Spoilers Arrow - Season 4

[dahj]

I remember a scene that pretty clearly showed Darhk putting two and two together. It happened not long before the holiday break, but I can't name the episode.

You are misremembering something, there was a scene where Darhk had Green Arrow tied up and said something like "mind if I take a peek under the hood, I have my suspicions but I want them confirmed", however Oliver gets away then, and then after that the winter finale was the episode where Merlyn dressed as Green Arrow rescues Oliver.
So even if he thought Oliver was GA, he now "knows" he isn't.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Darhk knows that the Arrow is Oliver, but it's assumed that The Green Arrow is someone else?

Oliver therefore has connections to team arrows information without being on team arrow "currently".

Although talking to the wife, he was all but screaming "I am the green Arrow!!!"

And seriously, Merlin is selling out Oliver's son, but he's not revealing that Oliver is the Green Arrow?

The move Oliver and Malcolm worked out to take out Ras Al Ghul last year was that Malcolm pretends to betray Oliver to Ras as to earn his trust, and wedge himself into the baddies inner circle.

This of course would require, Malcolm to have forgiven Oliver for taking the league and a hand in a matter of minutes, before running to Darhk to tell tales.

 

[DigificWriter]

Malcolm is despicable a lot of the time, but he does have SOME honor when it comes to Thea. ot outing Oliver means that Darhk can't "put two and two together" and work out who the rest of Team Arrow are and go after them specifically, which keeps Thea safe while she's not in costume.

 

[Gaith]

And if you are going for the lightness when are they finally going to freaking have him make chili?

How's he supposed to chill when the last of his blood family, his little sister, is putting herself in danger on a regular basis, along with the rest of his built family, including his fiancee? None of them can shrug off a broken arm, or worse, like Barry can.

This is a fundamentally grim show, but the writers have lost their ability to make that grimness compelling, and the goofy reincarnated Egyptians and time-travel shenanigans aren't helping. When Barry can casually jog over to Nanda Parbat (over the entire Pacific Ocean, or up via Alaska to Russia to wherever?!), just how scary is Darkh and his brainwashed civilian minions?

 

[Christopher]

When Barry can casually jog over to Nanda Parbat (over the entire Pacific Ocean, or up via Alaska to Russia to wherever?!)

In the comics, he can run over water. I think we've seen him do that for a comparatively short distance on the show, but in the Superman: The Animated Series episode "Speed Demons," we see him running across oceans multiple times in the course of the Flash-Superman Race.

 

[Gaith]

^ I rest my case.

 

[The Old Mixer]

How's he supposed to chill when the last of his blood family, his little sister, is putting herself in danger on a regular basis, along with the rest of his built family, including his fiancee? None of them can shrug off a broken arm, or worse, like Barry can.

Think you may have misread "make CHILI" as "CHILL". Busy superheroes need to feed themselves, and the show focuses plenty on the characters out of costume. There's no reason that they can't have Oliver making chili in his downtime.

Now if he has a chili cook-off with Team Flash and the Legends of Tomorrow, that might be a sign that he's not taking his crimefighting responsibilities seriously enough. But I'd still like to see it.

 

[DarKush]

How's he supposed to chill when the last of his blood family, his little sister, is putting herself in danger on a regular basis, along with the rest of his built family, including his fiancee? None of them can shrug off a broken arm, or worse, like Barry can.

This is a fundamentally grim show, but the writers have lost their ability to make that grimness compelling, and the goofy reincarnated Egyptians and time-travel shenanigans aren't helping. When Barry can casually jog over to Nanda Parbat (over the entire Pacific Ocean, or up via Alaska to Russia to wherever?!), just how scary is Darkh and his brainwashed civilian minions?

For one, Oliver doesn't have a problem with Thea suiting up as Speedy now, and she has shown that she can handle herself so its not something he's necessarily fretting. And the show does shrug off stuff like Oliver being mortally wounded by Ra's and then falling off a cliff, but he's back. Malcolm shook off what probably should've been fatal injuries at the end of Season 1. Sara came back from the dead. Thea was near death and came back. And it's likely that Felicity will be walking again soon.

The show was grim... in the first two seasons, but by the end of third they made an effort-albeit in a clumsy fashion-to make Oliver lighter. His smiling as he and Felicity drive off on a sunny trip at the end of Season 3. The domestic bliss at the start of Season 4. Oliver adopting the name Green Arrow. More screen time given to Felicity and her quips. Curtis added to the show to help with the tech and the banter for Felicity. So there are attempts to lighten the show. It's just uneven attempts, because Darhk isn't a chummy or lighthearted villain.

