Here’s a quick review and recap of
Arrow “So It Begins” written by the team of Wency Mericle and Brian Ford Sullivan and directed by John Behring and “Vigilante” written by the team of Ben Sokolowski and Emilio Ortega Aldrich and directed by Gordon Verheul. As this is the week of the 4-way crossover, I thought it might be useful for both
Arrow fans and fans of
Supergirl,
The Flash, and
Legends of Tomorrow to know what’s been happening on
Arrow – though it looks like this crossover may be an entirely different story…
“So It Begins” features some great stunts, including some great parkour and wire work – loved the team sliding into the outdoor market! It really goes without saying that the stunt team on Arrow, lead by James Bamford is terrific – but they deserve for me to keep saying it!
At the Mayor’s office, Thea (Willa Holland) is worried about Lance (Paul Blackthorne) who has been consistently late. She goes into his office when he is unreachable during the attack on the outdoor market and discovers a mostly empty bottle of scotch in his desk. When she goes to his apartment, he admits that he’s never been off the wagon and tells her that she can’t help a man who doesn’t want to be helped. She insists that she’s not going anywhere, but they are going to a meeting.
Oliver, Willa, and Lance look at Willa’s plan to hold a music and arts festival. Oliver insists that they have no money, but Willa still has music contacts from running the club. Lance chimes in that he may “know a guy” who can get them a great venue. The three (read Willa) manage to pull the festival together in record time (read ridiculous) and it miraculously seems to go off without a hitch and be a success.
Meanwhile, the team deals with Prometheus (identity still unknown!). Oliver and Diggle (David Ramsey) go it alone, leading to a lot of dissension once they finally loop in the rest of the team. When a housewife – Gaye Keyed (Jonel Earl) is killed by a throwing star, both Oliver and District Attorney Chase (Josh Segarra) show up at the crime scene. Felicity and Curtis (Echo Kellum) ultimately discover that the seemingly random people being killed share one thing in common – their names are anagrams for the names in Oliver’s father’s “kill” book. Another nod to earlier seasons…
The team is thrown for another loop in learning of Oliver’s past as the Hood. Evelyn (Madison McLaughlin) seems to have the biggest problem with it, telling Oliver that she knew he had a history of killing – when forced – but not that he was a serial killer. The “B” team have their own meeting to discuss their issues with Oliver keeping secrets and being a serial killer. Evelyn says she’s “out” but still answers the call from Felicity to help protect the other identified targets. She tells Oliver she’s doing it for her, not for him.
When Prometheus goes after her target on the subway, Evelyn doesn’t wait for back up and engages him, cutting his arm. Oliver ultimately has to save her and the target, however, and uses a pretty cool parachute arrow to get them to safety! In fact, there are a lot of cool arrows in this and the next episode – we also see Oliver shoot an arrow into the barrel of a gun to stop the shooter and use an arrow with a bullet net inside to shield a target from Vigilante. In keeping with the season’s theme of circling back to season one, we also see Oliver practicing shooting with tennis balls – to relax – something we haven’t seen in a long time. Oliver patches Evelyn up, and they both apologize. He tells her that the targets are going into witness protection.
Diggle asks Felicity to get a throwing star from Billy (Tyler Ritter) to try to get some clues as to who Prometheus might be. She’s not comfortable doing it, and he’s clearly suspicious of her having another random friend involved in a violent crime. It seems that all the lair lab equipment had been damaged in the fight with Darhrk – thus explaining her having Billy test the rags in an earlier episode, but now Felicity is able to test the star and discovers that it is made out of Oliver’s old arrows!
By the end of the episode, Felicity has more than ample evidence of how Oliver’s keeping secrets backfires spectacularly, so she tells Billy the truth! Billy’s first reaction is that she is a criminal… but she’s doing it for a good cause! She doesn’t tell him the whole truth, of course, so how long before that’s an issue? Ritter is hilarious as he basically turns into a fanboy of the Green Arrow.
I’m having a harder time seeing the exact relevance of the flashbacks as clearly as I did earlier in the season. In this episode, we do see Oliver complaining about having to learn how to build bombs when he just wants to find and kill Konstantine Kovar (Dolph Lundgren). Anatoly (David Nykl) tells him he needs to be a sponge and learn everything – and that does tie in to Oliver’s advice for the team. When the bar is attacked and shot up, Anatoly says it is a declaration of war by Kovar.
Oliver infiltrates as an American playboy with money to invest in Kovar’s casino. It’s hilarious to watch him pretend to be a “douchebag” – something the other Batva agent compliments him on. Of course, it’s a trap and Oliver is taken hostage.
