Arrow "Haunted" (REVIEW)

written by Jacob Chimilar (@sweetlows)

This week on Arrow we find Sara on a killing spree of sorts. While Laurel is trying to track her down eventually she is caught by Team Arrow and the reveal of Sara being alive is given to Oliver. He is of course quite upset about the whole thing. Who'd have thought that keeping secrets from the people you care about is a bad thing!? Arrow never does that... wait yes it does. Do these people never learn!? But I digress. Now the cat is out of the bag and much like Diggle telling Oliver about HIVE, Oliver has a trick up his sleeve. That trick coming in the form of John Constantine, played by Matt Ryan who played the character on the cancelled NBC show. I personally haven't watched it but DAMN is he great. I may very well go back and watch it because he was easily the best part of the entire episode.

John Constantine

It turns out that Sara is trying to kill people who look like Thea, given that she was the one to kill her in the first place, she has a personal score to settle with her and on several occasions she gets the jump on Thea. Thea thinks it is because they share a sort of homing beacon in that they both have used the Lazarus Pit and knows the only way Sara can end her blood lust is to kill Thea. Of course Oliver and Laurel won't let that happen and after the first attack she ends up in the hospital where she once again is attacked my Sara. They devise a plan to trap her and use the old Verdant building to ambush her and take her down. Oliver takes her down and calls in his favor with John Constantine. How did he get this favor?

We find out that John was on the island at the same time as Oliver. He was captured by the military group. He tells them he has an artifact he is looking for and Oliver is tasked with helping him find it and return it back to base. Through their conversations we learn that he is an angel sent to earth to collect and store valuable magical artifacts away from ordinary folk. It' plays very much likes something out of Indiana Jones but with magical powers. They go through a cave and dodge booby traps and get the loot. Oliver saves John's neck and says he owes him one for all his help. Jumping forward to the present where Oliver calls in that favour to help bring Sara's soul back and in turn bring her back to normal.

This leads to a really cool sequence in which Oliver and Laurel with John; entering a sort of spirit world where Sara's soul is trapped and its up to them to defeat the enemies holding her hostage and bring her back. It's the kind of spiritual reality stuff that the show has been embracing more and more lately and it keeps paying off every time. It's nice to see the show really getting on board with other worldly things and embracing the weird.

Meanwhile Captain Lance is tasked by Damien Darhk to go into a military server room and install a sort of virus into the system that he promises will not make the city fall apart. Lance takes this information to Team Arrow and they hand over the duties of back up to Diggle. He isn't too pleased but like the rest of the team knows that he is on their side and wants to take Darhk down just as much as they do. They go to the server room and find that it is deleting the profiles of a lot of people, including a file on Diggle's brother. Lance confronts Darhk about it and it turns out that he was a drug dealer in Afghanistan and that Darhk had his own agenda's there that clashed with Diggle's so he was terminated for his own good. Lance reports back to Diggle and despite hearing the bad news, he is ultimately satisfied with why his brother died and can rest a little easier knowing the circumstances. This doesn't mean they are off the hook, not by a long shot. Darhk is going down anyway and that promises to be a wonderful showdown.

While all that is going on Curtis is doing his best to crack the code Ray implanted in his final message to Felicity. Hopped up on energy drinks he calls in Felicity and plays back the message. He's alive, and in trouble. That's how the episode leaves it and another "Legends of Tomorrow" is brought back from the dead. That brings the tally up to 4 with Firestorm, Sara, Captain Cold (eventually), and now Ray up and at em with a glimpse at the character who will play Hawkgirl as the barista this week on Flash. Unlike the Marvel movies that feel a bit more stuck in setting up everything for the next one that sets up the next one etc. Arrow and Flash have so much time to use up they can do their own thing and set up a new show without it completely taking over the shows. Instead it just adds a new layer to the stories.  

The addition of Constantine is a very welcome one. One that the showrunner says is designed as a one off, which is really unfortunate because he added a wonderful magical energy to the show. Overall this was a cool episode that brought Sara back, the fate of Ray is revealed and Diggle gets some much needed closure.