Arrow Season 4 Finale Schism recap starts now!

Spoilers ahead!

Damien Darhk has just arrived at Felicity’s and he not playing around. Curtis is the first to be thrown across the room, and Donna is the next to meet Darhk. He grabs her by the throat and starts to drain her life force, unless Felicity agrees to help him get Rubicon back online. They’re interrupted by the arrival of Oliver as Green Arrow who is still shooting useless arrows at Darhk. Darhk calls in his Ghosts and they start to shoot up the apartment. Thea arrives before anyone dies and she has Darhk’s daughter Nora as her hostage. He agrees to let them live, and Thea hands Nora over.

Curtis is unconscious with blood pouring from his nostrils, it doesn’t look good. Felicity discovers something worse for everyone, her laptop is gone. Darhk can now regain control of Rubicon himself. They rush Curtis back to the bunker and get to work on stopping his internal bleeding. It’s touch or go for Curtis right now.

Felicity questions Oliver about why he wasn’t able to counteract Darhk’s power like last time. Oliver tells her that the amount of death energy Darhk has absorbed lately is much greater than the hope he has left inside of himself. Felicity gets a hit on her laptop, it’s in an abandoned office downtown.

Surprise, surprise it’s a trap, there’s no one there. The office suddenly powers up, and they’re at Genesis headquarters. The screens start to display a tally of missiles just launched by Rubicon, 15434 missiles are in the air. The closest to them has just been launched from Colorado, and it’s coming directly for Star City.

Quentin Lance arrives at Arrow bunker, and Felicity tells him what’s happening and gives him a safe-ish place to take her mother Donna. John and Lyla call their daughter who is safe in an ARGUS bunker in Coast City. There’s a chopper on standby to take them all there, if they aren’t able to stop the missiles in time.

Oliver confronts Lyla about having her soldiers head to City Hall, they’re walking straight to their deaths at the hands of Darhk. She is hoping that Cooper Seldon, his hacker, will be there and they can take him out and get back control. Oliver tells her they will all die, but she replies that it’s her call.

In Darhk’s magical cave, he and Nora are just hanging out waiting for the end of the world. Until the ARGUS troops arrive and he takes great pleasure in wiping them all out. The crew listens over the radio and Lyla walks away shocked. Felicity manages to break through Cooper’s firewalls, but it’s a distraction. Darhk’s Ghosts have arrived at the bunker.

A five minute shoot out ensues, but basically everyone makes it through alive. Malcolm even joins in at some point and saves Thea, unofficially rejoining Team Arrow. The Arrow bunker is trashed again though.

Oliver is having second thoughts again about coming back to Star City. He and Felicity should have stayed away, if they had Laurel might still be alive. And a lot of this chaos might have been avoided. Pretty sure Damien Darhk would have still blown the world to kingdom come though.

Curtis is awake and up, and has overheard Oliver and Felicity’s conversation. He’s here to provide a little optimism. He knows they are running out of time to get the city back. Star City is a not an easy place to live, and it takes a special kind of crazy person to stay through everything the city has been hit with. The Green Arrow inspired a lot of people to stay, gave them hope that Star City could survive the craziness. He gave them hope, and that is what Star City needs right now.

There is rioting on the streets of Star City, and Oliver has taken Curtis’s advice to heart. He jumps up on the roof of the nearest car and begins his inspirational speech. He lists everything they have survived, and somehow they will survive this. News stations start picking up the speech and people across the city start to listen.

Something else appears on the screen, the missile is now visible and heading straight for the city. Curtis suddenly tells them that this is a good thing, now they can see the missile, they may be able to do something to stop it. A line of sight attack. They head to the rooftop and point their fancy receiver at the missile. It locks on and they manage to divert the missile. One down, 15433 to go.

They have also managed to hack the missile and clone its hard drive. They now have a location for where Cooper Seldon is working from. Felicity and Curtis will go there, with Malcolm and Thea as backup. Oliver is heading for City Hall to try and get Darhk one more time. There’s no way Diggle is letting him go alone, but Oliver insists he stay behind. The city will need him for direction if things go bad for Oliver.

Oliver arrives at City Hall, and Darhk is curious to know what a man has to do to end the world in peace? He blasts him out of the cave, right out in to the streets of Star City. Oliver is getting thrown around all over the place, there is not a news stand or flower shop safe from Oliver’s flying limbs. People start to gather to watch, and they’re on Oliver’s side. They start demanding that Darhk leave the city, he’s not wanted here. Darhk laughs them off and knocks them all down with a roar.

