Legends of Tomorrow: Season 3, Episode 16 - I, Ava

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here. 




Plot

When Ava disappears, Sara and Ray set out to find her and discover a disturbing truth about her. Acting Captain Amaya puts Zari in charge of training Rory in the use of The Fire Totem, as Nate and Wally set out on a mission that goes awry when they pair with the most unlikely ally possibly.


Influences

The film version of I, Robot and the movie Blade Runner 


Goofs

Shouldn't Amaya be more worried about a fight between two totem bearers on-board The Waverider?


Performances

Neal McDonough manages to find just the right mixture of comedy and pathos during Darhk's breakdown.

Maisie Richardson-Sellers doesn't get a lot of screen time in this episode but she sells the hell out of Amay's conflict in the final segment regarding the man she loves, the guilt she feels over Kuasa and all the responsibility that comes with her powers.


Trivia Of Tomorrow

The holographic commercial for the Ava Shape clone briefly includes a flash of the phrase "More Human Than Human." This was the motto of The Tyrell Corporation in the movie Blade Runner - the company that manufactured the super-realistic biological androids known as Replicants. The general theme regarding humanity existing within artificially created beings is also taken directly from the movie.

Damian Darhk says that watching the drama between Kuasa and Nate is better than "The Brave and The Bold." The Brave and The Bold, while sounding like the name of a soap opera (Darhk may have meant, The Bold And The Beautiful), is the name of a long-running DC Comics series that saw Batman teaming up with other superheroes. It was also the name of a long-running animated series devoted to Batman teaming with other superheroes.

Sara refers to the Ava clones as "fem-bots." This is a reference to the sexy female android assassins used by Doctor Evil in the first Austin Powers movie.


Technobabble

Ray Palmer is a capable enough hacker to break into The Time Bureau's computer.

Time Couriers keep a log of where they have been.

The Time Bureau has declared certain times and places to be "no fly" zones. Only The Time Bureau Director can sanction travel to one of these places. Time Couriers and The Waverider are programmed not to allow travel to time no-fly zones.  Vancouver in 2213 is one such no-fly zone.

Ava was apparently created from what were believed to be the best genes from around the world to make the perfect woman.

Bylaw 575 prohibits unauthorized personnel from being inside the AVA Corp. labs, The penalty is death.

The Totems allow the bearers to sense when another Totem Bearer has died. In this case, Zari and Rory are able to sense the death of Kuasa.


Dialogue Triumphs

(Gary tells Sara and Ray about Ava's disappearance.)
Gary: I've already been covering for her! I've forged her signature twice! What am I supposed to do next?! Put on a wig and pantsuit and pretend I'm her?!
(Ray gives Gary the biggest side-eye glance ever as he looks to Sara as if to say, "Is he serious?")
Sara: No. Don't do that.

Wally: You're sure you saw Kuasa?
Nate: Yeah. Just be on the lookout for a badass in a leather outfit. Or a suspicious puddle of water.

(Ava's "parents" confess to being paid actors.)
Ray: Why in the world would you ever agree to be part of such a charade?
"Pam Sharpe": Do you know how hard it is to get an acting job in Fresno?!

Nate: I thought you hated Mari?
Kuasa: She's still my sister. And even though I resented her for inheriting The Anansi Totem, I'd still rather see it around her neck than Nora Darhk's.

(Wally asks why he can't just run to where the Darhk' are and swipe The Anansi Totem)
Kuasa: You overplayed your hand. Now they know you have a... whatever you are on the team.
Wally: What I am is the "fastest man alive", thanks.
Nate: Second fastest.
Wally: Shhh! She didn't need to know that.

(Nora has just given Kuasa The Anansi Totem)
Nate: (quietly) The plan worked. Free me.
Kuasa: I once thought that losing this totem was the greatest threat to me and my family.  (looking down at Nate) But you are in love with my Nana Baa, and should she choose to love you in return, me and my sister will never even exist.
Nate: This is not the plan.
Kuasa: Plans change.
Damien Darhk: (whispering) This is better than The Brave and The Bold.
Kuasa: For a PhD, you're remarkably gullible.
Nate: Oh, Kuasa... you're better than this. Be the woman your grandmother believes you to be!
Kuasa: I am being the woman she knows me to be.

Nate: Your daughter, she looks - um - she look different. No offense.
Damien Darhk: (sighs while picking up a cattle prod) None taken.
(Damien zaps Nate with the prod. Nate howls in pain but Damien pulls the prod away and sighs, clearly not into it.)
Damien Darhk: Her face...
Nate: (choking) How long has that been a situation?
Damien Darhk: You know what? Since you're going to die, I may as well tell you. The-the closer that Mallus gets to escaping his prison, the worse the situation gets.
(Nate nods, looking up at Damien earnestly.)
Damien Darhk: It's... Don't. Stop looking... don't look at me! I'm just gonna... just gonna...
(Nate keeps looking at Damien and all but gives him puppy dog eyes. Damien sighs in frustration.)
Damien Darhk: I'm sorry!  It's - it's not you! It's- It's me! Torture just doesn't bring me the same joy anymore!
Nate: It's okay! You're distracted! I get it! You made a deal with the devil, and now he's come back to claim your little girl  Am I right?
Damien Darhk: Yes!  I mean, I want to burn the world down and rebuild it in my image! Not lose the person I was doing it for!
Nate: (reassuringly) Damien, this is deep stuff, man. Let's just keep digging, let's just keep digging. Just do me one favor?
Damien Darhk: (half-sobbing) Yes! What?!
Nate: Can you lose the cattle prod? I mean, I'm gonna die anyway. Let's make this a safe space.
Damien Darhk: (nodding as he puts the prod down) Safe space.
Nate: Safe space.
(Damien takes a deep breath to calm himself and smiles.)

Amaya: How can you be so selfish?
Kuasa: You are the selfish one. Our family's destruction looms in 1992. You promised you'd save us. And yet you continuously search for ways to abandon your family and Zambesi.
Amaya: I have done everything in my power to try and redeem you! And in doing so, Mari got hurt. She understands that being a Totem Bearer means protecting all people - not just our own. It's no wonder this totem ended up with Mari and not you. You are beyond redemption.
(Kuasa says nothing but walks away.)

Sara: Ava. You are real. You are as real as I feel about you.
Ava: How can you say that when I'm just like one of those things?
Sara: Because I know you. And I know that you are a badass. And you are different. (pauses) And now that we both know that, I need you to act exactly like one of those clones if we want to get out of here.

Nate: I got Kuasa killed.
Amaya: (shaking her head) I got my granddaughter killed.
Nate: You... how?
Amaya: By goading her to be more like her sister. Kuasa wanted to prove that she was worthy of this. (holds up the Anansi Totem) She died proving that I was wrong about her, by saving the life of aman who threatened her existence.
Nate: Exactly! And if I didn't get captured, then Kuasa-
Amaya: - was doomed either way! I mean, that's how Time works. Well, clearly Time wants my family to suffer.
Nate: Amaya, you have to believe that you are in charge of your own destiny.
Amaya: You know, there are times I wish I'd never set foot on this ship? If I'd never left 1942, I would have returned to Zambesi like I was suppose to. With no idea of the tragedy that awaited me. I would have died an old woman.
Nate: Murdered by warlords. And you and I never would have met. (pauses) Is that what you want, Amaya?
Amaya: I don't know, Nathaniel.
(Amaya takes The Anansi Totem and leaves the library.)


