I have to accept that episodes of Arrow are very busy affairs. There's so much to deal with that often, the different various subplots in the overall narrative get lost in the shuffle or get under-developed. Just look at how the episode dealt with the fallout of Felicity getting shot by Damian Darhk's thugs at the end of "Dark Waters." Naturally, the jumping off point would be to get to the aftermath of the shooting. The episode does so to a point, but then has to sideline it to deal with the other plots that need tending to. In a way, the episode follows the course of the hero that bears the show's title..  

So really, the crux of the story in "Blood Debts" centers around Team Arrow finding Lonnie "Anarky" Machin in order to find the whereabouts of Damian Darhk. It's a nice throughline to present to the audience in order to get the course of the story straight enough to follow. The problem is that I don't remember much in the way of Lonnie Machin and the source of his anger towards Darhk. It may have had something to do with Darhk rejecting him to become one of his Ghosts, but that seems to have aired in an episode from the very beginning of the season, which is months ago in real time. 


Yes, I do remember when Thea burned him alive in order to satisfy the Lazarus Pit blood lust, but that isn't enough to make Machin all that memorable as a sub-villain. Certainly more could have been done to flesh out Machin's character and to show how much of a threat he is to Team Arrow, though the priorities of the show seem to have gone out of whack during the holiday hiatus. 

The proof is right there in the episode: The show continues to devote some time to flashbacks on Lian Yu that, while they show more of Oliver's struggle against Conklin and the other guy (whose name escapes me now), could have been used for other means. Team Arrow is all in on trying to find Darhk, and so that means trying to uncover information by any means possible. But as the episode progressed, one thing was made totally clear: Team Arrow, and specifically Oliver, had to kill Damian Darhk. As if it wasn't totally obvious before Felicity got shot. 


Oliver mentioned in his endless debates with the rest of Team Arrow that Machin wanted Darhk dead as much as he did, and since Machin was armed with the information of Darhk's whereabouts, it stood to reason that Team Arrow could have Machin do their dirty work for them. It only took Oliver half the episode to figure this out and let the plan -- if you can really call it a plan -- play out. So it feels a bit odd to have to sideline Oliver (though to be fair, being at Felicity's bedside is not a bad place to be) while someone else initiates the action. The heart-to-heart talks between the various members of Team Arrow have an emotional payoff each that should help them all get through what is likely to be difficult times ahead. The show would do well to remember those moments instead of casting them aside.





I think that Oliver just took too long to pull the trigger here. That seems to be the fault of both the tendency for Oliver to bend to the democratic approach of getting input on a decision from everyone on Team Arrow and his general decision to make his Green Arrow persona remain an inspiration to the people of Star City by adopting a no-kill policy. The results just aren't there. Machin wants to kill Darhk's family, and then Oliver spares them from that fate. The reason why is not particularly clear. Perhaps he wanted to have Darhk give him a few weeks reprieve to prepare for their next showdown. But then, if that's really true, it renders Darhk toothless and weak, something that his wife calls him out on at the end of the episode. Everything the characters do feels in service to the plot, which means that there will be a delay of the big showdown between Oliver and Darhk until the season finale most likely.


That brings me to the business of the flash-forward scenes. There is now confirmation that Felicity is not in that grave. She caps off the episode by uttering a statement that should have been obvious from the beginning: That Darhk needs to go. We've known this for a while. The statement lands with a thud because we don't really know how it got from Darhk spares Team Arrow for a moment to "he needs to die" in a span of four months (coincidentally around season finale time). But the fact that she sits there (paralyzed still perhaps?) takes her off the board. I have to say that this revelation did not elicit the feeling of relief I would have normally expected. Instead, it only opens up more speculation. At this point, there are still a number of suspects who could be in the ground. At the top of that list are the other members of Team Arrow. That fact alone makes me fearful of what's coming next. The series really needs to get going quickly, though. There was just too much talk and debate and not enough action being carried out by our heroes, which is surprising given the amount of chaos and moving parts in this episode.