Violet recaps the Season 5 premiere of Arrow, titled Legacy, where Oliver has to deal with being a one man crime fighting team while also being mayor of Star City! Following the recap, both Violet and Josh share their thoughts about the episode.
Recap of Arrow, Season 5 Episode 1: Legacy
The episode begins with Oliver, now the mayor of Star City, being late to speak at an Anti-Crime Initiative function, and Thea doing damage control in his absence. We see the reason he’s late: he, as Green Arrow, is busy fighting Lonnie Machin, aka Anarky, and trying to disarm some bombs, with the help of Felicity, aka Overwatch, via radio. Another vigilante in a hockey mask, whom Green Arrow has apparently encountered before, shows up and tries to help, but Oliver tries to discourage him from helping anymore by shooting an arrow into his leg.
Oliver finally shows up and says a few words about the ACI. Thea pulls him aside and points out that he just called the police department corrupt at a police department function. He tries to talk Thea into coming back to the Arrow team, saying he’d be able to concentrate more on his mayoral duties if he had Speedy’s help fighting crime, but she declines, and gets back to political business.
When Oliver goes down to the Arrow Cave, he finds Felicity and Curtis working late. Curtis is helping with repair and maintenance. Felicity hands Oliver a dossier on the vigilante that Oliver encountered in the warehouse earlier, who they have dubbed “Wild Dog.” She suggests that they bring Wild Dog into the team, and suggests a few other recruits as well, but Oliver says he isn’t interested in putting together a new team. He seems confident that both Diggle and Thea will come back, and if they don’t, he will handle it.
Meanwhile, some SCPD officers show up at a warehouse and shoot a couple of people dead who are members of Los Halcones that have acquired a large sum of cash, which the officers plan to take for themselves. A man enters, applauding, with a couple of armed guys. He asks the presumed SCPD leader if he’s in charge, which he confirms. One of his guys opens fire on one of the other SCPD officers, then the man takes it upon himself to slip on some brass knuckles and beat the SCPD leader. After that, no one else claims to be in charge.
The next day, SCPD investigates the crime scene. They discover a gold coin that matches the M.O. of a man named Tobias Church. The two detectives realize that the deceased officer, Keating, must have been up to no good, considering that he didn’t call this in. Green Arrow, hiding in a corner, overhears one of the detectives suggest to the other to give Lance his badge back, since he’s back in town now.
Oliver stops by to see Lance, who has been drinking. Lance breaks the news that he and Felicity’s mom, Donna, are no longer together. Oliver talks about getting the team back together, and suggests that the team could include Lance. Oliver then tells Lance about a ceremony that the city is going to hold honoring Laurel. But Lance thinks it’s better that he doesn’t show up.
Oliver shows up at the Arrow Cave, having ditched his security detail. Felicity shows him the info she found on Tobias Church. Oliver says Church just became their top priority, and asks her to find a way for him to find Church. Curtis comes in as Oliver leaves, and Felicity asks him to check out Wild Dog, for whom she has found an address. He reluctantly agrees.
Oliver says a few words at Laurel’s ceremony, to which Lance has decided to show up after all. The statue of Black Canary is unveiled. Tobias Church’s crew shows up and opens gunfire on the crowd, then they take Oliver hostage, along with a couple of other City Council members.
Thea and Lance go down to the Arrow Cave with Felicity and Curtis, who are trying to figure out where Oliver was taken. Felicity tries to get Thea to suit up as Speedy, but she deflects, suggesting other methods.
Church talks to the hostages, who are tied to chairs with bags over their heads. Oliver asks Church if he wants the Green Arrow, and tells Church that the Green Arrow is not coming because he’s tied up right now. Oliver offers to help Church in exchange for letting the others go, but he declines. Oliver calls Church stupid, so Church has one of his men take Oliver aside to teach him some manners.
Lance reports to Thea that they’ve located Oliver. It seems that Tobias Church is using security cameras to call the Green Arrow out, not knowing he already has him. Thea tells Lance he should go do something about it then, though that’s what he had wanted to tell her to do. She explains that she has enjoyed being normal, but Lance says that after hearing Oliver’s speech at Laurel’s ceremony, he realized that he can’t push pause on his life anymore.
Meanwhile, Tobias’s guy, dressed in a SCPD uniform, takes Oliver to another room and starts beating him. However, Oliver has dislocated his thumbs and gotten out of the zip ties, so he starts fighting back, and ends up breaking the guy’s neck, killing him, to keep his secret safe. Just then, Speedy comes in. Oliver tells her they can’t go down to rescue the other hostages, because Church’s men have set up a kill cordon, so they’ll set off explosives. After fighting off a couple more guys, Oliver says they’ll come back for the others.
Back at the Arrow Cave, Thea calls Oliver out for killing that man earlier. Oliver tries to defend what he’s done, but Thea says she doesn’t want to have anything to do with killing ever again. Felicity again tries to get Oliver to put a new team together, but Oliver still isn’t up for it, and tells her to let him know when she finds a way around the kill cordon.
Curtis calls Felicity while he’s trying to track down Wild Dog. However, right after he gets off the phone with her, he is attacked.
Oliver tries calling Diggle, but gets his voicemail. Lance and Oliver have a talk by Laurel’s statue, and Oliver tells Lance that Thea and Diggle aren’t coming back. Lance warns Oliver that he will die if he tries to take on Tobias Church on by himself. He then gives Oliver a file with cops that he believes to be trustworthy.
We then see a flashback to when Laurel was in the hospital and she had Oliver promise her something. We didn’t get to hear what that promise was at the time, but we get to hear it now. She asks him not to let her be the last Canary, that way a part of her will always be out there with him. He promises.
