How Oliver Queen got his groove back.
Note: this is a mostly spoiler-free review of the fifth season of Arrow, which is now on Netflix. I'll discuss basic character and plot details but save direct spoiler chatter for the end of the review.
More than any other Arrowverse series, Arrow had a lot to prove when it returned in fall 2016. The series had fallen quite a bit from its peak in the Deathstroke-dominated Season 2. Following the thoroughly disappointing Season 4 finale, Arrow was at its lowest point ever. It wasn't clear at that point whether the show would continue beyond Season 5. Moreover, it wasn't clear whether the show should continue. But thanks to a change in approach, a terrific new villain and a generally more consistent level of execution, Season 5 wound up redeeming a troubled series and recapturing the appeal of those first two years.
Arrow had fallen pretty far down the metahuman rabbit hole in Season 4, what with the focus on supernatural villain Damien Darhk and all the magical tomfoolery that resulted. Even ignoring the various interviews leading up to Season 5's debut, the premiere made it plainly obvious that showrunners Marc Guggenheim and Wendy Mericle were eager to take a "back to basics" approach this year. The series didn't necessarily ignore the more colorful side of the Arrowverse this year, but it did downplay those elements in favor of a darker, more grounded take on Oliver Queen's (Stephen Amell) ongoing crusade. The early episodes were very much about Ollie getting back to his roots and shooting arrows into the criminal scum of Star City.
Initially, there was a worry that the series might be playing things too conservatively, recycling old conflicts and well-worn tropes rather than actually pushing Team Arrow forward in meaningful ways. A lot of that worry was personified in new villain Tobias Church (Chad L. Coleman), a would-be criminal kingpin cut from the exact same cloth as Vinnie Jones' Danny Brickwell. As enjoyable as Coleman's performance was, those similarities were impossible to ignore. Nor did it help that the season introduced another dark-clad archer villain in the form of Prometheus (voiced by Michael Dorn). With little real connection to the Prometheus of the comics, this villain initially came across as a poor man's Malcolm Merlyn.
The other major focus early in the season involved expanding Team Arrow into a true, ensemble fighting force. Alongside returning allies like Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards), Diggle (David Ramsey) and Curtis (Echo Kellum), the team ranks swelled with the addition of up-and-coming vigilantes Wild Dog (Rick Gonzalez), Artemis (Madison McLaughlin) and Ragman (Joe Dinicol). Ollie also assembled a secondary Team Arrow for his new day job of Star City's mayor, with Thea (Willa Holland) becoming his chief of staff and Quentin (Paul Blackthorne) his deputy mayor and new District Attorney Adrian Chase (Josh Segarra) joining the fold. Coupled with a new love interest for Ollie in the form of intrepid reporter Susan Williams (Carly Pope), and the new season was never short on character drama.
Looking back, the biggest flaw with Season 5 is that it tried to juggle more characters and conflicts than was really feasible. The second episode of the season, "The Recruits," exemplified that problem more than any other. That episode focused mainly on Ollie and Felicity's efforts to build the ranks of the new Team Arrow in Diggle's absence. And even though each new member showed promise, there was a strong sense that these new characters were falling over each other competing for limited screen time. The show struck a better balance after that point, but it never felt like there was enough room to do each supporting character justice. Artemis felt especially under-served. The writers never devoted much energy to fleshing out her background or motivations beyond what was already established in her initial Season 4 appearance. That didn't change even after a major Artemis-related twist midway through the season. Susan suffered a similar fate, as she never really developed into a compelling love interest and was treated as little more than a damsel in distress (when she actually appeared at all).
Ragman fared somewhat better. It was nice having at least one metahuman member of Team Arrow just to maintain that bridge to the larger Arrowverse. And the quiet, contemplative Rory made for a welcome counterpoint to testosterone-fueled characters like Ollie and Rene. But Rory was unceremoniously written out of the picture, for no apparent reason other than the fact that he gave Team Arrow too much of an advantage in their war with Prometheus. Between that and the late introduction of new Black Canary Dinah Drake (Juliana Harkavy), it was clear the writers were still fine-tuning and experimenting with the ensemble cast well into the season.
But those problems aside, the show tended to make pretty good use of its supporting cast this year. The unlikely friendship between Quentin and Rene helped both characters immensely and allowed Quentin to do something other than wallow in grief-induced alcoholism for a change. Curtis underwent a memorable transformation this year, finally claiming the "Mister Terrific" name and learning firsthand the terrible toll the costumed vigilante game can take on one's personal life. Even Felicity fared well, with the writers wisely downplaying the Olicity romance and focusing more on her induction into the sinister hacking group Helix.
But even with the growing supporting cast, this season really was all about the Green Arrow/Prometheus rivalry. Prometheus not proved himself to be more than a mere Dark Archer redux, he developed into the series' best villain since Deathstroke. That was due both to the actor's strong performance (which I'll focus on more at the end of the review) and the very personal nature of his feud with Oliver Queen. Prometheus wound up being a breath of fresh air for the series. His plan didn't involve holding Star City hostage, but merely putting Ollie through a complex, painstakingly designed gauntlet of psychological torture. The midseason finale, "What We Leave Behind," did a great job of establishing the threat posed by Prometheus and setting the stage for everything to come. There were still a few lackluster episodes that followed, including the pseudo-bottle episode "Underneath" and "The Sin-Eater," an episode predicated on the questionable idea of grouping together several of the series' more forgettable villains. But for the most part, Prometheus' revenge plot gave the series a momentum that carried it forward.
