Jessie Robertson reviews the twentieth episode of Arrow season 4…
What else would you think about in prison besides religion and bundt cake?
I’m not sure about mainstream thought, but it seems Arrow has lost much of its luster from its first seasons, especially with Flash still being the shiny new toy. I thought last season had some highs and real low-low’s, but the story telling this season, I thought had been particularly strong and very formatted. Arrow has had SO MUCH!!! (I used 3 exclamation points for clarity!-there, I did it again) in its history that to filter through all the craziness and try to find real moments is hard, but tonight they did. And then they went and gave us the most ridiculous plot idea to hatch in the Kriesberg mind in some time. But, first things first.
Diggle. So rarely do we get a Diggle episode, usually at least 1-2 a season but tonight, despite all its hijinx, was a good one. Diggle is literally on a diaper run for baby Sara when his GPS-Andy Locator finds him; of course he’s in an abandoned factory of some kind. They have a firefight and then Andy’s goons knock Diggle out. Diggle manages to escape after being stabbed by Andy (? What happened there?) and make it back to his family’s new safehouse, a mobile ARGUS unit in a truck trailer. Unbeknownst to Diggle, Andy placed a tracer on him and lead HIVE right to them. A battle ensues and baby Sara gets to experience all those classic baby firsts: First time you’re shot with a rocket launcher, and the first time you ride shotgun (Bjorn style) in a high speed motorcycle chase. You know, right up there with first tooth. Diggle chained up Andy the first go around, even after he threatened not only his life but that of his family’s and just left. I was at home throwing popcorn at my TV saying “Dig, you’re better than that!”. On their second encounter, Diggle again gets the better of little brother and realizes as he’s, again, threatening the lives of his family, it’s too much and John pulls the trigger. In conversations with both Oliver and Lyla afterwards, John has this PTSD-look on his face; he had to shoot his little brother, after all the trials they had been through, the betrayals, Laurel, you could really truly see the shock on John’s face; you have evidence that through all that, he truly believed he could get his brother back, not the heartless mercenary that had replaced him all those years ago. Bravo, David Ramsey, Bravo.
That was part 1 of everyone’s weekend getaways; at the top of the show, Oliver announces he has gotten a hold of Constantine (because apparently Hell has cell service now?) and is going to learn mystical training from someone and everyone should take time off. Felicity (because she’s Felicity and has to be at the center) has already finagled her way into going with Oliver, because, you know, after you just break off your engagement, the first thing you would logically do is go on a weekend retreat with him. This is just dumb, poor situational writing. You can’t have all that stuff go down between them and then have her do this!!!! (Angry Nerd Face). Anyways, for some reason, it’s a Casino Royale situation (because Felicity has to get dolled up again) and they find out Oliver’s trainer is a woman, Esrin Fortuna (smaller DC character). Fortuna takes them to a chamber that harbors mystical energy (b-t-dubs, Star City has one just like this!) and pretty much spouts direct themes of this episode right at Oliver in a very exposition-y speech. You see, there’s light and dark magic; you can only fight dark with light, so if you’re more dark than light, you’ll only enhance the dark (or Darhk, in this case.) Also, the tattoo Constantine gave Oliver in that early flashback is sort of like a mystical ward so it helps him fight off magic; the training sends Oliver into a Luke-esque dream state where enemies of his past and present are beating him up, I guess, showing him the darkness is still looming strong inside him. Fortuna gives up and says he can’t be helped; he’s too dark to succeed. When he comes up against Darhk though, in an effort to save Lyla, Oliver is able to resist him, and tells Felicity, he could hear the voices of his friends and that helped him find his light.
Arrow has always veered into the mystical, where as Flash steered towards the science, but now with Oliver able to resist magic, we’re deep in mojo territory. Fortuna’s speech was so on the nose, I just wanted to blow mine all over the screen. This season, more than ever, Oliver has struggled, and questioned, and swayed on the notion that he’s not a good man; somehow he feels that his experiences on Lian Yu, have changed him irreparably; Felicity even cited this as a reason they won’t ever work (even though she tells him tonight, no matter what, people can always change- Argggh! Then why dump him if you believe that!) We don’t need Fortuna to explain this as a clear metaphor for what Oliver has been dealing with the whole season; but it is nice to see him get a ‘W’ in his column, and the show sort of is saying Oliver is dark; but his friends and loved ones are what keeps him anchored to the light. That’s why having Diggle kill tonight, something Team Arrow has sworn off currently, is a harsh wave in Oliver’s ever-turmoil ocean. Good stuff deep below even if there are some really obvious errors being made elsewhere.
We’ll close out with Thea’s weekend- it’s the worst. I’m still groaning after this. She’s basically trapped in a dome under Star City (happen to remember those plants that produced breathable oxygen from a while back Darhk was showing off? yeah, probably not.) Those are for their happy little world. Let’ assume they could plausibly build this little neighborhood under another city, with a force field dome around it, and sunlight, and electric and everything else, so when they blow up the world they can live happily ever after- what then? And Thea asks to take a weekend with Alex, falls asleep in the car 5 minutes after they leave- does he not know they are going underground? Everything about this I hate and it feels insulting. Poor Thea; she’s grown into such a strong character; this is right out of a really terrible soap opera. This is “Genesis.” Yikes. Barf.
Other Notes:
– Oliver meets Fortuna in Hub City , a new location for the Arrow crew; in DC Comics lore, Hub City is home of the Question, Vic Sage. He’d fit right in on this show.
– I’m still flabbergasted at how monumentally stupid Darhk’s new “under the dome” city is; Does anyone remember Superman Returns? Luthor’s plan to make a new world out of inhabitable rock? Once the world is destroyed, how will Dahrk have electricity, food, etc? It Just Doesn’t Work. *end of rant*
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