Arrow Review: Haunted (Season 4 Episode 5)

Constantine has arrived on Arrow, and he’s a “very specific kind of yummy.”

Or so says Thea Queen. Now that is a crossover romance that could give even The Vampire Diaries‘ Klaus and Caroline a run for their money.

This week, Sara Lance is on a warpath, and anyone with cropped, brunette hair had best get out of her way. Or else. It makes sense, seeing as Thea was the one to kill Sara, and we know from Malcolm that resurrection (or near-resurrection in Thea’s case) comes with a burning desire to avenge your own murder.

Besides providing a twist in Sara’s return story, the continuation of the idea that those who come out of the Lazarus Pit are “haunted” by the ones who hurt them (see what I did there?) really feels like it’s setting up a future plot for Thea in a big way. Whether she eventually implodes with craziness, kills Merlyn in Ra’s place, or somehow magically gets over it, I’m officially on board with the whole thing.

Any day where Thea Queen gets a nice, juicy plot is a good day.

Admittedly, the random foray into Constantine-land with magic and grimoires and alternate afterlife planes feels a little off. No matter how mystical this season of Arrow has gotten, I’m not sure we’d gotten quite that far yet. Especially when you juxtapose Sara’s journey back to the land of the living with the very tech-oriented resurrection of Ray Palmer that occurs in the same episode.

It comes close to feeling like a perfectly executed parallel, but it just misses the mark.

Oliver: The world is a much more complicated place than most people are comfortable believing.

On the other hand, including Constantine in the Lian Yu plot has achieved something I never thought possible. It’s made me enjoy the flashbacks sequences again!

Who knew Oliver’s Chinese symbols tattoo was actually magical!

Setting aside the mystical, let’s talk about the emotional. Oliver and Laurel’s relationship finds its way to the center of this episode, a rare occurrence in the Arrow verse these days. Though their squabbling focuses mainly on their friendship as opposed to their shared romantic history, I think they touch on a very real and very troubling element of their friendship.

Oliver always seems to make his life, his problems, and his family a priority, but he can never do to the same when it’s Laurel who’s in a crisis.

Laurel: It’s the hypocrisy that I can’t stand. What? It’s okay for you to do whatever you have to for your sister, but it’s not okay for me to do the same to mine?

Laurel makes an amazing point when she calls Oliver out for not caring about her family the way she clearly cares about his. That’s not to say that Oliver hasn’t proved himself to be a great friend to the Lance family in the past, it’s just that Laurel has pretty much lapped him a few times when it comes to selfless acts for the Queen family.

And so Oliver makes a point to come through for both Sara and Laurel by calling in a favor from his good old buddy, Constantine.

The side plot between Captain Lance and Diggle makes up the final piece of this crossover puzzle. Damien Darhk, apparently feeling benevolent, hands over the mission report of the hit that HIVE put out on Andy Diggle. As it turns out, Diggle’s angelic baby brother was not exactly on the up and up before his untimely death. Illegal drugs and weapon trade activity put him on HIVE’s hit list, and so Diggle finally has the answer to why his brother was assassinated.

Unfortunately, it’s hard to feel the weight of this reveal amidst all the other mystical goings on of the episode. We’ve been waiting what feels like forever to find out what happened to Andy Diggle all those years ago and why, so to see it get lost inside of this crossover doesn’t exactly sit well.  I’ll hold out hope that there is still much more to come with Diggle’s mission to avenge his brother, but for now, I’m hovering on the edge of disappointment.

Other Thoughts:

• Caity Lotz gives really good crazy
• Poor Thea got so many beatings in this episode!
• Ray lives! And someone finally knows it!
• I would pay good money for a straight hour of Felicity’s Arrow Cave pranks. “This is your overlord, Felicity Smoak!”

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