‘Arrow’ Recap ‘Green Arrow’

“Felicity Smoak, you have
failed this omelet,”

–
Oliver Queen,
Arrow

A simple, sweet quote that sets
the
initial tone for a season opener; straying away from the usual dark
premiers
that we have grown
accustomed to seeing. Season 4 of Arrow premiered on
October 7th,
2015 on The CW to 2.5
million viewers, and the events did
not leave any room for
disappointment.

In season 3, we left off
with
Oliver and Felicity driving off into the sunset, following Oliver’s
defeat of
Ra’s Al Gul and Malcom
Merlyn ascending to the new title. Our opening sequence
shows us that Oliver
and Felicity have spent the past
six months enjoying a
comfortable life in suburbia. Oliver is growing
accustomed to running for sport,

and not just for chasing criminals. Felicity is attempting to get her hands

wrapped around the idea of
being a suburban housewife, or rather, a suburban
girlfriend.

We’ve
also learned that Oliver’s former
team members Diggle,
Laurel (Black Canary) and Thea (Speedy) have continued
on their mission to keep

former Starling City, now known as Star City, safe from criminals. We see
them
putting forth their
efforts as a team to disrupt the newest criminal group to
Star City, called
The Ghosts. When the
team’s attempt to disrupt The
Ghosts criminal activity fails, they
fall to their only option, to bring

Oliver Queen to Star City, to once more take up his mantle as the

vigilante.

However, we learned
that Oliver has more than becoming a
better chef on his mind, when it was
revealed to us that Oliver has
plans to
propose to Felicity. Based on how last season ended, and the
buildup of the
‘Olicity’ romance
through the past three seasons, it comes as no surprise to
viewers that
Oliver Queen plans to take Felicity
into his life until death do
them part. However, judging by the end of the
season premiere, some ‘Olicity’

fans fear they may find themselves disappointed.

Oliver’s return
debut to
Star City is only the
tip of the iceberg of pleasures the viewers we got to
indulge in. Viewers
were introduced to Damian Darhk
(Guest Star Neal McDonough),
whom fans that are true to the comics know he
is one of the most dangerous

villains that Oliver will face. Neal McDonough has portrayed several
villainous
roles in his acting
career- such as Robert Quarles in Justified, M. Bison
in Street
Fighter: Legend of Chun Li, and
Jay Hamilton in Walking Tall
just to name a few. The steele-
eyed actor wow’d the audience with
his
debut performance on the show, sending chills with his speech to the
Star City
leadership about his
intention to let Star City die.

Despite the growing
threat that
Damian Darhk and his ‘ghosts’ present,
Team Arrow joins together
once more, and scouts out Damian and his men,
following the murders of almost

all of the city leadership. After failing to capture Darhk, we learn several

things. First, Oliver is not
unfamiliar to ‘mystical’ beings. When Damian Darhk
murdered a man using his
mystical ability, Oliver claimed
that he had ‘seen
things’ in the past. This leads us to believe that Season
4 flashbacks will have
much
in store for us this season. Secondly, there is still the ever growing

tension between Oliver and Diggle.
Despite Oliver’s efforts to apologize to
Diggle, his apologies were not
accepted. After Oliver made the
decision to
abduct Diggle’s wife in order to gain Ra’s Al Gul’s trust,
Diggle has seemingly
reached a
point where he feels as though he can no longer trust Oliver. Not only
is
this extremely frustrating for
viewers, who loved the brotherly connection
between the two, but also to
Team Arrow as well. You would think
that after
spending three years together of putting away criminals, Diggle
would understand
that Oliver’s
intentions were only for the best. Perhaps there is more to Diggle
than we
now know.

Thirdly, not only
is the darkness settling upon Star
City, but also within Thea. Last season,
Oliver used the Lazarus Pit to
restore
Thea back to her full health, despite warnings from Malcolm Merlyn,
her father.
We knew that Thea
would not be the same, but Thea’s need for blood has the
viewers questioning
what will be in store for Thea
this season.

The final
minutes of Arrow revealed a heart-
stopping surprise, where we see that

Captain Lance appears to be working beside Damian Darhk, following Team
Arrow’s
victory of sabotaging
Damian’s plan to destroy the brand new train station. We
knew Captain Lance
had closed his mind to the idea
of vigilantism almost
entirely, but now siding with an evil mastermind like
Damian Darhk? Let us talk

about the unexpected… shall we!? This unexpected plot twist has certainly
left
the Arrow fan
base in shock, knowing that Lance supposedly upholds the
law to the letter.
Lance is the last person we would
have expected to side with
the darkness. We can only hope that Lance gets
himself out of this situation,

before it becomes catastrophic.

Our final scene, following an
intimate
moment with Felicity and
Oliver is what leaves us in the biggest state of shock;
A grave- 6 months
later. We see Oliver, standing in
front of a fresh grave,
mourning. Barry Allan, (The Flash) is also
seen approaching the grave,

giving Oliver his condolences because he missed the funeral. Millions of

Arrow fans have
developed their own controversies as to who it is in
the grave, and some
have even tweeted the writers of
Arrow and Stephen
Amell himself, asking who is in the grave. Is it
Felicity, the love of Oliver

Queen’s life? Is it Diggle, who still seems to be holding a grudge for
Oliver’s
actions last season? Or
is it possibly Thea, who gave in to her growing dark
side, and had to be
executed for the teams
safety?

These are among many
theories as to who lies in that grave.
No one knows, not even the actors

themselves. All we know is, that in 6 months, we may be saying goodbye to a

beloved member of Team Arrow
that we have spent years growing attached to.
Saying goodbye, forever. This
season premiere was nothing short
of excellent,
and sets the perfect tone for what is potentially going to be,
the greatest
Arrow
season yet.