Category: Arrow – Season 5

Oliver frees Slade from his cell (who is in possession of all his marbles FYI). He’s surprised that Oliver hasn’t killed him in retaliation for killing his mother, and agrees to help in receipt of being handed back his Deathstroke mask.

Oliver, who is back in the Green Arrow gear for the first time in ages finds Felicity, Thea, Curtis and Samantha in cages. Just as he sets about trying to help them out, Talia and Evelyn appear out of nowhere and make their best attempt at stopping him. Oliver asks Malcolm to help the others find the plane and take them back to the mainland, while he, Nyssa and Slade trawl through the island looking for Adrian and the rest of Oliver’s pals.

Talking of the others, Evil Laurel takes Diggle and Quentin to where Dinah and Rene have been hiding. They are all chained up together and start to panic that Oliver won’t have a clue where to find them. 

In search of the plane, Malcolm attempts to start patching up his relationship with Thea. He’s not even disheartened when she tells him AGAIN, how much she hates him. Mid-rant, Thea steps on a land mine. Malcolm puts his words into action as he pushes Thea out the way and quickly takes her place. As Talia’s band of merry men start to catch them up, Malcolm tells them all to leave him and find safety. The rest of the group make a quick getaway but are stopped in their tracks when they hear a big explosion behind them. Surely there’s no way a huge character like Malcolm Merlyn would meet his end just like that? I’m pretty certain we will see him back in the shadows of Star City in Season 6. 

Nyssa works out where the others must be and leads Oliver and Slade them. Just before they get a chance to free them, Laurel turns up and Slade knocks Oliver out, handing him over to her. Your heart sinks at this point, it’s gutting to see that Slade was just playing Oliver in the end. They have so much history, deep down we just want them to be friends again, right? Anyway, Oliver is taken to the others and chained up with them. Never fear though, Oliver has Dinah’s Canary voice in his back pocket and she manages to break the chains with her lethal scream. 

Nyssa bumps into her sister and show us that Gamora and Nebula aren’t the only super sisters with issues (yes, yes … I know! Wrong comic universe but you were thinking it too!!!) A proper bitch fight begins so they can settle their differences, who doesn’t LOVE a good bitch fight!!! Slade drops by again, and turns all our frowns upside down by revealing his betrayal was Oliver’s plan! Hooooray! Nyssa knocks her sister out and then Oliver and the others join them. They come face to face with Adrian and his gang. Another big fight breaks out, this was so enjoyable to watch!!! Especially when we were given a showdown between Black Siren and Black Canary. Oliver isn’t far from begging Adrian to tell him where William is, but he teases Oliver that the only way he will find out is if he kills him. 

Felicity and Curtis work out that the island is rigged with bombs everywhere and Adrian reveals that if he dies the whole island will explode. Oliver tells everyone else to go find the plane so they can get off the island. 

Oliver goes on the chase after Adrian to find him getting on a boat. Oliver manages to jump on just as it leaves and attempts to punch Williams’s whereabouts out of him. Adrian takes great pleasure in bringing William out onto the deck and reveals his final piece of revenge …. Oliver must choose between keeping William alive, or EVERYONE else. Oliver still refuses to kill Adrian so the option is taken away from him. Adrian shoots himself in the head which detonates all the bombs on Lian Yu.

In the last ever episode of flashbacks, Kovar arrives back at the cell to find Oliver gone. Oliver is running out of time to get where he needs to be. He kills every single one of Kovar’s men and eventually kills Kovar himself. He runs to the shore and shoots an arrow which ignites a fire, and is seen by some fishermen. He’s found and rescued! On the boat, Oliver makes a very emotional call to Moira, and after 5 years he’s on his way home. 

Well …… I must say I enjoyed this season’s finale episode so much! It was great to have Oliver’s past influence what will happen in his future and it’s almost like his story has gone full circle with it all being set on Lian Yu. It was great to have Slade back, aswell as seeing other characters such as Nyssa again. 

I for one think Prometheus/ Adrian Chase has been an absolutely incredible villain. No one else has managed to get under Oliver’s skin like this. No one else has managed to cause him to stand back and look at his actions and his relationships in this way before. No one has been able to stay one step ahead of him right up until the end! Even in Adrian’s death, Oliver is powerless to do anything about what is happening around him.  

It’s hard to even guess where Season 6 will take us but I think we will have quite a different Oliver Queen! Oh and NO MORE FLASHBACKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Brace yourselves because this is a flipping fantastic episode!!! 

So the atmosphere is pretty harmonious in Star City now that Adrian Chase is behind bars where he belongs. It’s Oliver’s Birthday and he’s going to celebrate for the first time in years by going on a date that’s not a date with Felicity. When he arrives to pick her up the door is ajar which sends his spidey senses tingling. He floors a guy who turns out to be Curtis and as he spins around he realises his pals have organised a surprise party. Funniest reaction to a surprise birthday party EVER!!!!!!!!!!