The final scene is a nice teaser as we see Lance wake up from a drunken blackout. There’s a throwing star on his table and a cut on his arm – exactly where Evelyn cut Prometheus. Felicity has just dropped the bomb that whoever made the throwing stars out of Oliver’s old arrows had to have access to the SCPD evidence lock up, so is this Lance? It seems unlikely for any number of reasons and does seem to be discounted quickly in the following episode…
In the next episode, he shows up at work and hands Thea his resignation. She follows him home again and tells him he’s like family to her – she’s not going anywhere! In turn, he tells her about blacking out and waking up with the throwing star and blood on his hands. He tell her that he doesn’t think he’s Prometheus, just that Prometheus is targeting him because he’s damaged goods. I love Blackthorne, and I’m also glad that the show isn’t making him a complete ass or making Lance’s battle with alcoholism an easy one. Thea takes him off to rehab and leaves him there to finally come to terms with the grief he’s been avoiding. When Thea fills in Oliver, he assumes that Prometheus is targeting Lance because Prometheus knows Oliver is the Green Arrow.
In “Vigilante,” the team is distracted from following Prometheus by the appearance of Vigilante who is more interested in killing criminals outright – and carving Vs into them – than delivering them to the police and justice system. There is a lot of discussion about whether or not they should stop the Vigilante as he seems to be taking care of really bad people. Both Oliver and Diggle are adamant that he has to be stopped, however. Evelyn, interestingly, pipes up with “who gets to decide who’s a psycho and who’s a vigilante?” It’s no secret that Vigilante is supposed to be Chase, but in this episode Mick Wingert is listed as voicing him – though he sounded an awful lot like Segarra to me, especially in the final scene…
I loved the opening scene in this episode that had Diggle facing off with Rene (Rick Gonzalez) with the batons. Evelyn and Curtis are clearly the comic relief, but Diggle and Rene were definitely showing some skills – and clearly developing a friendship. It’s surprising when it’s Rene who finds out what’s been bothering Diggle – having to miss JJ’s second birthday – and it’s Rene who works with Lyla (Audrey Marie Anderson) to arrange a party for the three at the lair. Ordinarily, I might be jealous of anyone horning in on the Oliver/Diggle relationship, but I’m really loving the chemistry between Gonzalez and Ramsey.
Speaking of chemistry, I’m not really sold on the chemistry between Susan Williams (Carly Pope) and Oliver. It is interesting that when he first encounters her in this episode, she remarks that she’s in a Twitter war with a Russian journalist – is this going to tie into what happens in the flashbacks? Or will it lead to her helping with current information on the Russians from the flashbacks?
Oliver does go to meet her for a drink – as a friend, not a date. Susan provides some needed perspective and seems like she could be a good friend. She tells him that she recognizes the “dark night of the soul” that Oliver seems to be going through. He admits to her that the job is harder than he thought. She thinks he’s only talking about the Mayor’s office, but as viewers, we know he’s also talking about being the Green Arrow and especially leading a team. He tells her that he’s trying to be more optimistic but is doubting himself now. What if someone more extreme seems to be getting the job done better? She tells him to just keep doing what he’s going – she’s clearly a fan – and that the city will see that he’s doing a good job. She tells him not to be so hard on himself. Oliver clearly enjoyed the time with her and ends the episode by going out with her again.
Vigilante is targeting a group of bank robbers whose leader is Eric Dunn (Toby Levins). The team and Vigilante converge on them, and Vigilante insists they’re on the same team. Oliver tells him, he’s out of control. Vigilante tells him that the city is out of control and the Green Arrow hasn’t saved it. It is the catalyst that has Oliver wondering if “this” is really working.
Oliver watches as Chase interrogates one of the bank robbers – Laura (Tirra Dent). He tells her that he’s been to Hell, so she doesn’t want to mess with him. Oliver is watching and is impressed when Chase manages to scare the location of the motel that Dunn is hiding in out of her.
When the Green Arrow finds Dunn, Dunn tells him he’s already as good as dead. He’s been wounded, but more importantly, Dunn highlights other problems with the current system. The first time he was sent to jail, he was innocent and a good kid, but by the time he got out, he wasn’t fit for anything but a life of crime.
Diggle has a plan to lure out Vigilante by staging a bank robbery. The rest of the team gets on board, and Vigilante does show up. Oliver manages to trap him with one of his rope arrows – those never get old! Oliver tells Vigilante that it is a war, but he’s going to fight it the right way. When he goes to unmask the Vigilante, there are explosives planted on it that knock Oliver back and give Vigilante the opportunity to escape.
In the flashbacks, Oliver is tortured both physically and mentally by Kovar. He tells Oliver that Galina (Natasha Vasiluk) is actually Tiaina’s mother and that he gave her a job while she waited for her kids to return. Oliver insists that Kovar is a monster – he’ll believe Tiania. Kovar plants the seed that Bravta is double-crossing Oliver and the two fight – finally! We get to see Lundgren in action – can’t wait to see more of this!
And this may be the big tie in to the present because in the final scene we see that Evelyn is actually working WITH Prometheus!
I’ll be interested to see if either of these storylines – or the flashbacks – will appear in the 100th episode as it is a crossover. What did you think of the episodes? Who do you think Vigilante and Prometheus are? Is Evelyn really double crossing her entire team? Are they just collateral damage to get Oliver? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
