Arrow, Season 5, Episode 4: Penance
It's been some time since I last saw an episode of Arrow, and holy shit, what a good one that I find myself in. Arrow has had a fair bit of stigma over the four seasons it's been on the air. The first one was... very shaky, and portrayed Green Arrow as basically the polar opposite of what his comic-book counterpart was. It would've been a decent show if it starred someone like, oh, Vigilante or Batman or whoever, but as a Green Arrow adaptation it's pretty far off the mark. The second season was pretty solid, though I may be misremembering due to my unabashed fangasm over Slade being the main villain. The third season, on the other hand, was a hot piping mess, and the fourth had a very good buildup only to lose it all in a very underwhelming finale.
The fifth season, though, despite the unsure beginnings and the 'been here done that' feel with some of the plot threads, has been mostly on the good side of things. And as much as I love the flashier side of superhero shows, there's just something thrilling about a more grounded story about just fighting crime in a city, and Arrow's season five juggled the 'train a bunch of rookies' and the 'juggle a dual life' plotlines -- things that have been touched upon in previous seasons of Arrow -- and made something really fresh out of it.
This episode in particular really allowed the side-team, who has been growing more and more distinct over the first three episodes but never really given a chance to shine, to flex their figurative muscles. Oliver has to leave town to help Lyla out on a private mission to break John Diggle out of his weird self-imposed masochistic penance in prison. On the other hand, though, the rest of the New Team Arrow had to deal with the return of Tobias Church, assaulting the Anti-Crime Unit base with a pretty simple yet clever sting operation. There was a couple of sideplots involving Felicity and Ragman, plus Adrian Chase and Quentin Lance, but the latter was interwoven to the Church plotline so well and the Felicity bit wasn't very distracting.
The John Diggle plot was relatively simple, as is the rescue mission. It's nothing we haven't seen dozens of times already in Arrow, and while Oliver was a bit too quick in suggesting Diggle return to superheroing duty as Spartan, the guilt-tripping about leaving his wife and daughter to do penance for a crime he was framed for ended up shaking Diggle out of his funk... and while Diggle was adamant that he didn't want to be rescued, the scenes at the end with them bro-ing in the base ends up noting that, yeah, this is Oliver rescuing Diggle from a decision he would've regretted, similar to what Diggle has done to Oliver so many times before. Lyla is also pretty awesome in this episode in the relatively brief scenes she was given.
More awesome, though, was the demonstration that Green Arrow is someone who, in direct combat, has bested the likes of a super-steroid-empowered Deathstroke and Ra's al Ghul, and even gave metahumans like Flash and Hawkman, as well as magic-users like Damien Darrhk a run for their money. The assembled force of Wild Dog, Mister Terrific and the newly-minted Artemis (not Starling or a new Black Canary as I previously thought) barely lasted half a minute against Green Arrow, who quite thoroughly whupped all their asses in a curb-stomp fight.
Also I definitely let out a squee when I saw Curtis decked up in all his Mister Terrific glory, with the hair done right and the T-face-sticker thing and the Fair Play jacket... holy shit, that right there is just so, so awesomely done.
The focus was definitely on Team Arrow, though. The only real old face that's left there are Felicity and Curtis, and even then Curtis is very new on this Mister Terrific thing. Wild Dog, Artemis and Ragman are all newcomers to us, and among the three only Wild Dog really has much of a chance to show off his personality, and even then that's more of an angry ass. Ragman sits out a good chunk of the episode's conflict due to his own personal conflict with Felicity destroying Havenrock. It's a conflict that thankfully wasn't allowed to fester and be cancerous like Arrow likes to do, and while Ragman does take some time off the team, Felicity confronting Ragman and talking to him and telling him to channel that rage and grief and penance towards something productive, similar to what's going on with Oliver and Diggle, is pretty decent.
Plus, Ragman is awesome. The rag-tendril things aren't a thing that the comic-book Ragman was able to do, I don't think, but him just waltzing into the ACU compound, putting an explosive on a wall and just spreading his arms wide, ignoring everyone's warnings that the blast will kill them all and just go "I'm in position, blow it" and just have his invulnerability and tendrils eat up all the explosion... holy shit, Ragman is awesome.
