ARROW Season 4×05 recap, “Haunted”

5 Nov

Welcome back, Arrowheads! Quentin Lance really needs to take a break. Look at what he had to contend with last episode: finding out his daughter Sara’s alive (if slightly crazy), having Ollie discover his alliance with Damien Darhk, and to help redeem him, Ollie makes him a double agent to report on Darhk. It’s a good thing he hasn’t heard Sara has escaped from her basement prison in Laurel’s apartment building. Also, what’s with Ray Palmer’s hidden message to Felicity?

Yet Another Island Visitor. In the flashbacks, Conklin has brought Ollie to Baron Reiter, claiming Ollie’s some kind of mole. Reiter has more problems to worry about, namely this guy he’s interrogating…some blonde British guy named John Constantine! Reiter knows Constantine is looking for something on the island, and before Reiter can arrange a search party with island expert Ollie, Constantine escapes his cuffs and takes Ollie hostage. Ollie is forced to drive John to a valley, where John performs a chant that opens a underground entrance. John handcuffs Ollie to a wall while he goes to retrieve a mysterious scepter. As he does, an escaped Ollie gets John away from a deadly booby trap he sprung. John was looking for a scepter known as the Eye of Horus, and has a boat waiting to get him home. He offers a lift for Ollie, but he still has to save those slaves of Reiter’s. John knows Reiter is looking for more than just making super drugs, so he offers Ollie an alibi to explain John’s escape (namely the useless top of the scepter), and gives him a cool tattoo for his abs (one many female fans have seen before) that will come in handy “when he needs it”.

Hey everyone, its time for a new episode of You’re The Worst, Laurel. Been a while, because the last episode of YTW,L was around season two. Let’s see if the long hiatus was worth it.

Wild Canary. In the present, two thugs are threatening a waitress in an alley when Sara appears, and starts turning the attackers into human pincushions (seriously, that’s prison level shivving right there!). She says something to the woman in some Middle Eastern dialect before running off. Laurel arrives at the crime scene, where Daddy Lance has pieced together these murders and a few others over the last couple of days are Sara’s doing. Laurel is looking for her, and surprise here, has not told Ollie or Team Arrow sans Thea about her resurrected homicidal sister.

At Palmer Tech, Felicity needs Curtis’ help to clean up that message from Ray Palmer, so put the piece of plot away until later.

Meanwhile, Ollie is meeting with a new campaign advisor Thea has hired, and has his own advice: best to keep distance from Laurel because of their past complex relationship and her drinking troubles. Wow! He’s thinking what I’m thinking, but for a different reason! Ollie spars with Thea and comments how that bloodlust problem has went away, but then have to handle another mess, like an attack in a nightclub. And guess who they find there? Sara, looking for someone and fighting guys! And look, Laurel’s here to stop her! And everyone fails at that and Sara escapes! So, um, awkward talk time, everyone?

Lance Family Issues. So at the Arrow Super Fun HQ, Ollie’s a bit more upset about Sara killing people than the fact Laurel and Thea lied about their “spa weekend” to revive Sara. Quentin shows up a bit later with his own problem: Damien Darhk wants him to attach a device to a computer archive in town. What is it? According to Felicity, its a computer worm, but she can’t get past the decryption fast enough before Quentin has to do the job. So, they have to set it up, but decide to send some help with Quentin, namely Diggle. Well this is gonna be a fun team-up.

“Don’t worry, love, I’ll be here to spruce this episode up in a little bit.”

Canary Hunt. Ollie and Felicity are taking a break at their loft, reflecting on loves they lost, and curious how they can find Sara. Well, let’s look at the women at the crime scenes Sara confronted, who–oh, they all look like Thea! Oh crap. So at Laurel’s place, Thea gets an unexpected visit from Sara, who wants to kill her! She comes pretty close, but thanks to a few quick diversions, sends Sara away in another direction, while Thea ends up in the hospital.

Ollie and Felicity arrive to see her, and when Laurel arrives, Ollie gives her the third degree about this whole Sara business, and that he finds out about those two goons sacrificed to keep Thea’s bloodlust in check. And this is where I’m of two minds here.

