Jessie Robertson reviews the sixteenth episode of Arrow season 5…
I believe you say “Checkmate” at the end of a game…..
Adrian Chase has been revealed and now that he has, this guy’s like a magician. He’s everywhere. He’s nearly in every scene. I was more surprised he didn’t walk into the Arrow HQ at one point. But, the truth grows to this mystery. Oliver has traveled far and wide to find his old trainer, Talia, since he knows she must have trained Prometheus as well. And we find out her last name (for any non-comic book fan reading) is al Ghul. So, her and Chase have something in common: Oliver put sharp things through their Daddies. The plot thickens. As it does, I am left wondering; who’s steering the course of this revenge plot? It has seemed this was Chases’ game but at the end of tonight’s episode, Talia is there in Star City and puts an arrow through Oliver’s leg and instructs Chase to make him suffer. Things could get hairy here. Prometheus has been played brilliantly and has been ahead of Oliver every step of the way. It’s also made total sense that someone with the right motivation could have followed Oliver’s movements for the past 10 years and come to this conclusion; Susan Williams did it and she wasn’t even looking. As we head into episode 17 of presumably 22/23, I wonder now that Oliver has been captured and now seemingly will be (mentally) tortured, how much leg strength does this season long story have?
Another ongoing thread is Felicity’s involvement with Helix, you remember that secret hacktivist group who seems to be in control of everything in the world? Felicity’s used them to her and Team Arrow’s advantage so far, but now she has to start giving the Quo’s for the Quid’s. Her first task; hack a government drone and put it under Helix’s control. She recruits Curtis to give her a hand and he is wildly uncomfortable with her methods. Oliver even has a sitdown with her to make sure she’s not in over her head (as he takes information provided by Helix from her to use…Pot, meet Kettle.) It seems this drone takeover could be the first step in a larger scale issue for Team Arrow to solve and it seems to also be Felicity’s dark corner of the team’s transgressions (minus nuking a small town). It’s a minor storyline right now and not near as intriguing as the Prometheus mystery but it gives one of the show’s MVP’s a big time angle as we head towards finale time (and not to mention quick answers to almost any problem they have encountered over the last few weeks.)
Getting back to Chase, as I mentioned he’s all over now and his arrogance (or calculation?) knows no bounds as he still shows up for work as DA, ordering Rene around for reports and giving press conferences to the city. Ollie makes a strange play to announce Green Arrow has 24 hours to turn himself in, before he gives Pike the evidence to at least arrest Chase. This doesn’t play out as Chase is “10 steps ahead of him” and puts Pike in a coma. This leads to a scene where Oliver rages in the Arrow cave and knocks a bunch of shit over, then speaks to John. He runs down the new team philosophy that has given his crew legs this season and wonders if any of it was worth it, if he should even have friends in his life. Couple this with Anatoly’s statement to Oliver in the flashback when he sees him “playing Robin Hood” about the things inside of you, they are inside of you no matter what mask you wear or who you pretend to be. Oliver tells Chase he’s going to put an arrow through his heart because inside, that’s who he is, who he’s become no matter what mask he wears to the team. With Chase having him on the ropes, jabbing at him constantly, Oliver decides to up the ante and bring Chases’ wife to discover him. But it totally backfires; Chase kills her. Why? Because Oliver has changed and this isn’t his game; it’s Chase’s. It’s a gripping scene and Chase’s (played by Josh Segurra) quiet intensity and madness just behind the corners of his eyes has been underappreciated this season.
8.5/10- Checkmate is good in that it brings you right to the edge of the end of this conflict, featuring really only 2 main characters tonight (oliver and Adrian) because this conflict is their showdown; I hope it doesn’t cool off after this.
Other Notes:
– Chase zings Oliver early on when he walks into a meeting Chase has started without him by saying ” Have you been sleeping this whole time?”
– Curtis and Diggle got new costume updates. Cool.
– FINALLY- Someone gets it! Oliver tells Felicity keeping secrets is a bad idea! Can you text that to Team Flash like every single hour????
– Simon Morrison, the discovered identity of Adrian Chase….has no DC Comics connections, as far as I can tell.
Jessie Robertson
Originally published March 16, 2017. Updated November 7, 2019.
