Arrow - 'Beacon of Hope', 'Eleven-Fifty-Nine', 'Canary Cry' and 'Genesis'

"Is Felicity doing something different with her hair?"

Okay, it's been a few days since we watched these, but we are now and until about 8 o'clock tonight up to date with Arrow's UK broadcasts.

In 'Beacon of Hope', Felicity has turned her attention to saving PalmerTech from the vultures on the Board when she, Thea and her mother are trapped in the building by the robobee minions of the Bug-Eyed Bandit (first seen in The Flash.) Afflicted with a tumour, Brie Lardan wants the neural activator which allows Felicity to walk (oh, I think I forgot to mention that she regained the use of her legs just in time to walk out on Oliver) and is willing to kill pretty much everyone to get it.

With a swarm of her bees defending the building and bee puns raining thick and fast, it is up to Curtis Holt to track down the Green Arrow and take Felicity's usual place on the team, before Brie works out that it was Felicity who thwarted her in Central City or kills Oliver with either micro-replicating bees or the equally creepy 'man made of robot bees'.

Weirdly, it would actually have made more sense to have Cisco guest in this
episode.

In 'Eleven-Fifty-Nine', the shadow that has been looming finally falls. Ruve Adams becomes mayor, despite a massive write in vote for Oliver, and offers Laurel the DA position. She ponders the pros and cons - working for the enemy vs. being inside the enemy camp.

Malcolm Merlin moves to break Damien Darhk out of prison. The Team is decoyed by a raid, allowing Merlin and a group of his men to steal the broken totem back. It looks as if Team Arrow have outsmarted him, as the totem is incomplete, but a traitor in their midst - Andy Diggle, curse his adorably boyish face - is able to retrieve the final piece and...

Okay, before I go any further, I just have to say: Team Arrow really screwed the pooch on this one. Keeping the totem. In the Arrow Cave. With one piece missing and hidden nearby. Why not FedEx the last piece to a PO Box in Myanmar? Or give it to Sara to drop off in 2146?

"I heard there was a vacancy."

Anyway, Damien Darhk busts out of Iron Heights, and while so doing stabs Laurel in revenge for her father's testimony. She seems to recover in surgery, but complications ensue.

This leads into the dark night of the soul that is 'Canary Cry'. Amidst flashbacks and self-recriminations galore, the team must face the appearance of a new Black Canary, ruthlessly targeting Adams with a souped up cry and a gun. While Team Arrow discover that this is Evelyn Sharp, a young woman whose family were among the HIVE 'volunteers' killed while under the effects of Darhk's mind-control pills, Quentin faces the hard climb to accept that this time his daughter isn't coming back.

Apparently funerals are among the very limited daytime activities in Star
City.

Ruve Adams uses Evelyn's rampage to attack the vigilantes of Star City, at the same time pushing for Laurel to become a martyr to rally people against the likes of the Back Canary. After he manages to talk Evelyn down from the figurative ledge, Oliver gives the eulogy at Laurel's funeral - intercut with his failure to do so for Tommy Merlin between seasons 1 and 2 - and to save her true legacy he reveals to the world that she was the real Black Canary.

Finally, 'Genesis' brings us to the threshold of Damien Darhk's master plan. Swiftly culling the HIVE members who left him to rot in Iron Heights, he takes back control as Genesis approaches its culmination. Using John's anger to lure him out in pursuit of Andy, Darhk goes after Lyla, the head of ARGUS.

Meanwhile, Thea is on holiday with political adviser guy, and Felicity accompany's Oliver to Hub City to learn from immortal shaman Esrin Fortuna how to use good magic to repel Darhk's evil magic. There's a catch, however; only Oliver can do the mojo, because of the tattoo Constantine gave him, but to do it he needs the light in him to overcome the darkness, and he has a lot of darkness.

"I've seen a cave like this before. On Lian Yu."
"Well, we didn't want to just waste the set."

Throughout the course of these episodes, flashbacks have shown Oliver and Taiana struggling to keep Baron Reiter away from the totem, ultimately sealing him into the caves while the slaves flee. I mention this because Oliver talks about seeing the totem turn good people bad, and he has a vision of Taiana with her eyes glowing during training. Fortuna tells him he has too much darkness in him.

Back in Star City, Darhk comes for Lyla and she sends John away with Sara so that they can't be used against her. John fights Andy and kills him when he taunts him one too many times about going after Sara when she's too old to stay all day in a safe house. Oliver rescues Lyla from Darhk and is able to repel his magic by summoning up thoughts of Felicity and his other friends to be his good angels. Unfortunately, Darhk already has the Rubicon, designed to allow ARGUS to interrupt a nuclear launch, but adaptable to enable such a launch.

Oh, and Thea's holiday turns out to be in Star City's subterranean answer to Wayward Pines, as her boyfriend is now a full-fledged Yellow Pill.