I had hoped that Team Arrow’s rescue of Rene from Tobias Church’s clutches would make for an interesting bottle episode, possibly set over one night, but that wasn’t to be the case. I don’t know why I’m even surprised any more, as ARROW has shown again and again, it doesn’t do high concept bottle episodes. Instead Rene is rescued by Oliver relatively quickly, but not before he gives up the mother of all secrets to Church, the Green Arrow’s secret identity.
With Diggle back on the team, albeit still lying low as a fugitive from the government, it was so cool to see him through the eyes of the new recruits, as this total badass avuncular figure. Seeing Spartan back in action, with a new and improved helmet no less, was great but it was his scenes with Rene that made the episode for me. I had hoped for some more of Rene’s past to be eked out during his torture at the hands of Church but instead, through counselling techniques, Dig got Rene to open up, not only about his recent trauma but why exactly he was dishonourably discharged for the navy. Turns out he put a beat down on someone in the navy’s custody when intelligence officers couldn’t extract the info they wanted. How exactly he squares being a vigilante and essentially doing every night the thing that cost him his naval career, I have no idea. Perhaps the writers wrote themselves into a bit of a corner there?
I was vaguely aware of the character code named “Human Target” as I picked up a trade paperback of the character some years ago – literally picked it up and flicked through it before putting it back on the self. I knew the character got his own short lived TV a few years ago but was otherwise going in blind to this episode with regard to the character. When Church called in a mask wearing, Uzi sporting hitman, I found myself asking, “Is that The Human Target?” Seriously. I don’t think they even gave that mask wearing hitman a name (research shows he was credited as Scimitar). He was dead by the end anyway, shot by the real Human Target as it turns out. When Oliver was shot up on the steps of City Hall it just clicked – Human Target takes his client’s place, assuming their identity and appearance, so Oliver’s “death” had little to no impact but it was a cool way to bring another DC character in to the Arrowverse. Played by Wil Traval (who’ve I’ve missed since his turn in Marvel’s JESSICA JONES) the man code named Human Target, Christopher Chance was an interesting choice to show us some insight into Oliver’s life especially that of being mayor of Star City, tackling troublesome reporters and stubborn career politicians, though I question the logic of undermining Oliver’s competence as mayor by having his achievements attributed to Chance, even if only privately.
About this time last week I had read online that this week’s episode was tipped to be a “Olicity heavy,” so I braced myself. But if this is what Season 5 classes as a “shipper episode” than I think I can handle it. Oliver found out about Felicity’s new beau, super cop Billy, and after talking about it and acknowledging the initial weirdness that Billy will be working directly under Oliver as part of the anti-crime unit, both seemed to find some kind of closure. Now I’m just praying this wasn’t just a set up for a predictable love triangle drama down the road.
Figuring out exactly where Church was and what his plan was, the consolidation of five major cities biggest drug cartels, Team Arrow raced to stop him, ending in some pretty awesome action capped by a pretty brutal fight between the “resurrected” Green Arrow and Church, another sequence the fight choreographers should be proud of. A five episode arc was brought to a close, as Oliver was also came back to life in his public life taking his place as mayor again, enjoying I’m sure ridiculously high approval ratings due to his part in faking his death to flush out Church.
Going forward, it looks like Oliver has even bigger fish to fry though. Prometheus killed Church whilst he was being transported by police, his price for going after the Green Arrow. Church even tried to bargain by giving up The Green Arrow’s secret identity, but Prometheus didn’t care and in fact, I’m pretty sure this was a ploy to throw us off the scent that Prometheus already knows exactly who the Green Arrow is. His quest to kill him seems too personal, how could he not? I just hope ARROW's attempt at FLASH’s patented evil version of the hero whose identity is a mystery formula turns out well for them.
And that troublesome reporter? Besides being a stone cold fox, giving Oliver (or should I say Christopher) her number, she dug up something that could change everything. In the flashbacks, Oliver was finally brought into the Bratva but the most interesting development was that he had encountered Christopher Chance before even if he didn’t realise it at the time. Bribing one of Oliver’s bodyguards who was in on the faked assassination turned up evidence from Chance’s previous mission from five years ago, a photo proving Oliver Queen wasn’t stranded on a deserted island, a lead to an angle that could blow the show’s narrative wide open.
Written by Nick Whitney, ARROW Beat Writer -- Click to read Nick's posts
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