BWW Recap: A Dark Secret in the ARROW Brotherhood

Ollie (aka Green ARROW, played by Stephen Amell) and Diggle (David Ramsey) uncover the truth about Diggle's brother. Hint: it involves Damien Darhk (Neal McDonough), Thea (aka Speedy, played by Willa Holland) loses it and Felicity (Emily Brett Rickards) is again adorkable in this week's ep, Brotherhood. Keep your eye on the target, we'll get you caught up.

We begin with another car chase. Darhk's men are trying to steal the contents of a federal cash deposit. Black Canary (aka Laurel Lance, played by Katie Cassidy) let's go of one of her sonic canary screams as one of the guys is about to shoot the driver. The rest of Team ARROW spring into action. Speedy loses control and beats the snot out of one of the guys. The bad guys blow up all the money. Seems it was being sent in to prop up one of Star City's banks.

At the lair, Diggle shows Ollie his brother's file. Ollie can't believe Diggle's brother was a crime lord who was assassinated for stepping on the H.I.V.E.'s turf. He tells Diggle that things are not alwasy what they seem.

Flashback #1: On the island, Ollie finds out that the guy he killed in self-defense last week was the brother of the gal he helped escape and then faked her death. So, brother tries to kill Ollie for killing his sister, but sis is alive.

Felicity invites Ray Palmer (aka The Atom, played by Brandon Routh) over to the loft. The pair work on identifying the D.N.A. marker on the tooth they took from one of Darhk's men. The genetic marker is purposely degrading and it take Ray all of a minute to identify the chemical compound that was used and the company that holds its patent.

At Ollie's campaign headquarters (he's running for mayor, if you forgot), campaign manager Alex Davis (Parker Young) and Thea continue to flirt as Alex tries to brief Ollie on the policemen's ball he'll be attending later that night. Ollie leave momentarily to take a call from Felicity (she's briefing him on Ray's findings) and Alex nervously confides in Thea that he suspects Ollie is onto their budding relationship. Ollie re-enters and risks Thea away.

Team ARROW breaks into the company that holds the chemical patent. Speedy and Green ARROW battle some of Darhk's men, Black Canary quickly retrieves a vial of the chemical as Diggle takes out a guy that was about to kill Canary. I'm still not liking Diggle's helmet.

Diggle removes the guy's mask to reveal *cue shocking music* Diggle's brother. He's alive. Diggle is so shocked, his brother Andy (Eugene Byrd) easily overtakes Diggle and escapes. Of course, Andy has seen Diggle without said ugly helmet and knows the Diggle is part of Team ARROW.

At the lair, Ollie wants to go in and rescue Andy so that they can get to the bottom of why he faked his own death and --perhaps more importantly-- why he is working for Darhk. Diggle wants to write him off, though. Felicity reminds him that the Ghost who had a chance to kill him a couple of eps back but didn't? He was most likely Andy.

Flashback #2: Ollie and the other guard meet with the drug lord. Ollie tells him that the other guard put the guy up to killing Ollie. The other guard denies it. Drug lord produces some sticks and asks each man to tell him the truth. He tells the guard that the sticks say he is lying. the other guard is lead away. While the drug lord is distracted, Ollie grabs something off the guy's desk (a map, maybe?).

Darhk has summoned Det.Quentin Lance (Paul Blackthorne). Darhk is onto Quentin. He suspects that Quentin called the meeting last week so Team ARROW could tail Darhk. He tells Q that the death of a daughter is not the most terrible thing he could threaten Q with. Q sees a note on Darhk's desk that lists the docks and a time.

Malcom (John Barrowman) stops by Thea's apartment, wanting to know why she has been avoiding his calls. He's come by to help her with her bloodlust. He presents her with a file of a known pedophile whom the police have never been able to convict.

At the ball, Ollie gives a great speech. Quentin tells Ollie about the note on his desk (dude, this is so clearly a test to see if Darhk can trust you). And right on schedule, Darhk arrives at the gala and asks Ollie for a moment to discuss how he can contribute to Ollie's campaign. Ollie plays it beautifully, asking Darhk who he is (as if he doesn't already know). He wants Ollie to drop his campaign promise to revitalize the docks and threatens to run against him if he doesn't.

Back at the lair, Ollie tells Felicity he is considering working with Darhk as another means of getting the dime on what he's really up to. He's concerned since Q has lost Darhk's trust, the flow of intel is going to dry up. Felicity thinks it is a bad idea as it will jeopardize his campaign. Ollie tells her taking down Darhk is more important than the mayoral campaign.