The personal nature of that conflict tended to bring out the best in Amell's acting, as well. The increasing darkness wasn't merely superficial. Ollie was put through hell this year as Prometheus tested him both physically and psychologically. Amell rose to the challenge with a series of raw, emotionally charged performances that really highlighted his characters inner torment. In many ways, Season 5 as a showcase for how far the show has come in the last five years, and that goes for Amell's acting as much as anything else.
The Green Arrow/Prometheus rivalry also allowed the writers to explore the use of violence on the show and address Ollie's often nebulous stance on killing. As the season opened, Ollie had once again become a dark vigilante not averse to killing his opponents should the need arise. Prometheus forced Ollie to confront his actions, both past and present, and question whether he had actually done any real, lasting good for his city after five years. Nor did the show have any easy answers to provide. The moral wasn't "Killing is bad," but merely that actions have far-reaching, unintended consequences. Even going into Season 6, it's not clear what Ollie's stance on lethal force is or how his final showdown with Prometheus will influence his actions in the future.
Season 5 marked the final go-round in terms of Ollie's five-year flashback odyssey. The flashbacks had pretty well worn out their welcome in Season 3 and 4, often doing little more than filling space and drawing pointless parallels between past and present. The Season 5 flashbacks weren't immune to these problems, but they were a significant improvement. It helps that the flashbacks were used to fill in a key hole in the Arrow tapestry, fleshing out the shared history between Ollie and Russian gangster Anatoly Knyazev (David Nykl). The flashbacks added much needed context to that relationship while also banking on the viewer's knowledge that the two characters are doomed to have a falling-out later in life. Plus, it doesn't hurt that Ivan Drago himself, Dolph Lundgren, was cast as the main villain for the Russian storyline. In a season full of strong action sequences, Ollie's brutal clashes with Konstantin Kovar ranked among the best.
Again, the flashbacks still dragged from time to time, especially in the final couple months of the season when the Russian conflict was all but resolved. But in addition to fleshing out the Ollie/Anatoly relationship, this running subplot helped enhance the season's larger focus on lethal force and the struggle that men like Ollie face to keep their souls once they position themselves as judge, jury and (sometimes) executioner. The flashbacks showcased Ollie at his darkest - a man who now possesses all the skills needed to become a great warrior but still in search of a symbol to shape his crusade.
All of this culminated wonderfully in the season finale, as the series literally and metaphorically came full circle and Guggenheim and Mericle rolled out a who's who lineup of heroes and villains. Compared to the Season 3 and 4 finales, both of which only managed to make their respective seasons seem worse in hindsight, "Lian Yu" gave Season 5 the punctuation mark it needed. It proved to be not just the best episode of Season 5, but of the series as a whole. Considering where the show was at the beginning of the season, that's quite an impressive accomplishment.
Warning: the remaining paragraphs will cover specific plot spoilers for Season 5!
No review of the season would be complete without praising Segarra's performance. Prometheus wouldn't have developed into a foe to rival Deathstroke if not for Segarra's ability to play Adrian Chase as a charismatic yet vaguely unstable wild card. Even well before the show made the very obvious reveal that Chase was Prometheus, there was a clear intensity and danger to the character that made it obvious he wasn't whom he appeared. And once the reveal did arrive, that left Segarra free to abandon subtlety and embrace his character's dark side. But no matter how twisted Chase's actions, Segarra ensured there was always a hint of tragedy to the character.
Not to be outdone, Deathstroke himself put in a long overdue appearance in the final two episodes. There are many reasons why the finale worked as well as it did, but having Manu Bennett back in the fold was certainly a major factor. It was really nice seeing that old Ollie/Slade dynamic come back into play. Freed from the influence of Mirakuru, Slade became a brother to Ollie again, no matter how many times the writers tried to fool us with Slade's apparent betrayals. Best of all, the references to Slade's missing son suggest that there are plans for Deathstroke beyond this season.
Echoing my complaints about the lack of focus on certain supporting characters, it was disappointing that the show didn't make heavier use of Talia al Ghul (Lexa Doig) this year. I'm sure the writers were hesitant to lean too heavily on the al Ghul family in the aftermath of Season 3, but Talia deserved a lot more screen time than she received in both the flashback and present-day storylines. Instead, she wound up playing second fiddle to Chase, which seems very unlike the Daughter of the Demon.
Finally, I'm hopeful that the writers will use the events of the finale to streamline and prune the overcrowded cast a bit. We already have some idea of which characters will survive the destruction of Lian Yu based on recent casting announcements. One of the big takeaways from this season is that there are too many Team Arrow members . In some ways I miss the days when it was just Ollie, Felicity and Diggle protecting the streets of Starling City. I don't think the writers need to make that drastic a shake-up in Season 6, but some amount of pruning needs to be done for the sake of the entire tree.
The Verdict
It seemed like Arrow's best days were behind it as the show returned for Season 5. But while the show faced some hurdles this year (including an bloated cast and an overly conservative approach early on), it managed to overcome them and recapture a lot of what made the show so memorable in its first two seasons. The show wrapped up the season as strong as it's ever been, proving that there's no reason to call it quits just because Oliver Queen's five-year journey through hell is finished.
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