What’s Worth Watching: ‘Arrow’ on the CW for Wednesday, November 4

Arrow, “Haunted” (Wednesday, Nov. 4, 8/7c, the CW)

“Where did Oliver find this guy, the Luxor?” grumbles Diggle (David Ramsey) as another flashy skeleton from Oliver Queen’s (Stephen Amell) past emerges—this time someone who’ll be familiar to cult-TV fans: rakish occultist John Constantine (Matt Ryan) from last year’s short-lived NBC series. We’re sworn to secrecy when it comes to how exactly their paths crossed, but it’s good to see the trench-coated spellbinder wielding his brand of irreverent magic again.

This season of Arrow has so far revealed that there’s not only life after death—for original Black Canary/Sara Lance (Caity Lotz), whose resurrection in the Lazarus Pit hasn’t gone so swimmingly—but also life after cancellation. It’s a canny crossover nod to DC Comics mythology, calling Constantine into service to restore the soul of the feral FrankenSara, who’s on the loose as the episode begins, causing havoc to good and bad folks in Star City. “Her marble collection is a little incomplete,” analyzes Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) in the most felicitous way possible. And so down the supernatural rabbit hole we go, with Soul Doctor Constantine chanting and swashbuckling alongside our heroes, as they go to hell and back to rescue one of their fallen warriors.

As crossovers go, this feels quite a bit more organic than last week’s Bones-Sleepy Hollow stunt. And if they’re going to keep bringing people back from the other side, can I just say how much I still miss Susanna Thompson as fallen Queen matriarch Moira?

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