Oliver and Felicity shared a tender moment before Darhk began to turn Star City upside down. (Photo property of the CW and DC Entertainment)
By: Jacob Elyachar, jakes-take.com
Over the past four seasons, Oliver Queen has been trying to take back his hometown, Star City, from the forces of darkness as his alter-ego: The Arrow.
After intense, life-changing duels with Malcolm Merlyn, Slade Wilson and Ra’s Al Ghul, Oliver decided to relinquish his secret identity and move on with his life with his true love, Felicity Smoak.
However, Team Arrow failed to keep Star City safe from evil as H.I.V.E. leader Damien Darhk set his sights on Oliver’s hometown. Forcing the artist formerly known as Arrow to come out of retirement, Oliver created a new identity (Green Arrow) and decided to take his fight to Darhk to public, when he declared his candidacy to be the new Star City Mayor.
Tonight, Oliver and Darhk squared off in the public arena for the first time! Who won? Read on to find out…
Using Alex’s advice, Oliver staged a public clean-up that attracted attention from Star City’s media elite. While Alex and Thea flirted, Oliver made a vow to Diggle that they would save Andrew from Darhk’s corrupting influence. However, things became deadly as a drone attacked the clean-up. Thanks to Felicity’s hacking skills, the drone stopped its attack and crashed into the river.
Team Arrow realized that Darhk sent the drone and Oliver became hell bent on capturing and defeating the H.I.V.E. leader. As Diggle confronted his brother about his involvement with Darhk with no luck, Felicity reunited with her mother…who found Oliver’s engagement ring in the Christmas decorations.
While Felicity’s mom was jumping for joy by the potential engagement, Oliver openly declared war on Damien Darhk and H.I.V.E. using the power of the press!
Darhk retaliated in a big way when he made a grand entrance at the Queen Holiday Party. As Oliver and Felicity bickered over the engagement ring, Darhk and his assassins stormed into the party. Darhk gloated to Oliver about the double cross and used his powers to knockout Oliver, while the Ghosts kidnapped the people he cared about the most: Thea, Felicity and Diggle.
As Oliver looked for answers, Laurel confronted her father about his involvement with Darhk. Captain Lance spilled the beans to his daughter about his involvement with Darhk’s campaign. The Lances and Malcolm met with Oliver to discuss his plan to surrender himself over Darhk.
While the villain brought the Star City mayoral candidate into his evil headquarters, he threatened Oliver with H.I.V.E.’s new weapon: a gas chamber. As Darhk left Oliver alone, fans everywhere were brokenhearted when Felicity told Green Arrow that she would have said: “Yes” to his proposal. However, their reunion was cut short when Dahrk double-crossed Oliver and forced Felicity into the chamber with Thea and Diggle.
Team Arrow received a lucky break when Black Canary and “Green Arrow” (aka Malcom Merlyn) rescued them from Darhk. Just before the H.I.V.E. leader knocked Oliver six feet under, another “Green Arrow” promptly shot the villain with an exploding arrow and it caused a major explosion.
While Darhk did survive the explosion, this season’s antagonist revealed to his H.I.V.E. supervisors his progress and declared it was time to begin Phase Four. As the villains plotted what to do with Oliver Queen, the Star City Mayoral Candidate proposed in front of the thousands gathered at a Queen for Mayor holiday celebration.
Unfortunately, their engagement was ruined by the Ghosts’ gunfire and they seemingly killed Felicity.
With Felicity near death’s door, will Oliver go rogue and kill Darhk? Find out when Arrow returns January 20!
