TV Review: ARROW: Season 4, Episode 20: Genesis [The CW]

The CW‘s Arrow Genesis TV Show Review. Arrow: Season 4, Episode 20: Genesis revealed Darhk’s (Neal McDonough) plan for world annihilation. Finally! Oliver (Stephen Amell) has discovered a weapon to counteract Darhk’s magic. Yes! A family feud ended in fratricide. What?! That’s right, let me get right to the shocker. John Diggle (David Ramsey) killed his baby brother, Andy (Eugene Byrd). Honestly, I did not want to see Andy die. I kept believing Andy would snap out of it and turn on Darhk. I kept believing right up to point where John shot him point-blank.  To be fair, Andy forced John’s hand. John had to choose between trusting that his brainwashed, homicidal brother could change or protecting his family. Is that a choice, really?

With this incredibly heartbreaking development, I feel like Arrow is dedicated to realism lately – the type of realism from early seasons. All the flashbacks belonged to the fallen. Remember Tommy (Colin Donnell)? Remember Moira Queen (Susanna Thompson)? These were deaths that rocked the team to the core. Now, Laurel, and Andy are brutally taken from this world. Arrow scribes must be reminding us that even in this new reality, which includes resurrection magic, there still must be fatal consequences. People in Star City do die, heroes included. Andy’s situation showed that not everyone can be saved either.

Oh and…did Diggle just lie to Lyla (Audrey Marie Anderson)? Andy never grabbed the gun. He told Oliver the truth, but, no doubt a lie like that will eat at Diggle. Lyla is a strong woman as evidenced by her fight in this episode. (By the way, I have been a fan of Anderson since her days on The Unit). She could handle the truth. Diggle obviously could not handle her knowing the truth.

In Hub City, Oliver learned how to repel Darhk’s magic with “light”. At first it seemed like a wasted trip to meet the shaman, Fortuna (Gabriella Wright), because Oliver could only focus on all the horrible things that have happened in his past. He has seen a lot of tragedy and bloodshed. He was the cause of a lot of bloodshed. Fortuna warned him that too much darkness in the soul is only fuel for his enemies. In the end, darkness can only be repelled by light – a rule Diggle urged Oliver to consider.

Oliver had to dig deep to gather the light memories inside of him in order to shield himself against Darhk’s powers. This strategy was surprising only because all the teaser trailers and end credit clips leading up to Canary Cry all indicated that Oliver would return to his darker self in order to defeat Darhk. Instead, the threat of Darhk has propelled Oliver into an odyssey to find his own light, which has been the major theme for most of the first half of this season.

Meanwhile, Thea (Willa Holland) went on vacay only to end up trapped. Thinking she was on a getaway with her boyfriend Alex (Parker Young), he actually drugged her and planted her into the artificial, underground compound that Darhk built in order to protect a chosen few from his plan to destroy the world. See! I knew there was something strange about Alex. I said it! We could not trust Alex. Granted, he was drugged and mind controlled as well but, point is, I knew he was a danger from the start. Also, the whole Thea-Alex segment felt like a scene out of Wayward Pines….wait a minute….was  I watching Wayward Pines?

Finally, Project “Genesis” was revealed to be a plan to destroy the world by fire, just as in the eponymous book in the bible, the world was once destroyed by water in order to start anew. Darhk’s plan has always been to tear down this world and create a new one. He promised Oliver that much. By serving Darhk, Malcolm Merlyn (John Barrowman) was promised that his daughter would have a cabin on the “ark” Darhk built. By now, we know…Darhk keeps his promises. To complete his plan, all Darhk needed was the means to light a fire, and thanks to Lyla and A.R.G.U.S., he now has one.

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