So it turns out Arrow Executive Producer Marc Guggenheim wasn’t lying when he tweeted a photo of Oliver and Felicity at the wedding altar with the promise. “Not a dream sequence. Not a hallucination. Not an alternate reality. Not a flash forward to a potential future.” Ollie and Felicity’s wedding was none of those things, but it wasn’t exactly real, either. This episode divided its focus between the heavy emotional fallout of the Olicity breakup and the courtroom drama that followed Damien Darhk’s arrest. The latter storyline was easily the more compelling of the two, but the former did have its moments.

The return of Cupid (Amy Gumenick) was definitely not the highlight of the episode. She was a reasonably entertaining villain in her Season 3 appearances, but this time around her off-kilter, over-the-top personality didn’t gel with the more downbeat tone. Even though Cupid was making a grand statement against love, rather in in support of it, she was still her usual silly, scenery-chewing self. It was only at the very end, as Felicity’s impassioned speech broke through Cupid’s callous facade, that she really came across as a three dimensional character.For the most part, Cupid seemed intended as a convenient way of injecting a little action into an episode that was otherwise preoccupied with courtroom and relationship drama. Which is fine, I suppose. You can’t have an Arrow episode without at least a little shooting and punching and car chasing. But why not lean on the flashbacks a little more for a change? The flashback storyline is quickly heating up now that Baron Reiter’s prize is in sight and Ollie is fighting for his life once again. The problem all season long has been the very terse, brief focus on the flashbacks. These scenes tend to cycle in and out in a matter of seconds, and that really does nothing to help what should, by all rights, be a very compelling supernatural action subplot. Give the flashbacks the attention they deserve and maybe there won’t be a need for filler villains in the present.In terms of the Oliver/Felicity dynamic, though, the romantic drama was fairly effective this week. Both Stephen Amell and Emily Bett Rickards were in top form as they wrestled with the unhappy turn their lives have taken. Rickards was especially impressive as she showed Felicity fighting a losing battle to remain a chipper and friendly despite being torn up inside. The faux-wedding was a clever twist in the sense that it forced the two to confront the happy life that was once right in front of them and accept that things have changed irrevocably.Also, apparently even the media of the Flash/Arrow universe have taken to referring to these two as “Olicity.” As it should be.The worst thing this episode could have done would be to use the Cupid conflict as a way of bring Ollie and Felicity back together and repairing the damage Ollie caused with his lie. That’s not something that can or should be fixed so easily. It felt right that Felicity would choose to leave Team Arrow and create distance between herself and Ollie rather than try to force a working relationship. It might not be the worst thing for Felicity to drop out of the picture for a while, and maybe even find a new role for the character on either The Flash or Legends of Tomorrow. But based on the preview for next week’s episode, it doesn’t look as though she’ll be going very far. And it’s not as though Felicity can stay gone for too long, considering what we’ve seen of that ominous flash-forward sequence at the cemetery.My big complaint with “Broken Hearts” is that the heavy focus on Cupid distracted from the real meat of the episode, Darkh’s hearing. This show hasn’t spent a great deal of time in the courtroom over the ears, and when it has the focus has generally been on Laurel’s personal and professional struggles more than anything. It was a nice change of pace to see Laurel flexing her legal muscles and bringing her full weight to bear against the secret master of H.I.V.E. Despite the fact that Darkh was caught red-handed with a kidnapped child, he came dangerously close to wriggling his way to freedom this week. This episode was yet another sobering reminder of just how much power this villain wields and how much the honest folks of Star City fear him.With all other witnesses failing to get the job done, Quentin was forced to fall on his sword and take the stand in order to ensure that Darkh would go to trial. It was a big moment for the character, and a welcome dose of redemption given the compromised position he found himself in early this season. I just wish this episode treated Quentin’s sacrifice with a little more gravitas. It was a big moment that’s already beginning to have serious ramifications for the career cop, but it didn’t pack quite the dramatic punch it could have.Regardless, his sacrifice worked, and Darkh is now behind bars. But given how crafty and resourceful this villain is (and how pleased he seemed in the final scene), it’s safe to say that Darkh’s plans haven’t been foiled by this latest setback. And it’s just as well. With April nearly upon us, it’s high time the endgame for Season 4 is made apparent.