‘Arrow’ season 5, episode 7 review: The mole in sheep’s clothing
The best episodes of “Arrow” are the ones where the writers somehow manage to deliver on something that we never predicted, but really should have. The closing minutes of Wednesday night’s new episode “Vigilante” were proof of that.
Why didn’t we think that Artemis was a traitor to the cause? It makes perfect sense, given that she has a reason to go after Oliver based on their history last season, she’s shown herself to be a master of alter egos in some shape or form already, and she’s got the skills necessary to handle herself in crisis. Oh, and she also wasn’t hurt when Prometheus ran into her earlier this season. In retrospect, that scene makes a lot more sense than it did at the time.
So what does this mean? It’s as simple as the fact that Prometheus has inside information on Team Arrow, what they’re up to, and who they are working with. This also opens up way more possibilities in terms of who the masked man could be, given that Artemis a.k.a. Evelyn could’ve just handed over all of the information to him the moment that she got it.
We do want to say that we love that it is Artemis of all people who is the traitor, just because other than the aforementioned history, she is the least obvious of all the possible candidates. She is the youngest of the group, the only woman among the recruits, and she put on a very vulnerable moment recently. We’ve got a feeling that if and when she gets found out for this, it’s probably going to be incredibly messy since so many people now care about her.
In that closing scene with Artemis and Prometheus, we also got a little bit more validation that Quentin Lance is not the character under that hood after all — unless he somehow escaped rehab really quickly and made off to a meeting place. There were emotional moments aplenty tonight between Quentin and Thea Queen, as she finally convinced him to get his stuff together and go to rehab to actually become the person that his late daughter Laurel would be proud of. Do we think he’ll stay in rehab for a long time? We’re not entirely sure on that for a number of reasons, especially since we know Katie Cassidy is turning up in the next episode — even if it seems to be happening via an alternate-universe sort of situation. What happens if she does somehow make it over to the regular timeline somehow? Crazier things have transpired, but that could make Quentin want to leave.
Before we move off from this, hats off to both Willa Holland and Paul Blackthorne. We had no idea we would love this dynamic as much as we do.
Meet Vigilante – We figure we’ve gone long enough without mentioning the main adversary of this episode. Vigilante’s name speaks for himself; he’s basically the show’s version of The Punisher, even though we know this is a DC Comics character in his own right. He’s off doing what Oliver was doing during the first season, but on a much grander scale since innocent people are dying and he doesn’t really seem to care all that much about it at all. There were several different showdowns between Oliver’s team and this guy, and while he wasn’t caught, we do at least know more now about hos stubborn this guy is.
Also, it seems easy to figure out that Vigilante is Adrian Chase, who is the District Attorney over at the City Hall. Hey, that’s who it is in the comics. The show isn’t really hiding that.
Do we give Susan Williams a chance? – Let’s now move to the most polarizing part of this episode. We know that not everyone may agree, but we’re fine with Oliver dating. He’s single, Felicity is with someone else, and if the two are ever going to be back together, they need to have more fun. The last time they were together, there was so much angst that it took so much of the fun away from what made them really great circa most of season 2 / early season 3 before they were the show’s version of Facebook-official. This is more of the Oliver in season 1, and we’re cool with exploring this side of him.
Here’s the issue: Why the reporter of all people?! This is like signing off on a death wish, since Susan Williams is the sort of person who could easily ruin him and/or figure out that he is actually the Green Arrow. Maybe Oliver likes living on the edge, but we just can’t figure out why he would be willing to run a risk like this for someone who would expose him and not care about it in the slightest.
Still, we’ll see where this goes, and hopefully it is not the predictable route. We do like Carly Pope as an actress and are rather happy that we’re getting to see so much of her right now in between this show and “Suits.”
The return of Diggle’s kid … albeit a different one – While it wasn’t a huge story tonight, we dug the return of Lyla as Wild Dog helped to orchestrate a visit from his son and his wife in secret so that he could celebrate the kid’s birthday. Missing it was tearing Diggle up, and we get that. We know there is some criticism out there about Diggle not confiding in Oliver as opposed to a new team member, but if they are supposed to be a family, we’re fine with it. Also, we like Wild Dog a lot more than most, though we agree with those who are saying that Ragman a.k.a. Rory is the coolest new recruit. He’s just got the most interesting backstory of them all. We’re not including Curtis in there, given that we already knew him. The Original Team Arrow bonding moments will likely come — we don’t know what the future of the new team holds, especially after the Artemis reveal will come to light. It certainly will see like Oliver was right to be so cagey with everyone in the first place.
Overall – A very strong episode, questionable reporter motivations aside, with a really great twist ending that makes us wonder precisely who Prometheus is. Yes, we’re aware that we haven’t dug too much into the flashbacks, but the less we say about most of them minus Dolph Lundgren, the happier we’ll be. We do think they are better than last season’s, but they remain the least-interesting part of the show and we won’t miss them when they are gone. Grade: B.
To preview what’s coming up on the big 100th episode of “Arrow,” be sure to head over here right now! (Photo: The CW.)