Arrow Episode 4.04 Recap and Preview for the Constantine Episode!

Arrow episode 4.04 recap and preview for the Constantine episode

As some drug dealers prepare for a large shipment, police enter their inconspiuous hideout and gun them all down. They collect the drugs just as even more cops enter the building, prompting them to draw their weapons and fire on their fellow officers. Thea and Laurel enter a dusty old office, which previously belonged to Sebastian Blood during his mayoral race. In waiting for Oliver to arrive, they agree to not tell him about Sara’s resurrection, because why should they? Oliver and Felicity enter after Diggle makes his way inside and Oliver breaks the news to them, they bought this office because he’s running for mayor, a position that he is quickly badgered about by his other Team Arrow members. Though he expected a warmer reception, Oliver hasn’t given up simply because his friends questioned him. He then shows them the really cool part, the brand new Arrow Cave in the basement, and it’s certainly an upgrade. An alarm goes off about the gunned-down cops, prompting Oliver to go visit Captain Lance.

There was plenty of evidence at the crime scene, but due to a lack of manpower, there’s not much the SCPD can get done. Captain Lance hands over a piece of evidence to Oliver when he offers to help, and gets a hearty laugh when Oliver tells him his plan to run for mayor. On the island, Oliver sets up the woman he saved inside of a cave and tells her he’ll need her help in earning the guard’s trust. At Palmer Tech, Felicity goes to see Curtis, who tries guessing the identity of the Green Arrow (thinking its a Palmer Tech employee named Neal Adams, a reference to the legendary Green Arrow artist). Felicity asks Curtis if he’s playing a joke on her phone, and though he denies it, reveals he knows the origin of this text as being from one of Ray’s inventions. He quickly realizes that its part of a fail-safe protocol that recorded Ray’s final moments before he died. Before she can fully breakdown in tears, Felicity gets a text from Oliver and leaves.

At the All-New Arrow Cave, Felicity takes the sim card that Captain Lance provided and traces it to its original location, shockingly, a warehouse. Diggle, Thea and Oliver all enter and find mostly nothing, until they come across a room filled with weapons, armor, and SCPD uniforms. The killers weren’t gangs but cops. Meanwhile, Laurel leads Captain Lance down to the basement of her building to show him something, the feral Sara chained up. Laurel is confident that with some TLC that Sara will be back to normal soon, but Lance isn’t so sure, and his suspicions are confirmed when Sara attacks Laurel with her chains.

Team Arrow contemplates who on the SCPD is compromised as the power begins to flicker in the room before concocting an idea to use Thea’s old drug dealers as a way to lure them out. Oliver goes to see Lance to tell him there are crooked cops in his department, which goes over kind of okay given their rocky history. He also tells him that they’ve secured some drugs and he should let it leak out that they’re being stored at a location. Lance agrees but only if he can be present to bring them in himself. Back on the island, Oliver returns to camp and tells them about killing the woman and the unfortunate circumstance of the other soldier being killed. They don’t entirely believe him, however, and ask to see the body, which Oliver agrees to. Thea and Diggle wait by the van as Oliver, Laurel, and Captain Lance stand in position for the crooked cops. The ESU van enters and opens fire as soon as it enters the frame. Team Arrow engages and though they get some good hits in, these cops were prepared with tech to take them out. The cops make off with the drugs like taking candy from a baby, which they have also probably done.

Lance returns to the new Arrow Cave with the team and reveals he reinstated the Anti-Vigilante Task Force, hence the cop’s extra firepower. He gives them team unrestricted access to the department’s computer network before heading back to the station. Meanwhile the dirty cops convene to inspect their haul, and talk about the forming problem of Captain Lance. One suggests they take him out, and despite having shot two officers at the top of the episode, “Lady Cop” (her given name in the source material!) says that’s out of the question. Felicity goes back to see Curtis, who has no idea how to crack the password except that Felicity definitely knows it. She confides in him that she and Ray were an item and that reliving his last moments isn’t something she wants to do. He can sympathize, though as his brother died years ago, he’d give anything to hear him again.

To cap off a long night of cagey meetings, Lance goes to see Damien Darhk, though they meet out in the open this time. He tells him that his daughter was resurrected via the Lazarus Pit, and Darhk has a great non-reaction to hearing this. Darhk delivers his advice about what to do, and Lance doesn’t like it: Put her down. Meanwhile, Felicity has found their first suspect in Officer Liza Warner, one of the first members of the task force and one who recently moved a lot of money into an offshore bank account. While monitoring police videos and cameras to find her, Oliver spots something else, Lance meeting with Darhk. Oliver goes to see Lance at his place to confront him about meeting with Darhk. Lance tries to explain himself, but Oliver isn’t having any of it and confides in him that he wanted to run for mayor to prove to Lance the kind of man he was, but Lance showed him his hand himself by meeting with Darhk.

On the island, Major Jerkwad grills Oliver about how he killed the girl. Seemingly satisfied with the answer, he “compliments” Oliver with how dark he is before buttering himself up to reveal he is also quite dark. All righty then. Back in the present, Thea goes to see Oliver at his office where they reminisce about good times at a Star City baseball game, and how that city may not exist anymore. Oliver begins to have doubts about his mayoral race, and no one has even tried to kill him at a political event yet. Heeding Darhk’s advice, Lance goes to see Sara and draws his gun. An emotional wreck, he points the weapon at his daughter only for Laurel to enter and talk him down. As he exits the basement he’s ambushed by Lady Cop and her dirty cops who take him away. Laurel tries to fight back but gets tazed in the neck.

The dirty cops take Lance to the city’s Contraband Disposal Facility, which is just backed to the rafters with drugs set to be destroyed, only problem is they need him to enter. Team Arrow tracks their location and sprints into action. With Lance chained up, the dirty cops start taking bushels of drugs to their vans, but Team Arrow engages them, prepared for their anti-Vigilante weapons. Oliver gets the drop on Warren, tying her up with a trick arrow, but she manages to escape and puts a knife into his back. Captain Lance uses this opportunity to talk some sense into her, to tell her that they can all believe in this city again and make it work. He manages to get through to her, and then places her under arrest. Lance enters his place the next morning to find Oliver waiting for him. Quentin tells Oliver he’s going to turn himself in, but Ollie has a different plan, stay around and help get us close to Damien Darhk. The two reveal a mutual trust for each other after four seasons and shake on it.

Oliver leads Major Jerkwad into the cave where the woman lays down, seemingly dead. He checks her vitals and confirms she’s gone, telling Oliver to get rid of the body. As he exits, Oliver wakes her up, having placed her in a state thanks to his many tricks learned on the island. Major Jerkwad walks back to base and sees a pack hidden in the brush. Digging into it, he finds Oliver’s communication device with ARGUS. Oliver enters his campaign office to find it staffed with interns and a fresh announcement speech written by Thea. That night, Oliver officially annnoucens his candidacy, running on a platform of “Unity.” As his speech closes out, we see Felicity listen to Ray’s message where he apologizes, we see Lance meeting with Darhk again, and we see Laurel going to check on Sara, who has escaped her bonds.

You can check out a preview for next week’s episode, featuring Matt Ryan as John Constantine, in the player below!