Dialogue Disasters

(Ray, Sara and Gary discover that Vancouver 2213 is full of Ava Shapre clones)
Ray: What kind of world is this?
Gary: Paradise?
Sara: I'm surrounded by my exes, Gary... this is Hell.

Ray: This is the second worst "attack of the clones" I've seen.


Continuity

Sara takes a day off from the team to get her head together after the incident with The Death Totem and her break-up with Ava in 315.

Sara appoints Amaya as acting Captain while she's gone.

Zari doesn't eat pork or bacon and is fasting during the day for Ramadan.

Mick has been "training" himself by using the Fire Totem to grill hot dogs and make popcorn. He has also mastered a trick that requires someone pulling his finger that we do not get to see demonstrated.

Nate and Wally leave for Detroit 2018 to talk to Mari McCabe, who was injured while trying to evacuate an apartment building on fire. Amaya reasons that with Nora Darhk having stolen The Anansi Totem from her, the timeline must be starting to adjust to the fact that it was never there for Amaya to pass on to her daughter, ensuring it eventually went to Mari.

Gary refers to the death of Director Bennett at the hands of Gorilla Grodd in 313.

Ray determines that someone erased Ava Sharpe's employee profile from The Waverider.

Ava's trash can in her office has a birthday card from her parents in Fresno, California in it.

Ava's "parents" are named Pam and Randy Sharpe.

Sara figures out that Ava's parents are fakes based on a photo they say was taken at a slumber party held on Ava's 15th birthday, when Sara recalls Ava telling her in 312 that she spent her 15th birthday playing paintball.

Mick Rory has the eating schedule of a Hobbit, having four lunches.

Kuasa has been watching over Mari ever since Nora Darhk stole The Anansi Totem from Amaya.

Kuasa agrees to help Nate and Wally steal The Anansi Totem back.

Gary Green has astigmatism and was never authorized to fly the Time Bureau mothership.

The Time Bureau's mothership has the ability to travel to temporal No-Fly Zones without the Time Bureau Director's direct approval.

Ava turns out to be a clone created by a company called The Advanced Variant Automation Corporation (AVA Corporation.)

Gary has a fear of things covered in sheets.

Ava does not know about the clones of her in the future and faints when she sees a clone of herself being made.

Kuasa gives Amaya back The Anansi Totem.

Ava called her ex in Las Vegas and created an UpSwipz profile after Sara dumped her. This is where she was when she claimed to be in Fresno visiting her parents.

Mallus is apparently capable of draining The Speed Force from a speedster's body and throwing it back at them as lightning.

Kuasa returns to free Nate during the fight with Nora/Mallus.

Nora kills Kuasa by pulling The Water Totem from her body.

Ray erases Gary's memory of the events of the trip to 2213

Zari admits that part of the reason she keeps to her Muslim upbringing regarding dietary restrictions and fasting during Ramadan and cooking iftar is because it reminds her of her family.

Sara guesses that Rip Hunter was the one responsible for declaring Vancouver 2213 off-limits, hacking Ava Sharpe's personnel records and recruiting the actors who played Ava's parents.

The episode ends with Amaya taking the jump-ship to the M'Changa province of Zambesi in 1992.


Location

Detroit, Michigan - 2018
Time Bureau - Star City - 2018
Fresno, California - 2018
Vancouver, British Columbia - 2213


The Bottom Line

A mixed bag, overall. While the script generally does a good job of balancing all of its subplots, the plain truth is that the Mick/Zari subplot only seems to exist because the writers suddenly decided they needed to be more overt about Zari's religion and needed to give her and Mick something to do while Sara chased after her ex and Nate fell into an obvious trap. Still, the moments that are good are incredibly good but the episode still feels like a bit of filler apart from everything involving Amaya's conflict.

Legends of Tomorrow: Season 3, Episode 13 - No Country for Old Dads

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here. 




Plot

When Ray's efforts at showing mercy to Nora Darhk end in his capture, he is put to work helping repair the broken Fire Totem. The two of them wind up traveling to 1960's East Germany, where the search for a scientist who discovered the secret of cold fusion leads them into an encounter with a younger version of Damien Darhk.


Influences

No Country For Old Men (the title of the episode, the general aesthetic, the hairstyle of a young Damien Darhk is modeled on Javier Bardem's haircut in the movie)


Goofs

It's a little hard to believe that Wally never saw a picture of Nate and Amaya or learned the name of the "basic bitch" that broke his friend's heart given how close he and Nate apparently were.

How could the Damien Darhk of 1962 be unaware of magic existing given that he was almost 200 years old at that point and using The Lazarus Pit of The League of Assassins? (Technically, The Pit in the comics was powered by alchemy - not magic. Also, Darhk's surprise at his older self's use of magic may be because he is aware of magic's existence but never had encountered it in person before 1962.)


Performances

While the novelty of Damien Darhk's character wore off for me about halfway through Season Four of Arrow, I'm still amused by Neal McDonough's nonchalant yawning as he's telekinetically throwing Alan around. And his telling dad jokes. I can't explain why beyond the fact that the tone of it works so much better on Legends than it did on Arrow.

The chemistry between Brandon Routh and Neal McDonough is fantastic.


Artistry

The transitions, camerawork and witty script do a perfect job of emulating a Coen brothers movie.


Trivia Of Tomorrow

The one match that Damien Darhk keeps getting on his Upswipez Profile is a red-haired woman named Carrie C. This is Carrie Cutter a.k.a. Cupid - the obsessive Arrow fangirl, who was later recruited for Amanda Waller's Suicide Squad. She was last seen in A514, teaming with Liza Warner and China White.


Technobabble

Cold fusion is a theoretical form of nuclear reaction that could take place at lower temperatures and levels of pressure than the standard hot fusion, which occurs naturally within stars. The term is a bit of a misnomer, however, as the only thing cold about cold fusion is that it takes place at a relatively much lower temperature than hot fusion and it is more properly called a "low energy nuclear reaction."

The Zambesi Totems can only be wielded by a person with a selfless reason for doing so. This is limited, however, in that an evil person can still use the totems if they have a good reason for needing the power. This is apparent as Kuasa was able to use the totems in the past, despite her own lust for power, as she was seeking justice for her murdered people. Likewise, Nora Darhk is able to use The Spirit Totem in order to save her father from his past self.

The bond between the Zambesi Totems and their current bearer is strong enough that, even across time itself, the Totems will refuse to work for someone wearing the Totem if the do not have the proper mindset to wield their power. This is why Nora Darhk is not able to tap the power of The Spirit Totem - it's bond with Amaya is too great and she only sees the Totem as a means of gaining power.

Despite this, the bond between the current bearer and their Totem is finite and the longer the Totem is in the possession of an evil being, the more corrupt it becomes. This corruption is reflected in The Zambesi Ancestral Plane, which goes from a beautiful jungle to a cold, dark hellscape the longer Nora Darhk possesses The Spirit Totem. It transforms completely into a dark place once Nora activates The Spirit Totem.

The Totems cannot be destroyed. Even the fragments have power.

Amaya is able to communicate with the Ancestral Plane and learn the location of The Spirit Totem by meditating, using Zari and The Air Totem as an anchor.

According to Ray, only cold fusion or the energy released by The Big Bang could generate the energy needed to reignite The Fire Totem.

Damien and Nora use magic devices called Time Stones to travel in time.

