This week’s Arrow finally closed the circle on Oliver’s Bratva flashbacks, bringing Anatoly to Star City to kill Adrian Chase. Of course, once Anatoly and the Bratva arrive, Oliver changes his mind and asks Team Arrow to stop the assassination he ordered. Nothing goes the way it was planned, but the episode ties up Season 5’s loose ends in a satisfying way, leaving the plot wide open to move forward when the show returns in late April.
Team Arrow’s body count is a lot higher than usual this week, and both Curtis and Felicity prove themselves especially useful as field agents. Felicity gets in even deeper with her black hat buddies at Helix, which means the group will likely demand she pay up during the back half of Season 5. In DC Comics, of course, Helix is a supervillain group, but its appearances on Arrow thus far have just been slightly creepy, as opposed to outright dastardly.
Laugh it up while you can, Felicity. Helix is about to claim your soul.
Diggle makes a self-referential remark toward the beginning of the episode which really encapsulates the show’s current predicament. “We’re not just an anti-Prometheus team,” he tells Team Arrow, reminding them that there are civilians all over Star City who need their help. Arrow has been so concerned with protecting, revealing, and proving Prometheus’s identity as Adrian Chase that every episode has become devoted to him, much like Savitar ruling The Flash every week. Now that Adrian has driven into the night, soaked in blood and high on his own achievements, perhaps Team Arrow can turn their focus somewhere else. Maybe the screwed up hacker collective that’s been blackmailing their friend Felicity deserves a second look.
Arrow airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. Eastern on The CW.
