‘Arrow’ season 5, episode 8 (winter finale) review: The strongest episode in years
The fifth season “Arrow” is certainly a crazy ride isn’t it? It’s exciting, stuffed full of surprises, and we do think that we’ve got our most interesting villain in a rather long time in Prometheus.
On the winter finale “What We Leave Be Hind”Wednesday night, this character in particular did a series of the most terrible things that we’ve seen on the show since Damien Darhk murdered Laurel Lance (or did he? More on that later) — we didn’t lose a character as important to the show, but there were a series of events that were all devastating in their own right.
The biggest headline of this story was setting up Detective Malone as bait so that Oliver would kill him, and therefore have Felicity’s ex-fiance be responsible for murder the new man in her life. This devastated Oliver emotionally to the point where he told everyone around him that they would be better off not associating with him in any way — though luckily, they did not listen to him. Felicity was reasonably understanding about this, and that showed a great deal of evolution of her character. We have a hard time that the season 1 version of the character, who we saw in the early going via flashbacks, would be so stable as to deal with the news that her boyfriend was just killed on accident. This may only further her own drive to stop Prometheus, though channeling her grief may prove difficult.
As if this surprise wasn’t enough, using a “voice message” from Lyla to trick Diggle into getting himself captured was the next rung on the ladder of devastation. Our love for Diggle holds no bounds, so seeing this happen was a heartbreaker. It also wasn’t something altogether predictable; our assumption was that Lyla and JJ were in serious trouble, but that Prometheus had captured or was torturing them.
Then, of course, you’ve got the dissolution of Curtis’ marriage to Paul, which actually understandably fell apart. Let’s put it this way: If you start staying out long hours with secret friends and are covered and bruises, your partner is going to worry about what’s wrong with you. When said partner says that he can’t imagine being afraid for your life every night, you also have to understand that. Paul didn’t sign up for that life, and even if he loves Curtis, what trust is there at this point? This is probably the one twist that probably would’ve transpired even if Prometheus wasn’t around; it may have just taken a little bit longer for him to realize that he’d had enough of this life.
Do we know who it is? We don’t, and that doesn’t bother us. We also especially like that the show gave us a flashback story to the earlier days of the Hood, only for it potentially to have been a red herring. It’s still possible that the character is a masked version of a son of someone he killed years ago, but it could also be someone with a shared history in Russia, or someone who’s known him even longer than that.
There are certainly theories out there that the character could be reporter Susan Williams, but why would she be doing this? What motive does she have for it? Working with Prometheus potentially is an easier thing to understand. (Speaking of which, Artemis is out there at this point, albeit working for the other side.) We’ve even heard theories that this is somehow Tommy Merlyn, which would be interesting … but it’s hard to tell how in the world the show would be able to get Colin Donnell for enough time that it would be valuable for the series. (Insert Chicago doctor joke from the 100th episode.)
Laurel is back – Now, let’s go ahead and get to the biggest twist of all, which may or may not be related: Laurel is back! Maybe it’s Flashpoint, maybe it’s Black Siren from Earth-2, or maybe something else weird is going on. It’s hard to say, but there are already some theories out there that she is also Prometheus. We just don’t see or understand that at all. We’re thrilled to get Katie Cassidy back in the CW extended superhero universe, but we do hope in the process that no matter what happens, it doesn’t stretch the show too far into the supernatural realm again.
Overall – The writers really killed it with “What We Leave Behind,” presenting us with an action-packed, thoroughly-entertaining hour that offered up countless insight on our Big Bad and his plan to completely destroy everything around Oliver’s life. He’s tormenting him over his past, and as hard as that is to watch, it does make for incredible TV. Not only was this this one of the best episodes of the season, we’d argue that it may be top 10 for the entire series. Grade: A.
For more news on the future of “Arrow,” including some other theories regarding Laurel, be sure to head over to this link! (Photo: The CW.)