Arrow, Season 4, Episode 9: Dark Waters
Well, before we were distracted by all the crossover episodes last week (where Darhk was randomly stealing a bunch of chemical weapons that still go unmentioned) Oliver had been promising to drag the battle against Darhk out into the light. And, well, he made good on that promise by cleaning the river like he said he was going to do, so, uh, Darhk sent in a drone helicopter to shoot the place up. Team Arrow responds by having Oliver literally expose Damian Darhk by showing his face and damning him for being the leader of the ghosts. I did like that scene where Darhk seethes and force-chokes that TV while the other HIVE higher-ups are all like "lol you done fucked up".
What follows is an extremely fun and engaging cat-and-mouse chase between Darhk and Oliver, as Oliver tries to assert that he is not afraid, while Darhk goes around gatecrashing Oliver's public parties with his army of fearless cult troopers and kidnaps Felicity, Thea and Diggle. Oliver recruits his remaining allies plus Malcolm Merlyn and ends up confronting Darhk again, this time as Oliver Queen. Malcolm helps to protect the Green Arrow's identity by cosplaying as him. We get a tense moment where it seemed like all three of Oliver's kidnapped loved ones were going to be gassed to death while Oliver can only mouth "I love you" to Felicity helplessly -- it's obviously a fake-out as the show's not going to kill off three main characters at the same time. But the promise of a main character dying has been hanging over our heads since that flash-forward in season one, and one of them may very well succumb to the gas earlier than the others or something.
Of course, Merlyn and Black Canary show up, free them, and then Merlyn and Oliver manage to do battle with Darth Darhk's Sith powers and apparently blow him up. Darhk, of course, survives -- they even lampshade how movie villains never die if you don't find their body -- and instead sends a group of gunmen to shoot Oliver and Felicity up, leading to the final scene of this episode, and, well, the mid-season cliffhanger, that Felicity is apparently killed or at least pretty badly injured by the shoot-up.
And, of course, the Olicity ship receives extra weight this episode with Felicity and Donna finding Oliver's wedding ring and Felicity basically fritzing out over the wedding ring and confronting Oliver in her trademark awkward manner during the first publicity show right before she gets kidnapped. And Oliver actually proposed to her at the end during their second publicity event in public and it's a grand and romantic moment. And they're all totally well done, a nice break and a welcome development in their relationship -- far more welcome than the retconned-out-of-timeline drama we got last episode, anyway.
So of course Felicity gets shot.
Now I'm not 100% sure that Felicity is done for, although if there's one character in this episode I'd say is the least safe from dying it would be Felicity. I think Thea and Laurel are safe thanks to having graduated into their comic book superhero namesakes, and Diggle's still got a fair amount of unresolved personal plot going on with Andy. So really it comes down to either Felicity or Quentin, both show-original characters which increase their deathiness factor by a fair bit, and Felicity, the main female protagonist for three and a half seasons, will definitely bring about more of the intended reaction (i.e. rage and grief) from the audience than Quentin.
Of course, that is if Felicity's death didn't end up being a cop-out. Main cast deaths is really a fickle topic to tackle, and handled poorly it could end up like the Sara Lance debacle in season three, one of the few times that I'm glad they went back on killing a character. But killing Felicity off right here, right now? It would definitely be brutal, and more scarily for her, it's a great way to kill off Felicity as most of her hanging plot points have been wrapped up and she's now just sticking around to be adorable and have those nice sweet moments with Oliver.
Eh, we'll see next year. It's definitely a bold move if they actually do go through with it, and one that would be a huge, costly mistake that'll haunt Oliver and possibly drive him over the edge.
Darhk himself is in tiptop form this episode, ranging from chewing the scenery, dropping smarmy one-liners, force-choking people, renegading on deals, party-crashing and talking back to his HIVE buddies. We also learn that Darhk has a wife and a daughter, and while it does provide a nice Godfather-esque juxtaposition as the show cuts back and forth between Darhk decorating a Christmas tree with his daughter to Oliver and Felicity's limo being shot, I think it kind of comes out of nowhere as a cheap attempt to humanize Darhk or something. It's weird to show this as the grand revelation at the end of the episode.
