Originally published December 8, 2016. Updated April 16, 2018.
Jessie Robertson reviews the ninth episode of Arrow season 5…
No, Rory, we can’t just “Flashpoint” all our problems away….
Arrow’s Winter Finale hits like a piercing arrow to the heart and thrills throughout the whole hour. The photo above is the end result of one of the most bad-ass shots of Oliver in series history; it’s from a flashback when he first began his vigilante ways as “The Hood”. Tonight’s flashbacks (taking a break from Russia) were some of the more exciting and revealing ones we’ve ever seen. Not revealing in as things we didn’t know, but to see the Hood back in action, after 5 years, shows just how far this Oliver Queen character has come. He was like the Terminator in season one; he had his list and those people would die if they didn’t follow his orders. Simple. Even Diggle, a soldier who had to do what he must to survive in the hell of Iraq, doesn’t understand Oliver’s creed. The precision and unflinching coldness in which he operated as The Hood is almost hard to believe and we watched a whole season of it; you can see how important Team Arrow is to him and has always been; his lifeline to being a person and not a killer working from a list, yes, killing bad men but not seeing the repercussions behind it.
That’s where our big bad, Prometheus, comes in; he was the son of one of the Hood’s victims; and he just so happened to not be pleased about what the Arrow did and decided to take matters into his own hand. If you were to trace this guy’s last four years in flashbacks, it would appear somewhat as an analogue to Oliver’s time before returning to Star City; training, killing and hating. Prometheus is the perfect villain to come now; when so much has happened, and he’s learned about it all. Team Arrow, Oliver mostly, has done of a lot of things over the years, some out of necessity, but a villain like this, can shed a light on all the darkness it’s had to make peace with to try and protect the city they love. Tonight’s fight scene in the office was pure spectacle, unadulterated choreography porn and I happily digested it all. There’s a cool moment where Prometheus does this flip, as Oliver puts it, a very specific flip ,he learned from a woman in Russia that I can’t wait to see revealed.
This was a very well executed episode, from the opening shots of Oliver and Thea rehashing the Alien invasion just last week, to Curtis outing (as a superhero) to Paul, his husband and those emotional conversations, to Thea giving Oliver the same speech he’s heard from Diggle and Felicity several hundred times before about taking all this blame and burden on his own. But…there’s one cool idea that just gets buried under logic I can’t let go (if someone can explain this to me, please help me out!). The big reveal (the first one anyways) that Oliver had shot Billy, Felicity’s cop boyfriend, who was disguised in the Prometheus costume was huge; I jumped up like a bystander at a Kimbo Slice backyard knockout; but “Prometheus” and Oliver were just literally having a fight, and went through a window together; how was Billy not trying to save himself and tell Green Arrow who he was? I just don’t see anyway around that happening. This isn’t like that scene in Fargo season one where the guy is taped up with a gun in his hand as the police showed up; he was actively fighting and doing martial arts! No way, no how.
9/10- Another ‘A’ episode #101 follows in large shoes from #100 and does so admirably; there are a lot of great stones overturned that I can’t wait to look under
Other Notes:
– WHAT? NO! NO! How is that possible?
Yes, Laurel shows up at the end of the episode; I’m thinking….the drug Prometheus tips his weapons with hit Ollie and he’s seeing things
– Give Echo Kellum (Curtis) some credit for bringing it tonight and his on-screen partner wasn’t half bad either
– Is it wrong that when Artemis turned on Oliver I was hoping Prometheus was Sportsmaster , bringing Young Justice back to life?
– Billy dying is perfect; he was a one-note character that can give Felicity some real meat going forward
– Diggle gets tricked and arrested!!! What? Team Arrow is going to have to step it up down two members in one episode
Jessie Robertson
