Arrow is somehow getting better as this season has gone on – it still isn’t at Season 2 heights just yet, but this episode had far more going for it than anything early on this season. Be warned, spoilers are going to be discussed.
1. Diggle Bros
Let’s not bury the lede here: John Diggle killed his brother. His brother who, essentially, lead to Laurel’s death, who John presumed dead for years, who abandoned his wife and children. By all accounts, Andy was not a great guy, but John kept trying to bring him back. But, when he, explicitly said that he would not rest until John’s wife and daughter were killed, John snapped.
And while it is easy to say “who could blame him?,” this is a clear example of Diggle not exactly being a hero in the way that Oliver is. Diggle is ex-military, and will always have that sort of background in his thinking. Oliver doesn’t believe in collateral damage or one life versus many (except with Darhk it seems) – Oliver’s brand of heroism doesn’t even come close to Barry’s on The Flash for that matter. Diggle is a pragmatist, and that is why he and Ollie teaming together is so rewarding.
It is going to take a long time, if ever, for Diggle to recover from this.
2. Thea’s trip
Thea’s vacation did seem a little odd from jump street, but then it got suuuuuuper creepy. So, Alex, as campaign staff, has access to the ‘ark’ (more on that later), and is being drugged/drugging others? We are never really shown whether or not he knows what is going on, or if he’s a puppet in this, too.
But seeing Thea piece it all together was pretty fun. I really like what they’ve done with Thea this season, and making her more of a detective is a nice touch for the show.
3. No flashback! Yay!
The four finest words in the English language: no flashback this week. This episode felt immediate, and interesting, and suspenseful, and a big part of that was that the show never had to pan over to a weird painting to allow the show to flash back to the Island, where a design similar to that painting could be found.
This season, especially, has had almost no value from the flashbacks – as I say each week – but I didn’t truly realize until right now how utterly useless they are. Let’s hope next season’s reported Russian flashbacks offer something, anything!
4. So they weren’t granted access to Zatanna, eh?
Esrin Fortuna (Bib’s daughter?) was a pretty clear stand-in for Zatanna, who DC is probably saving for some super dark Zack Synder piece of garbage, but the message was the same: Oliver can’t beat Darhk without magic, and he can’t teach himself magic. Now, Fortuna didn’t teach him much, or even give him much time to learn (I would realistically guess that she gave him less than 2 hours of training), but Ollie prove to be a quick study. When push came to shove, he could repel Darhk’s magic, at least briefly.
In one sense, this was a fun diversion from the usual stuff the show does, but on the other, giving Ollie magic sensitivity seems a little silly, no? Bring back Constantine, let Fortuna have a reason to join the fight, something! It probably isn’t going to be a thing going forward that he has magical powers, but even this seems a little outside the show’s strengths.
5. Darhk’s plan
OK, so it only took until May, but we finally have a better idea of Darhk’s plan – nuke the world, restart everything from his ‘garden’ – aka where Thea was being kept, a so-called “Nexus room” like where Ollie and Esrin were playing magic. This is an interesting plan, but aside from ‘the world is broken,’ we have no real reason to understand why Darhk would do this. While he has been a really fun character to watch this season, his motivations are still a little broad and cartoonish. I’d like to see his motives better explained and, perhaps, give him some sympathy. A sympathetic villain is almost always preferable.
What did you think of the plan? What animal will be the next unicorn left off Darhk’s ark? Let me know in the comments!