Arrow, Season 5, Episode 21: Honor Thy Fathers
Man, this episode was a pretty eventful one, and if nothing else it really sold the similarities and differences between Prometheus and Green Arrow. And their daddy issues. Lots and lots of daddy issues. Oliver finally got over his whole funk, and dons the Green Arrow costume to take the battle to Prometheus, after spending a good chunk of the entire episode angsting about his father. The plot is kickstarted by yet another attack on Oliver's personal life, as Adrian Chase sends a corpse encased in concrete, which is quickly revealed to have been killed by Robert Queen in the past. And Oliver insists that it's all a fabrication in order to shake up Oliver's own viewpoint that he's doing all this to honour his father.
The thing is, though, Robert has always been shown as a shady man. One of his most iconic lines is about how he himself failed this city, and Oliver is righting his wrongs... and he is definitely a murderer, having killed that one guy on the lifeboat with Oliver and him. Yet at the same time Oliver clinging to his view that it's all a trick by Prometheus, that it's all a lie to make him doubt his cause, is a very realistic response.
The actual procedural bits of the episode is honestly just... whatever. They investigate the leads, go through witnesses and investigation and whatnot, but the real meat of this episode has to be Oliver, with the help of the long-absent Thea, figuring out their parents and accepting, both in their own way, that despite their parents not being pleasant people... they loved their children, and they have the choice to be their own person. Honouring the good their parents did, but not bound by them either. It's a very well-crafted episode for both of them, and the conclusion they come to really works in context of their respective issues (Oliver doing it all for the sake of his daddy; Thea having to deal with yet another parent who turns out to be a murderer, thinking that she's doomed to be a monster from the get-go). Bringing Thea back is definitely the right choice, as Oliver's sister is literally the only person that has any inkling of what Oliver is going through. Oh, and some really well crafted dialogue, too, of course.
It's also appropriate that the final leg of the flashback episodes happens at the same episode as Oliver and Thea deciding to leave the past in the past and move into the future, which is a nice meta bit.
The flashbacks do wrap up some loose ends. How Oliver and Anatoly got back to Lian Yu, and set up some loose ends that people have been questioning (the Deathstroke mask, Oliver's facial hair). It's more of a bookkeeping thing, showing the things that happened at the end of the flashback saga before we go to the first present-day part of the first season... which is definitely a nice cap. There's also a very bittersweet moment at Oliver and Anatoly's farewell, promising to be brothers, especially in light of the villainous turn that Anatoly took this season.
Of course, we have two more episodes to go and Malcolm apparently resurrected Konstantin Kovar for some reason... and Kovar is back on Lian Yu for revenge. It's not made clear if Kovar is working on his own or if Malcolm is sponsoring him, but I'd say it's the former because Malcolm seemed pretty surprised that Oliver survived at all.
But back to the present day, Oliver having to look back at his past and his father's less-than-angelic life means that the parallels between Oliver and Adrian are highlighted even more. And he finally accepts that while his father may be a murderer, he is not his father. And for his faults, Robert Queen loved him and Thea. The same can't be said for Adrian Chase, as Oliver notes in their confrontation -- while Chase took own his twisted cause to avenge his father, apparently Justin Claybourne was so disgusted with Chase's apparent psychopathy as a kid that he was ready to disown the boy.
The beatdown, and the revelation that literally broke Chase, is amazingly delivered. And while I doubt that this is the end of Chase's plans (William still hasn't come up, for one) since we have two more episodes to go, it's definitely cathartic to see Oliver get the upper hand both in mental torment and physical fisticuffs. Mind you, that stairway battle was pretty intense, too! But both actors really sold the scene, with Oliver's calm and smug delivery of the bombshell line, and Chase's despair and hurt, are amazingly conveyed.
This episode also sees the return of Derek Sampson, the dude played by a wrestler buddy of Stephen Amell's from a couple of episodes ago, and he... mostly fights Wild Dog, actually, which is surprising but still nice. Sampson also got an upgrade, because apparently he's now super-invulnerable instead of just not feeling pain. He's kind of just being Chase's lackey and not being super-significant, though there's a nice bit of background character acting when Sampson's mooks accidentally spills some of the super-corrosive chemicals on Sampson's hands and everybody -- even the mooks in the background -- do a collective, soundless 'OH FUCK' as they look up at Sampson without speaking a word. But Sampson himself kind of felt underwhelming.
Rene had a subplot of having trouble of letting go of his past, and while it's a rehash of his previous Quentin/Rene "go to the god damned hearing and get your daughter back" plot, it still tied in thematically with the themes of the episode, and the ending that Rene didn't show up for his hearing at all is a surprising, if depressing, twist. I just hope we won't be burdened in the final two episodes of having Quentin trying to drag Rene to the hearing while all the Promehetus madness is going down, but who knows? Maybe Rene's kidnapped by Chase and/or Talia (remember Talia? Maybe she's pulling a TDKR and hijacking the final act from Prometheus) instead of just pussying out.
Still, while it's clearly not over for Adrian Chase yet, it's still a pretty amazing episode for Arrow that really showed that, hey, they can take a story that's been running through five seasons and craft a very suitable conclusion for it. It's a pretty monumental bit for Arrow to finally wrap up the Robert Queen storyline for both Oliver and Thea, and basically stop looking to the past and move to the future. I dunno. I just really liked this episode.
DC Easter Eggs Corner:
- Oliver returns to the island in the flashback sequence, and sets up the iconic image of Deathstroke's mask staked to a post with an arrow when he and Anatoly finds it on the beach. Also explaining his comic-accurate facial hair, Anatoly implies that he stuck the disguise equipment in order to sell Oliver Queen's story of being marooned for five years.
- Oliver and Anatoly pay respects to the graves of the people that have died on the island, including Robert Queen, Shado, Taiana and Sara.
- Oliver and Anatoly refer to their shared catchphrase (later also adopted by Oliver and Diggle), Prochnost.
- Isabel Rochev from season two is briefly mentioned by Oliver to compare to Adrian's betrayal.
- The video that Robert left for Oliver and Thea was a plot point way, way back in season three.
- Thea references the hosen that Oliver gave her in the pilot episode when Oliver gave her Robert's video.
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