They all tuck into some Green Arrow Birthday cake and discuss their plans now there’s no super villain to defeat. Oliver’s big plans of buying socks are bound to keep him very busy! 

And here we have it! The moment we have all been waiting for and possibly the happiest moment of Season 5 …. Olicity are back on!!! 

Afterwards, Curtis goes to Dinah’s house as she was absent from the party. Now, Dinah is either extremely messy or her house has been broken into and trashed. Curtis finds out the hard way by being hit over the head and dragged away.  Oliver and Diggle get over there asap and find a dart which makes Oliver believe that Talia is involved in Chase’s plan. He pays Adrian a visit to find out where his friends are but Adrian gives nothing away, apart from this is all part of his dastardly plan.

Thea and Quentin are taken to an ARGUS (not so) safe house, but are taken hostage by Laurel and Evelyn. Oh wait, yes … Laurel aka Black Siren is back. Quentin struggles to comprehend Thea’s explanation that this Laurel is from a different earth, and that he needs to fight her back.

Oliver realises that Adrian is picking off his friends and family one by one and he begs Felicity and Diggle to run and hide. They leave Star City possibly a little too late as they too are captured. When he realises what is happening, Oliver goes all kung fu panda on Chase back in his glass cage of emotion. Chase gives Oliver an ultimatum … set him free or his friends die. He proceeds to tease Oliver that he is one loss away from destroying him, and reels off a list of who he might kill. Oliver heads back to the bunker to find Malcolm Merlyn waiting for him. They put aside their unfinished business to start searching for Thea and the others.

As Adrian is carted off to be transferred he tells Oliver that all his friends are going to die, right before Oliver gets a video call showing him that William has been captured. Malcolm and Oliver quickly get to work at freeing Adrian from being taken to another prison only to have him not keep his word. We all know Oliver ain’t stupid though … he works out that he needs to get himself to Lian Yu pretty quickly. He rounds up some extra support from Nyssa and his pure desperation leads him to an old frenemy.

In the flashbacks Kovar has Oliver tied up and injects him with some funky drug which causes Oliver to relive every scratch, cut and wound he has gained in the past 5 years, as well as experience each awful experience he’s had since being on the island. This totally mirrors the present day torture Oliver is experiencing at the hand of Adrian Chase. Kovar passes him a gun with one bullet as a way out of what he is going through, but Oliver ends up shooting his way out of his prison cell. 

Oliver is booted out his office as a suspicious package has been delivered to him. Obviously being Oliver, he refuses to leave and instead opens the box. It’s not quite a gift anyone would appreciate – he finds the remains of a corpse which has been buried in cement. After some DNA tests it’s discovered that the corpse is Henry Goodwin, and some DNA under his nails prove to be of Robert Queen. Oliver is stumped at what the connection between the two men could be. Thea is back in town just in time to discover the great news about Daddy Queen.

In other news, criminals who had been sent to jail by Adrian Chase are being re-trailed due to him currently being Star City’s biggest criminal. Samson has been freed and is straight back to business. The team think he is working with Mr Chase. 

Felicity is working hard trying to find any clues as to what Adrian Chase has planned, and a lead takes Oliver and Diggle straight into a trap. They fall through the floor in a dark building (don’t any buildings in Star City have lights?) and find themselves swimming in cement. No time to panic though as Dinah and Curtis are on it and save them with the help of the all powerful t-sphere. 

Oliver and Thea speak to an old lawyer they have found who represented both Henry Goodwin and Adrian’s dad. He doesn’t offer much help apart from a USB which Adrian has asked him to hand over. Oliver must be getting pretty damn frustrated at Adrian’s ability to constantly stay one step ahead. Thea gives in to temptation and finds security footage of Robert pushing Henry into a big pot of cement. Oliver and Thea struggle with the footage they have seen, and the realisation of what their father was truly like. 

Felicity and Curtis have figured out what Samson is up to. The team suit up and their search for Samson leads them to Prometheus! The others run off to stop Samson and his men while The Green Arrow and Prometheus have their own little party on a stair case. They stop throwing punches and exchange insults instead which uncovers that Adrian too has Daddy issues. Oliver enjoys letting him know that he was so messed up as a child that his father planned to disown him. Adrian reacts by going all submissive and kneels in front of Oliver asking to be killed. Oliver chooses to have him arrested instead. 

Surely it’s not all that easy though? Well the smirk on Chase’s face at the end of the episode kinda implies the celebration drinks Team Arrow are going for are definitely premature.

In the flashbacks Oliver takes Anatoly back to the island and his plan to return home is put into action. Kovar puts a spanner in the works when he shoots a dart into Oliver’s neck and appears from out the trees.

Boom bang crash wallop etc etc etc … Oliver and Felicity find themselves in pitch black after the explosion at the bunker. Felicity sets a tone of panic which continues throughout the episode, when she realises she can’t feel her legs. She finds herself back in her wheelchair (who knew she had that tucked away for a rainy day!) They are trapped, and with the über protective shell built to keep them safe, Oliver can’t find a way to break out. Knowing that this is the doing of Mr Chase, Oliver fears he is going after William.

