Arrow Season 4, Episode 10
How far is too far when seeking truth, justice, and the American way? (Or, you know, the Arrow version of that — i.e. information, vengeance, and the vigilante way.) Arrowloves asking this question, which is probably why it brought it back for “Blood Debts,” its midseason premiere. Because there is nothing like a midseason premiere to hammer home the themes of your show — no matter how many times you’ve explored them before.
Oliver and Thea battle their inner demons.
Thematically, much of this episode was centered around Oliver and Thea battling their inner demons as they face off against Anarky. For Oliver, his bloodlust is very much fueled by his fear of losing Felicity. For Thea, her bloodlust is still vaguely fueled by her resurrection from the Lazarus Pit. If this inner struggle sounds familiar, it’s because Arrow tends to revert to this theme in tentpole episodes. It is a safe, yet reliable play. After all, this show has been constructed around the question of Oliver’s humanity after the crucible that was his five years away. Thea’s own struggle worked less well for me. This isn’t just a problem with this specific episode. It’s a problem with Thea’s larger season arc, which has been unfocused and ill-defined. I’m all for watching Thea suffer through side effects of her resurrection, but, thus far, Arrowseems afraid to commit. Remember when she briefly had amnesia after coming out of the Lazarus Pit? Or when she thought Oliver was still dead and called Malcolm Merlyn dad? I’m all for committing to the idea that the major long-term effect of the Lazarus Pit is bloodlust, but I’m ready to see Thea fall off the deep end. Or at least steadily get worse. Instead, Thea’s mood re: burning people alive seems to randomly change from episode to episode and that’s not working for me. This character deserves better, especially after being a bright light of character development in season 3. I’m not sure why Anarky was so angry with Damien Darhk and seemed cool with Thea. One of them decided not to induct him into his evil club. The other set him on fire. Buy, hey, to each his own. Lonnie doesn’t seem particularly stable.
We finally get to spend more time with Mrs. Darhk.
Forget Damien Darhk; it’s his wife we have to worry about. Though Darhk follows some twisted code of honor when it comes to killing his enemies, Mrs. Darhk has no such qualms about killing someone who just saved her family. It makes me miss Moira Queen. Darhk’s agenda is still problematically undefined for a show that once devoted two seasons of flashbacks to explaining (and making us care) why Slade Wilson wanted to kill everything Oliver ever loved. We do now know that Darhk’s algae project is something called Genesis, and that it will more or less wipe out the entire world… But why? Feel free to give Damien Darhk his own flashbacks, Arrow.I would much rather devote that time to giving the Big Bad some context than whatever it is Arrowhas been doing with its flashbacks this season.
Meanwhile, on an island…
Yep, we’re still doing this flashback thing. This episode’s central tension relied on us believing that Oliver would kill himself to save Taiana. Obviously, we know that Oliver will not kill himself, and we don’t care enough about the other characters standing around watching all of this to be invested in the threat at all.
Felicity is going to be OK.
Surprise! Felicity is not going to be killed off Arrow.(Though she is paralyzed, Oracle-style.) For those of you who had Certain Death in the betting pool, I don’t know what to say. There’s no way this show would ever willingly kill off Felicity. And, in an episode like this, it’s easy to see why… Not having Felicity to lighten up Team Arrow’s missions made everything feel that much darker. It was early season 1 levels of dark — i.e. Oliver gruffly storming in and out of the lair, torturing people, not dealing with any of his emotions, and not explaining to anyone else what he was doing. Fewer voiceovers, though. (Remember the voiceovers?)
Another peek into the future timeline.
Arrow continues to adopt the less is more strategy when it comes to teasing its future storyline. We are now only four months away from the events that lead to one of Oliver’s loved ones dying, and we can safely cross Felicity’s name off the list. (No one really thought she would die, right?) Whoever it is, Felicity seems just as upset and angry as Oliver about the deceased. It could be her mother, who has been subtly integrated into the narrative this season, but would Oliver really visit the grave by himself if that were the case? My money is on a Lance — Laurel or Quentin. As much as I really, really don’t want to see Diggle written off the show (death is negotiable on Arrow, right?), I am much more interested in this scenario — i.e. Diggle’s death or apparent death — than any of the others. It would explain why Oliver and Felicity in particular are upset enough about the death to vow vengeance. It would also work thematically with this episode, in which we saw how upset Diggle was about Felicity’s injuries and how far he was willing to go to find Darhk. Could this all have been a parallel to how Felicity and Oliver are in the flash-forward? Arrow is not unaware of the effect of Original Team Arrow, you know? We also finally saw Diggle and his brother start to reconnect in this episode, though Andy still seems loyal to the HIVE cause. Could Andy become the Big Bad for season 5? Again, I don’t want to see Diggle permanently written off of the show, but it would be nice to have a villain with a personal connection to our heroes again. As enigmatic as Damien Darhk is, his vague plan to reset humanity is nowhere near as compelling as Slade’s mirakuru-fueled vendetta against Oliver for Shado’s death.