The ATOM suit has a voice-activation mode keyed to Ray Palmer's voice.


Dialogue Triumphs

(As they are watching the message that Ray left for them about how he's been kidnapped.)
Zari: Hey. When we see him, do we tell him we didn't even notice he was gone?
Sara: Yeah. Definitely not.

(Ray puts down his phone and turns to Damien Darhk, Nora Darhk and Kuasa. Kuasa is holding an electric cattle prod.)
Ray: Okay. I've done as you ask. So, no more torture today, right?
Damien Darhk: (laughing)  I really don't think you understand how this "torture" thing works.
(Kuasa slowly moves towards Ray with the prod raised.)

(Nate and Mick enter the bridge. They're both wearing tie-dyed shirts.)
Sara: Any sign of Ray?
Nate: Oh, no. Just another Grateful Dead end. (grins to Wally) I for sure got a contact high.
Mick: Yeah. And I managed to swipe Jerry Garcia's glasses.
(Mick holds up a pair of round-rimmed glasses with green-tinted lenses and puts them on. Wally is suddenly running across the room and back, taking them.)
Wally: One a thief. Always a thief.
(Nate clears his throat)
Nate: No, uh - we, we allow light to moderate theft on this ship. We like to call it souvenirs.
(Wally winces as Mick gives him a death glare.  He holds up the glasses apologetically and looks to Nate.)
Nate: It's ok. It's ok.
(Wally cautiously walks back over to Mick, who continues to glare at him, even as Wally places the glasses in his hand.) 

(Nora, Damien and Ray are confronted by Ray's old boss, Alan.)
Damien Darhk: Oh! You're the up-and-down guy? Me? I prefer side-to-side.
(Damien waves a finger and begins telekinetically throwing Alan against the walls, side to side.)
Alan: Our focus groups found up and down was more intuitive!
(Alan is thrown to the floor and then up against the ceiling. Then to the floor and the ceiling again.)
Damien Darhk: (grinning to Ray) You know, he might be right.
Alan: (in pain) We think it shifts the paradigm.
(Damien continues to amuse himself throwing Alan from the floor to the ceiling and vice versa. Ray winces as Nora hands him the broken pieces of the Fire Totem.) 
Nora: You have your lab. Now get to work. Nerd.
(Ray moves to a work station as Damien yawns, still raising and lowering his hand as we hear Alan's moans of pain.)

Damien Darhk: (looking at his phone) Sweetie, do you think it's too early for me to... you know... get back out there? I mean, how long should I mourn your mother?
Nora: (tired) It's been 23 years on my end, Dad. I say go for it.
Damien Darhk: Thank you. (looking back at his phone) Trouble is, I haven't had a single match yet. I think this thing is broken.
Alan: If I may?
(Damien and Nora look up. Alan is still pinned to the ceiling.)
Alan: You might have more luck if you talk about your hobbies...
Damien Darhk: I just said that I enjoy destroying the world to remake it in my image! Oh! And I like trying new restaurants! (starts typing onto his phone)
Alan: Also, your profile says you're 199 years old.
Damien Darhk: Yeah - it, it wouldn't go any higher? Can you fix that?
Alan: Well, everybody lies about their age, brah.
Nora: (annoyed) Can you please stop fooling around?!
Damien Darhk: Nora-doll, what's the point of living if you can't have a bit of fun?
Nora: Well, I'm not enjoying myself. I'm annoyed.
Damien Darhk: Hi Annoyed. I'm Dad! (laughs)

Damien Darhk: Well, I guess I'm off to East Berlin to stop myself from killing Vogal. Should be fun. (To Nora) You watch the prisoner, and I'll bring you back some chocolate. Oh, who am I kidding?! I'm probably going to get a hat for myself too.

(Wally has prepared a dimly lit room with incense and peaceful music for Zari and Amaya.)
Amaya: Thank you for helping us.
Wally: (shrugs) Yeah.
Amaya: So how do you know Nathaniel?
Wally: I was kind of like his wingman back in Central City. Just helped him get over a broken heart, actually,  because this basic bitch just dumped him on his birthday. (laughs) Can you believe that?!
Amaya: (cooly) Yeah... 'cause I was actually that basic bitch.
Zari: (dryly) Great vibe, Wally. I think we can take it from here.
Wally: (chuckling nervously) Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I'm gonna go.
(Wally runs from the room at super speed.)

Ray: Torture is not the answer!
Nora: Yeah, but it's fun either way.

Ray: It's high time you showed your dad what's really inside you... besides a demon.

Damien Darhk: Don't you know that I've only ever had your best interests at heart?
Nora: Was it in my best interests or yours when you pushed a scared little girl into the arms of a demon?
Damien Darhk: Yeah! To bring us back together!
Nora: To bring you back to life!
Damien Darhk: What has gotten into you?! I sent you off on one lousy mission by yourself, and suddenly the -
(Damien stops and looks at Ray)
Damien Darhk: Ohhhhhhh. Of course. I should have known that Ray Palmer would be a good influence on you.
Ray Palmer: Perhaps I should give you two some priva-
(Ray is cut off as Damien begins to strangle him with one hand telekinetically.) 
Nora: You know what? I thought I raised my father from the dead but instead I see I just got a selfish man-child!
Damien Darhk: Man-child? Man-child?! Why don't you run along to your little hellscape and boo-hoo to Mallus? Because now that you're a demon's mouth-piece, it's obvious you don't need me!
(Nora just stares at him and storms off.)
Damien: Nora! I... Nora!
Nora: Leave me alone, Dad!
Ray: (choking) No, that's good! Just - just keep talking!
(Close-up on Damien as he makes his now familiar annoyed grunting noise and waves his hand as we hear Ray crash into the wall.)

Ray: If you really care that much about Nora, then maybe you shouldn't let her be a conduit for a primordial evil?
Damien Darhk: I admit, this isn't the life I wanted for her. World domination was supposed to be my gift to her - not her career path!
Ray: Then maybe you should tell her how you feel? She's under a lot of pressure, you know? And it's all to impress you.
Damien Darhk: Me?! I'm so proud of Nora. Obviously she knows that!
Ray: (incredulous) She only knows what you say to her, Damien! (pauses) Can I call you, Damien?
(Damien growls in annoyance and raises his hand to strangle Ray again when the phone rings.)

Nora: Give me the doll.
Ray: I'm sorry, Nora. I can't do that.
(Ray powers on his blaster.)
Nora: C'mon. You and I both know you're not going to shoot me.
(Ray stares her down... and then fires his blaster at The Berlin Wall in the distance, blowing up a small portion of it.)
Ray: You're right.
(Cut To: The Waverider Bridge. Sara and Rip grab at a console for support as Wally and Nate run in.)
Wally: What was that?!
Sara: It's a time-quake! Gideon, what's the source?
Gideon: An aberration has occurred in 1962. It appears that someone has blasted a hole in the Berlin Wall.
Sara: Ray!
Rip: (looking out the front window of The Waverider) Which appears to be the straw that broke the camel's back.
(The rest of them follow Rip's eye-line, seeing a crack forming among the rolling green waves that normally make-up the Time Stream) 
Wally: I'm guessing that's bad?
Rip: Hmmm? Oh, yeah. Those are tears in the fabric of time itself.
Sara: Gideon, plot a course for East Berlin - 1962.
(Sara turns to Wally.)
Sara: Allright, Kid. You're up. Let's see how fast you really are.
(Wally slowly smiles.)

