Recap / Arrow S 4 E 9 Dark Waters

Oliver's plan to clean up the bay is going smoothly until a H.I.V.E. helicopter drone shoots the place up. While the team is dealing with that, Felicity re-examines her relationship with Oliver, particularly why he has changed his mind about proposing to her.

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• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Thea does a Pinky Swear with Malcolm Merlyn after he asks her to be careful. It's a sign that, regardless of her estrangement from him, Thea is still drawn to Malcolm as a father despite what she said in "The Return".
• Bad Boss: Damien Darhk tests his Gas Chamber with the help of a willing HIVE minion. This is despite the fact that he intended to gas Oliver's friends anyway and so could have just used them.
• Ballroom Blitz: Darhk crashes Oliver's campaign Christmas party, despite the extra security.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: While we already knew Damien had partners, this episode introduces them.
• Big Damn Heroes: Malcolm disguised as the Green Arrow and Laurel show up literally just before Felicity, Thea, and John are about to be gassed to death.
• Brain Bleach: Felicity comes across her mother making out with Quentin Lance.
  Quentin: Listen, um...Laurel doesn't know.
  Felicity: Yeah, I'm gonna hit myself over the head with something very heavy so that I don't know either.
• The Bus Came Back: Milo Armitage the man who hired Bronze Tiger to steal Merlyn's earthquake machine in Season 2's "Tremors" comes back as one of Darhk's partners.
• Call-Back:
  • Malcolm getting around Damien catching an arrow shot at him by sticking an explosive on it, is exactly how Oliver got the jump on him back in the Season 1 finale.
  • Flashback-Ollie wants a detailed survey map of Lian Yu, so he swims out to Dr. Ivo's cabin on the Amazo, knowing he would have one to aid his search for the Mirakuru serum.
  • When Curtis's husband says that straight people leave the wedding ring in the soufflé, Felicity realises that Oliver intended to propose in "Green Arrow" when he insisted she have dessert (before Thea and Laurel interrupted).
• Cliffhanger: In the island flashback, Oliver and a Not Quite Dead Taiana have been caught by Conklin. In the present day, an attack on Oliver's limousine by the Ghosts leaves Felicity heavily injured in the final scene, and we don't see the aftermath.
• Comically Missing the Point: Oliver gets down on one knee to Felicity in the Arrowcave and says he has to ask her a question. As she's just discovered that Oliver intended to propose, Felicity stammers, "Now? Here?" before realising she should find out what the question is first.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Damien remarked how the "Green Arrow" didn't seem to learn anything when he used telekinesis to stop an arrow like he did in the season 4 premier.
  • Quentin's first response on seeing Malcolm Merlyn is Not Quite Dead is to pull a gun on him, as he only knows him as the supervillain who caused the earthquake that destroyed half of the Glades.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: In a one-on-one battle, even Malcolm doesn't fare too well against Damien.
• Dramatic Irony: The only useful tip that comes into the HIVE hotline is that Quentin is working for Darhk, a fact that Oliver already knows but his daughter Laurel doesn't.
• Dressed Like a Dominatrix: Lampshaded.
  Malcolm: Excellent! You have your bondage outfit on.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Malcolm Merlyn (with Thea) and Damien Darhk (with his wife and daughter).
• Evil Can Not Comprehend Good: Darhk assumes that if he kills Oliver's loved ones, he'll lose his motivation to fight, unaware what Oliver is capable of when he's pushed hard enough.
• Evil Is Petty: Darhk sends a military drone to shoot up the bay restoration, something that actually helps his overall goals, just because Oliver refused to take his Deal with the Devil. He does it again after Oliver exposes him in retaliation for that incident by attacking his holiday party and kidnapping those closest to him with the intention of killing them. Darhk's partners in H.I.V.E. call him out on this.
• Evil Versus Evil: Malcolm Merlyn aka Ra's al Ghul vs. Damien Darhk.
