Here we go! Mid season premiere of Arrow Season 4!

We left our hero Oliver Queen cradling his lady love Felicity at the side of the road, after being ambushed and shot by Damien Darhk’s crew. Olicity had just left a rally for Oliver’s campaign for Mayor, where he had finally proposed to Felicity.  The feels!  How can you leave us like that Arrow?

This is Damien Darhk by the way.  Creepy eyed looking mother flipper Neal McDonough from Desperate Housewives, Suits and Justified. He’s the leader of H.I.V.E, former member of the League of Assassins and some kind of sorcerer.  Not someone you want to be on the bad side of, really. He has big plans for Oliver Queen aka Green Arrow, and Starling City itself.  What’s with the giant corn fields growing under the city, Damien? Let’s find out if Felicity makes it and it’s not her in that grave we’ve been teased with.

We begin with Felecity being rushed into hospital and into surgery with Oliver looking on in shock.  We cut to the goddamn grave again, 4 months later, to see Oliver vow his revenge, so it is Felicity? And now back to Oliver as the Green Arrow going after the Ghosts in search of Damien Darhk.  The Ghosts are not willing to cooperate and those who don’t die at Oliver’s hands, quickly take their own lives, electricity seems to be the method of the day.

We discover Felicity in hospital being prepped for another surgery to repair nerve damage around her spinal cord. Oliver is so intent on his revenge on Damien Darhk, that he avoids Felicity, adamant that this is what Felicity wants, and is the only one not present at her beside pre-surgery. Felicity is her usual chipper self, albeit pale and looking like death warmed up and reassures everyone that she has all the support she needs.  She has the quote of the night in fact, “I have never been more ready to have a bunch of guys poking around inside me”, LOL. “Doctors, doctors I mean!”. Where is Ray Palmer and his nanobots when you need them?

Oliver requests that the team leave no stone unturned in the search for Darhk, and is prepared to do anything.  If this means the loss of the humanity that he has recently regained, then so be it. Oliver requests that Diggle speak to his brother Andy again, as a member of H.I.V.E and one of Darhk’s Ghosts. Diggle has had enough of Andy’s refusal to help, and goes in fists first, perhaps with a side of revenge for what has happened to Felicity.

As a last resort, Oliver approaches Detective Lance who is being blackmailed into working with Darhk. Darhk is so far unaware the Oliver and Lance are also colluding, and Oliver asks him to give up their meeting place which will probably blow his cover.  After Oliver reassuring him that Laurel can look after herself, and that he can stay in the Arrow cave/lair/bunker, he agrees and gives over an office address downtown.

Oliver squidges himself into the Green Arrow suit and heads on over alone.  He finds the office empty, apart from the dead Ghosts all over the floor, and the symbol of Anarky painted in blood on the wall. Anarky is Lonnie Machin, a one time enforcer for H.I.V.E., was badly burned in a fight with the Green Arrow and Speedy.  He escaped while on route to hospital, killing two paramedics and leaving behind his Anarky symbol.  It appears he has come back to wreak revenge on Damien Darhk for cutting him loose.  But what does this mean for Thea? Will he want revenge on her too?

Team Arrows heads to Anarky’s old family home, in hopes of tracking him down and getting him to lead them to Darhk, as he is apparently a step ahead of them already. On arrival, they find Anarky waiting for Darhk and his Ghosts, and he is pleasantly surprised to find it is only Team Arrow. He activates motion sensor guns and escapes. Thea takes chase, and he attempts to bring out her bloodlust, that he had witnessed in their previous fight. Thea has managed tame this for the time being, after finding Darhk sapped this power from her when they fought. She holds on, and Laurel appears with her ridiculous Canary Cry, which subdues Anarky and Oliver and Diggle quickly disarm him. I love Thea’s face in this GIF, I’m feeling ya Thea.

