flashback to Goth Felicity as she goes to see Hunky Boyfriend in prison. She wants to take the fall for the computer virus, but he won’t let her since he’s already confessed. Back in the present, Captain Lance chastises Laurel for escalating the riot by calling in the task force at the bank, which wasn’t the smartest idea. He knows something is wrong with her and since she won’t talk to him about it he wants her to at least talk to someone.
As Thea tries to open the Arrow Cave door, Oliver pops in and plays dumb about it all. The two somewhat make amends about butting heads earlier saying the Queens need to stick together. Moments later, in some highrise in Starling, the now five years old roommate of Hunky Boyfriend (who has a real name, Myron, a reference to the Jack Kirby-created Myron Forest, who helped create Brother Eye originally in the comics) is confronted by Arrow and Arsenal, but clearly he has nothing to do with the attacks.
Felicity is on the edge of her rope back at the Arrow Cave and when pressed for answers by Oliver she has none. He tries to press her on Hunky Boyfriend as being the one behind it all, but Felicity says that’s impossible since he killed himself in prison. Felicity leaves to take a minute and goes to Queen Consolidated where Ray shows up, great timing that Ray, and tries to console as best he can. Not long after Mama Smoak appears and the two begin to bicker. Mama Smoak is afraid that Felicity will leave her like her father did.
With her head back in the game, Felicity is back on the trail of the hacker, but Oliver clearly sees she isn’t ready. He sends her home to spend time with Mama Smoak, where the pair attempt to console each other but are quickly kidnapped by a pair of men in masks. The two are bound and wake up in a room full of computer monitors and Brother Eye which is when the big reveal that Hunky Boyfriend is both still alive and the man behind the attacks.
Hunky Boyfriend reveals that the NSA recruited him out of prison and faked his death to keep it all a secret. He tells Felicity he wanted to bring her on after he left the NSA, which Felicity says she wouldn’t have accepted anyway. As evil masterminds are want to do, Hunky Boyfriend reveals his whole plan wherein when an attack targets banks the Department of the Treasury sends an influx of cash to the city just in case, and he wants those trucks with the money and Felicity is going to bring them to him or else he’ll shoot Mama Smoak. Felicity complies and brings the trucks their way, as Hunky Boyfriend and his goons go wait for their payday, Felicity and Mama Smoak realize they can use Ray’s prototype smart watch to ping their location to Oliver.
As Hunky Boyfriend returns and puts a gun to Felicity’s head, Oliver shows up just in time, but HB has thought of everything as motion sensor activated machine guns turn and point at Oliver. Meanwhile the trucks of money show up outside and HB’s goons fire on the guards, but Roy and Diggle quickly dispatch them. Oliver leaps around dodging the machine all the while disabling them and then in her most bad ass moment yet, Felicity knocks out HB with his own gun.
At the Arrow Cave, Felicity tells Oliver he was right about family, and Oliver confides that he’s thankful for the experiences she had that made her who she is today (speaking from his own experience no doubt). We flashback one more time to see Goth Felicity turn into Regular Felicity, which is a bummer. Back in the present, Laurel goes to see Ted at the gym, whom she chooses to be her person to talk to about Sara’s death. Now that Ted is aware of her troubles he can help her more, offering her either a red or black robe, with Laurel of course choosing the black one.
Meanwhile across town Oliver goes to see Thea at her new place and she invites to live with her, saying she’ll get rid of Merlyn’s money as soon as Verdant is making a profit. Oliver reluctantly agrees to the deal. The pair sit back to watch a movie as Merlyn stands on a roof creeping. Mama Smoak goes to see Felicity just before leaving town and the pair decide to spend the few hours beforehand together, having now come to appreciate each other. Not everything is sunshine and rainbows though as Roy wakes up from a nightmare wherein he was the one that murdered Sara in the premiere episode. Cue dramatic music.
You can check out the promo for episode 3.06 of “Arrow” in the player below. Titled “Guilty,” the episode is officially described as follows:
“After a body is found strung up in the Wildcat gym, Ted Grant becomes the main suspect. Oliver and Laurel argue over Ted’s innocence. Meanwhile, in flashbacks, when Maseo needs Oliver to remember where an informant for China White stashed key information, he asks Tatsu to help jog Oliver’s memory. Roy shares a secret with Felicity.”
Directed by Peter Leto and written by Erik Oleson & Keto Shimizu, “Guilty” is set to air November 12. “Arrow” airs Wednesdays at 8 P.M. on The CW.