Director Bennett: Make it fast, Agent Sharpe, because I have to stop Alexander Hamilton from seeing Hamilton: The Musical.
Ava Sharpe: How is it possible that everyone got tickets to that but me?

(Sara, Rip and Ava have just seen Director Bennett killed by Gorilla Grodd on a video link.)
Ava: Oh my God.
Rip: It's... Grodd, actually.
Sara: Ava, I'm so sorry. He was a good man. (pauses) I think.
Rip: Yes. Most unfortunate. (quickly) I believe that this tragedy makes you the highest ranking official at the Bureau. (pauses, looking up at a still stunned Ava) May I return to work... Director Sharpe?
Ava: (still in shock) Uhh.. yes.


Continuity

Ava Sharpe stayed the night with Sara on board The Waverider.

Zari wanted to go see the Mt. Saint Helens eruption in 1980, for some reason.

Ray loves doing dirty dishes.

Ray puts grass-fed butter and MCT oil in his coffee. He believes it has neurological benefits.

As Kuasa notes, she was killed by The Fire Totem.

Ray likes runny, poached eggs.

Sara remembers Wally from Barry and Iris' wedding in S308.

Rip Hunter had not heard about the events of Crisis on Earth X.

Damien Darhk does not like The Grateful Dead or jam bands in general.

Alan, Ray's annoying manager from Upwipz in 301, makes an appearance. He confirms that Ray officially quit his job.

The adult Nora Darhk is confirmed to be from 2039, saying that it's been 23 years, from her perspective, since her mother died. (This occurred in Star City - 2016, in A422.)

Damien Darhk kills Alan.

According to Damien Darhk, Cold Fusion was invented by an East German scientist named Bernhard Vogal in 1962. He knows because he was contracted to kill him.

Wally West knows a fair bit about meditation thanks to his travels in China.

Apparently, despite becoming good friends with Nate in 2017 Central City, Wally never found out the name of the woman who broke Nate's heart or saw a picture of her, as he doesn't know Amaya was the "basic bitch" who dumped Nate on his birthday.

Wally refers to the events of 301 and Amaya dumping Nate.

Sara has a picture of Damien Darhk that she uses as a target for knife throwing. She finally destroys the picture as Ava reports her failure to find Ray.

The Ancestral Plane of Zambesi - seen in 303 - has become dark and cold, resembling Mallus' realm with more vegetation. The Ancestral Spirit Amaya spoke with says that the longer an evil person possesses a Totem, the more it is corrupted.

The Ancestral Spirit says that retrieving The Spirit Totem is not enough - Amaya must win Kuasa's help as well. The spirit says that she and Amaya will both need each other shortly.

The Ancestral Spirit explains that the original Totem Bearers worked together to trap a great evil - Mallus.

The Ancestral Plane exists outside of time. As such, Mallus can influence it, since time itself is his prison. His name should not be said in The Ancestral Plane as he can sense it

The more time is broken, the weaker Mallus' prison becomes. This is the reason why Darhk and his allies are creating anachronisms - to free Mallus.

The Damien Darhk of 1962 was unaware that magic existed or had never seen it up close.

Nora is able to activate the Spirit Totem in order to use its power to fly so that she can save her father. This turns the Ancestral Realm completely dark.

Damien Darhk is 257 years old.

The older Damien Darhk kills Bernhard Vogal in order to keep his perfect record.

Ray's use of The ATOM Suit to blast a hole in the Berlin Wall proves to be the straw that broke the camel's back, starting a time quake that begins to crack the fabric of time itself.

Wally steals the pieces of the Fire Totem from Damien Darhk's pocket.

Director Bennett of the Time Bureau is killed by Gorilla Grodd.

Rip is reinstated with The Time Bureau as an agent.

Wally elects to stay with The Legends rather than follow Rip to The Time Bureau.

Before leaving The Waverider, Rip Hunter tells Gideon to delete File 354-Z, saying that Sara cannot find out the truth about Ava Sharpe, whom he describes as "special".

Gideon addresses Rip as "Director Hunter".

Damien remembers that Nora likes hot chocolate with whipped cream and caramel sauce. She hasn't had one since Ray and Zari took her for a drink as a teenager in 310.

The episode ends with Nora screaming and her eyes glowing red, as black cracks begin to form in her skin, mirroring the cracks seen earlier in the time stream.


Location

Upswipz HQ - Silicon Valley - 2018.
East Berlin - East Germany - 1962.


Untelevised Adventures

Nate and Mick go to a Grateful Dead concert in an effort to find Ray. They aren't successful, but Mick does steal Jerry Garcia's sunglasses.


The Bottom Line

A solid episode all around that give Nora Darhk some much needed definition and proves to be a wonderful comic turn while still pushing the plot forward.

Legends of Tomorrow: Season 2, Episode 10 - The Legion Of Doom

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here. 



Plot

The Legends are determined to find and rescue Rip Hunter but first they must find the Spear of Destiny. Professor Stein has some ideas on how to accomplish that but they require bringing in a new teammate - his daughter Lily! Meanwhile, Merlyn and Darhk realize that The Reverse Flash is pitting them against each other and decide to renegotiate their partnership.


Influences

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (three bad men in an uneasy alliance slowly turn on each other) and The Flash comics of Grant Morrison and Mark Millar (presence of The Black Flash)


Goofs

In the opening narration, Darhk says he was removed from the timeline 31 years before his death in 2016. In Episode 205, he left the timeline in 1987, which is 29 years before 2016.

So neither Professor Stein nor his wife told their daughter that he was time-traveling in the adjusted reality?

For that matter, in the new reality, Lily Stein knew nothing about her father's work on his FIRESTORM project or learned of how he became Firestorm during the months he was missing following the Particle Accelerator explosion in Central City?


Performances

John Barrowman, Neal McDonough and Matt Letscher all manage the neat trick of being menacing and funny in equal measure.


Artistry

It's a minor point in the script but I love how Mick Rory is the one to congratulate Professor Stein on the birth of his daughter in Hebrew and nobody bats an eye at the psychopathic arsonist saying "Mazel Tov".

The sword-fight between Darhk and Merlyn is well-executed.

The script overall is a work of art, with lots of witty dialogue that covers up the fact that most of this episode is devoted to explaining away various plot-holes from The Flash regarding the nature of time-travel and the various defenses Time is supposed to use to deal with rogue speedsters.


Trivia Of Tomorrow

The episode title comes from from the Hanna-Barbera cartoon Challenge Of The Superfriends, where the heroic Superfriends fought a villain group called The Legion of Doom.

The episode opens with an entirely new narration - this time given by Damien Darhk.

Instead of the usual icons for The Legends coming together for the Legends of Tomorrow logo, the icons include the Reverse Flash's red lighting bolt inside a circle insignia, a red arrow icon for Merlyn and some sort of mystic symbol for Darhk.

The "monster' which is chasing after Thawne resembles The Black Flash - a being from the comics who is the angel of death for speedsters.


Technobabble

The Longinus Medallion gives off low levels of ionic radiation.

Lily Stein developed an ionic transmographer that fits in her purse. Martin Stein says he never saw one smaller than a house. Lily says she had an idea of how to hyper-miniaturize the technology while on vacation in Tahiti.

A short-wave ionic pulse activates The Longinus Medallion.

Lilly refers to The Waverider as "a temporal navigation vessel".

The Longinus Medallion's information feed mainlines 1.2 zetabytes of data directly into Gideon's brain.