• Grand Romantic Gesture: Rather than the Wacky Marriage Proposal he planned at the beginning of the season, Oliver proposes to Felicity in front of the cameras during a public ceremony to turn on the Christmas tree. It's a Take That! to Damien Darhk that doesn't go unchallenged.
• I Have No Brother
  John Diggle: This isn't you, Andy. The man I knew pulled me out of dark waters, convinced me to keep going when I didn't see the point.
  Andy Diggle: No, what you didn't see, what you failed to see is the man I really am, right in front of you the whole time.
  John Diggle: So my brother's a Ghost? Fine, we'll treat you like a ghost.
• Identity Impersonator: Felicity points out that Oliver surrendering himself—even to find out where they are being held prisoner—is stupid because Darhk is bound to wonder why The Cavalry doesn't include the Green Arrow. Turns out Malcolm Merlyn has no problem donning the costume to help rescue his daughter.
• Instant Expert: Oliver brings Taiana to the Amazo because she's a diving instructor, but some short instruction is apparently all it takes to enable Oliver to free dive down there and find what he's looking for. Penetration diving (in this case, swimming inside a wreck) is a high risk activity because you can't just surface if you get into trouble. At the very least Oliver should have had Taiana along with him.
• Internal Reveal:
  • Laurel learns that her father is Oliver's mole in H.I.V.E.
  • Quentin in turn finds out about Malcolm Merlyn being alive.
    Malcolm: Suffice it to say, I'm a little less dead than most people think.
  • Donna and Felicity find the engagement ring that Oliver had bought for Felicity.
  • Felicity discovers Donna's romance with Quentin.
• It's All My Fault: Lampshaded by Laurel when Oliver starts doing this after his friends are kidnapped.
• Kick Them While They Are Down: During a montage of the Green Arrow trying to get information from the Ghosts, he's shown repeatedly kicking a Ghost after he is down, something that had seriously disturbed Oliver when Thea was doing it.
• Layman's Terms: Averted when a blonde kid at the bay cleanup understands Felicity's technobabble perfectly.
  Laurel: She's like a mini you!
• Mood Dissonance: While Oliver and Felicity celebrate in the limo, they're suddenly stopped by a duo of jeeps... driven by Ghosts. As they begin to unload their guns into Oliver's ride, we cut to a scene of Darhk sneaking quietly into another person's home, just as Oliver manages to push his dead driver aside and take the wheel. Once he exits and takes Felicity, her body looks riddled and a small streak of blood comes from her mouth... then cut back to Darhk, who was sneaking into his own home and happily greets his wife and child, putting the star on their Christmas tree. END MID SEASON FINALE. As noted below, the dissonance is made even more apparent by the Soundtrack Dissonance, with Little Drummer Boy playing in the background.
• A Nazi by Any Other Name: Damien Darhk favorably compares his goals for Star City to the Nazis. However, he also notes he considers them to have been monsters, just necessary ones. Note also that one of the three main characters who are stuck in the gas chamber is the show's primary Jewish character, a fact that the episode had reminded us of earlier.
• No-Sell: Darhk is the only person unaffected by the Canary Cry.
• Not so Dire: Felicity rushes to her mother when she starts shrieking while unpacking the Christmas decorations. Turns out she found the Enormous Engagement Ring that Oliver was planning to give her.
• Papa Bear
  Oliver: What are you doing here?
  Malcolm: My daughter's in danger. Shouldn't your first question be "What took you so long?"
  • Even though it means blowing his cover Quentin insists on backing up Laurel.
• Pietà Plagiarism: At the end.
• Psychic Strangle: Damien attempted to kill Merlyn disguised as the Green Arrow, only for Oliver to interrupt him.
• Self-Restraint: Team Arrow are wondering if they should free the HIVE prisoners from their cells when all the doors unlock and the 'prisoners' attack them en masse.
• Shoot the Television: When Oliver gives a press conference exposing Damien Darhk and HIVE to the world, we see Darhk glowering at a television screen which suddenly shatters through magical means or just the force of Darhk's Death Glare!
