Is the theme of Arrow season four going to be bringing siblings back from the dead?! Not only have Thea and Sara been resurrected by the Lazarus Pit, now Diggle’s brother Andy is alive, too! We did not see that one coming.
Tonight’s episode of Arrow, “Brotherhood,” found Diggle discovering his brother alive and well, working in HIVE, and though Diggle has lost all faith that Andy is the same guy he used to know, his relationship with Oliver is stronger than ever. Lose one brother, gain another. Let’s get to recapping all the action, shall we?
The hour kicked off with Team Arrow trying to stop a group of ghosts from burning cash being brought into the city to help prop up the failing banks. After debriefing about their failure, Diggle revealed what he learned about his brother’s criminal past to Oliver. While Diggle was ready to believe all the bad things in the file, Oliver was ready to give Andy the benefit of the doubt.
While Ray still refused to publicly announce his resurrection, Felicity enlisted his help in trying to ID the DNA of the tooth Diggle pulled out of a ghost’s mouth. They track it to a lab and while Team Arrow fought more ghosts, Diggle was shocked to unmask one and see none other than his dead brother Andy. Whaaaaat?
Diggle once again was ready to write off his brother as gone since he’s clearly working for the enemy and let his family believe he’s been dead for eight years, but Oliver tried to get him to see that Andy is still his brother. Oliver wanted to get Andy out of HIVE to get the truth, hoping that there was some explanation for his actions. So with Lance’s help, he tracked the ghosts to the docks, and Diggle and Oliver go alone to try and capture Andy. While spying on them, Oliver and Diggle witness the ghosts taking a pill that changes their DNA and makes them compliant to Damien Dahrk. But Andy caught sight of Oliver and Diggle watching them, and sicced the ghosts on them to attack. They get away, but Diggle is validated in his desire to brush off his brother as gone. If Andy was the old Andy, he never would have had the ghosts attack his own brother, right?
At a fundraiser for the SCPD, Damien Dahrk approached Oliver under the guise of supporting his mayoral campaign, but really he just wanted to influence Oliver’s platform for his own gain. Oliver actually considered working with Dahrk, but only to use him to get close to HIVE and Andy. But after talking it over with Diggle, Oliver decided to fight Dahrk in the open, not in the shadows, and publically refused Dahrk’s offer. Now he’s going to be fighting Dahrk on two fronts: as the Green Arrow and as mayoral candidate Oliver Queen. Yikes!
As if Team Arrow didn’t have enough on their plates already, Thea’s bloodlust came back, and Malcolm returned to Star City to help her out in the best way he knew how: by giving her names of criminals out on the streets for her to kill. Father of the year, everyone! Thea rightly told him to go to hell, but she knew she had to do something about her bloodlust before it got out of hand.
At Olicity’s apartment, Ray continued to work on studying the ghost tooth, and he figured out that Dahrk is keeping all his ghosts at a shut down psychiatric hospital. Team Arrow suited up (including the ATOM!) and took on the ghosts, and Thea and Laurel find Andy. Sidenote: how amazing was that one-shot, long fight sequence with Thea and Andy? Totally reminiscent of Daredevil’s one-shot hallway fight sequence. Just beautifully choreographed and shot. That’s what happens when the show’s stunt coordinator directs an episode!
While the rest of Team Arrow helped kidnap Andy and fight the ghosts, Dahrk cornered Thea in a hallway. He recognized her style of fighting as being taught by Ra’s al Ghul (revealing that he knows Malcolm Merlyn is the new Ra’s), and when he tried to kill her mystically, it backfired on him and actually hurt him! Who was more shocked by that: Thea, Dahrk, or us?! Something tells us the Lazarus Pit has something to do with that strange turn of events. And it turns out, whatever he tried to do made Thea’s bloodlust disappear for a little while. So now Thea wants Malcolm’s help in figuring out a way to make that permanent.
And that realization couldn’t have come soon enough for Thea. Her new boyfriend (and Oliver’s campaign strategist) Alex Davis was worried about Oliver finding out about his relationship with Thea because Oliver’s his boss. But that becomes a non-issue after Alex witnessed Thea losing control of her bloodlust on their date. He’s obviously shocked, but Thea asked him to be patient with her. If she can figure out a way to cure her bloodlust, their relationship will be totally fine, right?
In this week’s flashback storyline, Baron Reiter used some kind of mystical twig pile to figure out if Conklin or Oliver are lying to him about the prisoner that attacked Oliver. When the twigs reveal that Conklin lied and made the prisoner attack Oliver, Reiter made Oliver deliver the punishment. Who knew Oliver was so good with a whip?! He also stole a map of the island from Reiter, and he plans to find whatever Reiter is searching for first.
What do you think Reiter is looking for on Lian Yu? Should Thea trust Malcolm in helping her cure her bloodlust? What on earth made Andy turn away from his family and work for HIVE? Hit the comments section below with your speculation now!
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Images: The CW
Arrow airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on The CW.