Violet recaps the Season 4 finale of Arrow, titled Schism, where the team is in a race against the clock to stop the 15,000 nuclear missiles that Damien Darhk has deployed to destroy the world! Following the recap, both Violet and Josh share their thoughts about the episode.
Recap of Arrow, Season 4 Episode 23: Schism
We pick up where we left off at the end of last episode, with Damien Darhk confronting Donna, Felicity, and Curtis at the loft. Darhk uses his powers to throw Curtis across the room, then uses them to bring Donna across the room to him and begins strangling her. Green Arrow bursts through the window and shoots an exploding arrow at Darhk, but he uses his powers to stop it in midair, where it explodes without harming him. Darhk’s Ghosts then enter the loft and start shooting at Green Arrow. Spartan comes in and shoots back. Meanwhile, Felicity and Donna cower off in a corner. Green Arrow tries to fight Darhk, but Darhk uses his powers against him, and begins draining the life out of Oliver. Just then, Speedy comes in, holding an arrow to Darhk’s daughter, threatening to kill her unless he lets the others go. Darhk gives in, and he and his daughter leave as one of the Ghosts throws a flashbang grenade.
As Oliver checks on Curtis, Felicity realizes that the laptop with the anti-Rubicon program is gone, and that Darhk must have taken it — which means that he can launch all of the world’s nuclear missiles.
The team brings an unconscious Curtis back to the Arrow Cave. Felicity gets to work on stopping Rubicon, while the others work on stabilizing Curtis.
Later, Felicity asks Oliver why Darhk’s magic worked on him, as she thought he was able to stop it. But Oliver says that it was her hope that he had originally drawn from for his own magic. Oliver changes the subject back to Rubicon. With Rubicon offline, it is proving difficult to locate the laptop. Lyla arrives and they give her an update. Felicity locates the laptop in an abandoned office building downtown, so the team heads out.
Green Arrow, Speedy, and Spartan arrive at the office building, which appears to be Darhk’s former headquarters where we’ve seen him before. They see that 15,000 missiles have just been launched. Felicity says they have two hours max. Lyla notifies her people about the situation.
Meanwhile, Felicity gets to work on stopping a missile headed for Star City, which will be there in 45 minutes. Captain Lance enters the Arrow Cave and Felicity asks him to take her mother to a location she has determined is the safest place within 100 miles to survive a nuclear attack. Diggle and Lyla talk to Sara on the phone, and Lyla says ARGUS has a helicopter waiting to take them to her, so at least they’ll be all together. Oliver tries to convince Lyla to pull her team back from City Hall, but she doesn’t comply.
ARGUS soldiers show up in Darhk’s little cave. The Arrow team listens in as Darhk takes them all out. Just then, Felicity is able to get through Cooper’s firewalls, but before she can shut it all down, Ghosts come into the Arrow Cave shooting. The team fights back, and Malcolm Merlyn shows up to help.
Oliver tries to convince Felicity not to lose all hope. They talk about Laurel, and Oliver wonders if Laurel would still be alive if it wasn’t for him. Curtis comes to, and talks to Oliver and tells him that he and Paul were going to move out of Star City, until he saw the Green Arrow on TV. Curtis says that the Green Arrow gave him hope, and he thinks the Green Arrow can give hope to others now.
Oliver goes downtown and jumps on top of a taxi. He begins addressing the crowd, which had been rioting, with an inspirational speech about looking to each other for hope and strength. The speech is televised and broadcast live. Captain Lance, who has Donna in the car with him on the way out of town, hears the speech and stops the car.
They notice the nuke on its way to Star City. Curtis and Felicity go up to the top of the building and they are able to disarm the nuke and redirect the missile away from the city. Felicity gives Lyla the code to the line of sight hack and she gets to work on distributing it to everyone.
Diggle admits to Lyla that when he killed Andy, it wasn’t self defense. However, Lyla says he did what he had to do.
Green Arrow confronts Darhk in his cave at City Hall. Darhk and Green Arrow fight in the streets of Star City. Darhk uses his powers to throw Green Arrow around. The people of Star City form a crowd and throw things at Darhk, telling him to get out of their city. Darhk easily knocks them all down with his power. But they all get back up. Green Arrow shoots an arrow at Darhk which slices his cheek. Oliver regains his own magic power, drawing from the hope of the crowd, and he and Darhk are now able to fight on an equal playing field.
