Tuesday 24 November 2015

Arrow 'Brotherhood' Review


Things took an interesting turn on this weeks episode of Arrow as Diggle and the rest of the team discovered that Andy Diggle, believed killed by HIVE years ago, is in fact alive and a member of the Ghosts.

This episode was a vast improvement over last weeks, with more being added to the overall story arc of the series and the mythology.  We were given a deeper insight into the way that HIVE operates, raising the possibility that not all of the Ghosts are willing participants, but under the control of Damian Darhk.  This opens up some options in the story of the season, who else could be under their control?  Will Team Arrow find a way of breaking that control and deprive Darhk of his army?  Will one of our heroes fall under HIVE control?

The decision to free Andy from HIVE control may have seemed like a fairly sensible and obvious one, but somehow Diggle's reluctance to do so seemed somewhat forced.  Yes, he explains in great detail how the death of his brother effected him, and it was handled well enough to be believable, but I just felt that his reluctance was a little unusual.  Perhaps it's because he's discovering that his brother wasn't the good man he thought he was that has shaken his faith in his brother and makes him question just who he's going to be getting back.


Elsewhere Ollie's campaign to be mayor of Star City stepped up a notch as he comes face to face with Damian Darhk, who thankfully at this point does not seem to know that Ollie and Green Arrow are the same person.  Darhk offers Ollie the opportunity to work with him, prompting Ollie to consider agreeing to the partnership with him in order to infiltrate HIVE.

Whilst this might appear to be a good plan, the rest of Team Arrow are firmly against it, being quick to point out how he did the same last year with Ra's al Ghul and the League of Assassins, and whilst in the end they won, it was an incredibly damaging experience.  Diggle has only just begun to trust Ollie again, Thea is suffering the after effects of almost dieing and all of that stems from having 'joined' the villain.


Thankfully Ollie sees that the best solution is to 'fight in the light' and rejects Darhk's offer, which will probably come around to bite Ollie as Darhk is clearly not a man that handles rejection very well.

On the topic of Darhk, it looks like the team may have something that can finally do some damage to him.  Darhk confronts Thea and attempts to do his life sucker magic on her, only to have it come around and hurt him instead.  We knew that magic would be a big part of this season, and it looks like they're going to be taking some time to explore the mystical elements that have already been sown into the series such as the Lazarus Pit.

The episode gives everyone a time to shine, including Ray Palmer who is sticking around for a little longer, and builds the show mythology and sets up for more interesting stories yet to come.

Amy.
xx

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