Arrow Recap: Disbanded – Episode 518

On this episode of Arrow, Oliver seems to have hung up the hood. Is it for good? Bratva and Anatoly also come to town, and Chase seems to have beaten Oliver down. Check out Josh’s recap on this episode, titled Disbanded, and see what happens with Oliver and the team! Following the recap, both Josh and Violet share their thoughts about the episode.

• His thoughts on Disbanded, Episode 518 of Arrow
• Her thoughts on Arrow, Season 5 Episode 18: Disbanded

This episode, titled Disbanded, is aptly named—at least for the first half of the episode, as it continues the storyline of Oliver disbanding Team Arrow. In the Arrow Cave he explains that Team Arrow has just made everything worse and it is time for it to end. He tells everyone to leave, but Diggle refuses to leave. Diggle insists they are friends, and friends shouldn’t leave other friends alone when they are in trouble. Oliver insists though, and Diggle finally sees the writing on the wall.

Oliver heads to City Hall, running into Lance, who tells Oliver that he has covered for Oliver in his absence, but is not ready to take Chase down. Oliver tells Lance that it is over though, giving up on the fight it seems.

Cue Chase coming into the Mayor’s office, and toying with Oliver, thanking him for giving him time off to mourn his wife. Chase plays with Oliver more, even letting him keep a knife in case Oliver wants to try anything—Oliver doesn’t.

Susan then pays Oliver a visit, telling him that it is not his fault about being kidnapped and such, but tells Oliver he should tell the police Chase is Prometheus, which would reveal his identity as the Green Arrow. Oliver tells Susan that Chase has likely planned for that, and Oliver needs to do something unexpected if he has any hope of taking Chase down. Oliver also breaks Susan’s heart (if he’s not being too presumptuous) telling her that he can’t be with her—if she had expected that to happen.

Later we see Oliver welcome an old friend to town—Anatoly. It looks like Oliver is trying to go for the unexpected, by turning to the dark side. It turns out that Oliver seems to have made a deal with Anatoly and the Bratva to kill Adrian Chase. As to what for, we do not quite know—yet. But Oliver tells Bratva about Chase, and tells Anatoly that he remembers his oath to the Bratva.

Meanwhile, Team Arrow — minus their leader — has reconvened at Felicity’s apartment. Apparently Oliver has changed the codes on the Arrow Cave so they have been “evicted”. John tells the team that Oliver will come around, but for now they have to keep the city safe.

Felicity then heads off to her new best friends at Helix, and her best bud Kojo provides her with some surveillance of Prometheus. Trying to find a shot where he has the hood off, it looks like Chase/Prometheus uses some sort of technology to blur his face when a camera sees it. But hope is not lost, as Felicity thinks they can come up with a way to unscramble the image—but they have to get really close to Prometheus to make that happen.

As for the rest of the team, they have jumped into action, trying to remain the heroes they have been training to be, stopping a break-in at a medical supply warehouse. They are working at a disadvantage—not having any of their costumes or tech, but they seem to still be quite capable. Turns out these robbers are Bratva though, as Anatoly tells the group that Oliver said this robbery was perfectly okay. Well, Diggle and the gang don’t seem to be happy about that.

Diggle confronts Oliver about this, telling him they do not make deals with criminals to steal medicine. Oliver is not happy about Team Arrow operating still, and chews Diggle out, while telling him that he is trying to protect the team at the expense of his own soul. Diggle seems to be coming to the realization that Team Arrow might be done.

Back at Felicity’s, the team is pretty upset about what Oliver has done. While the team talks, Curtis caught a glimpse of Felicity’s laptop, seeing some of the Helix stuff she has been getting into. While this is going on, Diggle tells Felicity they need to try to talk sense into Oliver. Felicity is not so ready to do this though.

Moving over to Oliver, we see Anatoly plans to steal another bunch of medicines, which will mix with what they have already stolen, which when the two are mixed, creates an extremely powerful opioid. Diggle overhears this though, and is appalled at what Oliver is doing, and tries again to talk sense into him. Oliver tells Diggle he is broken though, still refusing to see things clearly.

Team Arrow gets their chance to try to stop Chase when the Bratva make their move on Chase. Bratva wants to kill Chase, while Team Arrow wants to bring him to justice—alive. So when Bratva makes their attack, Team Arrow takes down the Bratva. Meanwhile, Chase attempts to flee the scene, and Curtis gives chase. The two fight,and Curtis takes a few good licks, but manages to get what he needs from Chase—the data needed for Felicity to unscramble his image on the surveillance recordings they have.

After the battle winds down, Curtis pays his own visit to Helix, giving the info to Felicity. Apparently Curtis had put some trackers in Felicity’s food to track her down. But back to Chase, they apparently need one more piece of tech from Kord Industries to break some encryption. With a little bit of breaking and entering, the two get the tech they need, and it looks like the plan worked, deciphering Chase’s image.

Back with Oliver, it looks like Chase is going to be put into Federal protective custody due to the attempt on his life, which sends Oliver storming back to Diggle, giving Diggle a good punch to the face. Diggle stands his ground though, telling Oliver he is not giving up. Diggle insists Oliver just needs to let his friends help, and they can figure this all out.

Oliver finally seems to be seeing Diggle’s side, and tells Anatoly the deal is off. But Anatoly insists that the drugs are still being taken. This means Oliver has to stop the Bratva, so the team gets back together, so they can. Oliver and the team head to the medical warehouse to stop Anatoly, and in the end Oliver trips the alarm in the building, so that the Bratva flee.

The team then celebrates their victories and the evidence they have on Chase. Oliver admits he is still not quite ready to return to the costume though, but says soon hopefully.

Oliver then sees Anatoly off, as the two discuss where their lives have taken them—Anatoly down a darker path while Oliver has tried to atone for his murderous tendencies. I am guessing we have not seen the last of the Bratva in Star City.

As for Chase, he is sitting pretty in his protective custody, but the guards protecting him get a phone call. It looks like Chase knows the gig is up, and takes out the guards before they can react to him, and he is gone. We see him driving down the road as the police head to where he was staying. I guess the cops didn’t think to stop the cars leaving that direction just in case—but it looks like Oliver is going to have to deal with Chase on his own.

Scenes from Arrow, Season 5 Episode 19: Dangerous Liaisons

Preview of Season 5 Episode 19 of Arrow

What did you think of Season 5 Episode 18 of Arrow, titled Disbanded? Let us know in the comments below!