Yes, it is rather hypocritical to say not to resurrect people when you did the same thing, Ollie. On the other hand, you resurrected an actual dead person, not a mortally wounded person, Laurel! In other words, they both are standing on rickety arguments.

The Trouble With Siblings. At that computer server farm, Quentin and Diggle are setting up that device of Darhk’s and discover its erasing records, military records. And, wait a second, one of them seems to be Diggle’s brother! What the what? Well, when Quentin heads back to Darhk to announce “job well done”, he asks about Diggle’s bro just out of curiosity. Apparently something Diggle’s brother was involved with in Afghanistan got him in trouble with HIVE.

At the hospital, Laurel’s apologizing to Thea for what happened, but Thea has figured out what’s going on. This has to do with that whole bloodlust theory from a few episodes back: it can be quenched by killing the one who killed you. Unfortunately for both Thea and Sara, Thea’s killer is dead and Thea was Sara’s killer. Ollie comes back and takes Laurel aside to apologize for laying into her about all of this. Before this becomes a big feeling fest, Sara arrives to try and kill Thea again. When Ollie and Laurel arrive, Sara flees…again.

Killer Bait. Instead of destroying the hospital with more Sara attacks, Thea’s moved to Arrow HQ. The working theory is that Thea is being tracked by Sara because of their experience in the pit causing some kind of psychic connection or whatever. Since she has no soul after her resurrection, she’s basically running in Kill Thea DOS mode. So they use that by Thea making herself bait as the closed Verdant, and no shock, Sara shows up. By this point, Laurel’s finally on the “kill Sara” train, but Ollie knocks Sara out. He says her soul may be gone, but he knows someone who can help bring it back. Paging John Constantine?

“Alright, who’s got the goat’s blood? Ha! Gotcha! We won’t need that…yet. But what about the virgin blood? I wasn’t joking about that bit!”

British Invasion. John gets a welcome to Arrow HQ where the Team and Quentin are waiting to help Sara. John sets up his little operation, but needs two people to go into the spirit world with him to help recover Sara’s soul from whatever holds it. So Ollie and Laurel get to go on that trip with John, and it turns out the spirit world looks a bit like Nanda Parbat. They find Sara in a Lazarus Pit and pull her out while Constantine fights a spirit League assassin (really, Ollie or Laurel can’t do that? Leave Constantine to that?). Well, the trio recovers Sara’s soul, and it seems she’s okay so far.

Later, John’s leaving Arrow HQ when he asks about that weird feeling he got since entering Star City. Once Damien Darhk’s name is dropped, John has a word of advice for Ollie and friends: run.

Being Friends. At Ollie’s big live interview, against the advice of his advisor, Laurel gets invited. Awww, they both are back to being chummy again. As for another Lance, Quentin comes to Diggle’s place with some classified info on his brother. Diggle has to ask if its legit stuff when he reads it, and whatever it is, Diggle is taking it rough.

Felicity gets called over to Palmer Tech because a heavily caffeinated Curtis has some news. The rest of Ray’s message has been deciphered. The rest of what he says is that he’s still alive and needs help!

I feel like Oprah right now. And YOU get to come back from the dead! And YOU get to come back from the dead!

–Comic book connections: John Constantine was introduced in Alan Moore’s acclaimed Swamp Thing run, went on to be the star of his own mature readers book Hellblazer until it was folded up with him into the regular DCU.

–Why couldn’t Sara be driven to kill Malcolm? Just give me that, show!

–The new Arrow HQ has a drive-in garage, too?

–I’ve been watching reruns of Constantine on El Rey Network recently, and jeez, that show was getting better before it was cancelled. It helps that Matt Ryan as the titular Hellblazer is good there as he is in this episode.

–Thea’s maybe sarcastic response about the reference to Chapaquidick: “Wait, that game from Harry Potter?”

–“Are you sticking around for a cupcake or something?”

–“That’s some serious Nicolas Sparks stuff. Don’t judge me, that man knows how to write emotion.”

–“Good story. I wish you told me it before you gave me a concussion.”

–“I’m just happy this person from Oliver’s past isn’t another gorgeous woman.”

–“This is your overlord, Felicity Smoak.”

That’s it for now, but leave your comments below, and come back next week for the recap of “Lost Souls”…