It took a while, but ARROW took a huge step forward on last night’s episode “Fighting Fire With Fire,” by finally giving us plenty of Prometheus storyline to chew on. Yes, we finally found who the man behind the hood was. And wouldn’t you know it, it’s DA Adrian Chase. This is surprising for a number of reasons, not the least of which that the DA is been a pretty darn good ally and friend to Oliver this season, serving as a right hand man of sorts for the Queen Administration. Heck, he even helped Dig escape from the clutches of that crazy general. You’d think the guy could be trusted.
That Adrian Chase is Prometheus is also surprising because in the comics, Chase’s alter ego is the Vigilante. So what gives? This episode throws us for a loop in that both Prometheus and the Vigilante appear and even duke it out, the latter coming back onto the scene after Mayor Oliver Queen’s reputation has come into question.
So anyway, where we last left off, Oliver was about to face an impeachment trial for covering up Green Arrow’s tragic (but inadvertent) killing of cop Billy Malone. Oliver and team enter the courtroom where he’s charged with not fulfilling his duties as mayor and keeper of Star City. Arrow’s writers brilliantly use this as justification for bringing back Vigilante, who just like the Green Arrow, believes in hunting down those who have “failed this city.” (Cue ominous music). When Vigilante wages war on the mayor’s motorcade one night, Oliver realizes that he’s fighting a war on multiple fronts. And ironically, this is one of the few times Arrow history where actually Oliver might be safer with his mask on than off.
While Vigilante plays a decent antagonist, he’s no match for the main villain of season five, Prometheus, who corners Vigilante on a rooftop and tells him that Oliver (and of course the Green Arrow) are his. The two duke it out in a fun scene but ultimately Prometheus bests Vigilante, seemingly sending him plummeting to his death. Prometheus lingers a bit, and then takes off his mask and calls in the murder as DA Adrian Chase. Great reveal that comes at the perfect time.
There are a couple of subplots in this episode, though they’re not as successful as the main event. Felicity and Thea have both been tending towards more ruthless of late, with them both playing a role in the slander of reporter Susan Williams. This time around, Thea flirts with ruining another government official’s reputation if it means saving Mayor Queen’s. In a pretty smart exchange with Oliver, she starts talking about how she’s dealing with a bloodlust of sorts, this time in the political arena. At the end of the episode, Thea decides to leave the Queen Administration because she isn’t happy with what she’s been doing.
Felicity’s storyline isn’t as robust, however, and it takes until the end of the episode before she finally reaches out to her new hacktivist ally for future machinations. It felt like there was a missed opportunity to tease more of what’s to come.
As Oliver is backed against a corner, he ultimately makes the shocking decision, as mayor, to essentially throw the Green Arrow and all he’s been working for under the bus. At a press conference, he says he covered for the Green Arrow because he didn’t want Star City’s citizens to have to know that Arrow turned to the dark side. It’s not really a new idea, that the man behind the mask would have to publicly reject the superhero, but to see Oliver basically give up the Green Arrow because he felt his role as mayor was more important, was pretty interesting and unexpected.
In that sense, we actually get two big identity shocks to the system this week. The twist with Prometheus and the twist with the Green Arrow. Of course, it’s DA Billy Chase’s work that brought Oliver to this point and in the coming weeks I’m excited to see how the Green Arrow comes back from this one. Unlike past situations, it seems that Oliver can’t just come into this one guns blazing.
Season 5, Episode 15 (S05E15)
Arrow airs Wednesdays at 8PM on CW
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Ade writes about the philanthropy of billionaires and millionaires by day, and writes screenplays by night.
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Ade Adeniji | Contributor