Oliver holds his as a hostage and threatens him with violence to get him to disclose Darhk’s whereabouts. Anarky holds out, and just as Oliver is about to fire at him, Thea enters and informs him that Felicity is out of surgery, but the news is not good. Thea tells him he needs to go, that he and Felicity need each other right now. He leaves, and Anarky once again tries to engage Thea. She gets close to killing him, but the arrival of the police distracts her and she does the bolt, leaving him to be captured.

Oliver arrives at the hospital and sees Felicity’s mom Donna waiting in the corridor. She angrily asks where he has been? The surgery has not been a success and the doctor’s now think her nerve damage is irreversible and that she will never walk again. Oliver insists that they get another doctor, and Donna tells him that this is the second doctor. Oliver has been so busy trying to get to Darhk that he seems to not be up to speed with Felicity’s treatment. Felicity is still in recovery, so when Oliver sees a news report about Anarky being apprehended he leaves without seeing her and goes after him again.

Back in the suit, seriously that thing must be mega greased up, he stops the police wagon and blows out the back doors with one of those nifty exploding arrows. Anarky thinks Arrow is there to kill him and is super surprised when he shoots through his cuffs and sets him free. He gives him the message to make sure he kills Damien Darhk this time and lets him escape.

Meanwhile, after some advice from his wife Lyla, Diggle approaches Andy, this time as a brother instead of as a Ghost. He apologises for beating on him earlier and reminds him of the good times they used to have as brothers. Andy finally comes around and tells Diggle that Darhk used to talk about starting the world over, and mentioned going home to Stonehaven.

In the Arrow bunker, the others are appalled that Oliver has set him free, but when he reveals that he has placed a tracker on him in hopes of following to Darhk, they come around. Diggle warns Oliver that he is danger of losing his humanity, the thing that made Felicity fall in love with him. That and the muscles, sure. Things are looking good, until they lose the tracker, and Anarky. So now we have no Darhk and a certified nutter on the loose. Awesome!

Oliver takes Diggle’s advice and takes a break to go and visit Felicity. She’s happy to see him and understands why he has been absent. She worries he has started crossing lines again but he assures her he is still the same Oliver. She expresses her doubts about their wedding and engagement now she can’t walk, and Oliver produces her engagement ring, that was taken off when she was first brought in to hospital. For better or worse, he tells her as he puts the ring back on her finger. Nawww.

Laurel arrives at the hospital and tells Oliver that the lead Diggle got from Andy, may come to something after tracking the last place Anarky’s tracker was working. They follow the signal to a mansion and find Anarky holding Darhk’s wife and daughter hostage and threatening them with a flamethrower. Diggle and Laurel set them free while Oliver and Thea give chase to Anarky. They split up and Oliver turns to see Darhk approaching the house, having been called by Anarky. Darhk uses his powers to take Oliver’s arrows from his quiver and turn them back on him. Oliver tells him that he saved his family and Darhk graciously gives Oliver and his family a few extra weeks alive, before he ends them. Thea and Anarky scrap again, and this time he knocks Thea down and escapes.

We finish up with Diggle and Andy reconnecting over a game of cards, Thea meeting up with her on/off boyfriend Alex finally feeling as though she is strong enough for a relationship, and Oliver back at the hospital with Felicity. She assures Oliver that he is doing the right thing and that Damien Darhk needs to be stopped so they can get on with their lives. We also see Darhk and his family, safe in the back of a limo. He assures Evil Wife that his plan is still progressing and their Genesis plan will come to fruition. As soon as he ends the world as we know it.

Once again back the grave, we see what happens after Oliver leaves and gets into the back of a waiting limo. He takes a seat next to Felicity (Phew! It’s not her!) and she vows that they will have their revenge and that Darhk needs to die. Is it her mom, Donna maybe? It’s someone close to both of them, so I say either Diggle or Donna. Either way, I have a feeling we have a few episodes to get through before we learn the truth.

Here’s a promo of next week’s episode

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENCBHcxf1VQ