Line #108 Recap/ArrowS4E20Genesis


1	As Darhk begins making preparations to begin Genesis, Oliver looks for a way to counteract Darhk's magic while John hunts Andy. Meanwhile, Alex takes Thea on a much-needed vacation.
2	----
3	!! This episode contains examples of:
4	* ActuallyIAmHim: Oliver and Felicity go to a casino and play TabletopGame/{{poker}}, hoping to draw the attention of a magic user known to frequent the place. She turns out to be the player Felicity casually offered some of her TabletopGame/{{blackjack}} chips too.
5	* AlasPoorVillain: Andy's death is quite devastating for John, because evil or not, this was still his brother (and a victim of {{brainwashing}}, no less).
6	* AllAccordingToPlan: Darhk turns up to find Andy handcuffed to a pole and his brother has escaped. It looks like he's going to [[YouHaveFailedMe kill Andy for his failure]], but instead he congratulates Andy on a successful TrickAndFollowPloy.
7	* AmicableExes: As Felicity puts it, just because she and Oliver aren't together anymore doesn't mean he'll have to fight alone.
8	* AndYourLittleDogToo: Darhk gloats to Oliver how he will have fun killing every last of his friends.
9	* AngerBornOfWorry: Lyla rips into her husband for walking into a HIVE trap by chasing Andy without waiting for backup. She only stops when their raised voices make Sara cry.
10	* ArmorPiercingQuestion: Andy's final words to Diggle before getting shot in the chest.
11	-->'''Andy''': Tell me, how does it feel knowing that you have no problem pulling the trigger to protect a bunch of Afghanis that you never knew, but [[TemptingFate you don't have the guts to do what's necessary to protect your own wife and child?]]
12	* ArtificialLimb: Malcom is wearing a robotic hand, which doesn't stop his boss from making 'hand' jokes.
13	* ArtificialOutdoorsDisplay: Thea discovers that the suburban town Alex has brought her to is actually a domed bunker made to resemble an outdoor environment.
14	* AssholeVictim: Considering everything Andy had done at this point, and the fact that he and HIVE were planning on hurting John's family, it's doubtful that anyone shed any tears when he finally got gunned down.
15	* AnnoyingArrows: In his rescue of Lyla, Oliver harpoons Darhk with a tether arrow and yanks him down hard. Darhk's only reaction is to get a bit miffed and yank the bloody arrow out of his back like it was just an annoyance.
16	* BaitAndSwitch: John takes off on a motorcycle from the back of the ARGUS truck, leading Darhk and Andy to think he's trying to draw them away from Lyla and Sara, and Darhk is gloating about not falling for it as he plans to kill Sara. Then he discovers John had escaped with Sara.
17	* BaseOnWheels: Lyla is protecting herself and Sara from HIVE by traveling in a mobile ARGUS headquarters on the back of a semi-trailer.
18	* BatmanGambit: Andy and Darhk pull one off in order to locate Lyla and the Rubicon chip, betting that John would not wait for backup before going after Andy and that he would be able to successfully escape after being captured.
19	* BeehiveBarrier: The walls of "the Ark" are made of [[HighTechHexagons hexagons]], which fits in with HIVE's "bee" theme.
20	* BigDamnHeroes: Lyla and John Diggle are at the mercy of HIVE when Oliver and Felicity (who were last seen in Hub City) turn up to rescue them.
21	* BlatantLies: John Diggle can't admit to his wife that he killed Andy while he was unarmed, so claims Andy reached for a gun and he fired in self-defence.
22	* BrainwashedAndCrazy:
23	** Andy has no problem torturing his brother in a plot to kidnap his baby nephew so Darhk can kill her.
24	** Alex Davis, thanks to taking Hive's yellow pills, abducts his girlfriend and continues to insist that everything is fine when Thea realises this.
25	* BriefAccentImitation: Oliver quoting John Constantine's instructions to him somehow has to involve this.
26	-->"He just said 'Pitch game. First base, mate. See if yer worthy.'"
27	* BulletDodgesYou: Milo Armitage tries to shoot Darhk, who stops the bullet with his magic and [[CatchAndReturn sends it right back]] into [[BoomHeadshot Armitage's forehead]].
28	* BusmansHoliday: Because Oliver and Felicity are going to Hub City, Thea asks for a weekend off with Alex. Oliver agrees that everyone needs time off after recent events and so tells Diggle to take a break with Lyla. Inevitably Diggle, Lyla and Thea all run into trouble.
29	* CainAndAbel: Andy and John certainly look like they're trying to kill each other during their shoot-out, even if it's later revealed to be a ploy on Andy's part. It's later played straight when John kills his brother.
30	* CallBack:
31	** Felicity considers getting another fern for Oliver's new lair.
32	** Star City is identified as a [[Recap/ArrowS4E5Haunted nexus of evil]].
33	** After the CarFu below, Felicity notes that it's [[Recap/ArrowS2E22StreetsOfFire been a while since she's done that]].