The other HIVE members are really unhappy with Darhk putting so much thought into the election and to his personal vendetta against Oliver Queen, and I do like how HIVE isn't just under one man, making the name even more appropriate. Their goals still remain elusive, with something called Genesis that involves some algae in the Star City river that can spread some kind of poisonous gas that works pretty fast and a giant underground field of corn... yeah, he's probably going to try to kill everyone in Star City with said gas, but to what end? It's honestly a lot less interesting than the drama involving Darhk and Oliver, though, and the two of them really play off each other well in the scenes they shared.
Oliver and Felicity's interactions are likewise adorable, and I honestly appreciate very much how none of the stupid secret son angst ends up being brought up, and the episode focuses almost exclusively on the wedding ring and Oliver's insecurity about whether his allies can take care of themselves. Same old conversation, but with a twist since he finally relents and freaking proposes to Felicity.
Oh well. Let's talk about the other characters. Thea doesn't get to do much! You'd think Oliver would have some angst about seeing his sister die next to his girlfriend, but nah, Oliver just looks at Thea almost like an afterthought in that gas chamber. I mean, Laurel and Merlyn show up like five seconds later, but still. Thea's encounter with Darhk a while back apparently left her bloodlust gone, which is cool. Not sure where they are going with that. So, uh, Thea going for the kill with Vandal Savage during the crossover is just actual anger issues, then.
Diggle's subplot with Andy and how Andy is a real jackass as opposed to a brainwashed one ends up kind of being boring, and after the big reveal there really isn't much they did with the dude trapped in a cage being an asshole.
Donna Smoak is adorable in every single scene she shares with Felicity, and I'm definitely not looking forward to seeing her break down if Felicity does die. The gleeful jumping around she does when she discovers the ring and how she's just so panicked when Felicity gets kidnapped and all... yeah, if Felicity dies, Oliver and Donna are so going to break down. Also, Donna's dating Quentin Lance, and Felicity catching the two of them kissing is an absolutely comedic scene.
Speaking of Quentin, he's got a nice little mini-plot going on with Laurel, where the two come to a mutual understanding about how Quentin's always going to be there to look out for Laurel, despite Laurel being able to beat people up by herself. I was worried the "Quentin worked for Darhk" thing would be another in a series of season-long drama, but it was resolved quickly without being handwaved, which is cool. Quentin showing up in the climax with the cavalry and dropping Bond one-liners like a boss is also much appreciated.
Quentin and Merlyn sharing a quick look of mutual understanding as fathers with problematic daughters is the absolute best scene in this episode. "Good luck" indeed.
Merlyn is another one that steals every scene he pops into, from giving an incredulous "I'm Ra's Al Ghul!" to reply to Quentin's questions where he got the Ghost telephone, to his aforementioned father bonding moment with Quentin, snarking about Laurel's bondage outfit, to his nice little less-tense conversation with Thea (they even joke!), to finally showing up decked in Green Arrow armour, and ending up fighting Damian Darhk alongside Oliver Queen. And Merlyn fared pretty well, shooting an exploding arrow onto Darhk. Even if Darhk would've choked him to death if Oliver didn't barge in it's still good showing from him.
Laurel doesn't get to do much either, but her Canary Cry finally manages to do something tangible than just stun people for a while as she uses it to break the gas chamber glass.
The flashback is easily the weakest part of the episode, because I literally don't care. We revisit the Amazo, the ship featured in season two's flashbacks, so Oliver could get a map. He punches a shark off-screen (BOO!) but gets captured red-handed by Conklin. I honestly don't give a fuck and it distracts from all the more interesting thing going on.
So yeah, whether Felicity dies or not, this is definitely an eventful episode and a pretty awesome mid-season episode. Between Arrow and SHIELD, it's been a good month for mid-season finales. Now let's see if Flash can top it.
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