The last Arrow episode before the big crossover with The Flash was a big one. It wasn’t filled with a lot of big “wow” moments, although there were a few. No, “Brotherhood” was big on content for another reason. The battle between Green Arrow and Damien Darhk really began to heat up and you could say even properly start. So that meant a lot of exposition and lot of talking. Rather then being a complete snooze-fest, “Brotherhood” was pretty strong thanks to some good performances particularly by Stephen Amell and David Ramsey.
A Ghost Unmasked
Team Green Arrow fights a road battle with the Ghosts on that one street that almost all of the crime in Star City happens. As a result of this fight, the team decides they have to figure out where Damien is setting up shop. Felicity goes to Ray to help them figure it out.
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Ray and Felicity’s work leads the team to an office building. It is there that Team Green Arrow think they can find a chemical that will help them identify some of the DNA they have recovered from the Ghosts. Laurel and Diggle break into a lab and Laurel picks up a random vial that just happens to be the chemical. (Laurel’s superpower is plot convenience apparently.) They are attacked by a Ghost, but Diggle shoots the man disabling him. Dig takes off the Ghost’s mask to find that it is supposedly his dead brother, Andy, underneath. Andy wakes up, punches Dig and runs out of the room.
Darhk Offers
Dig is worried about what Andy being alive means but Oliver says that they can’t do anything yet for two reasons:
1. They don’t know what is really going on with Andy and…
2. Oliver is throwing a benefit for the police officers because of his mayoral campaign that night.
At the benefit, Lance gives them a lead. He saw an address on Damien’s desk during one of their meetings. Lance thinks Andy might be there. Ollie doesn’t have to go looking for Damien though. Damien shows up at Oliver’s benefit and offers his “help” with Oliver’s campaign. Really though, he just threatens Oliver to work with him or maybe he won’t be running unopposed anymore. It’s pretty vague as far as threats go but Damien is saying it so that means it is inherently spooky.
Malcolm comes to Thea with an offer of his own. He knows that her blood-lust is coming back and she needs to kill again. Malcolm gives her the name of pedophile that has yet to be convicted. Malcolm wants Thea to kill the creep. Thea refuses but at her date with Alex, Thea attacks a creepy man (not a pedophile) who hits on her. I mean she brutally attacks him with some face-punching and pushing-through-glass attacking.
Leave Andy Alone… Or Not
Diggle is at home thinking about Andy’s “resurrection.” Lyla shows up to do the one thing she does nowadays: Give Diggle a pep talk. She tells Dig what nearly everyone has been telling him: Just because Andy is back and is working as a masked mass murderer, it’s not the worst thing in the world. Andy is still alive. Speaking of masked mass murderers, a former one shows up at the door: aka Oliver.
Oliver takes Diggle to the address that Lance told him about at the benefit. There they witness a Ghost creation ceremony. It’s just disturbing and mystical as you would think. The Ghosts are controlled by Damien through some kind of chemical pill. Oliver and Diggle are spotted by the Ghosts and Oliver gets his green butt handed to him before they can escape.
Back at the cave, Dig tells Oliver to back off this Andy thing. It doesn’t matter if he is being controlled. Andy is not his brother anymore. He doesn’t deserve saving. The rest of Team Green Arrow disagrees with Dig though. Oliver rallies Thea and Laurel. The three of them decide to attack Darhk’s Ghost base and get Andy back.
Flashback Break
In the flashback story, Conklin takes Oliver to Reiter to face retribution for the man Oliver killed in “Lost Souls” This is the most terrifying “visit to the principal” ever put to screen. Using his eerie magic. Reiter gets Conklin to admit that he sent the man after Oliver. Oliver had no choice but to kill him. Reiter then has Conklin whipped by Oliver as punishment.
Oliver then goes back to the woman he saved who is apparently named Diana. Also the man Oliver killed was apparently Diana’s brother. If Arrow has told us either of these things before I don’t remember them. Oliver doesn’t tell Diana that he killed her brother though. Instead he enlists her to find somewhere on the island. Oliver thinks it might hold what Reiter is looking for on Lian Yu.
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Who is Going to Save Your Soul (And City)?
Back in Star City, Dig eventually changes his mind, because you know it’s a TV show. Before that happens though, Laurel, Thea and Oliver are joined by Ray. Together they make their way into the Ghost HQ and find Andy. Specifically, it’s Thea who finds him. In an amazingly good minute long tracking shot, Thea and Andy duke it out with Thea eventually taking him down. As Laurel comes to pick Andy up, Thea runs into Damien.
Damien threatens Thea and then goes to his whole soul sucking thing but when he touches Thea his hand burns. In fact, his whole body starts to burn up. Think Quirrell at the end of the first Harry Potter movie, but less extreme. While Damien is distracted, Thea escapes.
Later, Thea tells Malcolm about the incident. Most importantly she tells Malcolm that when Damien tried to soul suck her, the blood-lust left for a while. She wants Malcolm’s help to make that change permanent. Why Thea enlists the help of evil Malcolm and the not much more trustworthy magician Constantine, is a mystery to me.
Diggle also goes to visit Andy. The latter is not too happy to see his brother. Andy is a little crazy and that might just be the waning Ghost influence or Andy could be a sociopath. You pick. In any case, Oliver stays true to his mission that anyone can be redeemed. He holds a press conference and tells Damien and the world that he won’t stop fighting until the city is saved.
Arrow airs on Wednesdays at 8pm on The CW.
(Image courtesy of The CW)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
Derek is a Philadelphia based writer and unabashed TV and comic book junkie. The time he doesn’t spend over analyzing all things nerdy he is working on his resume to be the liaison to the Justice League.
