‘Arrow’ season 4, episode 5 review: Constantine’s arrival and a John Diggle surprise
Joy. That is probably the appropriate word to describe the majority of Wednesday night’s new episode of “Arrow” entitled “Haunted,” much may go down as a personal favorite over the course of the series’ run. While it did not resolve almost anything other than the return of Sara Lance as we’ve come to know her, it gave us so many great moments thanks in part to the meeting of the minds between Oliver Queen and John Constantine.
We really hope that people out there enjoyed seeing John on the show even if they haven’t seen the now-canceled NBC show, because he is such a presence. He’s snarky and sharp-witted for sure, but above that he is exceptional at what he does, and that is understanding the mystical arts and the spiritual realm. Without him, we’re not sure that we would be able to have Sara back. It was the perfect use for the character, and Matt Ryan was fun beyond words within this universe.
Probably the more welcome surprise was the flashback story, which saw Oliver meet Constantine for the first time as the two embarked on a little mission. Also, John cautioned him about Baron Reiter in a way that was similar to what he said about Damien Darhk at the end of the episode … though perhaps not as harsh. (By the way, we do love what we are seeing from Darhk as a villain so far; he is more comical than any so far, but still nonetheless very dangerous.)
The Constantine story alone would’ve been enough to satisfy us this week (especially with all of the good story for Laurel), but “Haunted” also brought us the end of John Diggle not knowing why HIVE hired Deadshot to kill his brother. Here’s the sad news: Andy was not as honorable a man as Diggle thought that he was. They had him taken down almost out of threat reasons more so than he was some innocent bystander. He worked with Captain Lance to get this information, and he is grateful that he knows; however, at the same time we hardly feel like this is the end of this story.
Elsewhere tonight, Oliver’s campaign for Mayor is buzzing along, and he is refusing to freeze out Laurel despite whatever concerns his campaign has about questions being asked about her and Sara. Meanwhile, Felicity now knows that Ray Palmer is alive after Curtis deciphered one of his messages. There’s your cliffhanger for next week!
We have a hard time imagining anyone just outright not enjoying this episode, mostly because it did for the most part just bleed entertainment. You had action, humor, character development, and even a flashback story that mattered. Grade: A-.
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