ARROW: Anarky Descends on Star City

 

Episode 402 “The Candidate”

[photos: Katie Yu & Cate Cameron/The CW]

Last week, a new villain (Damien Dahrk) emerged from the shadows and began his plot to send Star City to Kingdom Come. In addition to Dahrk’s sudden appearance and interest in Star City, Oliver had a long road ahead to repair his relationships with Thea, Diggle, Laurel and Captain Lance.  Little did he know that Captain Lance made a deal with the devil and aligned with Dahrk.

Did Team Arrow come together before it’s too late? Read on to find out…

Team Arrow began the episode by going after the Ghosts in an explosive Kung Fu showdown. Green Arrow was able to defuse the bomb, while arguing with Felicity on code names. Back at Team Arrow headquarters, Oliver confronted Thea on her aggressive action, while he gave Felicity a first day back-to-work fern and a packed lunch. Felicity also met a new member of Palmer Technologies, innovative Curtis Holt, who created an algorithm that would suggest which people to fire…. however, a furious Felicity stated that she would rather cut the board’s benefits than fire people to protect Ray’s legacy.

One of the Queens’ oldest friends, Jessica Danforth (Jeri Ryan), reunited with Oliver and Thea and revealed her intentions to fill their deceased mom’s shoes.  Despite their efforts to dissuade her, she announced her run for Star City Mayor to an excited crowd. Before Ms. Danforth completed her speech, a member of the Ghosts tried to assassinate the attendees and kidnap Ms. Danforth.  Oliver almost blew his Green Arrow cover by showing off some cool moves.

Team Arrow reconvened back at the headquarters and tried to discover the Ghosts’ plans. Meanwhile, Oliver received bad vibes from Detective Lance about trying to add extra protection to Ms. Danforth’s detail. As Captain Lance was giving the run-around with Oliver, Laurel was able to learn that Diggle is hiding his H.I.V.E. investigation from the team, Dahrk hired the assassin (Anarky) and Oliver set Thea away because of her harsh treatment of a suspect.

Thea and Oliver’s confrontation got violent back at the headquarters. After an intense brawl, with Thea accusing Oliver for leaving her behind when he started his new life, Oliver revealed to a concerned Laurel and Diggle a warning that Ra’s Al Ghul gave him back in Nanda Parbat about using the Lazarus Pit.  He also received more bad news as Jessica was gung-ho with continuing her campaign — until she learned that her daughter was kidnapped.

As Jessica went to the media, Dahrk confronted Anarky about the kidnapping, accused him of being chaotic, ordered him to clean up his mess and terminated their partnership. Captain Lance also tried to exit his relationship with Dahrk after the Danforth kidnapping; however, Dahrk threatened Captain Lance with offing Laurel. As her father exited Dahrk’s lair, Laurel saw Jessica’s press conference and Thea revealed what happened to her at Nanba Parbat.

Using Captain Lance’s tip, Team Arrow confronted Anarky before he tortured Jessica’s daughter. As Diggle and Laurel safely escorted Jessica’s daughter to safety, the Arrows confronted Anarky in an electrifying duel, which ended in Thea burning Anarky.

Jessica reunited with her daughter and decided to withdraw from the Star City mayoral race. Oliver also received a word of warning from Captain Lance that Thea’s actions cost him a second chance working with the Star City Police Department.  Oliver visited Thea and learned that Laurel is taking Thea out of the city… only not to a spa, as they told Ollie, but to Nanda Parbat. The pair unearthed Sara’s body before heading out of the country! At the end of the episode, Captain Lance learned that Anarky escaped police custody and Oliver shared his new career path: becoming Mayor of Star City.

My take and thoughts: Captain Lance remains one of the annoying characters of the show. Either be on Team Arrow or Team Dahrk!  I really hope that this character dies, even though we might see Laurel go down the Thea route. Unfortunately, having two intense ladies on Team Arrow might be a major problem with fans.

As for Thea, I think that Nanda Parbat might be an interesting plot twist for obvious reasons (Sara Lance’s resurrection for Legends of Tomorrow and seeing Merlyn as Ra’s would be extremely interesting).  I also wish that the show would stick to the current timeline and not go Once Upon a Time and put both flashbacks and main story in their episodes. I was glad to see Jeri Ryan back on television, but I thought that her character could be featured in more than one episode.

Next week, Dahrk summons Double Down to take care of Green Arrow!