Honestly, a lot of the conflict in this episode really could've been solved by throwing Ragman at it. Oliver definitely couldn't curb-stomp Ragman the way he did the other three normals, and really, instead of leaving Wild Dog to fight Tobias Church alone, leaving the indestructible, magical Ragman behind instead would've probably ended the Church plotline then and there.
The action scenes in this episode is pretty awesome, interestingly enough not on the Green Arrow side but also on the supporting cast as well. The Wild Dog and Tobias Church fight was short but pretty brutal, and while New Team Arrow succeeded in rescuing Adrian Chase and the rest of the ACU, they took some pretty hard hits. Curtis gets a throwing knife through the back and I was genuinely worried he would be crippled or taken out of commission for the rest of the season. Wild Dog's recklessness finally gets him in a fight he can't win without Oliver to bail him out. After several episodes' worth of him being insubordinate (despite him definitely meaning well) he finally picks a fight that he straight-up loses, showing that, yeah, Oliver does have a point. He's been doing this vigilante thing for close to five years now, and despite him being a control freak... he does have a point.
Church also proves as a very interesting villain. He's just... a tough gangster boss. He's not immortal or the leader of a huge secret organization the way Darrhk, Merlyn or Ra's al Ghul were. He's not even have a gimmick like Brick's super-toughness. He's just... tough. And he's not even based on anyone important from the comic books. It's a very down-to-earth villain that actually feels different and refreshing to be a main antagonist. There's no doubt that Green Arrow would absolutely trounce this fucker in single combat, but the fact that he's got a small army with him, he keeps mobile and hiding and he's up against the relatively unstable New Team Arrow... well.
My one critique is that Artemis still feels like a prop. Wild Dog cannot be accused of being a well-developed character, but at least he has some semblance of a personality. Ditto for Ragman, who, in addition to being pretty fucking cool-looking, also has that Havenrock scene with Felicity.
The subplot with Quentin shadowing Adrian Chase allows us a look at what to non-comic-book-readers would shrug off as just a random named character. Adrian is established to be the head of the ACU, but also has an odd fixation with vigilantes. Eh? Vigilantes? It's actually quite nice how they're building Adrian Chase up slowly and gradually, and really makes me wish that they did the same thing to Artemis, Wild Dog and Ragman. Of course, we've seen how irritating the 'take a whole season to be a hero' thing was with various other CW characters, and I'd rather have my Ragman sooner than later. So yeah.
Oh, and one thing I really love about season five? After the past two seasons' dragged-out, why-are-we-doing-this flashbacks, the Bratva stuff is actually pretty freaking good, serving as a nice bridge to the more heroic Flashback!Oliver of season four and into the cold, heartless killer that he is in present-day season one. It contrasts really well to the kill-when-necessary policy that Oliver has adopted in this season, actually, and the fact that the script isn't as bad as before at trying to go 'look at this thing in the past that coincidentally is very similar to the situation in the present' and is just focused on telling the Bratva story as it is... I like it. In fact, this episode's flashback story only has the 'infiltrate a prison' plot as the only thing in common. Oliver infiltrates a prison to interrogate a gangster about Constantine Kovar's location, being very calm and threatening the prisoner's wife and daughter to get him to spill his beans, before killing the dude with a heartless neck snap. And all this without any real inkling as to what's going on.
And the fact that, short of Sara and Slade in season two, Anatoly Knyazev is easily the best supporting character in Oliver's flashback, flip-flopping between heartless mentor and jolly Russian friend very effortlessly. It's a very chilling way to see that the upbeat, hammy Anatoly can just shrug off and condone brutal murder of someone who is established as a father of a young girl.
Overall? A very solid and explosive return for me into the world of Star City and its vigilante warfare.
