DJ Watches: Arrow Season Five: Episode Seven: Vigilante
On this week’s new, swashbuckling, fun-filled episode of Arrow, we start with….an underage female sex slave auction. Well, great. With some less then savory characters standing about placing their bids, the lights in their non-descript warehouse suddenly go out, leading them to believe it might be Green Arrow. Unfortunately for them, bullets answer the question rather than arrows, as we soon find the remains of the two lead slavers hanging, neatly giftwrapped for the SCPD. Despite still being concerned about Prometheus, Ollie and the crew are not particularly pleased to see yet another psycho running around. Still, Felicity and Rene bring up that this maybe isn’t too bad a thing, though Oliver seems to have been reading up on his Hero Manual and disagrees.
Still, Ollie has to mull over that idea while he has yet another meeting with annoying reporter lady, whom I should probably start referring to by name. So, Susan notices Ollie isn’t particularly focused, and inquires, to which the mayor does a bad job of being mayor and admits – secretly – if maybe he’s doing enough since it doesn’t seem like any of his plans and actions are really working. She proceeds to invite Oliver for a drink at a dive bar later that night, which he initially refuses, though Susan reminds him that he could use a drink, and more than that, a friend to talk to. It’s certainly not because she has a hot news story about his past she’ll eventually break and is playing a long con, no sir-ee. Meanwhile, Thea has a chat with Quentin about his sobriety, namely that there is none, at which point the deputy mayor hand sin his resignation.
Elsewhere, what looks to be random maintenance work turns out to be a bank heist, as four masked robbers break into a shoddy looking bank that was probably the last thing designed when the budget for the episode was getting low. Still, things don’t work out too well as the mysterious lunatic from before attacks, just before Team Arrow can get there. The one remaining, injured robber sputters out that that “The Vigilante” did this to them. Back at the Quiver, Felicity figures out that the bank robbers are led by a man named Eric Dunn, a recent parole inner from iron heights who went back to the streets. This seems to be backwards day, as with Rory and Evelyn making comments that this Vigilante guy is maybe not so bad as he only goes after criminals, Oliver rightfully calls THEM out for their BS since just last week they were upset about “The Hood” murdering the heck out of everyone on his list.
The other Queen sibling, in the meantime, is doing her best to try and talk some sense into Quentin, who for his part has gotten savvy enough to expect Thea’s visit and attempt to talk him out of it. Lance reveals to her that with his excessive drinking, he’s been blacking out quite a bit and losing time, and admits he woke up last time with one of Prometheus’ ninja stars, and blood. The team also spreads out to cover the city and get some dirt, with Spartan roughing up a gun shop owner who sold this masked man his bullets and Evelyn luring one of the robbers via jailbait into Rory’s persuasive hands. John admits that he’s upset because this current life is keeping him from being with his daughter son on his second birthday. Artemis and Ragman are much more successful in getting their target to talk, as they soon get to the next bank on the list. However, the Vigilante has beat them there, and he has every intention of finishing what he started. The team gets there just in time to confront both Dunn and the Vigilante, though the former merely gets away while the latter manages to hold off the group while trying to talk. Green Arrow eventually shows p to give it a shot, though Vigilante finally lays out that the archer and his team just aren’t doing enough, and if they’re not on his side, they’re dead.
Later, Ollie chats with Felicity and John about how maybe his way of being the hero just isn’t working, and Vigilante arose because he got soft. As Quentin and Thea discuss what’s going on with Prometheus at the very least trying to frame Lance and at least mess with him, DA Chase interrogates one of the bank robbers and playing bad cop, gets her to talk and reveal Eric Dunn’s location. Green Arrow is able to track him down to a seedy motel as a result, still using the front door albeit not quite as nicely as last time, to which Dunn gives his sob story. It, however, is cut short, as Vigilante also manages to get there, Olli barely being able to get out in time and save Dunn from the shall we say excessive attack. With a handful of innocent civilians hurt or outright killed from this, the rest of the team finally agrees that Vigilante is maybe not a good guy, as Ollie goes to his bar date with Susan Williams.
