Recap / Arrow S 4 E 7 Brotherhood

"No, Mister Queen, I expect you to die!"

Season 4, Episode 7:

Brotherhood

Oliver: Nice of you to show up.
Diggle: My brother needed me. The green one.

The team discovers that Diggle's brother is still alive, and seemingly working for Darhk, and tries to figure out how to save him. Meanwhile, Oliver continues his campaign for mayor, and Thea tries to control her resurfacing bloodlust.

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• Aesop Amnesia: Averted. Oliver briefly considers making a deal with Darhk to infiltrate H.I.V.E. from the inside, but (A) he tells Felicity about this thought instead of just throwing himself into it like he would've before, and (B) she and John are quick to remind him that he tried the exact same thing with the League of Assassins in the last season, so he thinks better of it.
• Ambiguous Situation: It's not clear if Andy is in control of his own actions, or if he is under Darhk's mind control.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Felicity's list of Oliver's bad ideas over the years — dueling Ra's al Ghul, infiltrating the League of Assassins, and dating the Huntress.
• Asshole Victim:
  • Malcolm attempts to invoke this by giving Thea a police file of a pedophile in the hopes that she'll use the opportunity to sate her bloodlust.
  • Later on, this big surly type starts hitting on Thea in the middle of her date - and she beats the shit out of him.
• Back from the Dead: Heavily implied with Andy and the other ghosts, if Darhk's comments are anything to go by.
  Darhk: The people of this city—what's left of them at any rate—they call you Ghosts. And they have no idea how right they are.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: John Diggle tells Lyla how, after discovering things like the Lazarus Pit existed, he used to daydream that Andy had come back from the dead.
• Birds of a Feather: Laurel brings this up about herself and Diggle. She is not exactly a stranger to siblings coming Back from the Dead who were members of organizations of killers.
• Call-Back:
  • When Andy is revealed to be a Ghost, Felicity recalls when a Ghost had Diggle dead to rights but ran off instead of shooting him.
  • As in "Green Arrow", Thea beats a Ghost and then draws her sword to kill him, though this time she's able to stop herself instead of Ollie doing it.
• Came Back Wrong:
  • Implied with Andy. He doesn't even acknowledge his brother throughout the episode.
  • Thea is again struggling with her bloodlust, showing the temporary relief she got from killing the Assassins in Nanda Prabat is wearing off.
• Chekhov's Gunman: The last time we saw Andy Diggle was in "The Return". He returns in this episode, very much alive.
• Continuity Nod: Diggle commented on after seeing the existence of the Flash and the Lazarus Pit, he still couldn't believe that he's seeing Andy back alive.
• Continuity Snarl: Diggle says that Andy's been dead for eight years, but the flashbacks last season with Andy alive would have him dead for only five years.
• Conveniently Timed Guard: Just as Darhk is getting to the point where he would either explain or demonstrate to his new recruits if the Ghosts really are Back from the Dead, Andy and some guards abruptly appear and fire on the secretly observing Oliver and Diggle, preventing them (and the audience) from finding out.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Thea thinks she's in control of her bloodlust until she savagely beats an obnoxious man who tries hitting on her. Alex is able to call her off before she beats him to death, but he's understandably shocked at what he's witnessed.
• Dramatic Irony:
  • Alex, when talking about how Oliver might know about the Office Romance, says he's glad Oliver isn't a killer. Thea in particular finds the statement awkward.
  • On realising Thea must have been trained by Ra's al Ghul, Darhk jokingly asks how Malcolm Merlyn is doing, unaware that he's talking to Malcolm's daughter.
• Dramatic Unmask: John decides to take the balaclava off a Ghost to identity him, and is shocked to find his Not Quite Dead brother Andy.
• Dynamic Entry: Ray arrives in the climactic fight scene by flying through the Ghosts, knocking them over, then landing and punching one in the face.
• Elevator Action Sequence: Thea has a fight with Andy that goes into, around, and then back out of an elevator.
• "Eureka!" Moment: Thea realizes she can use Darhk's magic to help remove her bloodlust.
• Feed the Mole: A possible version; Darhk is openly suspicious of Quentin, but when he leaves the room Quentin sees a note on his desk revealing something happening at the docks. When Oliver and Diggle go to investigate, they run into a superior number of Ghosts and barely make it out alive.
• Fighting Fingerprint: Darhk realises from the way Speedy fights that she's been trained by someone from the League of Assassins, as he himself is a former member.
• Foil: Oliver and John Diggle are compared in their attitude to their families—Oliver's blind spot towards them and willingness to think they can be saved, versus Diggle's more rigid attitude towards discovering Andy is in H.I.V.E.
• Guest-Star Party Member: The Atom/Ray Palmer in this episode, much like Sara in last one.
• Half-Truth: Flashback-Oliver tells Taiana that Conklin is responsible for Vlad's death, but not that he did the actual killing. Given the emphasis on the importance of communication in this episode, one has the feeling this omission will come back to haunt Oliver just like it did over the Slade/Shado affair.
• Infrared Xray Camera: Team Arrow have button cams attached to their outfits so Felicity back at Mission Control can see which of the Ghosts is Andy. Good thing none of them were captured as the same technology could have been used to rumble their secret identities!