34	** Oliver's visions when surrounded by darkness has him being attacked by Deathstroke and reliving the memory of his mother's murder, father's suicide, Laurel's stabbing, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Felicity returning his engagement ring]].
35	** Fortuna tells Oliver that he doesn't need a totem as the tattoo that John Constantine put on him acts as a channel for magic power.
36	* CarFu: Felicity saves John and baby Sara by slamming into Andy and the other Ghosts with the team van.
37	* CharacterDeath: Andy Diggle, who provokes his brother into killing him by threatening his family.
38	* ChekhovsGun:
39	** The Rubicon chip that Shadowspire wanted to steal is crucial to Darhk's plan (explaining why Andy helped his brother foil the theft).
40	** We now know why Ruvé Adams offered Alex a job; not for his skills but to lure Thea into a trap.
41	* CoDragons: Darhk has Malcolm, Andy Diggle and Murmur fulfilling this role, though Andy is dead by the end of the episode.
42	* ColdBloodedTorture: Andy does this to John, including shanking him in the abdomen with a long screwdriver. It's all just to distract John from the TrackingDevice being planted on him.
43	* ClownCarBase: The BaitAndSwitch where Diggle supposedly visits his wife in an ARGUS bunker, only for it to be revealed that she's riding around in the back of a trailer-truck, might have worked if the dimensions had been vaguely similar to that of the truck's freight container.
44	* DamselInDistress: Thea is trapped in Hive's dome, per Merlyn's request.
45	* DiesWideOpen: Andy, just to let the audience know [[KilledOffForReal he's really dead this time]].
46	* DidntSeeThatComing: Andy is quite shocked that his brother actually killed him.
47	* TheDogBitesBack: John is tortured by his cold-hearted brother who then threatens his family; in turn Andy gets a bullet in his chest and dies.
48	* DoomMagnet: Star City is a nexus of evil just like Lian Yu is.
49	* EvilIsPetty: Even though they are now allies, Darhk can't resist making another hand joke at Malcolm's expense.
50	-->'''Darhk:''' Why would I trust Malcolm Merlyn? He can be so...underhanded.
51	-->'''Malcolm:''' ...Cute.
52	* {{Expy}}: Esrin Fortuna is one for ComicBook/DoctorFate.
53	* FreudianSlip: Felicity has booked a room...rooms! for her and Oliver's trip to Hub City.
54	* GlowingEyes: Oliver gets these when he's able to counter Darhk's life drain. Looking at his eyes, Darhk realizes that sticking around would be futile.
55	* IdiotBall: Felicity makes some not-so-subtle gloating remarks to Oliver about her ability to count cards while she's ''right there at the TabletopGame/{{blackjack}} table'', though fortunately no one catches her.
56	* {{Irony}}: In order to stop Darhk, Oliver needs to channel his light. However, he's primarily motivated to ''kill'' Darhk to avenge Laurel and thus break his ThouShaltNotKill rule, thus from a narrative standpoint "going down a path of darkness".
57	* ItIsBeyondSaving:
58	** John has to kill Andy since he's never going to change or back down.
59	** Hive apparently thinks this of the ''entire world,'' and believe that the option to NukeEm is the only way to truly rebuild society.
60	* IHaveYourWife: Ironically it's the wife who sends the husband away with their baby to avert this. Lyla knows she doesn't have Amanda Waller's ruthlessness and will give Darhk what he wants if he has them as leverage.
61	* KilledOffForReal: Andy Diggle and Milo Armitage.
62	* MagicalIncantation: Averted. Felicity questions why there aren't any "lessons" when Fortuna was teaching Oliver magic. Fortuna tells her that magic is the way to channel primordial energies and is pre-literate (so no words in the magic of the Arrowverse).
63	* MagicKnight: What Oliver hopes he can be in order to stand up to Darhk. His lesson under Fortuna was a failure though, but he did learn the one bit of magic that he really needed.
64	* MatchCut: From Milo's corpse to a police photo of the same corpse where it has been dumped, being studied by Team Arrow.
65	* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: John's initial reaction after he shot Andy.
66	* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Lyla had Rubicon embedded into her arm to protect it after ARGUS HQ was compromised; unfortunately Darhk knew where it was.
67	* NoodleIncident: Constantine owes Fortuna money for some reason.
68	* NothingPersonal: Or so Andy claims regarding stringing his older brother up to be tortured.
69	* NotStayingForBreakfast: Thea does the "wake up to an empty bed, only to find your boyfriend is making breakfast" version. However the moment of disquiet she feels is the first of many...
70	* OhCrap:
71	** Thea when she sees Alex taking Hive's yellow pills.
72	** Darhk has one when Oliver manages to overcome his magic.
73	** Lyla when she sees the gash on her arm.
74	* OldMaster: Averted with Esrin Fortuna. She appears to be a young woman with a hobby of playing TabletopGame/{{blackjack}}. Though she also claims to be immortal.
75	* OnlyThePureOfHeart: To withstand Darhk's magic, a person needs to tap into their light and goodness. Unfortunately Oliver is full of darkness and Fortuna ends his magic lessons as Darhk would be able to take that and grow even stronger.