A mnemonic archive is a piece of future technology (invented in the 22nd century that stores a person's memories.

Time wraiths are creatures that hunt down speedsters who alter the timeline and destroy them before they can cause serious, permanent damage.

Lily Stein is working on developing a new series of synthetic proteins.


Dialogue Triumphs

Darhk: (voice-over) My name is Damien Darhk. In 2016, I was murdered by The Green Arrow. But I was removed from the timeline 31 years before my death by a speedster from the future named Eobard Thawne. Together, with Malcolm Merlyn, the former head of The League of Assassins, the three of us are going to locate The Spear of Destiny - a mystical object which can rewrite reality itself. With The Spear in our possession, we will change our past and our future and the world as you know it!

(Merlyn turns off the TV, where he just saw news footage of Green Arrow killing Damien Darhk. He goes to his couch, pours himself a glass of some kind of liquor, sits down and sighs. Suddenly, Damien Darhk and Eboard Thawne run into the room.)
Darhk: This is the great Malcolm Merlyn? I am unimpressed.
Thawne: Well, he's fallen on hard times. But this man used to be Ra's Al Ghul.
(Merlyn just stares at the two men, as if to silently ask what the hell is going on.)
Thawne: Ah - we haven't met. I'm Eobard Thawne. I'm from the future.
(Merlyn slowly rises from the couch, ready to voice the obvious question.)
Merlyn: What the hell is going on here?
Darhk: Excellent question. Here's another. Do you believe in second chances?
Merlyn: I just watched you die.
Darhk: Yeah. I hear 2016's not my best year but I plan on fixing that.
Thawne: Yeah. But the question for you Malcolm is... do you wish to see your fortunes similar reversed?
Merlyn: By time travel?
Thawne: No. No, something MUCH better.
(Merlyn looks to the smiling Darhk and downs his drink.)

(Merlyn claims he can use his hypnosis training to break down the walls in Rip Hunter's mind.)
Thawne: Is this some... technique you picked up with the League of Assassins?
Merlyn: The League didn't call me "The Magician" for nothing.
(Darhk sighs and rolls his eyes as he looks out the window.)
Thawne: Well, be quick about it. Speedsters aren't known for their patience.
(Merlyn glowers at Thawne as he leaves the room.)
Darhk: What's to stop Hunter's crew from finding the rest of the Spear before Merlyn finishes unscrambling Hunter's brain?
Thawne: The workings of the medallion are lost to history. Trying to get it to reveal its secrets will prove difficult. Plus, we have an additional advantage over them.
Darhk: Enlighten me.
Thawne: (shrugs) They're idiots!

Thawne: This is what I get for relying on a washout and a dead guy.

(Merlyn and Darhk are arguing about the best way to go about robbing the Swiss bank.)
Merlyn: Hunter is an asset! One that we can use to gain access to our objective! To not use him is foolish!
Darhk: Oh! Well, in that case I would have to defer to your superior expertise in foolishness. But if your plan goes south, it's not our speedster friend you need to worry about.
Merlyn: One thing I hate more than taking orders from him... is being threatened by you.
(Darhk and Merlyn glare daggers at each other. Merlyn suddenly smiles.)
Merlyn: Luckily, Damien... I don't find you threatening.

Every single "Why are you looking at me when you say that? gag.

Ray: Wait - she wants to try networking the ancient amulet with an advanced AI system? I'm totally helping!

Merlyn: What do you think's going on with him?
Darhk: It's simple. His mind is pudding.
Merlyn: Not Hunter. Thawne. It's strange how he never stays in one place for very long.
Darhk: Perhaps that's why they refer to them as speedsters?
Merlyn: (smirking) What? You think he left us behind in 1967 Los Angeles because he had a more pressing engagement? What about what he said to us earlier?
Darhk: That he wanted to kill one of us?
Merlyn: No! That he didn't know why he was relying on us! I mean, fair question - why does a time-traveling speedster need to rely on anyone? Thawne's hiding something. (grinning) Wouldn't you like to know what it is?
(Darhk chuckles along with Merlyn and then goes cold dead serious.)
Darhk: Thawne said we knew each other back in 2016. Do I really become so stupid that you think these mind tricks will work on me?
Merlyn: I am not trying-
Darhk: In a trio such as ours, turning one against each other for your own benefit is not only obvious but cliche!
Merlyn: Thawne does not treat us as equals to him. And until he does, neither of us is getting what he wants.

(Merlyn and Darhk are struggling, blades at each other's throats.)
Phil: Okay! Stop! Stop! Time out! Time out! Can't you see that this is what your boss wants! For his underlings to be at one another's throats? Like... literally?
Merlyn: He is not our boss!
Darhk: (To Merlyn) Did he just call us underlings?
Phil: Oh, I'm sorry.  Uh...Henchmen.
Darhk: (pointing his sword at Phil) Try again.
Merlyn: Wait, wait, wait... what if he's right?
Darhk: Oh, you actually care what this pudding-brain hippie has to say?!
Phil: It's just like the movie The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. Three bad guys. Nobody knows who to trust so they all end up screwing each other over.
Darhk: (To Merlyn) It's an interesting theory. (To Phil) Which one are we?
Phil: The point is that neither of you are Clint Eastwood and so neither of you end up going home with the gold.
Merlyn: We're not after the gold.
Phil: Yeah, I know, I now. I know what you're after. (To Merlyn) You - you want to change your past. (To Darhk) And you - you want to change your future. And the fast guy is the only one who can make those two things happen.
Merlyn: (To Darhk) I told you! Thawne doesn't treat us as equals. Even the hippie knows it! And he also knows that the only way to stop Thawne from screwing us over is for us to work together.
Darhk: Two former memebers of The League of Assassins versus a speedster?
Merlyn: I am liking those odds.

Jax: (staring at Stein's mug) Is that whiskey?!
Stein: Of course it's not whiskey! It's brandy! What do you take me for - a sailor?

(Merlyn and Darhk have strung their trap on Thawne.)
Thawne: It seems you two have formed an alliance. There's just one problem...
Merlyn: That you're the only one who can give us what we want? Yes. We know.
Darhk: You're always so quick to remind us how much we need you, Eobard.
Merlyn: But clearly you need us.
Darhk: You could have gotten into this vault all by yourself. Why didn't you?
(The alarm on Thawne's wrist starts beeping. He looks down at it, clearly nervous.)
Merlyn: And for that matter, why would a man who can travel through time always be in such a hurry?
Thawne: We don't have time for this!
Darhk: Oh, I've got all the time in the world...


Continuity

It is confirmed that the version of Malcolm Merlyn working with The Legion of Doom was pulled from time from the end of Arrow's fourth season. (i.e. May 2016)

Merlyn is trained in the art of hypnosis.

Sara still refuses to call their enemies The Legion of Doom.

Merlyn is unable to use hypnosis to retrieve Rip Hunter's memories because there's nothing to retrieve.

Darhk finds a barcode engraved on one of Rip Hunter's teeth. It turns out to be account information for a security deposit box in Switzerland. The box was last accessed in January 2025.

The rest of The Legends learn about the existence of Lily Stein.

Lily Stein learns about her status as a Time Aberration, brought about because of Martin Stein's talk with his younger self in 205,

Rip Hunter's security deposit box number is 4587.

The photos of the Speedsters The Legends analyze include Kid Flash, The Rival, Trajectory, Jesse Quick, The Flash and Jay Garrick - The Flash of Earth 3.