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: When asked how he is holding up about his brother's return, Diggle says there's nothing to compare it to—this week. Of course, it is the focus of that week's episode.
• Living Lie Detector: It is unknown how exactly Reiter knows that Conklin is lying, but he interrogates both Oliver and Conklin by holding a bundle of sticks towards their faces.
• Match Cut: Used for Mood Dissonance when we cut to Conklin screaming over being whipped, to Thea laughing during her date with Alex.
• Meaningful Look: Oliver is pointedly looking at Darhk during his news conference announcing the campaign policy Darhk wanted him to drop.
• Mind Control: Darhk is shown giving his Ghost pills that will increase their willingness to obey his orders, even though they've all volunteered to join H.I.V.E. in the first place.
• Money to Burn: In the Batman Cold Open, the Ghosts rob an armored security truck only to burn the money inside. It had been sent by the federal government to prop up the local banks, and its destruction is another way Darhk can destabilize the city economy.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The compound used to force obedience and destroy DNA markers is from Wolfman Biologics, named for comic writer Marv Wolfman.
  • The woman Oliver didn't kill on Lian Yu is confirmed to be Taiana, a major supporting character from Green Arrow: Year One (written by Andy Diggle).
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Darhk's touch of death actually removes Thea's bloodlust, at least temporarily. Thea then consults her father to see if they can find a way to make this permanent.
• No-Sell: Conklin attempts to lie to Baron Reiter regarding the death of Taiana's brother, but Reiter can tell he's lying. Later, Darhk's Touch of Death doesn't work on Thea, and actually seems to hurt him instead.
  Darhk: That usually works.
• Offscreen Teleportation: Darhk, when Thea tries to run away from him. Justified, due to his magic.
• Oh, Crap!: Thea running into Darhk, then Darhk freaks out when he discovers his magic has no effect on Thea. And later when he realizes Oliver is not going to give in to his threats.
• The Oner: There are several nicely long shots during the episode's fight scenes, the highlight being Thea and Andy's Elevator Action Sequence.
• Poor Communication Kills: Averted in this episode. Quentin tells Oliver that Damien Darhk might be on to him, and Oliver tells Felicity about being tempted to make a Deal with the Devil. This episode emphasizes that by talking about things with others, it can prevent unnecessary conflict later on.
• Public Secret Message: When Oliver makes his speech in the end, it is quite clear he is pretty much telling Darhk to "screw off".
• Race Lift: Taiana, the woman Oliver saves from execution, is from the Green Arrow: Year One miniseries. There she's a Pacific Islander; on the show she's Russian.
• Saying Too Much: Oliver calls Thea "Speedy" in front of Alex, the problem being his Affectionate Nickname for his sister is now the Code Name she uses to protect her Secret Identity.
• Short-Distance Phone Call: Thea is hanging up every time Malcolm Merlyn tries to contact her, leading to this trope when he decides to visit in person, because on that occasion she had actually decided to answer the phone.
• Shout-Out:
  • Upon seeing her, Damien Darhk calls Thea Merida.
  • Darhk's "That usually works" while trying to use magic on someone's chest feels very Loki-like.
  • Ray compares his return from the dead to Tom Sawyer witnessing his own funeral.
• Take a Third Option: Oliver decides that instead of using his previously-used strategies of battling the bad guys in secret and/or trying to infiltrate their organization to take it down from within, this time he's going to drag the battle out into the daylight and expose the bad guy to the world.
• Talk About That Thing: Shown when Oliver wants a word with Thea without Alex being present, and when Felicity has to leave the room so Oliver and Diggle can hash out their issues.
• Talking Is a Free Action: Several Ghosts can be seen aiming their rifles at Oliver's back while he's telling Ray to go off and secure Andy. Somehow Oliver then has enough time to turn and shoot them all before he's killed.
• A Taste of the Lash: The fate of Conklin at the hands of Oliver (on orders of Baron Reiter) for his part in the death of the worker from the previous episode. The whipping torture was so horrifying that Reiter's men had to turn away from watching.
• That Came Out Wrong: As usual for Felicity when talking to Oliver at the formal event, but this time she doesn't even seem to notice.
  Felicity: Well, this has to be better than how you usually spend your evenings, dressing in leather and tying people up.
  (Old woman walking behind her gives them a Disapproving Look)
• Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth: When Darhk tries to kill Thea with his magic, her Lazarus-induced bloodlust not only keeps it from working, but causes it to hurt him.
• Villain Ball: Reiter has a magical way to detect if someone is lying to him, but he never used it to see if Conklin's accusation of Oliver being The Mole was true.
• We Can Rule Together: Darhk approaches Oliver at a public event and offers his money and influence for his campaign, provided Oliver drop his plan to rehabilitate the bay. Oliver seriously considers taking the offer as another means of getting information on Darhk, only to get told off by both John and Felicity because it would work against his original reasons for running for Mayor in the first place if he was pretending to be Darhk's pawn.