TV Review: ARROW: Season 4, Episode 22: Lost in the Flood [The CW]

The CW‘s Arrow Lost in the Flood TV Show Review. Arrow: Season 4, Episode 22: Lost in the Flood, had Team Arrow juggling multiple threats besides impending nuclear apocalypse. Nothing went exactly as planned. In fact, we actually saw crazy Lonnie Machin (Alexander Calvert) score one for the good guys, but, in a bad way.

The episode opens with Oliver (Stephen Amell) and Diggle (David Ramsey) barely escaping a magic-induced cave in where they witnessed Damien Darhk (Neal McDonough) transform from mere mortal to powerful entity. Darhk finally explained his true ambition: to become a god. As if that was not known, the flashbacks reiterated how seductive the powers of the idol are. Taiana (Elysia Rotaru) was taken over by the power of the dead on Lian Yu. The emotional, but determined Taiana was driven by her own need to change her home village’s reality. Oliver was able to temper her resolve only a little. The experience left Oliver with the sense that even good people who possess the power of the idol became drunk and insatiable with power. 

With Felicity’s help, Oliver and Diggle discovered Tevat Noah, Darhk’s underground ark. It was filled with Darhk and Ruvé’s (Janet Kidder) chosen followers. We actually heard one family man -totally sober- describe his belief in Darhk’s vision due to a need to find hope for his family in a city turned upside down with fear. Maybe we can not blame the man for seeking shelter where he believed he would protect his family for good. We can blame the man for volunteering to turn a blind eye to the destruction of the human race.

We could tell Diggle was disgusted by the man’s reasoning. The exchange affected Oliver differently. Placing his faith in Darhk, like everyone else in the sanctuary, was not brave or evil. Rather it was pathetic, and only made Oliver sympathetic. In the end, we wanted those people saved if only so they could see the error in their judgment for believing in a mad man who wants to blow up the world.

The immediate issue that brought the brothers (yes, I called Oliver and Diggle brothers) to Tevat Noah was to rescue Thea who just needed a kick in the head to clear her mind. Why do they keep drugging this girl? She will end up with brain damage. More than that, she rarely controls her own fate when it comes to the men who love her, which is frustrating. Daddy Dearest, Malcolm (John Barrowman), is due for another beatdown. (Cheers to Oliver for threatening to take his head.) Thing is, Malcolm always finds himself to be useful (and Barrowman plays this part like a huggable porcupine). So, he got to keep his head this time, and led the exodus of “prisoners/believers” to safety outside the ark.

The action was great in this episode. The foot chase in Tevat Noah alone was worth the watch with Green Arrow and Spartan both engaging in some parkour. Green Arrow was acrobatic and shooting arrows again. Also, we have not seen Diggle move like that since the beginning of the season! Such a great action-packed episode complete with explosions aplenty.

Meanwhile Felicity, Noah (Tom Amandes), and Curtis (Echo Kellum) worked hard at playing digital keep-away with Rubicon. Darhk employed a familiar hacker to counteract Felicity & Co.’s actions – none other than Cooper Seldon (Nolan Gerard Funk). We have not seen him for a while, but he certainly had not lost his skills. While Felicity was busy cyberfighting her ex-boyfriend Cooper, the drama with Felicity’s family revealed something interesting.

Here were Felicity, Noah and Curtis struggling to save the world, and Donna (Charlotte Ross) was nursing her jealousy about Noah being back in Felicity’s life in any capacity, even as an anti-hero. Come to find out, Noah never left his family. Donna actually took Felicity away from Noah. We get the sense, especially with this episode ending the way it did, that this family drama is going to play a major role in the finale. (As an aside, the only problem I had with these scenes was that the tech heroes were saving the world with one hand while chugging beer with the other. Can you get more nonchalant?).

Finally, big bad Lonnie Machin killed Ruvé! (Is it bad that I cheered, loudly, at this development? It was just so unexpected. She is usually protected.) Of course it was horrible that Machin threatened a child, but Ruvé was a problem. Thing is, Machin might have killed Darhk’s only motivation for harboring any benevolent feelings. Darhk seemed to have lost his will to save even a small subset of society. In fact, he wants to “bring hell to us”. Well, we will just see about that Mr. Darhk.

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