The food replicator on The Waverider is capable of simulating anything except for American Cheese. Ray finds this ironic, given that American Cheese is already synthetic.

Stein says the reason he and his wife originally never had children was because he was afraid that he would be as distant and cool as his own father was in raising him.

Nate hits upon the idea that their speedster enemy is the opposite of Lily Stein - someone whose existence was erased due to a time aberration rather than being born as a result of one. This spurs Stein's memory regarding the battle between Team Flash and Eobard Thawne.

Stein relates the events of F123 and how Eobard Thawne was erased from existence thanks to his ancestor, Eddie Thawne, committing suicide. He also explains how The Speed Force acted as a buffer which protected Thawne to a point.

Nate theorizes that the reason Thawne needs Merlyn and Darhk to help him is that Thawne has to keep moving so that reality doesn't catch up with him and erase him from existence.

Thawne later confirms this, making mention of The Time Wraiths (first seen in F217) and how he is being hunted by a being that is similar yet far worse.

The creature hunting Thawne resembles the villain Zoom following his abduction by Time Wraiths in F223 - a zombie-like being in a black Flash costume. The creature tracks speedsters in motion and cannot sense them if they stand perfectly still. The creature also has a physical form, as Thawne is successfully able to push it into a bank vault. (While not confirmed this being greatly resembles The Black Flash from the comics - the angel of death for speedsters.)

The episode ends with Rip Hunter, in 1776, attempting to assassinate George Washington.


Location

Star City - May 2016
Undisclosed Location sometime after 2025. - Eight months after Merlyn left 2016 from his perspective.
Central City - January 2017.
Zurich - January 2025.
New Jersey - December 25, 1776.


The Bottom Line

A fantastic episode which puts our villains in the spotlight and lets them run wild to great effect.

Arrow Episode Guide: Season 4, Episode 20 - Genesis

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.




Plot

As Oliver and Felicity seek a magical means of countering Damien Darhk's powers, John gets a lead on his brother's whereabouts. Meanwhile, Alex takes Thea away on a dream vacation that quickly becomes a nightmare.

Influences

The Bible (referenced in the title, Genesis, references to the Biblical flood that led to the rebuilding of a better world), The Dresden Files novels (the ideas behind light and dark magic presented here, while common to many fictional and real-world magic conventions, match up fairly well to the ideas on magic presented in this series) and numerous science-fiction stories about underground cities being used to survive a cataclysm.


Performances

David Ramsey.  Just... David Ramsey. All through this episode.  Flawless.


Artistry

The fight sequence with John chasing Andy is a great one.

The sound editing on the sequences with Thea is remarkable. The sound-effects that tip Thea off that something is wrong are present from the very first moment and it makes repeated viewing of these scenes all the creepier when you realize the clues were there from the beginning.

The fight scene where John escapes from Andy is great, even by the standards of this show.

The special effects when Oliver is practicing magic with Esrin are movie-level quality.

The entire fifth segment of the show is perfectly executed on ever level. The stunts. The direction. The writing. It all gels perfectly.


Trivia

Felicity and Oliver travel to Hub City. In the DC Comics universe, Hub City is the home town of the superhero The Question.

Esrin Fortuna is an original character unique to the Arrow universe. There was a Mama Fortuna who looked after the street children of Gotham City's East Side (aka Alleytown) in the Batman comics. Her Alleytown Kids became a spy network of sorts for the villain Black Mask and was later utilized for nobler purposes by the second Catwoman, Holly Robinson.

Esrin is an anagram for Siren - a creature from Greek myths, whose singing could lure unwary sailors to their doom.

The Rubicon is the name of a shallow river in north-eastern Italy. In Roman times, it marked the boundary between Gaul and Rome. Julius Ceaser once famously crossed The Rubicon with a single legion, setting into motion the events that would see him made dictator of Rome. Since then, the phrase "crossing the Rubicon" has come to mean passing the point of no return, particularly in regard to a risky action.

The name Rubicon seems fitting for the ARGUS technology that Lyla describes in the end of this episode - a device which is capable of preventing an entire nation from firing their nuclear weapons.


Technobabble

Black magic - such as Darhk's idol - can take a good person and turn them dark, soulless and inhuman, according to Oliver's experience.

A shaman is someone who has influence in the world of good and evil spirits.

Lian Yu is a place of nexus - a central point connecting many other points - as is Star City and Hub City. It is for this reason that Damien Darhk chose to operate in Star City.

Immortals like Esrin Fortuna generally do not get involved in the affairs of men.

Idols do not give a magician power - merely a means of channeling their power.

Darhk's power comes from death. The more people he kills, the more powerful he becomes.

In magic, all things have an opposite. As Darhk draws power from negative energy and fear, so could another person draw power from positive energy and hope to repel his power. Esrin Fortuna refers to this as La Luz Del Alma - "the light of the soul".

If a person whose inner darkness is stronger than their their light tries to draw upon the light of the soul, instead of repelling dark magic it will fuel it and make the dark magic user more powerful.

The tattoo John Constantine gave Oliver Queen in 405 is capable of many things, according to Esrin Fortuna. She does not go into detail in describing these things, but apparently one of them is acting as a totem or idol for Oliver's personal power.

Esrin Fortuna describes magic as a manipulation of primordial energies. Primordial, in this case, also meaning pre-linguistic. This is why her magic lessons are more physical application than rote-driven.

Rubicon was a stored in a subdermal implant under Lyla Michael's skin. It was a ballistic launch override protocol, designed to prevent any country from firing a nuclear missile. With some work and the right expertise, Rubicon could be corrupted and used to trigger a nuclear missile launch rather than preventing it. This could, potentially, given Damien Darhk control over the entire world's nuclear arsenal and the ability to trigger an extinction-level event by setting them all off at once.


Dialogue Triumphs

Darhk: What happened to Ian and Judy? They come down with that nasty little flu that's been going around?
Armitage: Some were wary of this meeting, given that -
Darhk: - you all abandoned me to my imprisonment?
Merlyn: Well, I visited! Somebody should teach THIS evil organization a lesson in helping their fellow man.
Darhk: I'm sure it's all just a simple misunderstanding. After all, why would I rely solely on the word of Malcolm Merlyn? He can be so... underhanded.
Merlyn: Cute.

Darkh: I had a lot of time to reflect while I was in prison. Mostly about religion and bundt cake.

(John is chasing Andy into a dark alley, trading shots, when his phone rings.)
John: Hey, honey! It's a little tough for me to talk right now!
Lyla: You'll want to hear this. Satellite track just picked up Andy.
John: Let me guess - he's somewhere south of Main, between Grammercy and Addison, right?
Lyla: ... how do you know that?
John: Because I'm trading shots with him right now!

(John handcuffs Andy to a column, takes his gun and draws it on him.)
Andy: Do it. Do it for Laurel.
(John stares at Andy and slowly lowers the gun)
Andy: She'd be so disappointed in you.
John: The only reason why you're still breathing is because one of us is still human.

(As Oliver fights dream images of Malcolm Merlyn, Deathstroke and Damien Darhk)
Esrin Fortuna: The darkness and light are within you. In truth, you are only fighting yourself. The friends you've failed. The people you've killed. They have no place in this. Don't give in. Cast aside your doubt. Resist your darkness.

