This week on Arrow, Oliver and the team have to battle Damien Dahrk who has taken Oliver’s son as a pawn. In order to battle the dark magic, Oliver enlists the help of Vixen to battle magic with magic.
SPOILERS AHEADÂ
We start off with Felicity testing out Curtis’ chip as she attempts to get her legs back under her. While her mind is trying, her body isn’t quite living up to the challenge. As she and Oliver leave via the parking garage, she tells him that she’s frustrated because she wants to walk down the aisle. This touching moment is broken up by the arrival of Damien Dahrk who is bemused by Oliver’s attempts to attack him. He informs Oliver and, because she’s there, Felicity that he’s holding William hostage and only Oliver dropping out of the mayoral race can save the young boy.
Felicity is obviously pissed and grows more irritated as she continues to discover how many people know about William being Oliver’s son. Oliver calls Alex to schedule the press conference to call off his campaign while Thea reaches out to Malcolm to see if he knows about what happened with William and Felicity gets a hold of Barry so he can get a hold of Samantha. She arrives and confronts Olly about what he’s going to do to save William and he reveals his identity as Green Arrow. He takes her to the Quiver where she meets the team, including Laurel which is slightly awkward considering Oliver knocked Samantha up while he was dating Laurel.
So, there backs are against the wall and since they can’t beat Dahrk’s magic, they agree they need to find magical help. With Constantine indisposed in Hell, Oliver reaches out to the other friend who is steeped in the mystical elements – Vixen. Fans will know her from the time Oliver and Barry teamed up with her last year in a crazy adventure. No? Oh, it’s probably because it was an animated spin-off that very few people even know exist and that they reference on more than one occasion in an attempt to hype up the mini-series. Anyway, Vixen is able to track William by his scent and Diggle and Oliver tag along with her to find him. Laurel goes to Lance to get the cops involved, Thea is to meet with Malcolm and Felicity and Samantha team up to search for William via Overwatches capabilities.
Dahrk calls Oliver and moves up the time for him to bow out of the race. Vixen figures out that Dahrk probably has a totem nearby to keep his powers up and Lance chimes in that he’s seen an idol in his office. They team up to figure out how to depower Dahrk while Oliver goes to bow out of the mayoral race. They figure out that Dahrk’s idol must be near a layline in order to keep him in power and they use this information to track Dahrk’s whereabouts. They discuss and agree that they’re going to hit Dahrk where it hurts and destroy the source of his power as well as get William back in one piece.
The team hits the compound where Dahrk is holed up with William as his prisoner. They roll out a pretty expansive set piece as they fight across the compound until Vixen steals the idol. Separating Dahrk from the idol doesn’t work, so Vixen uses her magic to destroy it. Dahrk nearly kills everyone, but she eventually cracks the statue and Dahrk loses his powers giving Oliver the opportunity to punch him out. William is returned to his mother and it’s revealed that it was Malcolm who kidnapped the boy.
Oliver says goodbye to Vixen and she gives him a speech about her own upbringing that Oliver takes to heart. Thea tells Malcolm to leave her alone forever – yet again and Malcolm loses it, and claims to see the bigger picture. Oliver decides that he can’t keep William close because of the danger and records a message to give him, explaining why as it overlays the rest of the cast with their fathers. It ends with Felicity telling Oliver she can’t be with him anymore and Curtis’ implant starts to work and she walks out of the loft.
In the flashbacks, Reiter’s plans are finally coming to a head as they have finally broken through and he is finally ready for Oliver to go get the artifact. A ghost Conklin shows up as a guardian of the area and Reiter leaves Oliver and Taina to the ghost’s mercy. Oliver’s tattoos glow again and it’s the right code because the ghost lets him pass. Reiter’s plan has worked and Oliver, Taina and Reiter descend into the pit to find what Reiter has been searching for.
This has got to be a low point for Arrow. The plot to this episode was haphazard, the inclusion of Vixen was shoehorned in and this episode featured some of the worst dialogue yet and after the last few weeks, that’s saying something!
Let’s ask a few questions first. How does Dahrk not know that Oliver is the godamn Green Arrow? Who doesn’t know this by now? You mean to tell me that the League AND ARGUS both not only know of Oliver’s identity but have employed him and HIVE somehow missed this tidbit of information? Also, can Dahrk’s powers be any worse? Considering he killed a man on another continent last week in the blink of an eye, he certainly seemed to struggle with a simple Force choke when facing our heroes. As for Vixen, could that have been anymore forced? That was painful. Painful. The completely unnecessary exposition that they tried to pass of as her dialogue. The comically poor way her powers were portrayed. Seriously, what the hell are her powers and why did they think she could help fight Dahrk?
Did everyone get that father’s were a theme of this Arrow episode? You know, that thing that EVERY single character talked about in every other scene? How is Oliver even having a biological child even a plot point? Who cares that he knocked up a girl in high school? It’s about as consequential as Malcolm being Thea’s father, but they’ve made that into the second biggest character point in the show, so I guess there’s precedent.
Finally, let’s talk about my favorite scene of the episode. At the beginning of the episode, Felicity tells Oliver that she wants the implant to work so she can walk down the aisle at their wedding. At the end, as she breaks up with him, her legs just START WORKING and she simply stands up and WALKS OUT OF HIS LIFE INSTEAD! This is what you bring me? This is the best you can do? Fuck this show.
There’s still a few weeks left of this season of Arrow, so now it’s not so much watching it to see what happens, it’s now just seeing how low this show can sink. Can it get worse? I don’t know. There’s more than two months left to find out.
Doug Mercer reviews Arrow each week – so stay tuned here for more! Also, check out our recent reviews of The X-Files, The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow!Â