It’s Wednesday in Star City, which means some bad guys are trying to rob a truck full of money. The catch this time is that despite Team Arrow stopping the Ghosts, they weren’t trying to steal the money, but destroy it. In the Arrow Cave, our heroes postulate that Darhk wants to see Starling die to create a barren base of operations for HIVE. A solid theory, but likely not the main reason. Diggle shows the file that Lance gave him to Oliver, revealing that his brother wasn’t the nice guy that he thought he was and the circumstances of his death are perhaps a little more complicated. Back on the island, Conklin and Oliver go to see Reiter about Vlad’s death, because he would care for some reason, and Conklin reveals that the man Oliver killed was the brother of the woman he also killed (rescued), Taiana.
Ray pops by Oliver and Felicity’s loft to examine the previously-extracted tooth from the ghost, to maybe figure out how they manage to decay the DNA. Felicity tries to press him about why he won’t return to Palmer Tech, but he puts his head down and works, and finds a lead: Wolfman Biologics (named for comic writer Marv Wolfman, creator of Deathstroke, Brother Blood and many others!). At Oliver’s campaign office, Alex prepares him for the Patrolman’s Benevolent Association Gala where he’ll be delivering a speech. He also tells him to squash his hopes for cleaning up the Star City bay. Two phone calls occur here, one from Malcolm to Thea, which she ignores, and one from Felicity to Oliver, which he answers and promptly exits because of.
Team Arrow prepares to infiltrate Wolfman where a number of ghosts are present too. Laurel is able to track down the right serum that was found on the tooth, but a ghost nearly takes her head off. Diggle is able to subdue him and removes his mask, revealing none other than the previously-thought dead Andy Diggle (not to be confused with Green Arrow writer Andy Diggle, who is the namesake for the character). Andy quickly wakes up and escapes. The team tries to piece it all together back in the Arrow Cave, but nothing about it makes sense. Oliver however maintains that they won’t know what to believe about Andy until they get him out of HIVE. Back on the island, Conklin and Oliver act like little kids in front of Reiter who pulls out a diving rod to reveal who is telling the truth. It doesn’t react to Oliver and I guess moves a little in front of Conklin, prompting a family punishment and Oliver to steal a map from Reiter’s desk.
Captain Lance goes to see Damien Darhk, who is fully aware their last meeting was put together for the purposes of tracking him. As a result, he threatens Lance once again, who rolls his eyes and happens to see a note on his desk about the docks. Meanwhile, Malcolm calls Thea again and lets himself inside her apartment as soon as she answers. He knows her blood lust is about to return, so he picked out a target that no one would miss for her to take out, but she’s not keen on the idea. At the Gala, Oliver delivers his speech to the crowd in support of the SCPD and it seems to go over well. Afterward, Lance tells him about the note he saw re: The Docks at Darhk’s office. Diggle and Laurel have a heart-to-heart about dead siblings returning from the grave, and Diggle laments that he never even knew his brother anyway. As Oliver goes around shaking hands and kissing babies, okay not really, Damien Darhk approaches and introduces himself, offering to help with his campaign in exchange for working together. Darhk tells him he heard about his plans for the bay cleanup and that he should probably scrap it if he wants to run unopposed.
Felicity chastises Oliver for what is probably the worst idea he’s ever had, working with Darhk, but to Ollie he’s just using him. Lance’s link to Darhk is growing thin and they need a route inside to HIVE. She goes on to tell him that he doesn’t need to lose sight of inspiring the people of Star City as himself and not the Green Arrow. On the island, Reiter hands over a whip to Oliver so he can inact the punishment on Conklin. He pleads for Oliver not to do it, but oh boy does he do it. Meanwhile Alex and Thea go on a date and while Alex makes a phone call, a very on-the-nose creep hits on Thea, prompting her to beat the snot out of him. Alex is quite surprised by this, and Thea’s growling.
Diggle puts off calling Carly, Andy’s widow, to let her know he’s still alive. It’s simply something he can’t do. Oliver comes by his apartment to tell him about Lance’s top, and that Andy might be there. The two of them scout the area and see Darhk handing out a bowl of Cheetos- er- submission pills to some volunteers and welcoming them to HIVE. Though they make no noise and do not move, they’re spotted by the guards and a big fight breaks out. Arrow takes this opportunity to go full on Call of Duty as the (mostly) one-shot fight carries on. After the scrap, Diggle gets Oliver to safety. Felicity patches him up at the Arrow Cave afterward and Diggle is overcome with his emotions about how he never knew his real brother and that him faking his death is not something he can just forget. Oliver wants to believe there is good in him though, parroting Felicity from earlier he says he has to hold on to that hope and to take the fight to the light.
Oliver goes to see Taiana in the cave to tell her about her brother, which goes over about as well as can be expected. Take a shot every time someone on Arrow tells someone else that a family member has died. At the loft, Ray continues to experiment with the tooth and confides in Felicity that he hasn’t “come back to life” yet because he doesn’t like where the world has gone in his absence. He also reveals that he’s got a lead due to the high traces of sodium fluoride on the tooth. The ghosts are likely shacked up at the shuttered Muller Psychiatric Center. Team Arrow prepares to go to the center and when confronted by Diggle, they tell him straight up they’re going to save Andy. Diggle warns them but they’ve all made up their minds too.
At the location, there are roughly 50 ghosts, which is really just a tough workout for the likes of Team Arrow. Curtis rigged up some cameras for them to use in identifying Andy without taking off the masks of each Ghost one by one, and low and behold Thea happens to be fighting Andy once all hell breaks loose. While Laurel, Oliver, and even Ray in his ATOM suit take on the Ghosts, Thea fights Andy and sedates him. When trying to make her escape, she runs across none other than Darhk, who recognizes her training as coming from Ra’s/Malcolm. He grabs her throat, expecting to suck the life from her, but it backfires and gives her a chance to get away. Ray flies off to pick up Andy’s body and just when Oliver is almost brought down by a ghost, Diggle shows up. He’s there to save his brother, the green one.
At the Arrow Cave, Diggle thanks them for the operation, and saving Andy, while Ray says he doesn’t want to be a full team member just yet. He’s got a meeting with the Legends of Tomorrow after all. In our final trip to the island, Taiana second guesses her and Vlad’s choices that brought them to the island and Oliver pins Vlad’s death on Conklin, and he’s not wrong technically. He then shows her the map he stole and how he can use it to find what Reiter is looking for, but he’ll need her help. Malcolm comes back to see Thea where she tells him about her encounter with Darhk and how him touching her temporarily quelled her blood lust. That in mind, she wants magic help, and Malcolm’s face seems to indicate this isn’t the best idea. Diggle goes to see Andy in his Hannibal Lecter cage, to confront him about the info in his file, which Andy admits is all true. Oliver and Alex arrive at the dock for him to make an announcement about his plans for the Bay, while Thea asks Alex to be patient with her and her… temper. As Oliver speaks, he spots Darhk in the crowd and calls him out in a way only the two of them would understand. This fight won’t be won in the shadows, but in the light, and Oliver won’t stop fighting.
