The Arrow season 4 finale, “Schism,” saw Team Arrow working to stop Damien Darhk from burning the world to the ground.
Ding dong the Darhk is dead. Oliver was successfully able to counter Darhk’s magic by inspiring Star City and returning their hope to them, which in turn inspired Oliver, thus allowing him to channel light magic counter to Darhk’s dark magic. This lead to a hand-to-hand battle, as the writers remembered that Darhk was nearly the next Ra’s al Ghul (unlike the last time he lost his magic and was taken down quite easily). As citizens battled Ghosts in the streets, Oliver fought then stabbed Darhk with an arrow, killing him, thus getting justice for Laurel’s death.
I have nothing but glowing (like his magic yellow eyes) things to say about Neal McDonough’s performance as Damien Darhk this season. He brought charisma and gravitas to the role that elevated material that could have fallen flat for lesser actors. The writing for the character, on the other hand, left me a bit hollow — a symptom of the larger issue with season 4, which I wrote about here.
One of the major issues with the final span of episodes was the attempt to make Arrow a story about global terrorism issues by launching nuclear weapons. There’s little to no follow up from the federal government on that front, which rings false since Russia launching a nuclear weapon (even if it wasn’t them) seems like the impetus for World War III. Arrow is much better when its stakes remain on the personal level, on the streets of Star City. It tried to do this by focusing on the effects of a bomb coming toward Star City but tried to contrast that with there being 15,000 more bombs in the air, which made for some serious whiplash.
But never fear, Felicity and Curtis — the team of pure nerdy joy — are able to stop the bomb coming to Star City. And after Felicity tracked down and confronted her ex, Cooper, and essentially convinced him to commit suicide by defying Darhk’s orders, she and Curtis joined forces to send the missiles into space, where they would detonate harmlessly.
I honestly had a hard time caring about this plot. It felt like a cheap ploy to put viewers on the end of our seats, but it had the opposite effect for me. The plot just seemed so out of the wheelhouse of Arrow that I wasn’t invested. The fallout of a nuke landing in the United States, even if off the original target, is utterly nonexistent, which makes it hard to care when even more bombs are launched. And it all ended up working out, anyway.
Anyway, by the end of the episode, Quentin, Thea and Diggle all decided to leave town for a time. Quentin was fired from SCPD, so he and Donna went off together. Thea wanted time to find herself, realizing that she jumped from the Lazarus Pit into the Speedy costume, never giving any thought to who Thea Queen is. And Diggle, still haunted by Andy’s death, decided to re-enlist in the military.
Oliver, for his part, was appointed interim mayor after the death of Ruve Adams due to his success as a write-in candidate and his inspiration of the city. He was sworn into office, while Felicity promised to stay by his side even when everyone else had left.
I assume the goal here is to separate the team for a time and let them find themselves again, and they will realize they are meant to be Team Arrow and are better together. Here’s hoping the storyline next season will be more focused and more grounded, which is what Arrow excels at.
As for the flashbacks, a power-hungry Taiana begs Oliver to kill her before she hurts anyone else and he does. After burying her in his mini Lian Yu cemetery, Oliver called Amanda Waller to get off the island. A.R.G.U.S. takes the idol and Waller congratulates Oliver on completing the mission she wanted him to. She suggests he continue working for A.R.G.U.S., but Oliver must head to Russia to keep his promise to Taiana. And also make Bratva connections and learn Russian, both of which we saw in earlier seasons.