Arrow: What is Helix?

In tonight’s episode of Arrow, viewers saw Felicity Smoak (Emily Bett Rickards) putting her […]

September 5, 2017, 8:58pm

In tonight’s episode of Arrow, viewers saw Felicity Smoak (Emily Bett Rickards) putting her hacking skills to the test to free John Diggle (David Ramsey) from prison. She tried to hack the NSA for a piece of information, which led to her connecting with a contact from the Dark Web.

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This contact mentioned that the name of her ‘hactivist’ organization is Helix, which, as it turns out, bears a unique callback to the comics.

Helix was a supervillain group led by Dr. Benjamin Love, aka Mr. Bones. The members were six mutated children who had been experimented on and then kidnapped by Love. They grew up to be a rather bizarre cast of characters, including Kritter (a human/dog hybrid) and Baby Boom (a young child who can cause explosions with her mind).

It’s safe to assume that any future appearances of Helix will certainly be way more grounded in reality – with any mention of the original characters probably being used as online screennames. This is similar to the inclusion of the secret organization Shadowspire in Arrow, which was given a much more realistic makeover.

Nevertheless, the inclusion of Helix in the show does provide an interesting direction for Felicity to go to, which just might be her ‘second chance.’

When recently discussing the dynamic between Felicity and Diggle going forward, Arrow executive-producer Wendy Mericle mentioned that the events in ‘Second Chances‘ will play into the rest of the season.

“Part of what kicks [Felicity] off down this darker path is she’s going to find evidence to exonerate him — and [Diggle’s] going to have to deal with the fallout of the fact that Felicity is now going down a questionable path in part because of him.”

With that in mind, there’s a very good chance that tonight’s episode will not be the last time we hear of Helix on Arrow.

TALIA AL GHUL TAKES OLIVER UNDER HER WING — In his quest to take down Kovar, Oliver (Stephen Amell) gets help from a surprising source – Talia al Ghul (guest star Lexa Doig). However, when she reveals what she wants from him in exchange, Oliver isn’t sure he can accept her help. Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) attempts to hack the NSA to help free Diggle (David Ramsey) but when her online efforts are flagged, she faces off against an unknown adversary. Meanwhile, Curtis (Echo Kellum) tells the team about a female vigilante, Tina Boland (guest star Juliana Harkavay), he uncovered online who has been wreaking havoc all over the country. Mark Bunting directed the episode written by Speed Weed & Sarah Tarkoff (#511). Original airdate 2/1/2017.

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