Flashback #3: The guard who betrayed Ollie is bound and on his knees in the middle of a field. Drug lord hands Ollie a whip and tells him that Ollie with have to administer the punishment. As the man begs, Ollie proceeds to whip him.

Thea and Alex are hanging in a bar post-ball. Alex gets up to take a call and Thea gets hit on my a really sexist guy who won't take no for an answer. She slams his head into the table, throws him into a glass cooler (shattering the glass) and proceeds to pummel him until Alex shows up to ask what she's doing.

Ollie stops by Diggle's apartment to tell him about the dock. He thinks it might be a good idea to try and extract Diggle's brother. Diggle thinks it is a mistake. He accompanies Ollie anyway.

Darhk is recruiting new members. He administers a drug that makes them loyal to him (which explains why Diggle's brother is under Darhk's sway). Green ARROW and Diggle are spotted. Andy gives the orders: kill the green one. The pair run amidst the maze of shipping containers. Green ARROW shoots an arrow at one of the ghosts and as others swarm the guy, the arrow blows up and Green ARROW and Diggle escape.

At the lair, Diggle tells Ollie he needs to let Andy go. Ollie needs to believe that no one is beyond redemption. Diggle again says he just wants to take Darhk down.

Flashback #4: Ollie visits the woman he helped escape to tell her that her brother is dead. He neglects to tell her that he is the one who killed him.

Ray is still working at the loft. He's been avoiding letting everyone know he is alive because he feels like no one really missed him. But on the plus side, he at least has tracked down where Darhk is keeping his army. It turns out the tooth had an unusual amount of floride in it and he traces it to water in the shuttered mental hospital.

At the compound, Team ARROW prepares to infiltrate the mental hospital. Diggle arrives late to the party. Ollie tells him the mission is to rescue Andy, not take down Darhk's army. Diggle still thinks it's a bad idea.

Curtis (aka Mr. Terrific, played by Echo Kellum) has yet to be seen this ep, but off-screen he has developed tiny, infrared cameras which will enable the team to tell which ghost is Andy without any of ghosts taking off their masks.

Green ARROW, Speedy and Black Canary all move into position. Green ARROW senses something is up, but Speedy and Black Canary have both been spotted. It's a trap. Fortunately one of the guys fighting Speedy is Andy. Despite the bloodlust, he seems to be getting the best of her. And things aren't going well for Green ARROW or Canary, either.

The Atom flies in at the nick of time to join the party.

Darhk confonts Speedy. He knows from the way Speedy has been fighting that she has been trained by Ra's al Ghul. He puts his hand on her to suck the life out of her. It has no effect on her. Instead, he starts to glow, his veins pop and she runs quickly away. We at least know he has a weakness and can't touch Thea.

Green ARROW tells Atom to go help Canary and Atom flies off. Green ARROW is able to hold most of the guys off until one draws a gun and abouts to shoot him. Diggle fires a shot, downing the guy. He tells ARROW his green brother needed him. Awwww.

At the lair, Ray tells everyone it's been fun, but he's not ready to step back into the world of the living just yet (he will be on call for any hero duties, though). Diggle tells Ollie he's got a long overdue talk with his brother Andy. Ollie tells Diggle he agrees with him about Darhk. He's going to fight him out in the open and in the light of day.

Final flashback: Ollie tells the woman the the other guard was behind his brother's death (a half-truth). She wants to kill the other guard, but Ollie tells her he's just a pawn. He's got a map to whatever the drug lord is looking for and he needs her help.

Thea has invited her father Malcolm back to her apartment. She tells him when Darhk touched her, it backfired. He absorbed her bloodlust. She now wants Malcom's help to figure out a way to make that permanent. Given the Malcolm and Darhk are old enemies, he grins at the idea.

Diggle confronts hiscaged brother with the file of intel. He tells Diggle all of it is true. Diggle tears up.

At the docks, Thea tries to explain to Alex her actions in the bar (it was a really bad night). She asks him to be patient. Ollie tells the press he picked this project as the bay is in the heart of the city. He looks directly at Darhk and tells him that the battle to save the city will be fought out in the open in the light of day.

Seems like things are heating up only to have the plot put on hold for the cross-over event with THE FLASH on Dec. 1 and Dec. 2. We'll see you back here then.

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