Arrow - S5E6/S5E7 - So It Begins/Vigilante

Previously on Arrow, “Human Target”

Arrow - S5E6/S5E7 - “So It Begins/Vigilante” | Starring: Stephen Amell, David Ramsey, Willa Holland, Emily Bett Rickards, Paul Blackthorn, Echo Kellum

With the untimely death of Tobias Church in “Human Target”, the last two episodes had Prometheus take on the mantle of Big Bad, sending taunting messages to Oliver in manners both subtle (killing people whose names are anagrams of those on the list), and unsubtle (“So it begins” written in GIANT FLAMING LETTERS). The return of the List adds some more cracks to the already unsteady relationship between Oliver and the recruits, who for some reason find the fact that Oliver murdered a bunch of criminal lawyers and bankers a lot more upsetting than his run-of-the-mill murdering of thieves and drug dealers. There is also another vigilante on the loose, creatively nicknamed the Vigilante, who, despite acting exactly the same as the Green Arrow, must be stopped. For some reason.

The Good

I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that a) Lance came clean about finding the throwing star in his house along with his suspicious blackouts and wounds, and b) that Thea at no point entertained the thought that he might be Prometheus. Too often framing storylines have characters acting wildly out of character to hide what’s going on, but I should have known that the two most sensible characters on the show would handle themselves well. The father/daughter role that these two have fallen into has turned what could have been an unnecessary distraction from the main plot into the show’s emotional core, and really solidified Willa Holland and Paul Blackthorne as the undisputed standouts of the cast.

As much as I try not to talk about the flashbacks, I would be remiss not to mention the great Dolph Lundgren having a ball hamming it up as the villainous Kovar, and somehow making the Russian storyline 90% more interesting in the process.

The Bad

Is there any possibility that the Vigilante isn’t Adrian Chase? Those are the eyebrows of a killer.

No wonder there are so many vigilantes in Star City, the cops are incompetent. Felicity’s boyfriend’s relaxed attitude to the evidence chain of custody makes it disturbingly easy for her to steal Prometheus’ blood-stained throwing star off his desk for analysis. On the plus side, he is surprisingly fine with Felicity working with the Green Arrow. Suspiciously fine???

Look, I love gun control as much as the next Australian (a lot), but even I found the characterization of the idiotic gun wielding men firing blindly into the crowd a bit too simplistic.

I try my best to view Team Arrow as the good guys, but they really don’t make it easy when they keep bringing up that Evelyn is 17. A good rule of thumb: if someone isn’t old enough to vote then they are not old enough to join your team of murderous vigilantes. No wonder she seems to have joined up with Prometheus.

The writers need to figure out once and for all how they feel about killing for a cause. We spent seasons watching Oliver come to the realization that killing was wrong, only to have all of that character development waved away in an episode. We’ve spent this season watching him kill indiscriminately, but now suddenly when the Vigilante does it it’s wrong. In and of itself, this could be an interesting look at the complexity of morality, but Berlanti and Co. seem incapable of allowing any kind of moral ambiguity, justifying Oliver’s stance after the fact by having the Vigilante kill several bystanders.

Quote of the Week(s)

“Let me get this straight, you got a to kill list, and I’m the out of control one” – Rene, speaking truth