Back to the present, Lance’s guys show up at the warehouse, as does Green Arrow. Inside, Tobias is about to beat one of the hostages with a baseball bat, but Lance’s trusted men come in firing just then. While they take on Church’s men, Green Arrow fights Church. They realize that the bomb is about to blow, and get the hostages to safety. Oliver has 5 seconds to get out of the building safely before it explodes. He uses his grappling hook arrow to catch on to the helicopter that Tobias Church is getting away in. He climbs up and begins to attack Church, but Church pushes him out, and Oliver hurtles to the ground. Luckily, Oliver happens to have a parachute arrow, which he shoots above him and is able to parachute safely to the ground.
The next day, Oliver holds a press conference as mayor to state his position on the ACI. He says that he was reluctant to accept it because of corruption, but he has 4 officers that he trusts, who are standing next to him. He announces the formation of the Anti-Crime Unit, and says that these 4 officers will report directly to him. This announcement is met with applause.
That night, Tobias Church holds his own conference of criminal masterminds, imploring them to all work together to take down Green Arrow – under his leadership. One man questions him, but Church has this guy shot.
Down in the Arrow Cave, Felicity praises Oliver, and again tries to convince him to make a new team of vigilantes. Oliver concedes that he’s thinking of recruiting Wild Dog. Just then, Curtis comes in and tells them he was jumped while looking for Wild Dog. He agrees to tell Oliver everything, on one condition: that he recruit Curtis. Oliver agrees.
Later, Oliver video chats with Diggle, who is wearing army gear. Oliver brings up Felicity’s idea of creating a new team. Diggle says he thinks it’s a good idea.
Felicity returns home to the loft and sinks into the couch. Someone comes up behind her and begins massaging her shoulders. It’s one of the detectives we saw earlier.
Meanwhile, Conahan, one of the members of the new Anti Crime Unit, is leaving the SCPD precinct, when he sees Green Arrow lurking above – or so he thinks. The person shoots an arrow at him, and Conahan fires shots back. The person jumps down and throws a knife into Conahan’s leg as he runs away, causing him to fall. Then the figure kills Conahan with a sword.
Flashbacks
In a flashback to Russia 5 years ago, Oliver is participating in an underground fighting ring, and winning. It turns out that the man Oliver killed tonight was a group’s best fighter. Oliver inquires whose best fighter the man was, but just then Oliver is tazed from behind, and as he passes out, a few men step forward and say that they are called Bratva.
Oliver wakes up tied to a chair, and a man comes in criticizing his Russian. The man goes through Oliver’s little black book with the list of names that had belonged to his father. He then points a gun at Oliver, but just as he pulls the trigger, a man pushes his arm so that he misses Oliver. It’s Oliver’s old friend, Anatoli, who asks the other man to leave them alone. Oliver gets his little black book back before the man leaves, though. Anatoli dislocates Oliver’s thumbs rather than cut the rope tying his hands together, then snaps them back into place. Anatoli asks Oliver what he’s doing in Russia, and he tells him he’s there to kill Konstantin Kovar.
Anatoli asks Oliver what he wants with Kovar, and he says it was a promise that he made. Oliver asks Anatoli if he can get him close to Kovar. Anatoli is worried for Oliver, as Kovar is very dangerous, and advises Oliver that he should move forward. However, Anatoli reluctantly agrees to help Oliver. He says that only people of power can get to Kovar, which means only Bratva can get to him. A group of Bratva members are standing by, and Anatoli tells Oliver that if he survives this, then he can begin the process to becoming Bratva. Four men then attack him.
Her Thoughts on Arrow, Season 5 Episode 1: Legacy
So we finally get the big reveal of what the mysterious promise that Laurel had Oliver make to her… and it was kind of underwhelming. At the time, the doctors had said she would be just fine, so it was kind of odd that she was making what essentially sounds like a deathbed request. Her death then came on so suddenly and unexpectedly, considering that everyone thought she was going to be okay. Although, I suppose you could argue that sometimes people can feel it when they’re about to die. Was this promise planned all along, or did the writers just leave it a mystery so that they could come up with a promise later? Plus, it also kind of doesn’t make sense for her to request this promise because there already was another Canary – her sister, Sara.
I have mixed feelings about putting a new team together. I guess I’m kind of in the same mindset of Oliver, with wishful thinking that Thea and Diggle will come back. Speaking of Diggle, I feel like they’ve shifted from calling him Diggle to calling him John all of a sudden. To me, he’ll always be Diggle. It’s weird to call him John. It’s also ironic that previously, Felicity was the one who wanted to quit the team, and did, for a bit, while everyone else was trying to convince her to come back. Now Felicity is the only one left and the others have gone. I am glad that both Thea and Diggle are at least still around. When they announced their departures from the Arrow team, I had thought they would be gone from the show. But as of now, it looks like they’ll be around in lesser or other capacities. Unless, that is, that was only for the first episode of the season so as to serve as a sort of transition to this new team.
Oh, and going back to Felicity, it seems that she has moved on pretty fast from Oliver, since it looks like she has not only met a new guy and started a relationship with him, but has already moved him into the loft! By the way, isn’t the loft technically still Thea’s? Remember that Malcolm Merlyn had bought it for her? Then it transitioned to her and Oliver sharing the place, then Oliver and Felicity sharing the place, and now Felicity and her new guy sharing the place. But I digress.
So far, I’m not all that excited about this season, though it is interesting to see Tyreese from The Walking Dead as a villain here. We’ll see if the new recruits can bring me around.
His Thoughts on Arrow, Season 5 Episode 1: Legacy
COMING SOON
Scenes from Arrow, Season 5 Episode 2: The Recruits
Preview of Season 5 Episode 2 of Arrow
