Normally, midseason finales are always worth looking forward to in the Arrowverse. If the series is question is already on firm footing, the new twists and story developments only further that momentum. And if the show is struggling at the time, these episodes offer a chance to ramp things up and pave the way for a stronger second half to come. Sadly, neither was the case with “Irreconcilable Differences.” Arrow was in a rough place before now, and this episode does nothing to suggest that things will improve in 2018.

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The thing about Arrow is that even in its weaker period during Seasons 3 and 4, at least it had strong, memorable villains to fall back upon. Season 6 doesn’t even have that. Michael Emerson’s Cayden James is easily the least compelling main villain this series has ever had. Sure, Emerson’s performance elevates the character somewhat, but that can only do so much to hide the character’s lack of depth or interesting wrinkles. This episode didn’t even bother to flesh out James’ vague vendetta against Oliver Queen, leaving James to devolve into a villain obsessed with destruction for destruction’s sake.Nor did “Irreconcilable Differences” do anything to escalate James as a threat. It simply told another story about James and Black Siren aiming to steal a techno doodad and Quentin being torn between his loyalty to Team Arrow and his need to make Evil Laurel see the error of her ways. That Quentin/Laurel material at least worked pretty well this week. Quentin finally seems to be breaking through to the good, decent person beneath all the snarling and black leather, and that led to some good, emotionally charged moments between the two characters. Unfortunately, it seems the usual cycle with those two will be continuing on for a while.Quentin was really the saving grace of this episode. The only other real high point came early on, during the scene where Quentin bequeathed his father's watch to Ollie. That served as a really strong moment between the two, one that cemented the odd little father/son bond they've built up over the years., It really highlights how much the two have grown and changed over the course of six seasons. Just imagine Season 1-era Quentin making that sort of gesture.With the Cayden James conflict failing to light up the series, the writers seemed intent on compensating by ramping up the personal drama among Team Arrow. Dinah’s connection to Vigilante was exposed. Rene’s was revealed as a traitor. Curtis didn’t take too kindly to being spied on by his own teammates. The takeaway being that Team Arrow has never been more divided, even as their enemies are uniting against them.Honestly, that final reveal should have been the spark to reinvigorate this season. It’s basically akin to Arrow gaining its own Legion of Doom. Except that the Legion of Doom worked so well on Legends of Tomorrow because it was a group of well-established villains with significant ties to the show’s main heroes. This group seems little more than “whomever happens to be available at the moment.” Why is Anatoly part of this super-group? Why is Vigilante suddenly a supervillain mastermind? Why is the appearance of Ricardo Diaz significant when the character has had all of two minutes of screen time this season? There’s no weight to any of this because there was no effort to build up this team before now.The same goes for the interpersonal drama plaguing Team Arrow. It feels like a very abrupt shift to have Ollie suddenly brooding again and doubting his team, especially in light of the cheerful wedding sequence that opened this episode. The Rene reveal is equally frustrating, as there was never any sense that he was hiding a secret of that caliber beforehand. The writers really needed to have done more to pave the way for this Team Arrow breakup leading up to this episode. As it is, it feels like they’re simply rehashing the same beats from Season 5, where Ollie had to learn to put his trust in others again.With this sudden Team Arrow breakup, Thea’s return and Ollie’s abrupt return to the costumed lifestyle, there’s a sense that the writers are making a lot of sudden course-corrections and restoring the series to a more traditional status quo. I certainly won’t argue that the series is badly in need of fine-tuning right now, but none of these changes strike me as being for the best. If anything, they only contribute to the sense that Arrow is lost and foundering right now. We’re now effectively halfway through Season 6, and there’s no clear sense of direction or endgame right now. Far from reinvigorating a struggling series, this midseason finale has only deepened the show’s storytelling problems.