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“Arrow” recap (4.20): Out of the Darhkness

Previously on Arrow, Darhk gave his HIVE members little yellow pills to control them on his mission to set Genesis into motion, Diggle was backstabbed by his brother which resulted in Laurel’s death, and Felicity re-joined Team Arrow to ensure they take down Darhk once and for all.

Darhk, newly released from prison, is feeling awfully high and mighty. He struts into his HIVE, Merlyn in tow, and asks if Genesis is still on track. Upon finding out it is, he kills his entire board, because if he could get out of jail without them, what good are they anyway? And he can’t have dead weight-not now-because it’s time to start the final phase of Genesis.

Tales of these bodies quickly make their way back to Felicity in the Arrow Cave.

Oliver is hesitant to attack, even though tactically it seems like Darhk is probably at his weakest if he’s killing his own, because of the whole magic thing. But Constantine told Oliver that there’s someone who can teach him Defense Against the Darhk Arts, but it’s WAY TOO DANGEROUS for anyone else on the team to learn, so he gives them the weekend off.

Diggle goes to see Lyla, who is a little salty about being in a metal safe house, but she’s better now that he’s laying low with her. p.s. The safehouse is an 18-wheeler.

After everyone leaves, Felicity approaches Oliver and wants to know more about this magic tutor.

Oliver says that he’s worried about the magic turning him dark, because he feels that there’s already a darkness inside him, and he’s seen magic turn people. Felicity says that settles it; she’s coming with him. But also, it was already settled because she booked a private jet and hotel rooms (purposefully plural). Because Felicity.

Diggle is out of the truck on an errand when he gets an alert about his brother’s location. He decides to run after his brother on his own without telling anyone because he’s not the sharpest arrow in the quiver. They get into a bit of a gunfight and a game of cat-and-mouse, and Diggle continues to chase his brother across the city, despite Lyla trying to knock some sense into him over the phone.

Oliver and Felicity go to Hub City (Where Sara and Kendra got dumped a few weeks [decades?] ago in Legends of Tomorrow) and enter an underground casino, looking the part.

And Felicity is in her element. She absolutely kills it at the blackjack table, keeping it light and celebrating her wins. She even flirts with the other woman at the table, and as Oliver tells her that he thinks the guy they’re supposed to meet ditched them, the woman says that she’s the one they’re looking for.

The woman’s name is Fortuna, and she’s an immortal shaman. She leads Oliver and Felicity through a door that takes them to a whole new world, into a candlelit tomblike room, and keeps calling Felicity, “Mi amor.”

She has an idol that looks like Darhk’s and tells Oliver that Darhk’s power comes from death and fear, but it can be counteracted with light and hope. “La luz del alma,” an inner light, a light of the soul, can repel dark magic. (So theoretically Felicity should be able to kill him with her smile.) Oliver wants to learn, but Fortuna says it’s more about what you have in you than what you can learn to do. The light has to overpower the dark.

Somewhere else, Thea wakes up alone in a bed and goes to find Alex, her natural instincts keeping her on high alert, ready to fight. But when she finds her boyfriend, he’s making breakfast, and it’s all so delightfully normal.

They go for a stroll in the picture perfect neighborhood and Thea officially starts freaking out. The nature sounds are on a loop, and it’s all too reminiscent of The Truman Show. But Alex tells her to relax, that she’s just not used to being on vacation, being out of the city. And quite frankly even HE’S a little too even-keeled.

In Star City, Diggle catches up to Andy and Andy basically says, “Man you’re so predictable, thanks for that,” and stabs him in the leg. Diggle eventually turns the tables, but even though Andy taunts him, Diggle asks himself WWBCD, and doesn’t shoot his brother. To preserve Laurel’s memory.

