Diggle & Darhk Duel On ARROW

Episode 407 “Brotherhood”

[Photos: Dean Buscher & Cate Cameron/the CW]

Welcome to the latest episode of Star City Grudge Match!

In one corner, Team Arrow member and Oliver Queen’s Man Friday: John Diggle!  In the other corner, the latest baddie to come into Star City and make life hell for everyone: H.I.V.E. leader and former League of Assassins member Damien Darhk.

This episode of Star City Grudge Match has been building since Darhk reared his ugly head in Star City earlier this season.  Between threatening the Lance family and using his Ghosts to do his dirty work, Darhk has been making life a living hell for Team Arrow and Star City residents. However, this grudge match became personal as Diggle learned that not only did his brother worked for H.I.V.E., but Darhk had his brother killed!

In this episode, Diggle led an all-out assault on Darhk and his forces in order to search for the truth surrounding his brother’s death. Did he receive closure? Read on to find out…

Warning: You are now entering the Spoiler Zone!

Team Arrow continued to face off against Darhk’s forces as Laurel, Diggle, Thea and Oliver tried to prevent a heist of money being deliverd to prop up the Star City bank — only to lose as the Ghosts burn the money!

As Team Arrow finished their debriefing and Felicity gave a piece of evidence to Ray Palmer, Diggle showed Oliver the file that H.I.V.E. had on his brother. Thanks to Ray’s help, Team Arrow was able to go to Wolfman Biologics — shout out to Marv Wolfman! — and grab the material needed to counter Darhk! However, Diggle was surprised to learn that one of the Ghosts that he attacked was his own long lost deceased brother: Andrew Diggle!

Meanwhile, Thea kept ignoring Malcolm’s phone calls…which led to the new Ra’s Al Ghul paying a visit to Star City. Malcolm stated that Thea’s bloodlust was going to burst again and wanted her to murder a child molester. Thea shrugged off Malcolm’s suggestion and headed to one of Oliver’s press functions.  After the speech, Captain Lance warned Oliver about Darhk being onto him being a Team Arrow mole and also passed on information that could be beneficial for the Green Arrow’s war against Damian Darhk — who confronted Oliver about his campaign and fail to blackmail him on his upcoming project rejuvenating Starling Bay.

Felicity was furious with Oliver’s idea about having Darhk as a campaign contributor. As the love birds were debating the latest twist of fate, Thea’s bloodlust returned as she went all mental on a drunk bar customer right in front of Alex.  While Thea had to explain herself, Green Arrow and Diggle watched Darhk do a H.I.V.E. recruitment drive. However, the duo was spotted and were forced to face countless Ghosts.

As the duo licked their wounds, Diggle wanted Oliver to drop his quest to redeem his brother and stated could not forgive his brother for faking his death for eight years. He also took Oliver to task for thinking about teaming up with Darhk and advised him to take the villain out in the public. Oliver did not listen to his advice and recruited both Thea and Laurel for this rescue mission.

While the trio jumped into action against the Ghosts, Laurel had to face Diggle’s brother alone in a killer kung-fu battle on multiple floors in the Ghosts’ headquarters. As Atom and Diggle joined the party, things went bad to worse when Thea briefly faced off against Darhk himself. But just when it seems Darhk has the better of Thea, his magic backfires. Is Thea protected somehow?

As “Brotherhood” concluded, Thea told Malcolm about Damian Darhk and asked for assistance getting rid of her bloodlust.  Diggle also confronted his brother about his past and Oliver held a press conference making his intentions to rejuvenate the bay front and center — directly challenging Darhk in the light of day!

Next week, “Arrow” crosses over with “Flash” as the two teams face off against Vandal Savage.

My take on “Brotherhood”: The Diggle drama was interesting, but I felt that the plot was forced. While there were bright moments acting-wise from David Ramsey, the real firecrackers were from Oliver and Darhk’s confrontation at the Star City Police benefit and Malcolm dropping in on Thea.

Speaking of Ra’s Al Ghul, I wished Malcolm joined the fray during “Brotherhood’s” climax. Since he became the new Ra’s Al Ghul, Malcolm has become a wild card and I would love to see him interact more with Oliver, Diggle and Felicity. I am also enjoying Neal McDonough’s run as the H.I.V.E. leader. His take on the charismatic antagonist not only continues to impress me, but he is slowly joining the ranks of Naveen Andrews, Robert Carlyle, Barbara Hershey, Rebecca Mader and Lana Parrilla as some of the best actors to play villains on television.

There might be a casualty in the upcoming public war between Oliver Queen and Damian Darhk.  My premonition is that casualty might be good old Captain Lance. Remember the grave that both Oliver and Barry were staring at during the season four premiere? They might be looking at Captain Lance’s grave. I think that Darhk might find out about Lance’s loyalties to both the Emerald Archer and Oliver Queen and he might do some fatal voodoo on the only good police officer in the Star City Police Department.

If Captain Lance falls by Darhk’s hands before the end of the season, fans could expect a furious Laurel Lance to explode on Oliver like on the previous episode and leave Team Arrow and Star City behind for good. Laurel’s departure could damage Team Arrow unless the Powers That Be were able to convince returning Colton Hayes (Aresnal) to stay longer than just one episode.  If that scenario was to be played out, I would like to see Laurel either join her sister on Legends of Tomorrow or work with Team Flash for a few episodes until ARROW season five or six.

Finally, Ray and Felicity should share more scenes before Ray jumps over to Legends of Tomorrow.  Speaking of Legends of Tomorrow, I am very excited for the two-part crossover event that will air on Flash on December 1 and ARROW on December 2. I love seeing the casts of ARROW and Flash together. I cannot wait to see how Team Arrow reacts to Harry Wells as well as Team Flash’s potential reunion with Ray Palmer.