Arrow’s last episode before The Flash/Arrow crossover, “Heroes United,” reintroduces Diggle’s little brother, sheds some light on the ghosts, while Damien Darhk finds himself a new rival in Star City.
*** SPOILER ALERT ***
Wednesday night’s Arrow started with Darhk’s ghosts attacking a money shipment into Star City in order to terrorize anything that could help breathe new life into the city. He and his H.I.V.E associates want it as a staging location for their activities. Interestingly enough, Team Arrow seems to be going toe to toe with the ghosts, while Darhk continues to manipulate all the strings. In fact, one string he was very clear on was his lack of trust in Captain Lance. If you remember, I called it last week, Darhk is too smart to not notice Lance leaking information to Team Arrow.
As mentioned before, tonight Andy Diggle was reintroduced as one of Darhk’s ghosts after believing to be killed by H.I.V.E. years ago. Convenient, with the information John received last week from Lance. John is a favorite of mine, he is not only the heart of Team Arrow, but also the conscience, so it was attention-grabbing to watch him deal with coming to terms about who his brother really was.
This allowed us to also get more information on who the ghosts are. We do find out that each ghost has taken a pill that essentially gives their will over to Darhk, he, in essence, is able to mind control them. This answers a few things for me, the first being why 
they are so organized but also it addresses their lack of individualistic fighting style. If you go back and look at the fight scenes, the ghosts are superior when multiple ghosts operate in one “hive” but Team Arrow seems to have no problem in defeating them one on one. I am hoping this will lead Oliver or John to gain additional tactics to help defeat the ghosts
John had to go through some emotional growing pains when dealing with Andy. He couldn’t trust his brother, in fact he couldn’t get past what he read last week, couldn’t consider anything else. It was very heartwarming to see Team Arrow step up to support him, even when he himself didn’t want any comfort. The team itself is such a misfit crew of heroes and each of them had dealt with siblings who had come back to life or who were very different from whom they appeared to be publicly. Because of where John was, Oliver made rescuing Andy a priority, to give Diggle time to reconnect with his brother away from Darhk’s influence. Green Arrow, Speedy and Black Canary were able to locate the ghost 
hideout and rescue Andy after an intense fight scene against the ghosts. The choreography between Thea and Andy in their fight scene was beautiful. It reminded me of a similar fight last season where there was only one camera used and it followed both individuals throughout many rooms. I ended up rewatching that scene about five times now. It was really cool to watch Thea try to manage the blood lust that had been returning. You could tell that she wanted to kill, but she was managing those impulses every time it flared up. I mentioned a scene between Darhk and Thea earlier where he tells Speedy she has a technique that was taught by Malcolm Merlin, that technique didn’t protect her from Darhk’s skills. What was surprising was when Darhk tried to kill her with his touch power, it removed her blood lust and it caused Darhk to have pain, if only for a moment, that allowed her to escape. The same way Green Arrow would have been killed if not for Diggle who arrives to help his brother, “His Green one.”
I already mentioned that Damien had a new rival in Star City that would be Oliver Queen, not Green Arrow. Darhk offered to back Oliver in his campaign, suggesting that they might work together to rebuild Star City, obviously into Darhk’s vision. This was my favorite plot line of this week’s episode. Oliver wanted so badly to work with Darhk in order to get on the inside, do things the way he knows how to do them, but it’s Diggle and Felicity who has to talk sense into Oliver after all he tried the same thing last year with the league, and it ended terribly. John told Oliver instead of fighting Darhk in the shadows, Oliver & company are trying a new way of doing things. In this case, it won’t be Green Arrow who takes on Darhk, it will be Candidate Oliver Queen. I LOVE IT! We are going to see Oliver Queen mature into a public figure capable of leading both Star City along with Team Arrow.
Honorable mention goes out to Ray Palmer, as well, this evening. As of yet, he hasn’t publicly come back from the dead, he is looking for what that next adventure is supposed to be in his life. Luckily for Team Arrow, he still has time for his friends at OPS with Felicity and in the field with Green Arrow.
After the lack of last season’s ending, I was doubtful that season 3 of Arrow would be as good as seasons 1 or 2. I am now fully endorsing this show, again, as one of the best superhero shows on TV, and we are only half way through this season! In two weeks we will see The Flash/Arrow crossover, leading to Legends of Tomorrow which I am sure will affect the second half of both Arrow and The Flash. This crossover takes place Tuesday and Wednesday nights December 1st and 2nd on The Flash (Tuesday) and finishing with Arrow (Wednesday) both on at 8pm / 7 central.