• Shout-Out:
  • The magical Big Bad smugly catches an arrow, only for it to be an explosive arrow that blows up his face? Seems familiar.
  • Cutaways to Darhk aside, the final scene plays out incredibly similar to the ending of On Her Majesty's Secret Service.
• So Happy Together: After Oliver proposes to Felicity, from then on it's just a matter of waiting for the other shoe to drop.
• Soundtrack Dissonance: The final scene has Oliver and Felicity getting ambushed by H.I.V.E. Ghosts while riding in a limo, all while the cheery Little Drummer Boy plays in the background.
• Spanner in the Works: Darhk and his partners are not happy that Oliver outed H.I.V.E.'s existence to Star City via a press conference.
• Swiss-Cheese Security:
  • Once again, Malcolm just walks into the lair.
  Malcolm: Honestly, Oliver, this place is even easier to break into than your last lair.
  • Diggle hires some burly ex-US Marines to protect Oliver's Christmas party. When Darhk turns up, he sends the guns flying from their hands with only a gesture, then brags of having killed the guards outside.
• Tempting Fate: Oliver is trying to explain to Felicity that he didn't propose because things are dangerous.
  Felicity: But I chose this life and I chose you and I can't understand why we can't have both? (gunfire breaks out)
• Threatening Shark: Used for a Commercial Break Cliffhanger when Oliver is swimming back from the Amazo. However it just takes a nasty bite and then ignores Oliver because he's not to its taste.
• Title Drop: Diggle drops the title of the episode while speaking to his brother.
• Trailers Always Spoil: The final scene of the season premiere has Oliver at a gravesite, Barry arriving to apologize for missing the funeral, and is set 6 months in the future from the main events of the episode. This episode is explicitly set three months after that episode, so either Felicity hangs on for another three months, she recovers and is subsequently killed, or it's not her grave.
• Unexplained Recovery: Darhk gets shot with two arrows and has an explosive arrow go off right next to his face, but he is shown alive, well and without a single scar in the next scene. Then again, he was chanting some sort of spell just before the explosion went off....
• Villainous Breakdown: Darhk has one when Ollie hosts a press conference telling the city that Darhk and H.I.V.E. are the ones trying to destroy the city - he even uses his magic to destroy his TV in a fit of rage.
• Weaksauce Weakness: Darhk directs his telekinesis through his hands so when Malcolm pins him to the ground with arrows to his shoulders, he can't just levitate them out or the explosive that has been planted right next to him.
• Wham Episode: Oliver proposes to Felicity, who is subsequently seriously wounded by a H.I.V.E. hit squad minutes later.
• Wham Shot: HIVE has an Underground City under Star City.
• Where the Hell Is Springfield?: Damien's dialogue explicitly places Star City on the West Coast, ignoring hints in prior episodes that it was in the Midwest. This tends to indicate Central City is also situated more toward the West, otherwise the characters (including Barry) wouldn't be jaunting between them so nonchalantly.
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Things might have gone a lot better if Malcolm Merlyn had just cut Darhk's throat while he was pinned to the floor.
• Window Love: Felicity can be seen mouthing a Dying Declaration of Love to Oliver as the gas chamber fills with Deadly Gas. Fortunately Laurel breaks the glass with her Canary Cry.
• Would Hurt a Child: The HIVE helicopter drone opens fire on the clean-up regardless of the fact that there are children there. Only a Diving Save by Oliver stops mini-Felicity from being shot, and the only reason no-one gets killed is because Felicity hacks into the drone and causes it to crash into the bay.
• You Can't Thwart Stage One: Actually, Damien's conversation with his partners reveals that whatever they're planning, it's already on Stage Four.
• You Said You Would Let Them Go: It's no surprise when Darhk doesn't keep his word—not that he actually gave it anyway, as he points out. Fortunately Oliver knows this and has had himself implanted with his tracking nanites so Laurel and Malcolm can rescue everyone.