In the shaman’s cave, Fortuna tells Oliver to focus on the light as she throws some dark magic his way. It works and he dissolves the dark cloud with the light inside him. Fortuna sends him a stronger blow, but this time, Oliver collapses inside himself, letting a barrage of images take over, images of everyone he’s ever killed, everyone he’s ever lost. He hears Fortuna’s voice encouraging him to fight the darkness, but he can’t.

Fortuna throws up her hands in defeat, there’s nothing more she can do for Oliver, he has too much darkness inside. Felicity is mad and probably ready to get one of Constantine’s magic tattoos, but there’s nothing the shaman can do to change Oliver’s internal makeup.

Back at their Airbnb in Pleasantville, Thea has officially cracked. It’s still light out, and it shouldn’t be, the nature sound loop is annoyingly short, and Alex isn’t reacting properly to her being able to predict a bark. He spills what he calls vitamins, and Thea sees that they’re Darhk’s brand of special little pills. All suspicions cease; Thea KNOWS now that something is wrong and asks where the hell they are.

Oliver and Felicity mourn their failed mission at the casino bar, and Oliver is all “I told you so” about his inner darkness. He wouldn’t have even been able to get the shaman’s attention without Felicity; she is his lightbringer, his northern star. Felicity isn’t buying into his pity party though. She says nobody’s perfect and people can change so get over yourself and let’s go. (Except she says it nicely because she is all that is Light and Good.)

Darhk finds Andy where Diggle left him and commends him for a job well done, because that leg stab wasn’t just for the thrill of causing pain, but was a tracker.

So they easily find Diggle and Lyla in their mobile safe house.

Lyla knows it’s her they’re after, so they decide to split up. Diggle shoots out on a motorcycle, so Team Darhk severs, Andy going after Diggle while Darhk enters the truck to get Lyla.

Despite her best efforts (and such valiant efforts they were!), Lyla is no match for Darhk and his magic. He freezes her and goes for Baby Sara’s crib, but all he finds are weapons. Sara is with her daddy.

Felicity meets Diggle just in time to take Baby Sara so he can go on his sibling rivalry mission alone.

At the same time, the Green Arrow goes to the truck to save Lyla. Darhk wraps his evil hand around Oliver’s throat and starts to suck the life out of him, but Oliver fights it with the light within.

Diggle catches up with Andy, and is still going to let him live, take him in, do this right, like his late DA/vigilante friend would have wanted. But then Andy scares him. He says if Darhk can get himself out of prison, he can get Andy out. He says that they can’t hide forever, that eventually Sara will have to be out of her parents’ site. He says they’re never going to stop coming for them.

So Diggle kills him. Sacrifices his brainwashed little brother for his wife and daughter.

Felicity finds Oliver in the Arrow Cave and says she still hasn’t gotten in touch with Thea, but doesn’t sound all that concerned about it. Oliver tells her that his anti-magic powers kicked in and he repelled Darhk’s darkness. She asks how he did it, and he credits her.

Oliver heard Felicity’s voice in his head. He heard Thea and Diggle. He heard Laurel. He heard the people he loved telling him to keep fighting. And for once in his life, he actually listened to someone else.

Diggle and Lyla reunite, and Diggle makes it sound like Andy reached for his gun, and so he had to kill him, meaning Diggle’s set up to go postal any minute. While Lyla is comforting Diggle, telling him that his brother died a long time ago, she notices a stitched up wound in her arm and panics.

She goes to Team Arrow and tells them that Rubicon was planted in her arm for safe keeping, and now it’s missing. The point of Rubicon was to override the use of any nuclear missiles, but could theoretically be tweaked to set them all off. Felicity’s confused. What’s the point of destroying everything?

But then they realize Darhk’s plan is called Genesis. He plans on wiping everything out to build it back up again.

And his Ark? Well, it’s less of a boat, more of a submarine. A biodome deep under the ground. And Thea’s in it. Under it?

(I imagine because Merlyn insisted.)

What did you think of “Genesis”? Think they’ll recruit Nyssa for the final battle against Darhk and Merlin or have we seen the last of her?

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