This week we find Diggle, Oliver and Felicity tackling Darhk and his Ghosts while also battling each other. Meanwhile, Laurel and Thea have journeyed to Nanda Parbat with Sara’s corpse to ask Malcolm and Nyssa to resurrect their fallen comrade.
SPOILERS AHEAD
We open to find Diggle and Oliver chasing a pair of Ghosts. One of the Ghosts has Diggle dead to rights but lets him go and Diggle’s over enthusiasm to nab the second results in him securing the tooth containing the cyanide capsule but letting the Ghost slip through his fingers. The rift between Oliver and Diggle is as wide as ever, leading to Oliver declaring that he’s done trying to mend the fences.
Halfway across the globe, Thea and Laurel arrive at Nanda Parbet to ask Malcolm, the new Ra’s Al Ghul, to use the Lazarus Pit to bring Sara back to life. Not only does Malcolm outright refuse, but Nyssa sides with him, also saying Sara should not be put into the pit. This story line immediately screamed ‘forced plot points’, but as I said yesterday in The Flash, they have to set up Legends of Tomorrow pretty quickly, so can you really blame them?
The villain of the week shows up in the form of Jeremy Tell aka Double Down (that’s a double poker reference if you’re counting), another in the long line of poorly named DC villains. Double Down is brought to Darhk courtesy of HIVE to kill Green Arrow and company by Mina Fayad who is, by pure chance I’m sure, the only lead to Diggle discovering who killed his brother.
As Diggle pursues Fayad, which results in an expected gun battle, Oliver responds to a seemingly normal hold up only to be ambushed by Double Down. After a surprisingly good fight scene, Oliver makes a run for it after being overwhelmed but not before receiving a pretty serious wound in the arm.
The Nanda Parbat story continued to try to not seem like the plot device it is as Malcolm revealed to Thea about the bloodlust she is feeling and the possibility of a cure instead of going on while a killing spree which turned out to be a misdirect. Thea is stuck with the bloodlust since Ra’s is already dead, meaning she will be forced to kill to maintain her sanity. Meanwhile Laurel and Nyssa argued over Sara’s fate. It’s at this point that I have to ask how many times can Laurel make terrible choices based on her gut instincts before someone starts intervening?
One of the stronger aspects of the episode came when Felicity put her foot down and forced Oliver and Diggle to work out their differences. It’s a nice turn from the Felicity of last season that couldn’t go more than 10 minutes without open weeping. On the other hand, they sort of undercut her moment of strength by giving her a line that was almost entirely in-show lingo that sounded absolutely ridiculous.
Oliver and Diggle manage to patch things up when they realize they’re after the same ends and not trusting each other has cost time and Diggle his only lead when Fayad shows up dead. Double Down attacks Felicity and Palmer Techs whiz kid, Curtis, and finds the Arrow Cave (is that what we call it?) which also lets Curtis in on Felicity’s secret life.
Back in Nanda Parbat, Malcolm agrees to the Lazarus Pit ceremony to try to appease Thea and Sara is thrown into the Pit. Just when you thought it wouldn’t work (who are we kidding), Sara came back to life and extremely feral. Nyssa ends up destroying the pit in response to Laurel ignoring her pleas, effectively removing the resurrection element from the show for the time being.
Oliver and Diggle catch up to Double Down who is trying to escape town and Oliver ends up taking a ‘bullet’ for Diggle as Double Down tries to kill Diggle. They don’t get answers, but the relationship between Oliver and Diggle is restored.
In the final bit of future plotting, Felicity’s phone continues to act up before leaving the episode with the SO OBVIOUSLY not a glitch ends up forming her name. No one is going to be shocked to learn that Ray Palmer isn’t dead but instead has been shrunk and needs help to return to normal. This is where I bring up the Legends pilot again, but I’m getting tired of giving them a pass on it.
This week proved to be pretty good with the bromance between Oliver and Diggle restored and a terribly named meta human that tested their combined skill. We also got to see Dahrk in fine form which makes me excited for him to get the full attention of the show once they stop laying the ground work for the new show.
The Nanda Parbat story, on the other hand, is bringing the show down. They did a good job bringing Laurel around to being a decent character on the show over the course of a couple of years but they have done a terrific job of making her the worst character in an extremely short period of time. The only good thing to come out of this story arc is the return of Caity Lotz, who has always been one of the best parts of the show!
Basically, while this week was pretty alright, I’m counting down the weeks until Legends of Tomorrow launches so we can go back to the good old fashioned episodes of Arrow.
P.S. Why do all the metas who go to Star City/ Starling, a place with no meta human heroes, choose to return to the meta heavy Central City?
P.P.S. Speed Weed, new producer on Arrow this year, co-wrote this episode. Google his Law & Order: SVU episode ‘Wet’ for some fun commentary on his writing ability.