 

[Mr Light]

I would argue Darkh is a lighthearted villain. He jokes around. Ra'sh was the lump.

 

[The Old Mixer]

The real question is whether or not Darkh's chili is better than Oliver's.

 

[Thestral]

"Damian Darkh... YOU HAVE FAILED THIS CHILI!"

 

[dahj]

Well Oliver's chili is always on point, but Darhk's chili has that magic touch... it's a tough call.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Dr. Stein has the spiciest chili, but be careful, he might slip something extra into it.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Dr. Stein has the spiciest chili, but be careful, he might slip something extra into it.

Only if he wants you to take a trip.

 

[Thestral]

Barry's chili is excellent, but runs right through you.

Dr. Wells will help you make the very best chili and then take the credit.

 

[DarKush]

I would argue Darkh is a lighthearted villain. He jokes around. Ra'sh was the lump.

Interesting Mr. Light. In a way I see what you're saying because I don't think that Darhk comes across as this bad ass, scary villain that some people see, and what I think the writers want us to believe. However from his actions he's not a lighthearted villain. I mean he almost gassed Felicity to death, he had her shot up and paralyzed, he's killed countless people, and he's kidnapped William. McDonough's touch might be light at times in how he approaches the character, and I can assume that's intentional. Or maybe that's just my take on it. And he's really supposed to be this vicious guy that I'm just not seeing or buying.

I agree with you on Ra's. Just wrong casting. Nothing against Nable per se, I thought he matched up well physically against Amell, and he might make a great villain in another role, but he didn't have the gravitas for Ra's. Malcolm and Deathstroke have been the best villains so far on the series.

 

[Kai "the spy"]

I'd say it's obvious Darhk is one hell of an evil bastard, but he does have a sense of humor.

 

[Gaith]

Nable did exactly what was asked of him - have dignity and be world-weary. When he said he was ready to retire, did anybody doubt him? The trouble was, his threat to Starling City wasn't revealed until the end of the season, and when it was, it was laughably arbitrary. ("You must murder your own hometown, because them's the rules, even though I hate Darkh because he himself murdered some other town; that was just wrong.")

Motivation-wise, Darkh's not much better so far. If he wants to poison the whole world, why do it from Star City, right under ARGUS' nose? (Not that they've actually ever done anything, but still.) It's like how Batman Begins needed us to believe Liam telling us that Gotham was the world's most corrupt city. (Really? In all the world? The one city our hero just happens to be from? That's awfully convenient.)

Malcolm hated the Glades because his wife was killed there, and Slade was just off his rocker enough to target all of Oliver's hometown because of his grudge against him. Neither were motivations for the Villain Hall of Fame, maybe, but at least they made basic narrative sense.

 

[The Old Mixer]

A villain can be dark and scary and still project humor. Joker, anyone?

 

[Christopher]

I've been looking at the publicity photos for the upcoming Vixen episode (beware minor spoilers at the link), and I've realized there's a very slight continuity issue. Namely, the length of Vixen's hair. Reportedly the Vixen web series took place somewhere around Arrow episode 3x16, and since the shows tend to be set in roughly real time, that would mean that 11 months have passed since we saw Mari in the web series. Her hair was quite short then, barely past the nape of her neck in back. Allowing for the curls in the publicity photos, it looks at least a foot longer now. But human hair typically grows at about 6 inches per year, and some sources I checked say that African hair grows the most slowly (though one site said that's largely an illusion due to its tight curls). So her hair would've had to grow at least twice as fast as normal in order to get that long in 11 months.

Now, I can understand the actress not wanting to cut her luxurious locks for a single guest appearance, but it's possible to hide long hair under a short wig (as Jennifer Lien did as Kes in the first two and a half seasons of Voyager, for instance). And Vixen is pretty consistently depicted as short-haired in the comics. So it's a bit odd that they went for this look.

(Maybe Mari summoned the power of an animal that grows its hair rapidly?)

Another odd thing: The press-release text accompanying the photos bills Megalyn Echikunwoke as "Megalyn E.K." IMDb has that down as her nickname, but she's apparently never been billed that way professionally, and she certainly wasn't in the animated Vixen. Probably that was just for brevity in the press release and photo captions, but we'll see what credit she uses in the upcoming episode.