Felicity: We'll find someone else to teach you magic. Someone with more patience and less smelly incense.
Oliver: She was right, you know. It's not about the magic. It's about me.
Felicity: If she didn't see anything worthy inside you, she never would have dealt with us.
Oliver: She didn't deal with us. She dealt with you. She didn't reveal herself until you offered her your chips. And that has always been the way with us, Felicity. You are the one who brings the light. You know, I told you that I've seen magic that's turned good people dark but all Fortuna did was show me who I really am.
Felicity: Don't do this. Every time you face a setback, you throw yourself a pity party.
Oliver: It's not a pity party. It's acceptance. You said it yourself. No matter what I do, I'm always gonna revert back to the person I became on the island.
Felicity: Yeah, when I said that I was hurt. I was going through one of the most painful experiences of my life. No, Oliver. You are not perfect. None of us are. The good news is that all of us can change.

(After being chased by two HIVE agents on his motorcycle for some distance, John pulls over and draws his gun as the two agents stop. He looks at them and they look at him, not seeing the van that suddenly guns down the alley and hits them both. Felicity hops out of the van.)
Felicity: Oh, it's been a while since I've hit anyone with this thing!

Darhk: You seem like a likable guy, Oliver. I bet you've got a lot of friends. I'm gonna enjoy killing every last one of them.

(John draws his gun on Andy.)
Andy: It isn't over.
John: You haven't been paying attention, Andy!
Andy: Darhk got out. I got out. I'll get out again. That mobile safe house you got looked really homey. Bet it gets cramped when Sara gets older.
John: (lowering his gun) Shut up!
Andy: She's got to go to school eventually. And Lyla, well, you can't watch her 24/7.
John: (grabbing Andy by the shirt) I said shut your mouth, Andy! Shut your damn mouth!
Andy:You're the one who's obviously not paying attention. Because this is war.
John: And women, children - they're expendable in your war?!
Andy: Genesis is coming, John! Lyla and Sara won't be the only women and children who die. (pauses) Tell me - how's it feel knowing that you have no problem pulling the trigger to protect a bunch of Afghanis that you never knew but you don't have the guts to do what's necessary to protect your wife and child?
(John raises his gun and shoots reflexively. The look on his face stunned as he looks at his brother as he drops to the ground dead.)

Felicity: You okay?
Oliver; Earlier with Darhk, it worked. He tried to use his magic on me and I was able to repel it.
Felicity: That's incredible! How did you do it?
Oliver: I heard your voice in my head. And you were reminding me of all the good things that I have in my life. I heard Thea. I heard John. I heard Laurel. Just telling me to keep fighting. To never give up. Just telling me to have hope.


Continuity

Milo Armitage and Phaedra Nixon are both killed by Damien Darhk.

Thea mentions Lonnie Machin - last seen in 410 - when discussing about who might be killing HIVE's leadership.

Oliver says he made contact with John Constantine - whom we were told was literally in Hell in 415 - and it was he who referred him to Esrin Fortuna.

Lyla and Sara have been hiding out in a mobile ARGUS base, hidden inside a heavily armored 18-wheeler.

Oliver has been living in the deepest parts of The Bunker since breaking up with Felicity.

Felicity makes reference to the fern that she got Oliver to decorate the original Arrow Cave.

Constantine's directions send Oliver and Felicity to Hub City, where Roy Harper had reportedly made a new life for himself in 412.  It is also where Ray Palmer and Kendra Saunders lived together for two years in the 1950's in L109.

As first revealed in 121, Felicity is a master gambler.

Esrin Fortuna describes herself as an immortal shaman. John Constantine owes her money.

The images Oliver sees as he is attacked by visions of his own darkness include the death of Tommy Merlyn (123), the death of Moira Queen (220), his near-death at the hands of Ra's Al Ghul (309), his near-death at the hands of Baron Reiter's magic (417), the death of Laurel (419), Robert Queen's suicide (101) and (apparently) the death of Taiana before he finally sees Felicity returning his engagement ring (415).

Esrin Fortuna declares that Oliver's darkness is greater than the light and that there is nothing she can teach him.

The looping sound that Thea notices in the background of wherever she and Alex are is three bird chirps, a bark, and then four chirps.

Alex has been taking the pills HIVE gives their soldiers to make them fanatically loyal, told by Mayor Adams that they were vitamins.

Thea has no memory of how she got to wherever Alex took her., She concludes this is because she was drugged.

Ollie refers to Felicity's speech in 416 about how he will always revert back to the person he was on the island.

As in 221 when John was nearly killed by Isabel Rochev, Felicity hits someone (i.e. two HIVE agents) with a van in order to save John.

Oliver is able to resist the effects of Darhk's death-touch. He says later he was able to do this by focusing on Felicity, John, Thea and Laurel saying positive things.

John kills Andy. He lies about the circumstances to Lyla later, making it sound like Andy had gone for a weapon when John shot him.

Darhk steals the codes to Rubicon - last mentioned in 411. They were kept in a sub-dermal implant under Lyla Michael's skin.

As the episode ends, Thea is trapped in HIVE's "ark" - a town hidden in an underground dome beneath Star City.


Location

Hub City


The Fridge Factor

Thea is reduced to being the damsel in distress in need of rescue. To her credit, she does figure out something is up with her vacation destination within a day of arrival.

Averted with Lyla, who does a damn fine job of defending herself against Darhk's men.


The Bottom Line

Another solid episode. The season continues to improve with every passing episode as we enter the climax. There's not a single wasted scene or subplot and David Ramsey gives perhaps his finest performance yet.

Arrow Episode Guide: Season 4, Episode 7 - Brotherhood

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.




Plot

Still reeling from the revelation that his brother was secretly a warlord and drug-runner in Afghanistan, John Diggle is even more stunned to learn that his brother's death may have been faked and that Andy Diggle has become a HIVE Agent! At the same time, Damien Darhk tries to win over Oliver Queen into accepting his help. And Malcolm Merlyn shows up in town, offering to help Thea find suitable targets for her rage..


Influences

The John Woo film Hard Boiled (The Thea/Andy fight was cited as a direct inspiration by director James Bamford), The New Teen Titans comics of Marv Wolfman and George Perez (HIVE, Thea's striving to conquer her emotions mirror Raven's battle to do the same), the Green Arrow comics of Elliot S! Maggin (Oliver Queen running for mayor) and Green Arrow: Year One (the Lian Yu sequences).


Goofs

Again, Team Arrow's stance on non-lethal force is rather unclear with Thea being allowed to carry a sword into the field and Ollie seemingly shooting people dead even before John throws an explosive arrow into someone's chest before blowing up three HIVE ghosts.

Also, John throws an exploding arrow into someone's chest?!


Performances

David Ramsey doesn't get the center stage often on Arrow. But when he does, as he does here, it is always a special episode. The interplay between Ramsey and Stephen Amell has been a high point of Season 4 so far but it comes to a peak here.

On that note, Stephen Amell nails it when he delivers a speech that is basically the greatest summation of Oliver Queen as a character in any media - where Oliver explains that he needs to believe in the idea of redemption and that anyone, no matter how far they go into the darkness, can always find the light. This is a lesson that all the great Green Arrow writers have understood.

Like David Ramsey, Willa Holland doesn't get much chance to shine on the show and even her subplot here - which has her spazing out in front of her new love interest - seems to get the short end of the stick compared to the other on-going storylines. This is a shame because Holland herself has never been stronger as Thea than she is here, standing up to Merlyn and insisting that she will not remain a killer or kowtow to him.

