(Photo credit: Dean Buscher/The CW)
My love-to-hate-to-love relationship with Malcolm Merlyn from Arrow is resting firmly on the hate side of the equation right now. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. I’ve been liking him way too much lately. That usually means it’s time for the writers to shake things up a bit. And they have certainly done that. Evil Malcolm Merlyn strikes again.
I’m finding that one of Malcolm’s most consistent character traits is that he is a big fat hypocrite. Just when he starts to exhibit some redeemable signs of humanity, he reminds us in a very bold way that he is indeed a more comfortable dallying in the Darhk.
Let’s refresh. A couple of episodes ago, Thea’s bloodlust landed her in the hospital, and Malcolm Merlyn—who at the time was still enjoying his reign as Ra’s al Ghul—made it clear that Thea’s rebirth comes at a cost … life for life. Unless Thea feeds the bloodlust by taking the lives of others, the bloodlust will collect its debt by slowly sucking the life from her.
One alternative to that would be to tap into the magical, mystical, albeit creepy, powers of Damien Darhk. When Damien came head to head, he tried to use his creepy little paws to drain the life from Thea. His plan backfired, and Thea’s bloodlust began draining life from Darhk which sated her bloodlust for longer than the average kill.
After learning of this, Oliver figured the best way to save Thea would be to appeal to Darhk’s kinder, gentler side for some help.
It was Malcolm Merlyn who pointed out the ridiculousness of that plan:
Yes! Yes it is epic stupidity. Damien Darhk’s only allegiance is to himself and his sadistically psycho soon mayor-wanna-be wife.
Malcolm loves power. He loves being in charge. He hates taking orders from others. That’s one of the reasons he skipped out on the League of Assassins and was running from Nyssa’s father all those years. Malcolm will not be content to stand second to Darhk, at least not for long. He’ll cross Damien in an effort to elevate his own status, and when he does, Damien is going to strike him down.
Does that mean Malcolm will try to finagle his way beack into Oliver’s good graces for sanctuary from the Darhk? It’s not likely Oliver will be feeling very forgiving considering Malcom did this:
Epic stupidity, Malcolm. This dick move is going to bite you in the ass hard.
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised he played this card. Malcolm does whatever he has to to come out on top. On top of that, his sense of empathy when it comes to parenthood is pretty much non-existent. He drugged his own daughter to trick her into committing murder. That single act set off a chain of events that ultimately led to Thea’s death, courtesy of Ra’s al Ghul. That death led to her resurrection, which although he voiced objection to, he did nothing to stop, knowing the side-effects would be devastating. When she went to Nanda Parbat to seek his help in dealing with the resulting bloodlust, Malcolm’s answer to his daughter was to encourage her to murder again.
Just the thought of Damien’s skeevy hands touching Oliver’s sweet and innocent son has me feeling the need for an acid bath. I don’t know what Oliver is going to do to Damien to get his son back, however, I’m hoping it pales in comparison to what he does to Malcolm when he gets his hands on him.
Stay tuned to see if Oliver’s vengeance meets your expectations. Tell us what you’d like to see happen in the comments below.
Arrow airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on The CW