DC Easter Eggs Corner:
The fifth season, though, despite the unsure beginnings and the 'been here done that' feel with some of the plot threads, has been mostly on the good side of things. And as much as I love the flashier side of superhero shows, there's just something thrilling about a more grounded story about just fighting crime in a city, and Arrow's season five juggled the 'train a bunch of rookies' and the 'juggle a dual life' plotlines -- things that have been touched upon in previous seasons of Arrow -- and made something really fresh out of it.
This episode in particular really allowed the side-team, who has been growing more and more distinct over the first three episodes but never really given a chance to shine, to flex their figurative muscles. Oliver has to leave town to help Lyla out on a private mission to break John Diggle out of his weird self-imposed masochistic penance in prison. On the other hand, though, the rest of the New Team Arrow had to deal with the return of Tobias Church, assaulting the Anti-Crime Unit base with a pretty simple yet clever sting operation. There was a couple of sideplots involving Felicity and Ragman, plus Adrian Chase and Quentin Lance, but the latter was interwoven to the Church plotline so well and the Felicity bit wasn't very distracting.
The John Diggle plot was relatively simple, as is the rescue mission. It's nothing we haven't seen dozens of times already in Arrow, and while Oliver was a bit too quick in suggesting Diggle return to superheroing duty as Spartan, the guilt-tripping about leaving his wife and daughter to do penance for a crime he was framed for ended up shaking Diggle out of his funk... and while Diggle was adamant that he didn't want to be rescued, the scenes at the end with them bro-ing in the base ends up noting that, yeah, this is Oliver rescuing Diggle from a decision he would've regretted, similar to what Diggle has done to Oliver so many times before. Lyla is also pretty awesome in this episode in the relatively brief scenes she was given.
More awesome, though, was the demonstration that Green Arrow is someone who, in direct combat, has bested the likes of a super-steroid-empowered Deathstroke and Ra's al Ghul, and even gave metahumans like Flash and Hawkman, as well as magic-users like Damien Darrhk a run for their money. The assembled force of Wild Dog, Mister Terrific and the newly-minted Artemis (not Starling or a new Black Canary as I previously thought) barely lasted half a minute against Green Arrow, who quite thoroughly whupped all their asses in a curb-stomp fight.
Also I definitely let out a squee when I saw Curtis decked up in all his Mister Terrific glory, with the hair done right and the T-face-sticker thing and the Fair Play jacket... holy shit, that right there is just so, so awesomely done.
The focus was definitely on Team Arrow, though. The only real old face that's left there are Felicity and Curtis, and even then Curtis is very new on this Mister Terrific thing. Wild Dog, Artemis and Ragman are all newcomers to us, and among the three only Wild Dog really has much of a chance to show off his personality, and even then that's more of an angry ass. Ragman sits out a good chunk of the episode's conflict due to his own personal conflict with Felicity destroying Havenrock. It's a conflict that thankfully wasn't allowed to fester and be cancerous like Arrow likes to do, and while Ragman does take some time off the team, Felicity confronting Ragman and talking to him and telling him to channel that rage and grief and penance towards something productive, similar to what's going on with Oliver and Diggle, is pretty decent.
Plus, Ragman is awesome. The rag-tendril things aren't a thing that the comic-book Ragman was able to do, I don't think, but him just waltzing into the ACU compound, putting an explosive on a wall and just spreading his arms wide, ignoring everyone's warnings that the blast will kill them all and just go "I'm in position, blow it" and just have his invulnerability and tendrils eat up all the explosion... holy shit, Ragman is awesome.
Honestly, a lot of the conflict in this episode really could've been solved by throwing Ragman at it. Oliver definitely couldn't curb-stomp Ragman the way he did the other three normals, and really, instead of leaving Wild Dog to fight Tobias Church alone, leaving the indestructible, magical Ragman behind instead would've probably ended the Church plotline then and there.
The action scenes in this episode is pretty awesome, interestingly enough not on the Green Arrow side but also on the supporting cast as well. The Wild Dog and Tobias Church fight was short but pretty brutal, and while New Team Arrow succeeded in rescuing Adrian Chase and the rest of the ACU, they took some pretty hard hits. Curtis gets a throwing knife through the back and I was genuinely worried he would be crippled or taken out of commission for the rest of the season. Wild Dog's recklessness finally gets him in a fight he can't win without Oliver to bail him out. After several episodes' worth of him being insubordinate (despite him definitely meaning well) he finally picks a fight that he straight-up loses, showing that, yeah, Oliver does have a point. He's been doing this vigilante thing for close to five years now, and despite him being a control freak... he does have a point.
