Violet recaps the midseason finale of Arrow, Season 5 Episode 9, titled What We Leave Behind, where Oliver is hot on the trail of Prometheus! Following the recap, both Violet and Josh share their thoughts about the episode.
- His thoughts on What We Leave Behind, Episode 509 of Arrow
- Her thoughts on Arrow, Season 5 Episode 9: What We Leave Behind
Artemis meets up with Prometheus, handing over photos with addresses on the back. Apparently they had a deal for her to be there when Prometheus takes Green Arrow down. However, Prometheus has no plans to actually kill him, just make him wish he were dead.
Meanwhile, Oliver is throwing a Christmas party at City Hall. Susan shows up as Oliver’s date, which Thea isn’t very happy about. Felicity has brought her boyfriend, Billy Malone, to meet her friends. She awkwardly introduces him to Curtis and his husband, Paul.
Diggle spends time with John Jr. at the Arrow Cave while Lyla is away. Rory and Rene are hanging out at the Arrow Cave as well. Evelyn comes by with gifts for everyone and hangs out as well.
After Oliver makes his speech, Felicity introduces Billy to him, which goes awkwardly. As Paul and Curtis exit the building, Prometheus attacks Curtis, who fights back and tells Paul to run. Unfortunately, Prometheus is able to throw one of his stars into Curtis, and walks off, leaving Curtis to bleed.
When Curtis wakes up, he’s in the hospital with Paul by his side. Paul is very suspicious about how Curtis was able to fight like that. While Paul steps outside to give his statement to Detective Malone, Oliver talks to Curtis, and they realize that Prometheus must know not only that Curtis is Mr. Terrific, but also that Oliver is the Green Arrow. Later, Oliver tells Felicity that the doctor found a drug in Curtis’s system — a certain drug that Oliver dealt with four years ago called Dycloserol.
In a flashback to four years ago, Diggle and Oliver are hanging out in the original Arrow Cave, as Oliver tells Diggle about an outbreak of Tuberculosis and a man named Justin Claybourne, who owns a pharmaceutical company, who jacked up the price of a drug called Dycloserol, which fights Tuberculosis. Oliver points out that Claybourne is on “the list” and heads out to find him and kill him.
Back in the present, Oliver and Felicity return to the Arrow Cave and tell the others about the Dycloserol and how Oliver took down (killed, as Evelyn confirms) Justin Claybourne four years ago — or so he thought. Oliver thinks that Prometheus could be Claybourne. The Arrow Team suits up and heads out to Claybourne Pharmaceuticals.
Inside the building, Green Arrow is lured into a room, where Prometheus shows up. The two fight. Wild Dog and Artemis are not far behind, and soon catch up. Artemis reveals that she’s been working with Prometheus, and she and Prometheus disappear together.
Back at the Arrow Cave, they take precautions to protect their loved ones considering all the information that Evelyn could have told Prometheus. Felicity gets a text from Billy regarding Prometheus, and gives Rory and Rene some instructions on running a DNA sequencer on ashes and bone fragments before she leaves.
Felicity meets up with Billy at her loft. He has figured out what the Arrow Team already figured out about Dycloserol and Claybourne Pharmaceuticals. She asks him to let this go and let Green Arrow handle it, but Billy refuses.
Rory calls Curtis at the hospital and warns him about Evelyn. Paul continues to be suspicious of what Curtis has been up to, and Curtis finally comes clean and tells him that he works with the Green Arrow. Unfortunately, Paul doesn’t take it very well and tells Curtis that he can be a vigilante or married to him, but that he can’t do both.
Felicity returns to the Arrow Cave and they discover that the ashes belong to Justin Claybourne — which means that he can’t be Prometheus. They wonder who is.
In another flashback to four years ago, Arrow attacks Justin Claybourne at Claybourne Pharmaceuticals. He puts an arrow into Claybourne’s leg, telling him he has until 11pm the next night to make things right.
In the present, Billy checks out the abandoned Claybourne Pharmaceuticals and finds some documents and a photo of a baby in a desk drawer. He takes a picture of the photo and sends it to Felicity. However, when he turns around, Prometheus is standing there.
Over at the Arrow Cave, Felicity is trying to figure out why Billy sent her the photo of the baby.
In a flashback, Oliver reports to Diggle that Claybourne actually started the Tuberculosis epidemic.
Back to present time, the DA tells Oliver that Detective Malone is missing, and possibly dead. He convinces Oliver to issue a “shoot to kill” order for Prometheus.
