The Arrow season 4 premiere, “Green Arrow,” aired tonight. Read our recap and discuss the episode with fellow fans.
Arrow season 4 picks up several months after Oliver and Felicity drove off into the sunset at the end of season 3. (If you need a refresher on season 3, we have one right here.) When a new class of criminal descends on Star City, Thea and Laurel reach out to Oliver for help.
Green Arrow
Oliver has been struggling with the idea that fighting crime means he has to be the darkness he brought back from Lian Yu. People from Diggle to Amanda Waller and Captain Lance only confirm that assumption.
However, it’s Felicity who encourages him to take his own monologue advice and be “someone else.” This leads to the reveal of a new suit, designed by Cisco, natch. It’s a suit meant to evoke the Green Arrow of the DC Comics, and it does so quite successfully.
Oliver eventually takes to the airwaves in his new duds to declare his intention to protect Star City. He names himself Green Arrow, a symbol of hope the Arrow never was.
Introducing Damien Darhk
Our season’s Big Bad, Damien Darhk, makes himself known in a meeting of the leaders of Star City, sans a mayor since, well, the last one died. Darhk says he and his men — who are being called The Ghosts — are there to put the city out of its misery so something new can grow from the wreckage. He then proceeds to have the leaders of the city killed. Three of the four are successfully assassinated, but Laurel helps protect her father from the would-be assassins.
When the team tracks The Ghosts down to their hideout, they overhear the group’s plan to blow up the new Star City train station that will have a direct line to Central City. Horribly, though, they also see Damien Darhk using magic to kill one of his soldiers.
Oliver and Damien Darhk meet for the first time on a train from Central City that is rigged to explode. Oliver tries to shoot Darhk with arrows, but he uses magic to stop them. Cue a hand-to-hand fight, but Darhk gets the upper hand on Oliver and begins to use his magic to kill Oliver. This probably shouldn’t come as a surprise since Darhk was the runner up to becoming the previous Ra’s al Ghul; he has to have some skills.
However, Diggle shoots Darhk in the back, and Darhk disappears. Together, Oliver and Diggle manage to derail the train before it reaches Star City, thwarting Darhk’s plan.
Later on, things get weirder when we see Darhk has a mystical shrine that he gives blood sacrifice to, presumably to keep up his powers. But this is the world in which the Lazarus Pit exists, so we’ll go with it.
Meanwhile, in the flashbacks
In Coast City, Oliver attempts to fight crime in the hood and eye makeup. However, it’s not going particularly well, as he’s knocked off a roof in during a fight with a drug dealer. He’s approached by Amanda Waller, and the two head to a bar and share a drink, but Oliver’s drink was drugged. He wakes up on a plane and is forcibly volunteered for a mission back on Lian Yu. When he lands on the island, a soldier confronts him at gunpoint.
This feels very season 1, with the whole military using Lian Yu as a base angle. But whose military is it?
Also worth noting…
- Oliver and Felicity have been living in domestic bliss in the ‘burbs for the last five months. Oliver even discovered a knack for cooking. Felicity, though, was helping the team back home in secret.
- Starling City has become Star City in honor of the presumed dead Ray Palmer.
- Oliver and Diggle’s bromance remains on the rocks.
- Quentin Lance signed up to work alongside Damien Darhk. He’s clearly not thrilled about it, though.
- Oliver and Felicity move into the old Queen sibling loft since Thea has been living with Laurel.
- Diggle realizes that Damien Darhk is behind the assassination of his brother.
- Fast forward six months, someone both Oliver and Barry cared about has died.
Watch a promo for the next episode