Meanwhile, Felicity, Curtis, Speedy, and Merlyn go to where Cooper is. They find him sitting at the computer. He has been shot, and tells them that Darhk is moving the bullet closer and closer to his spine, and he’ll do anything to stop it. Felicity asks for a moment alone with him. Cooper says that if he stops Rubicon, then Darhk will kill him in the most painful way possible. Felicity reminds him that when they were together 7 years ago, they wanted to save the world. She tells him this is his chance. Cooper stops his typing. Darhk senses this, and kills him, then continues fighting with Oliver.
Lyla and Spartan show up to help Oliver, but Darhk calls forth his Ghosts. The two crowds run toward each other and a huge fight breaks out. Even Captain Lance, who has returned to Star City, joins in.
Felicity and the others have a new plan: to invert the missiles so that they explode in space.
Oliver gets the better of Darhk, who taunts Oliver, asking him what he’s going to do. Oliver drives an arrow through Darhk’s heart, killing him.
The Arrow team regroups back at the Arrow Cave. Captain Lance says that he and Donna are going out of town for awhile. Thea has also decided to resign from the Arrow Team before she loses too much of herself.
Diggle tells Oliver that he told Lyla the truth about Andy, and although she understood, he himself doesn’t, and he doesn’t think he ever will. He goes on to tell Oliver he needs to take some time away from the team and the city. Oliver pleads with him, saying he’s never done this without him, and Diggle’s the one that keeps him in line. However, Diggle says it’s been the other way around lately.
Oliver visits Laurel’s grave. Felicity shows up as well. Oliver mentions that Thea and Diggle are leaving because of their own personal darknesses, and says that he can’t help but think they were infected by his. Felicity gives him a pep talk, and says that what he’s feeling isn’t darkness, it’s a schism: he’s at war with two sides of himself. Just then, Oliver gets a phone call. It’s the Chair of the City Council.
Oliver is appointed as the interim mayor until the election in August, though the Chairman is confident that the election is just a formality, considering that Oliver got 48% of the vote as a write-in candidate. Although Oliver is conflicted, he says he is ready for this. Oliver Queen is then sworn in as the interim mayor of Star City.
We see Lance and Donna driving off together. We see Thea alone, reading. We see Diggle dressed in his formal army uniform as he says his goodbyes to Lyla and Sara, in tears.
Oliver goes down to the ransacked Arrow Cave, and is surprised to see Felicity come in. She assures him that she’s not leaving. They stand there and stare at the display of the Arrow Team costumes.
Flashbacks
Oliver and Taiana run into Reiter in the woods. Reiter shoots Oliver in the leg. A plane flies overhead with the people that Reiter was keeping prisoner, though Reiter says that’s not all of them. Reiter reaches his hand toward the sky and uses his power to make it explode, killing everyone on board, and thereby giving Reiter even more power. Taiana and Reiter fight. Reiter begins to drain the life from Taiana, but she drains the life from him. Oliver stabs Reiter from behind, finishing him off. Oliver tries to tell Taiana not to let it control her mind, but she begins to strangle him. Suddenly, she realizes what she’s doing, and stops. Taiana says there is only one way to fix this: Oliver has to kill her. At first he says he won’t, but she begs him to, and reminds him of his promise. He hugs her, then breaks her neck. The other prisoners, armed, see that he has killed her. Oliver quickly explains what happened. Then he tells them that there’s another way off the island.
Amanda Waller shows up on the island. Apparently Oliver has used the comm gear to contact her. She tells him he needed to be shown that sometimes killing is the only path to justice. ARGUS packs away the totem and brings it with them. They then present him with a box filled with his possessions. He says he has a promise to keep.
Her Thoughts on Arrow, Season 4 Episode 23: Schism
I wasn’t all that excited about this season finale. First of all, it was just more of the same that’s been happening: trying to stop nukes. I guess it tried to be inspirational and epic with all its talk about hope. But I felt like this effort fell short. I just wasn’t feeling it. Then at the end of the episode, everyone decides to go away. Well, everyone except Felicity, that is. It was just an odd ending, overall. It doesn’t leave me very excited about next season.
On the other hand, getting rid of so many characters gives the show the opportunity to essentially “reboot” itself, or the Arrow Team, at least. This could be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on the new characters. I suppose Oliver will have to learn to balance being a mayor with being Green Arrow. It could be interesting. I hope it is. Because as I see it now, it’s probably going to be difficult to learn to like these new characters, after we’ve already grown so used to and fond of so many characters that are leaving. Will any of them be back, or are they gone for good? If they come back, will we see flashbacks of what they were up to while they were gone?
I guess we’ll soon see what Season 5 of Arrow has in store.
His Thoughts on Arrow, Season 2 Episode 23: Schism
COMING SOON
Scenes from Arrow, Season 5 Episode 1: Legacy
Preview of Season 5 Episode 1 of Arrow