Felicity calls Oliver back to the Arrow Cave, where she tells him that she ran facial recognition on the baby photo, and learned that the baby is Claybourne’s son – who would be about 30 today. They realize that he probably wants vengeance for his father’s death. Oliver also tells Felicity and Diggle that Prometheus used a very specific move that was taught to Oliver by a woman in Russia. He then tells Felicity the news about Billy, and promises to bring Billy back to her.
Green Arrow and Speedy meet up to go after Billy.
Curtis goes to the Arrow Cave and tells Felicity about the ultimatum Paul gave him. He tells Felicity he has to be true to himself and stay on the team.
In another flashback to four years ago, Oliver has Felicity look up an address for him.
Back to the present, Oliver remembers this address and heads over there, thinking that’s where Prometheus is. He tells Speedy that he created this situation, so he will deal with this alone.
Green Arrow arrives at the building and sees dead bodies with arrows sticking out of them. He remembers going there four years ago and shooting arrows at people. Oliver also remembers killing Justin Claybourne on the rooftop. Green Arrow goes to the rooftop, where he finds Prometheus, who says this is about more than revenge. Prometheus jumps off the side of the building, and Green Arrow grabs on, as they rappel into the window of a lower floor.
When they land inside, Oliver loses sight of Prometheus, but hears his voice, taunting him. Then Oliver sees Prometheus approaching him, and shoots a couple of arrows into him. However, Oliver notices a speaker taped on his chest, as well as a weapon taped in his hand, and when Oliver pulls the mask off of him, he finds Billy inside with his mouth taped. He is dead.
Oliver returns to the Arrow Cave, where the whole team is waiting. He sadly reports the news about Billy. Oliver goes on to tell the others that he thinks they should get as far away from him as they can, but Diggle says they are exactly where they are supposed to be.
Curtis returns home to find that Paul has packed a suitcase and will be heading to his brother’s. Paul leaves despite Curtis begging him not to go.
Diggle gets a phone call from Lyla telling him to come to the safe house because something is wrong with JJ.
Oliver stops by Susan’s place, saying he didn’t know where else to go. He tells her about being told that he ruins the lives of everyone he comes into contact with. Meanwhile, we see Curtis and Felicity hurting, and when Diggle arrives at the safe house, it turns out it’s a trap to apprehend him. Susan gives Oliver some words of advice, telling him not to shut people out. Then she kisses him.
When Oliver returns to the Arrow Cave, he finds Laurel there.
Her Thoughts on Arrow, Season 5 Episode 9: What We Leave Behind
Billy’s accidental death seemed like an all too convenient way to get Billy out of the picture, so that there would be one less hurdle standing in the way of Oliver and Felicity getting back together eventually. One might argue that it was a way to make it even harder for Oliver and Felicity to get back together, since Oliver was responsible for killing Billy, even if it wasn’t intentional. However, Felicity didn’t blame Oliver, and instead immediately blamed Prometheus for Billy’s death. On the other hand, she could have just been saying this, because logically it was Prometheus’s handiwork, but her feelings could be otherwise.
In any case, it felt like Billy was too minor of a character and that the audience didn’t see enough of him to really care about him one way or the other. We never got to see how he and Felicity met and got together, he was just kind of there all of sudden, and we were supposed to accept that Felicity had moved on. I would have liked to have gotten to know Billy better and seen more of what Felicity saw in him to have begun dating him. But we barely got to know him before he was killed off, so it feels like his character was a waste.
I’m also disappointed in Oliver’s continued quasi-relationship with Susan Williams. I also didn’t like the way he stopped by Susan’s place in the middle of the night because he “didn’t know where else to go.” Right. Whatever. There’s no mistaking it, this was a booty call. Even though we didn’t see any more than a kiss between the two, I’m going to go out on a limb and say there was more. Oliver’s actions with Susan seem more like something the old playboy Oliver would do, not the new improved Oliver. But yeah, hoping this thing with Susan doesn’t last much longer.
Anyway, so it looks like the Arrow team has determined the identity of Prometheus — or so they think. I’m not yet convinced that it necessarily is Claybourne’s son. Whoever Prometheus is could just be trying to throw Oliver off and bringing up random past actions that Arrow has carried out. We’ll see how this plays out.
His Thoughts on Arrow, Season 5 Episode 9: What We Leave Behind
COMING SOON
Scenes from Arrow, Season 5 Episode 10: Who Are You?
Preview of Season 5 Episode 10 of Arrow
