Arrow - S5E15 - Fighting Fire with Fire

Previously on Arrow, “The Sin-Eater”

Say what you will about Oliver Queen (I certainly do), but if there’s one thing the man’s good at it’s getting out of trouble using an impassioned speech. Avoiding impeachment by admitting to committing the crime that he’s accused of (and simultaneously throwing his alter ego under the bus) is a risky gambit, but Oliver pulled it off with his usual aggressive sincerity and self-righteousness.

The Good

We finally have Prometheus’ true identity, and to absolutely no one’s surprise it’s Adrian Chase. The only question this season has really been under which mask Chase has been hiding his distinctive eyebrows, Prometheus’ or the Vigilante’s, and we finally got our answer. I have found Chase to be a more interesting character than originally anticipated (although to be fair I had VERY low expectations), based purely on Josh Segarra’s impressive presence, so it will be good to finally see him in action.

The Bad

It seems a bit like beating a dead horse at this point, but the lighting in the flashbacks is, as always, terrible. There’s really never been a need to color code them; the audience can tell when the scene is set based purely on how bad Oliver’s wig is, so we don’t need everything to be doused in green.

The Susan Williams storyline was tied up a bit too neatly. Assuming that Susan has genuinely forgiven Oliver (which is in no way a given), it seems unrealistic that she would so easily forgive someone who (even unintentionally) framed her and had her fired, especially given the reveal that his alter ego killed a cop. Also, Oliver, please don’t ask your ex-girlfriend to help you to get back your current girlfriend. It’s just tactless.

I had hoped for Curtis and Paul to get more screen time together, but not like this! Here’s hoping they’ll reconcile before the divorce goes through. Also, Paul is totally a candidate for the Vigilante, right?

Not to harp on about the warped morality of this show, but people who kill people on a regular basis should really not go around judging Felicity and Thea for using hacked information to achieve their aims.

Not to defend using someone’s wife’s suicide to blackmail them (that is truly heinous) but it’s certainly no worse than throwing minor criminals off rooftops. It’s also telling that the show’s two main female characters are the ones who are supposed to curb their darker impulses to be the empathetic ones in the group.