Has Arrow ever been on weaker footing than it is right now? As lousy as Season 4 was at times, at least we always had Neal McDonough’s delightful Damien Darhk to fall back on. Season 6 lacks a compelling, clearly defined villain to make up for it various other storytelling deficiencies. And sadly, if not unsurprisingly, the midseason premiere does little to wipe away the bad taste of “Irreconcilable Differences.”

Arrow: "Divided" Photos 19 IMAGES

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The biggest miscalculation the writers made with the midseason finale was in assuming that the reveal of Cayden James’ alliance of evil would have significant dramatic impact. It didn’t. The series did nothing to build to that moment or set the stage for this alliance. I’m still not even sure why characters like Vigilante and Nikolai are working with James in the first place. It really feels as though the writers just gathered together every random villain and antagonist currently available and threw them in a room together.Ricardo “The Dragon” Diaz is easily the biggest sticking point in that regard. The Richard Dragon character is a particular favorite of mine in DC’s comics. Arrow already made one questionable move by basing their version on the far less memorable New 52 incarnation. Even so, the idea of the Green Arrow going up against a kung-fu crime lord has its definite appeal. But to date, this season has done almost nothing with Diaz. I’d be surprised if Kirk Acevedo’s total screen time this season amounted to more than ten minutes. This episode did nothing to break that trend. At some point, you have to question why the character is being used at all if he’s just going to be treated as a generic thug.The one ray of light when it comes to the villains is that we finally seem to be getting somewhere with Vigilante. The underwhelming reveal of the character’s identity remains one of the more frustrating elements in a generally frustrating season, but at least this episode made strong use of the dynamic between Vincent and Dinah. There was a wistful sense of two estranged lovers trying to recapture some shred of what they once shared before it was all torn away. The outcome of the final action scene also strongly suggests that Vigilante is actually working against James and the rest, so maybe we’ll see him join Team Arrow yet. It would be ironic if this character was the one to finally move this conflict in a better direction.That final battle also delivered some much-needed visceral thrills. While we didn’t get a one-on-one fight between Green Arrow and the Dragon (hopefully that’s coming one of these weeks), but the well-choreographed fight scenes made it obvious that James Bamford was back in the director’s chair. That’s one area where the series has yet to lose its touch. The long takes and shaky-cam quality gave Ollie’s doomed attack a very brutal, personal feel.The other major bit of fallout from “Irreconcilable Differences” involved the fact that Team Arrow splintered into pieces even as James’ group came together. Here again, the show isn’t doing nearly as good a job of making us feel invested in that struggle as it should. I don’t feel any burning desire to see Team Arrow made whole again. If anything, it’s kind of nice going back to that old-school lineup of just Ollie, Felicity and Diggle. Obviously, Ollie’s takeaway this week is that he needs the numbers to combat James’ team, but a big part of me would like to see Arrow shift away from the ensemble approach it’s taken in recent seasons.That’s clearly not going to happen, though. This episode focused a great deal on walking back from the dramatic Team Arrow breakup. And as a result, their reunion at the end felt forced and sudden rather than a natural result of characters growing with time and accepting their mistakes. To be fair, the writers stopped short of actually reuniting Team Arrow. But what practical difference that’s going to make going forward remains to be seen. Is there any real purpose in Curtis, Dinah and Rene having their own separate headquarters?Again, Arrow may just have an excess of supporting characters at this point. The subplot involving Quentin and Thea suggests as much. There doesn’t seem to be any clear role for Thea now that she’s finally awoken from her coma, so she was relegated to being the comforting shoulder while Quentin went through yet another cycle of being sad about his daughter and contemplating falling off the wagon. After all this time, sure both of these characters deserve better.