Genesis was a biblical new beginning (especially for Phil Collins). It’s a name that’s always cropping up in science fiction most commonly around the idea of rebirth; whether that means creating life from a dead world like Star Trek’s Genesis Project or the idea of replacing a dying society with a new form of life like the awfully spelled offering from the Terminator franchise. The use of such a biblical moniker gives it a simple and effective feeling of being an epic level event. It’s a term that’s been bouncing around Arrow all season with HIVE’s Project Genesis master plan an so far it’s felt rather underwhelming. Is all that about to change?
Genesis – Damien Darhk returns to Hive with a vengeance and kick starts the final phase of Project Genesis. Oliver and Felicity travel to Hub City so Oliver can learn to resist Darhk’s magic, John lets his feelings for brother Andy get the better of him and Alex takes Thea away on a weekend break but something seems off.
This week sees the team separate for individual stories a lot more than we’ve been used to this season which is quite a refreshing change. Director Gregory Smith uses the contrast in tone of these different locations and events to keep the episode feeling lively. Once it gets going the Diggles & Lyla arc becomes very action based but cutting away from that to Oliver & Felicity swanking it up in an underground casino or Thea querying her eerie surroundings helps keep things interesting. It also doesn’t hurt that the flashbacks have taken a week off, being replaced by Oliver’s hallucinations to good effect. It’s the Diggle story that proves the most enjoyable part of the episode though; fuelled well by the personal emotional drama of Andy’s betrayal. It all boils down well to a central dilemma within John about whether or not he could kill his brother to protect Lyla and baby Sara. It’s a terrific idea but sadly the episode treads on it a little by really overplaying Andy as a maniacal villain that it’s almost surprising he isn’t swishing a black cape and cackling before walking off camera. While there are some good moments to Andy’s determination and remarks that John can’t keep his family in protective captivity forever it takes things way too far and loses the crucial moral ambiguity. Rather giving John a heartbreaking dilemma over pulling the trigger on Andy, Genesis spends most of its time convincing us that it’s ok for John to kill him. The silver lining here is David Ramsey who in a similar fashion to last week is excellent when pushed to composure breaking extremes. Even if Arrow is making Andy into a moustache twirling fiend at least John is selling us on his internal conflict which put some weight and meaning back into the outcome. Lyla also makes a good return to our screens this week when playing the voice of reason against John’s decision while still managing to be an ass kicking mom in the process.
The Oliver and Felicity in Hub City themes are fighting a battle keeping the Olicity in the bag despite many breakout attempts. Thankfully they do succeed and their scenes together feel they are supporting each other as people that care about each other rather than being forced back into romantic entanglement. Felicity’s entire purpose for tagging along as that she knows Oliver needs someone even if he won’t admit it which speaks well of their connection without taking things too far. It also serves to remind us just how much fun the two can be as a pairing when there isn’t crying and melodrama involved. There’s a lot to enjoy here as Felicity kicks ass at blackjack while they’re both swanked up (Emily Bett Rickards looks stunning in the pink). The magic lessons themselves though are mixed in their effect. The Fortuna character carries a nice presence as the immortal shaman with gambling hobbies. In fact the main gripe is the “that’s it” approach the episode seems to take. If we’re pledged the idea of extra planar Nexus points it would have been much better to see Fortuna introduced earlier in the season by giving Oliver a means of journeying to her for progressive teaching sessions across several episodes. It would have achieved the story angle pledged here and often in the flashbacks of Oliver overcoming his darkness in much more entertaining fashion. The moments we do get have their merit, especially as Oliver envisions fighting his past enemies but overall it feels like squandered potential.
Thea gets a bit of a rough time as well in that her story is little more than a plot point and the moment she starts suspecting something is off we know exactly that’s where we’re heading. While this takes some value away from the build up scenes the reveal itself is still a very good one and successfully escalates the show towards its finale which is definitely what it needs right now. It comes with a few interesting comics references too, most notably the title of next week’s episode which could refer to Thea’s current location.
While Arrow doesn’t feel in anywhere near as strong a position as its Central City counterpart this episode must be commended for doing exactly what this season needed and that is lifting the mystery of Genesis and HIVE’s plans to finally make them a more tangible threat. It’s an episode with good action and fun to it despite some story problems and overall very well presented and paced. Also is anyone else noticing how much Hub City is featuring across all the shows lately? It poses a question for Arrow’s season 5 villain.