DJ Watches: Arrow Season Five: Episode Four: Penance
Last time in Star City, the Green Arrow finally let his new team of vigilantes give him a hand in taking down a Stardust dealing drug dealer, and here, we find the team continuing to work as one…albeit not very well. Ultimately, they take down the accomplice of Tobias Church, but only after Wild Dog acts like a moron and takes a poor shot, ruining kind of everything for Artemis and Mr. Terrific, and forcing Arrow to take care of business. While he gives them the chance to go ahead and deliver the perp to the SCPD, Ollie still takes the time to belittle Rene’s short sightedness and tells everyone to take a hike, and that he’ll be away for a bit. Returning to HQ, he’s confronted by Rory, and at first questions why he wasn’t with the team, to which Ragman counters that Felicity came clean about her guilt and hand in the destruction of Haven Rock, and while Rory certainly doesn’t blame her for the decision that had to be made he can’t in good conscience be around her as it’d be too painful a reminder of that night. Ollie, regretfully, accepts his resignation.
Coming downstairs, Ollie comes clean to Felicity about Layla’s request to help her break Diggle out of jail, and despite pointing out how terrible an idea it is, especially since John himself is perfectly fine sitting in a cell to make up for his guilt of having to kill his little brother last season, she also realizes that it doesn’t matter what she says, he’s going to do it anyway, because that’s just the Oliver Queen way. Mayor Queen, for his part, makes up a story about having to get something medical taken care of to excuse his absence, and gives the new Deputy Mayor Lance the job of overseeing evidence lock-ups along with DA Chase. Before he leaves, however, Oliver makes a quick “withdrawal” from Palmertech, as Felicity and the new Team Arrow look into the thefts committed by Church’s men recently involving weirdly normal tech that would’ve been easier to get a hold of by just going to the store and buying it rather then stealing it. Upon hearing about Olive leaving, the team intercepts the would be savior and points out how stupid it is to do hat he’s about to do, and at the very least, this should be done as a team.
Oliver tells him what he thinks of their protests by kicking the crap out of all of them and leaving them in broken heaps in the middle of the road as he rides off on his motorcycle. Keep in mind, this is the Green Arrow now being nice, as he’s said he would be in the last couple episodes. With Layla’s aid, the not-so-ailing Mayor slips into the military prison and with a bit of trickery, manages to get to Diggle’s cell…where he is not located, as he was moved into general population at just the wrong time. Meanwhile, back in Star City, as Quentin and Adrian oversee the transport of the stolen tech from earlier, it becomes abundantly clear that something is wrong with the whole situation, though it’s unfortunately a little too late as the seemingly useless junk evidence turns out to be a bomb that rips through the surprisingly flimsy walls of the building. Church and his crew proceed to waltz straight in an regain their lost weaponry and hardware from the botched Amertech deal a couple episodes back, and then some.
Back in the prison, Oliver improvises in an incredibly inefficient way, but in the end successfully gets the guards to get John back into his cell, where he’s waiting for him. Diggle is at first unresponsive to his pleas to escape, but Ollie eventually forces his hand as he threatens to stay and get caught if John doesn’t budge. While it gets a little hairy, Oliver and John do get outside the building, and taking a page from another DC superhero that this show maybe pulls a little too much from, escape in a way that one might think is an incredibly flashy way that could easily be traceable by the US military, but apparently, they get away scott free despite the giant flying machine buzzing the federal prison. Weird.
For their part, Team Arrow groups up as they realize that Church intends to attack the Anti-Crime Unit at their HQ using their newly regained heavy duty hardware, and glumly decide to go forth short handed. Felicity, meanwhile, had taken the time to try and have a heart to heart with Rory in his workshop, and while it seemed he wasn’t too receptive, albeit appreciative, of the effort, he apparently gave it a second thought and joins the team before they march out, pointing out that sometimes tough decisions have to be made for the greater good. And thus the team gets to the Anti-Crime base in the nick of time, just as Church and his group start attacking. Ragman manages to get the rest of the team in undetected, and allow the squad to escape and evade death from the criminals out for blood. Unfortunately, Rene again manages to let his impetuousness get the better of him as he volunteers to distract Church one on one in order to get everyone, including an injured Curtis, out. Despite having seen Church get completely wrecked by Green Arrow in his introduction episode, Wild Dog doesn’t fare as well, being absolutely dominated by the man and ultimately ending up captured.
So, after Ollie sets John up in a safe house away from prying eyes, he returns to the mayor’s office, finding a district attorney now re-thinking his original dislike for vigilantes after a few saved his life, as well as somewhat re-energized Lance still trying to make good for the position. All, however, is not well, as of course, Rene is under the “care” of Tobias Church, and he seems to have plans to have fun with the prisoner to get what he wants. Somehow, all of this has to do with Ollie learning about trust back in Russia…somehow.
So there we go, a standard episode of Arrow, albeit standard from a few years ago rather then lately. Still a good sight better then the worst of the lot, and some decent plot and character progression, but not quite as good as the last couple, but that’s fine. They do a decent job driving the parallels of guilt between both Diggle and Felicity, with the former still not quite forgiving himself but willing to make a penance, and the latter in a way managing to get closure for both herself and Rory, though still without quite forgiving anyone.
On one hand, it’s a little infuriating how Rene is STILL a hot head and still impulsive and doesn’t listen to reason, but on the other, it’s good that they finally showed some real consequences for his actions and his inability – or unwillingness – to listen and think things through. Now, he’s paying for it by being Church’s prisoner, and I imagine things will only get worse for him by next episode. I also have to wonder why Curtis insists on going out with the team when he’s clearly better as a support character, or at least taking the time to actually train and be more useful in the field, though that can still be addressed at this point before it becomes glaringly obvious and stupid. Ragman still has the most reasonable arc of the new recruits, and hopefully this won’t be the end of that and he won’t just be relegated to being another dude in later episodes. Evelyn’s Artemis reveal was underwhelming, and so far has been a non issue despite having had more built in back-story then anyone else on the new crew besides Curtis. Again, hopefully that becomes addressed later on.
Church is still someone I’m not sold on, though defeating and brutally beating Wild Dog is a step in the right direction, though he still feels all in the world like a filler villain while making time for Prometheus to fully reveal himself. Adrian Chase’s coming around on vigilantes is nice, but given who he is in the comics, that was something of a given, and I wonder how they’ll work it in since it’s been all but confirmed that that particular story point is coming this year. Quentin easing into the job is nice, and while I expect some bumps in the road, hopefully they don’t just turn him into a gigantic failure a la Oliver running Queen Industries into the ground in season two.
All in all, an okay episode, which I’m wary to see since this shows needs to be better then okay at this point to regain lost ground and traction, but I’m still oddly optimistic about this year. We shall see…