Less than 5 – Skip it, 6 – OK, 7 – Good, 8 – Great, 9 – Phenomenal, 10 – You owe it to yourself to watch this episode!
Matt Ryan, NBC’s Hellblazer John Constantine, is back in a surprise guest appearance alongside Stephen Amell and Team Arrow. Fending off evil demons, searching for lost treasure and whipping out witty/slightly offensive remarks, Constantine is here in all his glory. If only it meshed with the rest of the show.
Seeing John Constantine back in action was great, it just clashed with the tone Arrow has established over its previous four seasons. With Ra’s introducing us to the Lazarus Pit last year, and with it magic, the mystical has slowly been making its way as an accepted part of the show. Damien Dahrk continued that trend with his limited showcase of abilities thus far. Here we have Constantine citing gibberish incantations, resurrecting soulless damsels (who double as crazy murderers) and hunting for enchanted grimoire staves. It just felt like too much at once when all we had seen previously was a dude who could levitate stuff.
That being said, I loved the nods and jabs at the short-lived NBC Constantine that were thrown in. The callback to restoring the soul of Chas’ daughter was an especially poignant one as it confirmed that this is indeed the same version of the character we saw in the NBC series. Matt Ryan’s chemistry with the rest of the team was also a nice treat. He had a unique back and forth with Oliver and company that will surely make this (supposed) one off appearance a memorable one. Also, I wouldn’t mind it at all if Thea decided to chase after that “special kind of yummy”. There could be huge potential there!
I appreciate Laurel admitting she was wrong and I like the fact that everyone owned up to the perpetual lying. But her calling Oliver a hypocrite struck me as a limp attempt at trying to justify her own actions. Oliver was forced into a corner and made the decision to sacrifice his own life in order to save his dying sister. Whereas Sara was long dead and Laurel simply couldn’t cope, which is understandable. Just don’t go laying the blame at other people’s feet. It’s Laurel’s fault her sister turned into a homicidal maniac, not Oliver’s. The writers have realized what they did over the past three seasons and are finally attempting to remedy that plaguing issue. I am still no Laurel fan (as exemplified in last weeks review) but this seems like the beginning of her turn around (aside from her one lapse this week).
Teaming up Lance and Diggle had a lot of potential. They have rarely worked together and the circumstances the two meet under had ample potential for conflict. Instead they complete their mission with little to no trouble and go their separate ways. Why was Diggle even tasked with accompanying Lance in the first place? All he had to do was hook up a USB key.
Diggle learning that his brother was a crime lord was a tender moment for him that felt less satisfying than I would have liked. In an episode concerning itself with unknowable forces, a moment like this would have been better off included some other time. Instead it kind of just lingered there and was glossed over. I’m sure Diggle isn’t finished with his vendetta against HIVE but it would have been nice to have more of a focus on his reaction.
There was no cohesion to what happened this week, individual bits worked very well but when put together it came out sloppy. Oliver’s adventures on the island still lack a clear narrative path and the sudden appearance of Constantine, though welcome, made things even more confusing. Is the militia there to traffic drugs and enslave the locals (where did the locals come from anyway?)? Or are they looking for ancient artifacts of immense power?
All in all, this entire episode left me disappointed when I had so much faith in it. The debut of Constantine on Arrow was lauded as a major event but it played more like an awkward dance between two dominant personalities. Oliver and John may have made a cute couple but both of them trying to take lead just leads to two embarrassed people fumbling on the dance floor.
As a footnote to the episode, we learned that Ray is in fact still alive (I told you)! This was just kind of added in at the last moment to give fans something to hold onto going into next week, as the writers must have realized that this magic stuff came on way to strong. Felicity and Curtis’ storyline has been fun but it feels disjointed from the rest of the goings on. This is probably because it is solely responsible for bringing Ray back into the fold but it could have been incorporated into the main story in a better fashion.
Season 4 of Arrow has shown massive improvement in terms of story, character and villains when compared to the previous 3. This is the first episode that reminded me of the Arrow of old, Hauntedwas afraid to embrace a specific identity and it suffered because of it.
I would love to see Matt Ryan return again. In the off chance that he does, I can only pray that they strike a better balance between the realistic and the magical. There was and still is potential for magic to be a massive part of the Arrow story (and it is pretty clear it will be) but as Haunted proved, it needs to be handled with care.
Overall Haunted gets a 6.5/10.
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