Diggle has slept on the sofa and his spat with Lyla continues into the morning as they start bickering again over who has done more bad through having good intentions. Curtis, Rene and Dinah interrupt after Curtis overhears the bomb go off from above the bunker. He’s put two and two together and worked out that Oliver and Felicity are stuck down there. Lyla offers support from ARGUS which turns out to be their secret, new and improved version of the T Spheres Curtis created. I had a sudden realisation in these scenes that Dinah has been really under-used since they introduced her! We need more scenes of her as the new Canary please!

Oliver does himself an injury by falling while trying to find a way out. While Felicity starts patching him up, talk turns to what happened between them last week. She is pissed that she always has his back and he couldn’t do the same for her. In an attempt to prove her wrong, Oliver let’s Felicity take the lead with their escape and he agrees to try out her ideas. Things don’t pan out well for them which results in Oliver passing out after he apologises for not supporting her. This scene highlights that Oliver is really struggling to come to terms with his self realisation after his week long torture at the hands of Adrian Chase. He confesses to Felicity that he’s not a good person, he admits, once again, to his enjoyment of killing those people on his father’s list and that he can’t trust himself anymore. Felicity gives him a pep talk just before the T Sphere bursts in, which opens communication with the rest of the team. The rescue mission starts and Oliver carries Felicity to safety, up ladders and all sorts!!! This episode really reminds me of the unbreakable connection these two people have. That no matter how angry or disappointed they may be with each other, they will always do anything in their power to protect one another. Felicity also makes a Star Wars reference here, which filled me with joy. I love these Inception style geek references within a geek show we often get with these DC shows! 

Once Oliver has recovered from his surgery, I really hope he gets some health and safety advice. That building is actually REALLY unsafe!!!!!!!!!!

We have different type of flashbacks this week. We time hop to 11 months ago – just after Damien Darhk has been dealt with. Curtis tries playing match maker in an attempt to try to reunite Olicity. Felicity isn’t really having any of it and tells him the real reason she can’t be with Oliver is because he doesn’t trust her. Oliver shows up and Curtis makes his exit, leaving them with his Chinese takeaway. Some full on flirting starts and before you know it, Oliver is showing off with his infamous bar chin up thing. She’s drunk, they kiss and they end up having ‘nice’ bunker sex. Felicity quickly puts an end to Oliver’s hopes of getting back together by telling him they still have problems which all boil down to him not trusting her, or anyone for that matter. 

Oh ….. Oliver was right to be worried by the way! Adrian has found William!!!!!!

After what feels like an eternity, Arrow is back with the final 5 episodes of Season 5. To recap very quickly, Adrian Chase was revealed as Star City’s newest villain, Prometheus. After torturing Oliver and forcing a confession of killing for sport from him, Adrian is on the run from the SCPD who have just discovered his alter-ego.

This episode is titled ‘Dangerous Liaisons’ and the complicated web of liaisons unravelling are dangerous indeed. We jump straight back into action and see that Lyla and her ARGUS pals are helping Team Arrow find Adrian Chase. They locate him at an arcade, however there’s no time for a quick game of Pacman as Prometheus appears to be one step ahead and has scarpered!

Felicity is sinking even deeper into Helix and their agenda. She’s gobsmacked when her new bestie, Alena kills an ARGUS agent who had been tipping Adrian Chase off from the inside. However,  she still decides to go along with their plan of freeing a Helix hacker who ARGUS have been keeping in custody. He’s (quite literally) the key to finding where Chase is hiding.

Felicity interferes with a rescue mission by the rest of the team and ARGUS, and Oliver makes it clear that she is playing a dangerous game. Felicity ends up picking Helix over her team mates when Oliver politely asks her to not go help them on their mission. She responds by telling him that he will have to stop her. This is shocking behaviour, but in fairness there’s no Smoak without fire. She’s hell bent on getting revenge on Adrian Chase for killing her boyf, Billy Malone. It’s quite a funny role reversal too as normally it’s Oliver who is single-mindedly fixated on revenge with Felicity trying to get him to see the bigger picture.  She puts her money where her mouth is though, and actually stops Oliver from ending the Helix rescue mission by trapping him with an electric fence. Felicity …. you’ve changed!!!!!!!

Miss Smoak doesn’t even seem bothered when she’s ditched by head Helix bitch Alena, who feels due to Felicity’s vigilante connections, she can’t be trusted. They do however leave her a parting gift and she rushes back to Arrow HQ to use her new toy. After an awkward conversation with Oliver (who was driven to drink by her actions) her screen pops up with Adrian Chase’s location … he’s at their headquarters … right now!!! And booooooom an explosion sends Oliver and Felicity flying into the air.

There’s also trouble in paradise for the Diggles asJohn is not angry, just disappointed in Lyla’s actions since becoming the big cheese at ARGUS. 

4 episodes left and I’m sure they will bring some more twists and turns along the way – but Felicity … sort yourself out!