Church also proves as a very interesting villain. He's just... a tough gangster boss. He's not immortal or the leader of a huge secret organization the way Darrhk, Merlyn or Ra's al Ghul were. He's not even have a gimmick like Brick's super-toughness. He's just... tough. And he's not even based on anyone important from the comic books. It's a very down-to-earth villain that actually feels different and refreshing to be a main antagonist. There's no doubt that Green Arrow would absolutely trounce this fucker in single combat, but the fact that he's got a small army with him, he keeps mobile and hiding and he's up against the relatively unstable New Team Arrow... well.
My one critique is that Artemis still feels like a prop. Wild Dog cannot be accused of being a well-developed character, but at least he has some semblance of a personality. Ditto for Ragman, who, in addition to being pretty fucking cool-looking, also has that Havenrock scene with Felicity.
The subplot with Quentin shadowing Adrian Chase allows us a look at what to non-comic-book-readers would shrug off as just a random named character. Adrian is established to be the head of the ACU, but also has an odd fixation with vigilantes. Eh? Vigilantes? It's actually quite nice how they're building Adrian Chase up slowly and gradually, and really makes me wish that they did the same thing to Artemis, Wild Dog and Ragman. Of course, we've seen how irritating the 'take a whole season to be a hero' thing was with various other CW characters, and I'd rather have my Ragman sooner than later. So yeah.
Oh, and one thing I really love about season five? After the past two seasons' dragged-out, why-are-we-doing-this flashbacks, the Bratva stuff is actually pretty freaking good, serving as a nice bridge to the more heroic Flashback!Oliver of season four and into the cold, heartless killer that he is in present-day season one. It contrasts really well to the kill-when-necessary policy that Oliver has adopted in this season, actually, and the fact that the script isn't as bad as before at trying to go 'look at this thing in the past that coincidentally is very similar to the situation in the present' and is just focused on telling the Bratva story as it is... I like it. In fact, this episode's flashback story only has the 'infiltrate a prison' plot as the only thing in common. Oliver infiltrates a prison to interrogate a gangster about Constantine Kovar's location, being very calm and threatening the prisoner's wife and daughter to get him to spill his beans, before killing the dude with a heartless neck snap. And all this without any real inkling as to what's going on.
And the fact that, short of Sara and Slade in season two, Anatoly Knyazev is easily the best supporting character in Oliver's flashback, flip-flopping between heartless mentor and jolly Russian friend very effortlessly. It's a very chilling way to see that the upbeat, hammy Anatoly can just shrug off and condone brutal murder of someone who is established as a father of a young girl.
Overall? A very solid and explosive return for me into the world of Star City and its vigilante warfare.
DC Easter Eggs Corner:
- A more fourth-wally Easter Egg, but the IP address that the Russian criminal gives to Oliver as the dark web dropsite run by Kovar's organization actually redirects to the CW's home page.
- Another mention of Kord Industries, which has been appearing all throughout Arrow since season two. Kord is in reference to Ted Kord, otherwise known as the superhero Blue Beetle.
- Can't remember if Evelyn was ever called 'Artemis' in any of the previous episodes, but the DC character Artemis who's also a female archer sidekick of Green Arrow... wasn't actually called Artemis in the comics, but rather went by the codename Tigress. Artemis was actually her real name, Artemis Crock, and she was the daughter of the villains Sportsmaster and the first Tigress. The comic-book counterpart actually used a tigress-based costume, but the cartoon adaptation Young Justice revamped her character radically as a female sidekick to Green Arrow with her background as being the child of two supervillains being a mystery to the rest of the Young Justice team. I won't spoil too much of her backstory here because, well, next year Young Justice is going to be on the short list of cartoons I review once I'm done with Teen Titans and Justice League.
No comments:
Post a Comment