ARROW Season 4 Episode 9: Midseason Finale Review



Two immediate observations about the ARROW Season 4 mid-season finale episode.

1.) Did Team Arrow leave Diggle’s brother locked up in the basement when they relocated to Central City for last week’s crossover? I mean, I forgot about him. Perhaps they did too? 

2.) Well done CW, for choosing the annual “remind everyone that Felicity is Jewish” episode (which is fine) to also be the episode the villain invokes the ideals of the Nazis and tries to kill her in a gas chamber. During Hanukkah. Classy. 

On the island Oliver swims out to a sunken ship in the bay, thanks to the use of some really shoddy CGI, and is attacked by a shark. And survives (oh boy), only to be captured by Conklin after getting his hands on some maps? The flashback plot this season hasn’t been great and hopefully will step up a gear following the mid-season hiatus. 

Back in modern day Star City – Oliver’s campaign to clean up the bay and Damien Darhk’s desire to stop him finally made sense. Sort of. The Ghosts have been terrorising Star City, trying to drive away the people, crippling the infrastructure, ruining businesses etc. all in an effort to kill the city. Why? Well we finally got a glimpse as to HIVE’s scheme and how that darn bay plays into it. Apparently they’ve been engineering a form of algae there that they used in two different ways. Firstly, to create some sort of nerve gas to kill people in large numbers and secondly to process clean air so they can grow crown underground. As bizarre as it seems, it appears HIVE’s plan is to destroy the world whilst they hunker in an “end of the world” bunker and wait it out. 

We got to see the gas, referred to as The Bloom unless I’m much mistaken, kill some random follower of Darhk; yet not be able to kill three main characters when they were exposed to it. After Felicity, Diggle and Thea were captured by Darhk and with no leads to follow, Oliver turns himself in thinking it’s the only way to save his loved ones. A timely intervention from Black Canary and Malcolm Merlyn dressed as the Green Arrow (I’m surprised they don’t do this more often), saves all of them before Merlyn leaves Darhk lying with an arrow in him and an explosive arrow just out of his reach. The whole place goes up, but not before Darhk is seen chanting some kind of spell. The show not only tells us he’s likely not dead, it shows us within minutes that he survived with the aforementioned underground corn reveal, without so much as a hint to what kind of power Damien Darhk really has access to. 

Felicity’s mother is back - It is the holidays after all. Apparently a time for nosy family poking through your things and finding hidden engagement rings. She tells Felicity, because why would she keep it a secret? This causes Felicity to question her relationship with Oliver as after a brief encounter with Curtis and his husband, she realises he had planned to propose to her 3 months ago (during the season 4 premiere) before their life got derailed by moving back to Star City and taking on HIVE. The angst is short lived though, as she has the sense to tell Oliver she knows about his aborted marriage proposal and Oliver’s explanation, that they live a very hectic, dangerous life, actually makes sense. After they think they have dispatched Darhk (see above: They didn’t), Oliver proposes to Felicity at a public tree lighting event. A scene that could be seen as forced, maybe even just as a publicity stunt in the context of Oliver running for Mayor, but actually comes off as rather sweet.

That being said, I expected Felicity to get a bullet in the head before she had a chance to answer. This is just the cynic in me that honestly expects bad things to happen to good people on shows like this, because they can never allow anyone to be happy. I wasn’t completely wrong, as Oliver and Felicity’s limo is ambushed by armed Ghosts and shot to all hell minutes later. Oliver manages to barely get them to safety before pulling Felicity’s bullet riddled body out of the back seat. Here’s the thing though. I don’t believe she’s dead, not even for a second. Too cynical I know, but they do this to make people tune in when the show returns next year. I mean, Felicity could end up being the person in the grave at the funeral Oliver and Barry were shown attending, which is still 3 months away, but she’d have to be really unlucky to narrowly avoid one death only to be finished off later.

No, the real big twist for me was seeing Damien Darhk sneak through a house up on a lovely scene of a mother and child decorating a tree only for it to be revealed they were his family. Damien Dahrk, master of the dark arts, idoliser of the Nazis, connoisseur of the gas chamber and all round evil bastard, is a family man? If Team Arrow ever find out, do they have leverage over him? And how far will they go to stop him?

Written by Nick Whitney, ARROW Beat Writer