Arrow Review: Brotherhood (Season 4 Episode 7)

This week’s episode of Arrow, titled “Brotherhood,” is all about Diggle, and it’s about damn time!

Diggle has the unfortunate tendency to slide into the background on this show. After all, Oliver and Felicity have the most adorable romance of all time, Thea’s turning into a magical rage monster, and Laurel’s been busy bringing her resurrected sister’s soul back from limbo. It’s tough competition plot-wise this year!

Before now, Diggle’s search for answers about Andy seemed a little lackluster. I mean, his brother was already dead, and answers wouldn’t bring him back, right? Wrong!

Are you keeping track of the total number of resurrections this year? I count three so far. No wonder the showrunners made it so clear that the grave at the end of the season would be a real, permanent, major death. These guys are bringing characters back so often, I feel like I’m playing whack-a-mole!

In all seriousness though, the conflict between Diggle and Oliver revolving around Andy brings such a new dynamic to their own brotherhood. All too often, Diggle has been the angel on Oliver’s shoulder. The wise and true advisor, helping Oliver through his moments of doubt and all of his moral crises. Tonight, Oliver got to play that role for Diggle.

Diggle: Just because you have a blind spot for your family, don’t expect me to.

Rather than let Diggle give up on his brother, Oliver pushes on and keeps the faith that Andy can be saved; that he is worthy of redemption, even when Diggle seems determined to write his brother off and give up.

Time will tell which one of them is right now that they’ve got Andy locked in a cell in the new Arrow Cave. He doesn’t seem very remorseful about his twisted past or his even more twisted present, but it could all just be an act. Who knows what’s up with those mind control pills anyway.

Elsewhere, Ray takes one more step away from Arrow and towards Legends of Tomorrow.

If you expected Ray to win back his company and let the world know about his happy resurrection, boy were you wrong. If anything, I’m beginning to wonder if Ray will ever step back into the public eye, or if he’ll remain a ghost forever (see what I did there?). It’s not hard to see where Ray is coming from in the grand scheme of things. He set out to change the world, but he “died” and left nothing better than he found it.

Ray: If I’m going to come back to life, I have to figure out what it is that I’m living for.

As Ray says, the Tom Sawyer experience gives you a strange sort of perspective on your life and all the things you never really accomplished. That’s the kind of experience that will give any genius, billionaire, philanthropist a quarter-life crisis, to be sure! Searching for his purpose will no doubt lead Ray away from Star City, and right into the waiting arms of the Legends of Tomorrow team. I’ll be sad to see him go, considering how well he fits in on Arrow.

Last but not least, let’s talk about Thea and her pesky murder tendencies.

Beating a scumbag to a bloody pulp in front of your date does not make a great impression, and I’m honestly confused why Alex is still hanging around. We haven’t gotten much development on who he is or why he and Thea have a connection yet, which makes me nervous. We all remember what happened the last time a hot guy became spontaneously infatuated with Thea Queen, right?

The revelation that Damien Darhk’s magic can somehow absorb Thea’s bloodlust — even if only temporarily — is a new and intriguing development. Can Daddy Merlyn help her find a way to make it permanent without having to crawl into bed with Darhk?

Other Thoughts:

• Felicity and Ray’s friendship is so awesome. If only we could all get along so well with our exes.
• Thea is immune to Damien’s powers? Interesting…
• I sincerely hope Alex is not secretly evil. Thea’s already been down that road once!
• “The green one.” — cue relentless awwwwws
• I’m calling it, we’re in for another year of flashbacks that no one could give a crap about. *sigh*

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Arrow airs Wednesdays on The CW at 8/7c.