76	* PayEvilUntoEvil: Andy spends the entire episode kicking John around from mocking Laurel's death to threatening Lyla and Sara, however long it takes. It makes John shooting him when he's helpless entirely understandable.
77	* PlotHole: Esrin Fortuna mentions that there is no MagicalIncantation in the ''Arrowverse'' due to the fact that the mystical energy manipulations of magic being pre-literate. This would be all well and good, but ComicBook/JohnConstantine and [[Series/{{Constantine}} other sorcerers on his show]] use explicitly verbal components to their spell casting, which was highlighted in "Haunted".
78	* PowerCorrupts: Oliver cites this as why he hadn't tried learning magic earlier when facing Darhk. He says he's seen good people get corrupted by magic, so it looks like Taiana probably didn't come to a good end.
79	* PowerTattoo: Oliver doesn't need to use totems to use his counterspell, the tattoo that John Constantine put on him acts as a totem.
80	* ProperlyParanoid:
81	** Thea is quite right to be tense during her "vacation" with Alex.
82	** Nixon is very worried what Darhk will do to her and Armitage since they betrayed him. He kills them both.
83	* TheReveal:
84	** We find out what Rubicon is, a security program to lockout access to every nuclear missile, that unfortunately can be reprogrammed to allow access to every nuclear missile.
85	** We finally find out what Hive's goals are. They want to nuke the entire planet so they can rebuild it in their image. The artificial environment they were working on is their "ark" so to speak to survive the blast.
86	* SaveTheWorld: In light of TheReveal about Darhk's plans, this is what Team Arrow's mission now becomes.
87	* ScrewThisImOutOfHere: After Oliver manages to neutralise Darhk's magic the latter decides to get the hell out of dodge while he can.
88	* SerialEscalation: Previous seasons had the BigBad try to either conquer or destroy the city (sometimes both), whereas here the BigBad wants to ''[[OmnicidalManiac destroy the entire world]].''
89	* ShoutOut:
90	** Diggle grumbles about Oliver being an a Music/MagicalMysteryTour.
91	** Felicity is skeptical that Music/{{Genesis\|Band}} [[ComicallyMissingThePoint could have anything to do with Darhk]].
92	* SleepingDummy: Darhk rips aside the blankets in Sara's cot only to find a pile of automatic weapons. Mind you [[BattleCouple that might be normal for this couple...]]
93	* SpottingTheThread: Thea feels vaguely uncomfortable in the suburb, but it's when she finally identifies a looped pattern of supposedly natural sounds that she realizes something is very wrong.
94	* StepfordSuburbia: There's something uncanny about the suburb Thea is staying in. There's no sign of other people or cars, the sun is always shining regardless of the time of day, and the nature sounds are on a continuous loop.
95	* StrikeMeDownWithAllOfYourHatred: Andy goads John into killing him twice in the episode, though in the first case he [[BatmanGambit knows that John won't do it]]. In the second instance, however, John actually goes through with it after enough provoking and having his family threatened.
96	* TemptingFate: Lyla says the tungsten-encased truck they are in is designed to withstand just about anything. [[OhCrap Then they see Darhk standing on the road ahead.]]
97	-->'''Diggle:''' Does that include magic?
98	* ThatManIsDead: Andy says that his old self, the loving husband and father, no longer exists.
99	* ThickerThanWater: Averted by Andy, who would not only kill his brother and sister-in-law, but also his baby niece.
100	* TreasureChestCavity: Lyla has hidden the Rubicon chip by having it implanted under the skin of her arm.
101	* TrickAndFollowPloy: HIVE locate Lyla despite her mobile ARGUS base by kidnapping Diggle, implanting him with a TrackingDevice and allowing him to escape.
102	* TwoLinesNoWaiting: Thea decides to take a much needed vacation, only to discover that she's one of the first inhabitants of the Genesis Ark. Thanks to its central location in the plot and given that it neatly positions her to help the main cast, this averts TrappedByMountainLions despite her not being in touch with the rest of the cast for the next few episodes.
103	* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: The HIVE drones continue working at their desks without paying the slightest attention as Darhk kills two of their leaders.
104	* TheWallAroundTheWorld: When Thea encounters Ghosts she tries to flee them only to find herself running into a holographic projection. A reveal shot shows she's in a DomedCity [[UndergroundCity under Star City]].
105	* WhamShot: Thea running around the suburb only to hit a wall, and the camera zooms out to reveal a giant glass dome.
106	* WhatTheHellHero: Lyla lets John have it for going after Andy by himself.
107	* WouldHurtAChild: Andy and Darhk would most definitely. Darhk even says that he will have ''fun'' killing baby Sara.
108	* YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre: Felicity tries to convince Oliver that he does have more light than dark inside of him when he fails Esrin Fortuna's training, which he rejects. When he faces down Darhk, Oliver discovers that she was right.
109	* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Darhk kills off Armitage and Nixon both for betraying him by letting him rot in jail and the fact that he really doesn't need them around if he was able to break out of prison without their help.
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Context Recap / ArrowS4E20Genesis