Spoilers ahead for tonight’s episode of Arrow. Proceed with caution.
Wow. Arrow pulled out all the stops tonight for Episode 20, “Genesis.” Diggle finally had his final showdown with his brother, Andy, and (hopefully) took the Damien Darhk disciple down for good. We also found out what Darhk and his wife have been planning all along with the other masterminds at H.I.V.E. He truly wants to destroy the world, and took nuke codes for literally every country from Lyla’s protection, meaning that he could blow us all to kingdom come at any moment. And, Thea got some harsh first hand knowledge of just how H.I.V.E. plans to survive the end of the world, when she was tricked by Alex into entering (and then becoming trapped in) Darhk’s super-secret underground bubble city, complete with false daylight and recycled nature sounds.
While things at home were starting to go to a nuclear winter hell in a hand basket, Oliver and Felicity headed to Hub City for some magic lessons from a friend of Constantine’s. Oh, yeah. You remember Constantine, right? He and Oliver helped each other out of a sticky situation on Lian Yu years ago, and now Constantine’s time with Oliver is finally coming into play in a big way. Remember that cool, mystical tattoo that Constantine transferred from his own arm to Oliver’s well-muscled torso? Well, he finally had a reason to use that gift tonight.
Over in Hub City, Felicity and Oliver got all gussied up and went out on the town to an underground casino where they meet Constantine’s proxy magical person, Esrin Fortuna. After revealing that she’s not just some silly magic practitioner, but a freakin’ immortal shaman, she takes the former couple through a door that leads to Hub City’s mystical center, a room that happens to look a lot like the cave on Lian Yu where Oliver and Constantine fought Baron Reiter’s magical hoo-doo, complete with an idol like the one Reiter, and Darhk have used.
Esrin tells Oliver and Felicity that he will need to harness the power of light and hope within himself to fight Darhk (pun intended, I’m sure) and that he’ll need to learn how to do that, like, immediately. Now, it’s tattoo time. It will help Oliver fight Darhk’s death magic, but only if he knows how to get in touch with that inner goodness Esrin talked about. She hits Oliver with some of Darhk’s type of power to test his resistance, and it works, he’s able to repel the force. But, when Esrin ups the dose, Oliver can’t handle it and she says she can’t help him. Wow, lady, give the guy a break. Not everyone has had several lifetimes to master the light/dark divide, OK?
The most important thing may have happened late in the episode, though. When Oliver is back at home, and fighting Darhk, the evil magician tries to use his power on him…and it doesn’t work. As you can imagine, Darhk is stunned into actual silence. Hah! Take that evil dude and magic-teacher lady! With enough patience and faith in himself, it looks like Oliver may be able to avenge Laurel and take Darhk down after all.
You can catch up with the awesome happenings on Arrow Wednesdays on The CW. To keep up with the shows that are debuting over the next few months, check out our Summer TV schedule.