Again, Neal McDonough steals every scene he is in as Damien Darhk.


Artistry

The script for this episode is a work of wonder. Virtually every member of the cast is given at least one moment to shine (even Laurel!) and there are a lot of grand speeches that shouldn't work in live action but do thanks to the sterling cast.

On that note, the direction - by show fight choreographer James Bamford - is amazing. The fight scenes have never looked better and even standard moments (such as the usual entrance of the villains on motorcycles) are made more vibrant by adding in jumps.  And the fight in which Thea takes on Andy Diggle - while borrowing a fair bit from the new Daredevil show - has enough innovations that it doesn't seem like a total rip-off.


Trivia

Wolfman Biologics - the company that holds that patent on Lastrapium Trioxide - is a reference to Marv Wolfman - the writer who co-created H.I.V.E. with George Perez during their now legendary run on New Teen Titans.

Another mention of the number 52 - Quentin spots a note that Darhk has some kind of business occurring at Starling Dock at Slip 52.

The name of the woman that Oliver saved in the flashback is confirmed in this episode as Taiana. This is the same name as the woman who helped Oliver during his first adventure as The Green Arrow in Green Arrow: Year One.


Technobabble

Ray determines that the genetic code of the HIVE agent Team Arrow took the tooth from had been selective degraded. He thinks it was done with a synthetic compound, like a chemical CRISPR/Cas9.
Specifically, it is Lastrapium Trioxide, which is a yellow liquid.

Ray is able to trace Darhk's base through the tooth, after detecting higher than normal levels of sodium fluoride in the polymer the tooth was made from.

Curtis develops a new body camera with infrared lenses that allow Felicity to see through the masks of HIVE's ghosts and identify them.


Dialogue Triumphs

(Oliver looks over the file John got from Lance about Andy Diggle)
Ollie: Where did you get this?
John: I got that from Lance. Who got it from Damien Darhk.
Ollie: John... this...
John: Pretty definitive evidence. That HIVE had Andy killed because his criminal operations conflicted with theirs.
Ollie: That doesn't track at all with what you've told me about Andy.
John: Oliver, that doesn't track with what I knew about Andy!
Ollie: But...
John: I guess I never knew him at all...
Ollie: There's got to be some explanation.  Maybe he was undercover?
John: Hey, man, listen - it's all right there.The facts are the facts.
Ollie: All I'm saying - Andy was your brother and he deserves the benefit of the doubt. Trust me. Things aren't always what they seem.

Alex: I think your brother's onto us.
Thea: No. No, and even if he was, it's not like he's the boss of me.
Alex: No. He's the boss of ME.
Thea: I know.
Alex: I'm just glad your brother's not a killer.

Oliver: What are you going to do to him?
Baron Reiter: Nothing. I believe the wrong should make things right.

(In response to the news Andy Diggle isn't dead, in the understatement of the year)
Felicity: Well, even death's not permanent anymore. 

Damien Darhk: Trust is an orchid-- beautiful but delicate. Requiring ideal conditions in order to thrive. Without those conditions, it dies. Tread carefully, Quentin. Believe it or not, the death of your daughter is not the most terrible thing that I can threaten you with.

Felicity: (To Oliver) Well, this is actually a better way than how you usually spend your evenings-- dressing in leather and tying people up.
(An older woman looks at them strangely and walks away very quickly.)

John: When I had to look... my nephew in the eye and tell him that... He was never going to see his daddy again... (Chokes up) The months after Andy died were the darkest times of my life. I would have given anything, anything to get Andy back. I would have sacrificed my life to have him back with his wife and his son. (pauses) I would have traded my life for a stranger.

Ollie: How you holding up?
John:  Ah, I guess as good as can be expected, right? Nothing really to compare this to. At least not this week.

Ollie:  I'm asking you to hold out hope for Andy because I need that hope. I need to believe that no matter what happens in our lives, no matter how much darkness infects us, I need to believe that we can come back from that!
John: And it was exactly that thinking that led you to the League last year. Doesn't seem like you learned much from that.
Ollie: Felicity told you?
John: Getting in bed with Darhk, Oliver? I don't see how you can even consider it.
Ollie: We are going to take this guy down and no idea is off the table.
John: I thought you're doing things differently, Oliver? Fighting Darhk from the inside is just fighting Darhk in the shadows. You want to do things differently? You want ideas? Fine. Let's take this son of a bitch down in the light of day.

Ray: I've been catching up on the past six months. My company, my city, my life. And I feel like Tom Sawyer watching his own funeral. Except in my case, nobody really cares.
Felicity: That is not true, Ray.
Ray: Renaming Starling Star City is nice, but then take a look to what's happened to the place. And my company - this thing I've built that was supposed to outlast me, is now on life support.
Felicity: Because it needs you.
Ray: To do what? The same thing I was doing before I died? Obviously that didn't amount to anything.
Felicity: Oh, self-pity is not a good look on you.
Ray: Ah, I don't think it's self-pity. I think it's self-reflection. If I'm going to come back to life, I have to figure out what it is that I'm living for.

(As John shoots someone who was about to kill him)
Ollie: It's, uh, nice of you to show up.
John: My brother needed me. (beat) The green one.

Ollie: Thank you all for coming. My, uh, my campaign advisor doesn't think that saving the Bay is the right fight given the state the city is in. But I'd like everyone to know that I'm not blind to Star City's problems. And I wouldn't be here today if I wasn't confident that this program could help solve them. And the reason I chose the Bay is because it's in the center of the city. It's out in the open. For everyone to see. The fight to save Star City isn't going to be fought in the shadows. It's going to be fought in the light of day. And I promise you, all of you, that I will never stop fighting to save this city!


Continuity

Felicity refers to the tooth they took off the HIVE agent in 403. She and Curtis spent a month analyzing it.

John shows Oliver the file on his brother that he got from Lance in 405.

Vlad - the man Oliver killed in the flashback in 406 - was the brother of the woman whose life he saved in 404.

Thea made a D Minus in Civics.

Felicity refers to a ghost who could have killed John but didn't during a fight at a lumberyard a month earlier. This occurred in 403.

Baron Reiter has some form of magical lie-detector that looks like a bunch of twigs.

Damien Darhk refers to Jessica Danforth's short-lived run for mayor back in 402.

Felicity lists off Oliver's worst ideas from the past three years including fight dueling Ra's Al Ghul (309), infiltrating The League of Assassins (320) and dating The Huntress (108).

John refers to The Flash and The Lazarus Pit healing Thea (320) when listing off unlikely things that caused him to think about his brother coming back from the dead.

Darhk has some kind of drug - a yellow pill - that insures the obedience of his men.

The woman Oliver saved in the flashback is named Taiana. He tells her that her brother is dead but not that he did it.

HIVE is moving military crates labeled G6:5.

Darhk has some ability to teleport short distances that he uses to cut off Thea's escape.

Darhk's "death touch" ability does not work on Thea for some reason and is, in fact, turned against him.  This likely has something to do with Thea having been revived by The Lazarus Pit. Thea shares this knowledge with Merlyn.

Andy Diggle confirms that everything in the folder John has is true.

Oliver steals a map from Baron Reiter that he thinks leads to his objective.


The Bottom Line

Easily the best episode of Season 4 so far.  Everything is perfectly balanced. From the fantastic script which gives every character at least one good moment  to the direction of the fight scenes and all the nuanced performances. Wonderful. Just wonderful.