ARROW Season 5 Premiere Review

By Justin Carter

Legacy

Everyone goes through a period of stagnation in their life. It’s a feeling that a lot of people in their early to mid 20s have, and it’s also one that Oliver Queen has been having for the last five months. After killing Damien Darhk and kinda nuking a town, Thea and Diggle left to pursue their own lives away from the mask, and Oliver’s been hoping that they’ll come back. (They don’t.)

Pulling double duty as mayor and the Green Arrow on his own isn’t helping, and it’s made abundantly clear that he’s stretching himself thin. Felicity throws out the idea of bringing in new members of the Team. We meet the first one, Wild Dog, but Oliver responds to the idea of his assistance with an arrow to the knee, and that’s his attitude until the end of the episode. I can understand why he’d be hesitant to bring someone into his little group, given that nearly everyone on Team Arrow has managed to die or come really close. But it also feels a bit like forced reluctance; from the sound of his interactions with Wild Dog, these had to have met each other multiple times in the last handful of months. Hell, you could have swapped out Wild Dog with Roy from early season two and the end result would be the same, given that Ollie had put an arrow in his leg, as well.

While Oliver is afraid of the future, Thea and Lance’s fears are rooted in the past. Sister Queen is still trying to find herself and get over threatening to kill a kid, while Lance has regressed back to alcoholism. They’re both solid character beats, and the conversation between them in the Arrow Cave (I think that’s what it’s still called?) is compelling enough to justify why they so easily slip back into their old habits.

Moving forward is something Arrow is desperately in need of doing, and here’s hoping that the new recruits provide a change of pace from Oliver moping for the next seven months. Everyone else seems to making some progress with their life, even if it’s admittedly regressive, as we’ve seen with Lance, or just basically functions as another stopgap, like with Felicity’s new boyfriend. With some luck, that’ll lead to a less sad hero and a pretty entertaining season. Plus, we’re finally going to get to see Oliver get involved with the Russian mob, and with that hanging over the season, I’m willing to cut “Legacy” some slack.

Additional Notes

• Given that Chad Coleman was on The Walking Dead prior to his appearance here as a villain of the week, I couldn’t help but chuckle when he was debating who to use his baseball bat on.
• At the end of the episode, we get a look at our villain for the year, supposedly named “Prometheus.” There’s not much to go off of, but next week also features a dude in a green hood with a weird cloth mask, so that’s gonna be confusing for a while.
• There’s no way Felicity’s new boyfriend is making it all the way to end of the season, and he’s probably going to be killed by Prometheus, or a stray arrow from Oliver.
• For all of the mystery surrounding Laurel’s last words, I was expecting something more substantial than “keep my name alive.”
• Next week: Wild Dog, Evelyn Sharp, and Curtis go through Superhero Boot Camp!