'Arrow' S04E20
Sorry for being late on this review, I had a very busy week (seeing Captain America: Civil War 3 times will do that).
Wednesday's episode, "Genesis", saw the return of Damien Darhk as he has been released from prison. With Malcolm Merlyn and Andy Diggle at his side, he kills a couple of Hive members. Darhk exclaims that Genesis is a go, as his master plan is beginning to come to fruition.
Because of Andy's alliance with Darhk and his unrelenting quest to kill Diggle, he has Lyla and their daughter, Sarah, go into hiding. They are shown to be staying in a re-purposed tractor trailer that is supposedly impenetrable. Diggle hunts down Andy and they engage is a gun fight and chase through a warehouse, where Diggle falls into an ambush set by Andy.
Following a tip from Constantine, Oliver is set to travel to Hub City to find the help of someone who can teach him magic to combat Darhk. Felicity manages to tag along and the two are then seen in a casino, where Felicity is playing blackjack. During their conversation about who they are waiting for, a woman at the table reveals that she is the one they are searching for. The woman, Esrin Fortuna an immortal shaman), takes them to a different plane of existence via her magic, where she tells Oliver about the type of magic Darhk uses. She tells him that only light can overcome his dark magic, and she tests Oliver by exposing him to dark magic in order to see how much darkness is in him. Oliver sees visions of people and events from the past that lead to tragic events in his life. Esrin tells Oliver that because of his darkness, he would only strengthen Darhk instead of combating his darkness.
Thea is on "vacation" with Alex in an unknown location. She seems to be at a loss in terms of recent events and becomes paranoid at the repetitiveness of events going on around her. Alex continues to reassure her everything is fine, but Thea isn't buying it.
Diggle manages to escape but can't bring himself to kill Andy, leading to Andy getting away. Andy and Hive then attack the truck occupied by Lyla and Sarah. During the chase, Felicity and Oliver show up and Felicity takes Sarah, while Oliver comes to save Lyla from Darhk. Oliver manages to counteract Darhk's magic and he vanishes, but not before extracting something from Lyla's arm.
Diggle chases down Andy again, and after a conversation where Andy tells him he will never stop coming for him and his family, Diggle shoots and kills him.
Oliver tells Felicity that he was able to stop Darhk by focusing on the good things and people in his life, which seems to give him the "light" that he needs to fight Darhk.
After Lyla awakens from being unconscious following the skirmish, she sees the bandage on her arm and tells the team that Darhk took the rubicon, a set of nuclear launch codes to counteract the threat of governments' use of nuclear warheads, which Darhk is going to reprogram to actually launch nukes for his Genesis plan.
The end of the episode flashes back to Thea running through the town she's in and being chased by soldiers. As she tries to run through a field, she hits an invisible wall, revealing that she is trapped inside some kind of "hive" (think 'Under the Dome').
This episode was highly focused on Diggle and his struggle with Andy, finally seeing the relationship come to an end with Andy's death. Diggle did lie to Lyla about why he killed him because of an argument the two had earlier. I do have a hard time believing that Oliver and Felicity can put their differences aside after their breakup, but its obvious that he still wants her. It will be interesting to see how they stop Darhk and his Genesis plan, as there are only a few episodes remaining this season.
My rating: 7 out of 10
