In “Lost in the Flood,” Arrow continued its trend of just making everything suck in the worst way possible. For once on Arrow, Oliver is about the only character who is still hoping that everything will turn out alright. Damien Darhk is growing in power each week and it is impossible to imagine how Oliver will be able to stop him. Not to mention how Arrow will possibly be able to create a villain more menacing or entertaining that the Aryan-looking wizard in the suave suits in seasons to come.
Drinking the Kool-Aid
Dealing in the direct aftermath of “Monument Point,” Darhk refuses to kill Oliver and Dig. Mainly because he is a villain on a TV show and they never take the advantage when they can. His actual reasoning, however, is that he wants Oliver and Dig to be alive when he destroys the world in a nuclear fire so they can feel their skin melt off. It’s stupid, but I’m willing to forgive it because Darhk is basically invincible now. He has a reason to be a little bit of a cocky jerk, if he wasn’t already one.
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Meanwhile, in Darhk’s creepy ark town, Thea is mourning Alex, who is officially dead. She is the only one who cares. Thea manages to take Alex’s phone off his corpse and finds a way to contact Felicity. This means that Oliver and Diggle find the town and Thea. Sadly, by this point, Malcolm has found his daughter and brainwashed her to be a Darhk clone. Four seasons, 91 episodes and countless gravely Stephen Amell voice-overs, and Malcolm is still the worst dad ever.
When Oliver finds his baby sister, she quickly pulls a gun on him, because like I said, she’s brainwashed. Obviously, Oliver can’t fight or hurt his sister and so, he is forced to flee. Ruve Darhk comes on the TV and tells every citizen of her underground Jonestown to eliminate the intruders Diggle and Oliver. So now there is a whole town of crazy people hunting the two vigilantes.
Hack-Off
Back on the ground, Curtis finally makes his much needed reappearance to help Noah and Felicity try to take Rubicon offline forever. Donna also shows up for no other reason than to argue with Noah and just be generally awesome. The three hackers work together and decide that their best course of action is to blow up Rubicon; digitally of course.
They run into a bit of a problem though when Darhk recruits another reject baddie of seasons’ past. Darhk brings in Felicity’s ex-boyfriend, Cooper, the awful “hackivisit” who is grandiose and melodramatic as he is gross. Cooper thinks he can take on Felicity, Curtis and Noah, but they quickly defeat him. Making this whole plot line pointless; much like Cooper himself.
Queen Doubt
Oliver and Diggle run into a family’s home in Darhk’s doomsday suburb looking for safety. Instead, they find a family who is not on the brainwashing drugs but are completely devoted to Darhk all the same. They tell Oliver and Diggle that they believe in what Darhk is doing because the world is sick and twisted.
Darhk has offered them hope and a way out. It’s more than the Green Arrow has ever done for them. Oliver, because he is Oliver, wonders if they are right. This is insane because Darhk has killed oodles of people, his name is literally the most evil thing ever and these people have missed the stop to Crazytown and have gone full stop, do not pass go, do not collect two hundred dollars to Wackyville.
Deal with the Devil
In any case, this little bit of self-pitying is cut off by another attack by Darhk’s ghosts, Thea and Malcolm. Oliver manages to have Thea break through her brainwashing together and together they manage to defeat Malcolm. Thea then reminds us all that is this not the first time, by a long shot, that Malcolm has drugged his daughter against her will. (At what point does Malcolm just become a caricature of awfulness or are we already way past that point?)
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This victory looks like a cause of celebration, but Anarky taps into the live feed TV. He has escaped and now has Ruve and Darhk’s daughter (who I am 99.7% sure is played by a new actress) kidnapped. He threatens to kill them all, as well as pretty much the entire Ark town if Damien doesn’t come face him. Oliver realizing that Anarky proves a huge threat to innocent people, decides to save Darhk’s family.
Some Men Just Want to Watch the World Burn
The battle with Anarky quickly goes awry. During the midst of the fight, a stray arrow hits some doohickey and this causes the entire town to start to explode. This is worst designed evil secret facility since the Death Star. In fact, it’s worse than all the Death Stars combined.
The ceiling starts to cave in and in the confusion, Anarky escapes Team Arrow. During the blasts, Ruve gets pinned under some rubble but her daughter is whisked to safety by Diggle. Ruve asks Oliver to promise to keep her daughter safe and then dramatically dies. (I feel oddly guilty for how happy this fact makes me.)
With the town destroyed and Rubicon dead for now, it seems like HIVE and all their plans are defeated. Darhk, however, does not take the death of his terrifying crypt-keeper of a wife well. Darhk decides that it doesn’t matter that there is no longer a safe haven. He wants to burn the entire world to the ground, including himself and everyone in it.
Arrow airs 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.
