Jessie Robertson reviews the twentieth episode of Arrow season 5…
Apparently, a young Marc Singer had profound impacts on many a young superhero….
Tonight’s episode was all about trust, which sort of feels like it should have been on The Flash because that team has major issues with this topic, but obviously Arrow doesn’t come out unscathed. At the cliffhanger last week, a bomb went off in the Arrow cave when only Oliver and Felicity were down there; set by Adrian Chase which turned out to be an EMP blast, killing all electronic devices inside their HQ, including the spinal implants on Felicity. He also booby-trapped any quick exit they may try to use; we know Chase is a man of details. What this leaves us with is the two most bull-headed members of Team Arrow (don’t worry Rene; you’re up there!) locked up with each other with no escape as they were just about to have a serious heated argument about, you guessed it, not trusting Felicity. The interesting scenario that plays along with our heroes frantic fight to get out alive as methane gas , mortal wounds and oxygen deprivation get to them is actually a flashback (which was conspicuously absent last week) What we find out is Felicity and Oliver shared a night of passion last year right after Damien Dahrk was dispatched and pretty soon after their engagement was called off. The current time never addresses this; and the episode sort of ends with Felicity happy they had a post engagement hookup but not eager to talk about their major issues….yet.
Where this leaves them as Oliver passes out from blood loss and Felicity struggles just to crawl, lying in a dead-end inside Cisco’s too expertly crafted heroes hide-away is to have that talk, in a roundabout way. Oliver fully admits he doesn’t back Felicity in some areas; but trust is not their issue. The issue, he tells her, is himself. Chase really mucked around in Oliver’s head and opened a door to a possible thought he’s had for years. He enjoyed killing. And while he loves the team and Felicity , that fact, the fact that his bloodlust got them all into this life, is something he can’t trust himself with again, not lightly at least. with the rest of Team Arrow hard at work getting them out, when the rescue is finally made, with Oliver lying in a hospital bed, not fully recognizance of his comments, it’s Felicity who stops him before he can say anything and tells him she can now relate to why he lied about his son to her. A moment passes after this, where she apologizes for judging him too harshly, a decision that ended their future life together, and another moment passes, where perhaps more would be said, but it passes between them in a good bit of drama.
If trust does not come easy for heroes, imagine where it ranks among spies; Dig and Lyla’s continuing problems in this arena spill over into this week’s episode and for good reason; we find John sleeping on the couch, a self-imposed exile as he sorts out in his head what Lyla’s thinking and what he should do. What we find at the end of tonight’s episode is possibly….(am I stretching)….Lyla not only did what she had to do for ARGUS, when the tough calls are to be made, but has always realized that even though she’s John’s wife, he doesn’t fully trust her, at least, not like he does Oliver. She makes the concrete statement ” I’m not Oliver; I’m your wife.” And that statement should tell Diggle all he needs to know on the matter. Yes, Lyla has made mistakes (apparently she swiped a T-Sphere when Curtis wasn’t looking) but she tells John she’s still the woman he knows and loves. I have a feeling he’ll be in the dog house for a while longer because of this issue.
8.5/10- not a lot of meat on tonight’s episode but another good Arrow topic episode and one that frankly was ready to happen; I know “Ollicity’ got a long cooling off period but it was good to see them back together in the bulk of this episode
Other Notes:
– The feats of strength that Diggle and Oliver pulled off at the end to get out of the bunker were nothing short of superheroic
– Since William was mentioned so many times, of course he had to show up and it looks like he’s aged quite a bit; apparently no one told him not to talk to strangers as we see the return of Adrian Chase as well.
Jessie Robertson
Originally published May 4, 2017. Updated April 16, 2018.
