Jessie Robertson reviews the seventeenth episode of Arrow season 5…
I pondered last week how Chase capturing Oliver and torturing him could stretch out into six or so more episodes; now we find out. This wasn’t just a simple torture scene. Yes, he half-drowned him. Yes, he kept him chained up. Yes, he put three arrows into Oliver (like he did to the Count, in season one I believe). But, this was not about killing Oliver. This was about unleashing the monster inside. At least, getting him to rear his ugly head. Chase kept on Oliver, saying “Confess. Confess.” Confess what? Well, that plays out maybe no more brilliantly in any season than tonight in a near episode long flashback of Oliver and the Bratva taking down Kovar.
Anatoly, a gangster mind you, is Oliver’s constant conscience , reminding him he has a home to go back to and he probably should. But, Oliver can’t break his word to Daya and plans on seeing this mission through. When it’s revealed Kovar is planning on stealing seran gas (what is this, the Newsroom?) to kill Russia’s top politicians, Oliver puts a plan in motion to stop them….by torturing one of Kovar’s men for information. Anatoly is shocked at the scene he comes across, telling Oliver he must have been tough, there’s a lot of blood here. Oliver’s chilling response: “He broke quickly. The rest was for practice.” What an effective bit of dialogue to paint the picture we’re supposed to see here. We’re supposed to be reminded of Oliver from Season 1; a man who simply killed bad and evil men, damning the consequences. Tonight, Chase pins these men’s photos up around Oliver, telling him they had parents, families, children, like the Count. Oliver fires back he was going to kill Felicity; he sold drugs to kids. He was not supposed to live. These are all effective tools in showing the darkness Oliver is constantly struggling with, constantly volleying back and forth between. All these hallmarks play brilliantly with the theme of this season so far.
The final blow is dealt when Oliver convinces Daya’s mother (who works for Kovar) to give him access to Kovar’s estate so he can stop the attack. Oliver does just that, letting the Bratva in but not before finding Galinda dead at Kovar’s hands. This enrages Oliver as Antaoly’s second in command had betrayed him in a move everyone saw coming but Anatoly. Kovar does unleash the gas but not for long, as Oliver kills Kovar’s men mercilessly until he finds Kovar and has a video game final stage – like fight against him. He has Kovar on the ropes and has his knife, when Anatoly, almost out of humanity, asks him not to kill him, but to spare him so he can be prosecuted. Oliver doesn’t hesitate in sticking the blade in his throat. These scenes (set in swanky Russian casino in an even more video game appropriate setting) are juxtaposed with Chase pushing Oliver to his limit as he thinks he just killed Evelyn in front him. It’s pushing towards the fact that Oliver is a killer, by nature. He is a monster (as he tells Galinda that’s who killed her children.) And as he tells, no screams, from deep inside , Adrian that “He wanted to kill and he likes it!” He kills because he wants to. Chase touts the list as a convenient excuse. But, honestly, there are flaws in that argument. Oliver doesn’t enact the list until five years after he receives it. And when he first does, he’s not a killer, he’s a pompous playboy who couldn’t kill a fly. I would argue, his five year journey transformed him into a killing machine. And I would argue that he kills because he thought it was right. An eye for an eye. The wicked hurt his city and he hurt the wicked. That doesn’t make it right but it makes it make sense, to a degree.
Where do we go from here? Oliver is let go and he promptly tells the team he’s done and to shut it down.
9/10- a deeply engrossing episode with huge ramifications on the rest of the show and some really good acting from our two main archers tonight
Jessie Robertson
Originally published March 23, 2017. Updated April 16, 2018.