He starts to lecture them about their behaviour, this is precisely why he came up with his plan. The world needs to be cleansed, and he WILL do it. Oliver gets to his feet and tells him that he most definitely WILL NOT. It’s not just him fighting Darhk anymore, it’s everyone in Star City. The crowd starts to get up and Oliver shoots an arrow at Darhk. It grazes him, and draws blood! The hope that the people of Star City are generating is starting to take effect! Oliver’s eyes turn gold and he repels Darhk’s magic.

Darhk tells him he doesn’t even need magic, he’s a former member of the League of Assassins after all. He and Oliver square off again, and honestly Neal McDonough participating in an MMA fight is all kinds of hilarious!

Felicity and her crew make it to Cooper’s workstation, where he’s still in control of the missiles. Darhk has shot him, and the bullet is very slowly inching it’s way towards Cooper’s spine. If he stops his hacking, Darhk lets the bullet go. Felicity asks the others to leave, and talks to him as the guy she used to know and love. Their hacking used to be all about saving the world, there’s no reason that has to change now. Cooper likes the idea of getting back to how he used to be, and stops Rubicon.

Mid fight, Darhk senses that Cooper has stopped and lets the bullet go. Cooper drops to the ground screaming in pain, and Felicity tells him that she’s sorry. She gets to work stopping Rubicon for good. Thea, Malcolm and Curtis come back in and Felicity is frantic trying to stop all the missiles. Curtis has another genius idea, if they invert the horizon, the missiles will explode in space! Easy!

Oliver and Darhk are still fighting, and the crowd is totally on Oliver’s side. Darhk takes Ollie down and his arrows scatter across the road. He gets to his feet, and Lyla and Diggle arrive as backup. But Darhk has friends too, as his Ghosts emerge behind him. Team Darhk and Team Arrow plus the citizens of Star City run at each other.

Darhk has Ollie in his sights, and has his bow. He shoots him through the chest, fortunately hitting his armour but taking him down. Quentin Lance arrives and pulls Oliver back up, no way he was deserting his city when it needs him most. Lyla and Diggle are set on the Ghosts, Quentin is to keep people safe, and Oliver is going for Darhk. One more time.

Darhk and Oliver trade punches again, and this time Oliver proves too strong. He grabs an arrow, and hauls Darhk to his feet. Darhk taunts him, telling him that they both know he can’t do it. But every other time Oliver has let someone live he had a choice. Darhk killed Laurel, and tens of thousands of others. This time there is no choice make. Night night Darhk, may your name never cross my keyboard again.

At the bunker, Team Arrow has a debrief. And a lot of goodbyes. Quentin Lance has been cleared of all his misconduct charges and reinstated, but the desire to be a cop has left him. He and Donna are going to go away and live normal lives for a while. He thanks Oliver for getting him some closure on Laurel’s death, he’ll never forget it.

Thea is also making tracks, she’s been through a lot since she was brought back to life in the Lazarus Pit. She needs a chance to work out who she really is now. Her and Ollie hug it out, and she’s gone.

Looks like it the OG Team Arrow left. But even Diggle wants out. He’s lost his way lately, and he’s still not doing well after having to take down his brother. He needs to take some time away from the team and the city. Oliver has never done this without him but understands the need to get away.

Oliver goes to Laurel’s grave, and asks her to forgive him for killing Darhk (argh, I typed it again!). He knows she would have wanted him to find another way. Felicity walks up and asks if he is okay, and he replies that he’s not really. He’s upset about Thea and John leaving, worried that they are struggling with their own personal darkness. Felicity tells him that maybe he was right about not being able to be a hero for the city without embracing his darkness. What Oliver is feeling is a schism, he’s at war with two sides of himself.

Oliver gets a call from the chair of the City Council. They’re impressed with his speech and want to talk to him. They want to appoint Oliver as interim Mayor until an election can be held later in the year. An election that he is more than likely to win. Oliver is stoked, and is sworn in. He may have found a way to use his conflicting sides. In two roles.

In the final scenes of the season we see John Diggle in his dress uniform, saying goodbye to Lyla and baby Sara. He’s heading back to the Army to find his way again.

Oliver is surveying the damage in the Arrow bunker, dressed to the nines in his Mayoral suit. He’s not alone, Felicity isn’t going anywhere. Team Arrow lives on.

And we’re out for Season Four! That was a loooong season, but made bearable by a great villain in Damien Darhk. Even if I do hate typing his name. Still nowhere near as bad as typing Felicity though, and it looks like I’ll be doing that for a while. See you later in the year for Season Five!