Jessie Robertson reviews the fourteenth episode of Arrow season 5…
He eats them? The sins of others?
This week’s Arrow does so many things and does them well; it has a bad guy to nab in the central plot, it has a hooking sub-plot with Thea and more Arrow hijinks mixed in with governmental and political action (who knew that could fit so well into this show?) Let’s start big: We get a prison bus break and a trio of femme fatales is on the loose: Cupid, everyone’s favorite obsessed with Ollie psychopath, Liza Warner, rogue cop as part of a killing SWAT team from last season and China White, who we haven’t seen since season 2. They somehow got wind of the millions Tobias Church left behind and want it for themselves. They basically go on a killing spree until they find it and in the meantime get tracked down by Team Arrow on multiple occasions. The only female to really get any character development was Warner, who is more enraged when she found out Quentin worked for Damien Dahrk and it fuels the fires of self-guilt inside himself per usual. But, it’s his surrogate bestie Thea who fans the flames of loathing saying basically “she’s a bad guy! She always was, and you’re a good guy! Snap out of it!” Quentin also gets two quick scenes discussing the legacy of the Black Canary and handles it with as much weight and bravado a grieving father can
The Arrow hunt is back on! Susan Williams, in a follow-up to a few weeks ago, with her juicy photos of Oliver does the least predictable move with them and just asks Oliver if he’s the Green Arrow? I was sort of flabbergasted because that’s the scoop a reporter would die for and they’d hammer it out until it was solid and they had the evidence they needed. A weird turn of events. This leads into the sub-plot where Thea (who never trusted Susan) gets wind of it and employs hacking extraordinaire Felicity to put some harshly discrediting stuff on her laptop (and these days Felicity is all about causing mischief). This leads to Susan not only being fired from her job, but basically kicked out the of reporting profession. And she still knows she has a solid story. In these days of every media story out there being covered, she has to know if she came forward with that evidence on TV, someone would do some digging and find the same information. But, no, she quietly, well not so quietly, more pissed , goes off into the night. Oliver scolds Thea, and then tells her he’s worried about her. Hmmm, we’ll see where this goes. I though this was an excellent story and one that really had me intrigued as to where it was going.
Ah, Oliver is the Green Arrow. We’ve been there and done that before but the Green Arrow is a killer? Well, yeah, we’ve also done that too. Prometheus is still playing the long game and it’s been quite fun to watch. His goading Arrow to kill Billy now comes back to haunt him as he sets the ACU all over Arrow’s ass (providing an awesome moment to use a flare arrow to make a Batman-like getaway when they had him cornered.) Captain Pike comes off very bland but in a very bland way where as Adrian Chase comes off as a bland lawyer that could snap at any moment and go Frank Castle on everyone (sorry, I know I’m mixing universes.) But, he gets a few more scenes tonight than usual. He has some bad moments though; just sitting with finger on chin pondering as Oliver spins a ludicrous story about how he knows the Green Arrow personally and he was framed, then later remarking “the Mayor said that same thing earlier” when Green Arrow says he’ll have to live with the guilt for the rest of his life. Not liking the Pike.
8/10- Let’s face it: the villains were bad this week, but the mounting sub stories were all of interest and continue to build up a whole pile of crazy dumpster fire for Oliver and the gang to deal with as we head toward the back half of the season
Other Notes:
– The opening scene was disturbing to me; Ollie goes to confront who he thinks is Prometheus’ momma; she seems to confirm it by not giving him up and also being chilling and cold. It gave me a very light Zodiac reaction (scene near the end)
– We see Dinah getting her SCPD badge and also being kick ass at screaming. I love her outfit too; it’s very reminiscent of the golden age Black Canary look.
– Rene and Curtis do their buddy vigilante thing and it’s for far too short!
Jessie Robertson