In this week’s edition of “Let’s keep all our actors busy and earning their pay,” Thea takes Quentin to rehab and convinces him to go in, since he’s worth saving.
While Ollie has a heart-to-heart with Susan and gets some things off his chest, Team Arrow formulates a plan to attract Vigilante by impersonating the Dunn gang, with a few of them including Felicity playing the bank robbers. With his idealism reinforced over drinks, Ollie agrees, and the plan goes off perfectly. Maybe a little too perfectly, as Vigilante sneaks up on Mr. Terrific and Artemis in the van outside instead of going directly for the bait in the bank. Dragging Curtis in, Vigilante demands that thee team calls in their boss, though it’s not necessary as Green Arrow appears. The lethal vigilante demands that the team clears out, which Ollie has them comply with. They have their argument about their means and their methods, to which Vigilante has a solution: to have Green Arrow lose someone, in order to have him see the light and be willing to do what’s necessary. Fortunately, Ollie does manage to get Curtis out of the way just in time, and one fight scene later, he has the other masked man tied up and where he wants him. Alas, despite Green Arrow’s speech about his resolve to be a hero, and not a lunatic, Vigilante gives him the slip right before he unmasks him, leaving that revelation for a future episode.
After leaving a living package for SCPD, Ollie meets with Thea, where she confides about Quentin. While neither believe that he’s actually Prometheus, they both agree that he’s being framed, and that probably means whomever Prometheus is, he knows who Green Arrow is. Rene, meanwhile, is trying his best to show he’s not just a total jack-off and surprises John by bringing Sara John Jr’s birthday party to him since he missed it the first time, which Diggle appreciates, as Oliver and Melissa flirt in the Mayor’s office. All, however, is not well in Team Arrow, as we learn that Evelyn is secretly meeting with Prometheus, as she ominously quips that no one suspects a thing.
In Flashback Russia, Ollie learns the hard way that Constantine Kovar has far more power and influence then even he believed, gets his ass handed to him in a fight in an escape attempt, and finds out that he was able to make a deal with the Bratva, meaning this whole plan to try to blow up the casino was all for nothing.
So, that was another typical episode of Arrow. I hate that I keep saying this, but it’s still better than last year, and we do get a decent amount of character movement and overall arc moving here despite it seemingly being a more standalone episode dealing with the on-screen debut of Vigilante. Astute viewers who’ve read the books (or looked at Wikipedia) all know who the Vigilante is, but for those who haven’t, the tease in the previews of the reveal, plus how quite a few things this season on this show and others in the Flarrowverse have been done without beating around the bust was done well enough. The actual reveal of Artemis chatting it up with Prometheus is the real surprise, though I do wonder if that ends up not being all it seems either. That, or this ends up being this universe’s version of Judas Contract, which would be interesting to see as well, though the villain involved in that shows up next episode.
While I still feel like it’s something of a waste of time and nothing more than fluff to give Quentin and Thea’s actors a chance to act, the addiction side plot is being handled okay so far, though I’d rather they end it sooner rather than later or risk bungling it up and turning it into something terrible and insulting. The relationship between Oliver and Susan is also suspect, though the latter is almost certainly just playing the former as part of her long con to get an amazing news story. I almost hope they leave it at that and not let her have a change of heart, since I’m getting the feeling that’s going to not turn out well at all for the viewers of this show. I did like the turnaround where Oliver for once gets to rightfully call the team out for being hypocritical in initially liking Vigilante’s lethal methods despite just earlier getting dramatic and pouty over The List.
It’s overall a decent place to put things on hold before the crossover next time, and I for one am extremely curious how a fairly grounded show can suddenly adapt into such an out there concept – let’s not forget, the only show that regularly involves aliens is in fact in an entirely different universe, so if nothing else, that’ll make it worth watching the Invasion.
Though that means I’m going to have to do a write up on that week’s Legends of Tomorrow, aren’t’ I? Son of a…