Adrian, unfortunately having become somewhat of a one dimensional caricature of a villain, kept insisting Oliver needed to confess to this something without telling Oliver exactly what it was he wanted to hear. Frankly though, we all knew what this “dark secret” that Oliver dare not speak aloud was as it was telegraphed in the flashbacks.
Five years ago in Russia, with Anatoly being made the new Pakhan (or boss) within the Bratva thanks to Oliver killing the previous one, the pair made their move to discover exactly what Konstantine Kovar had up his sleeve. It turned out he wanted to stage a coup, using sarin gas to wipe out many of Russia’s elite who he would lure to one of his clubs. Oliver donned the Hood persona once again and gladly cut his way through Kovar’s men before finally confronting the man he promised Taiana he would bring to justice - though not before Kovar killed poor Taiana’s mother for slipping Oliver an access card to his building. Stabbing him in the heart, Oliver brought Kovar to a painful end and after receiving his Bratva Captain tattoo set off to head home. Anatoly warned him however that the Hood persona did not excuse him from the things he had done and he was kidding himself if he didn’t think the sins he had committed weren’t going to catch up with him. Also, with a surprise appearance of a pre-Season 1 Malcolm Merlyn, the Kovar saga was shown to not truly be over, as Merlyn had a doctor save Kovar’s life, bringing him back from the brink of death.
Back in present day Star City, Adrian dragged Evelyn in after all these weeks of her being absent after betraying Team Arrow, having seemingly turned on her after she finished being useful to him. Throwing down a knife he offered one of them a way out, by killing the other. Evelyn tried out of desperation before Oliver knocked her down, refusing to play Adrian’s game. Adrian instead made good on his ultimatum, that if Oliver didn’t kill her he would, snapping her neck right in front of Oliver. That is of course until Oliver finally broke and admitted to Adrian that though he may have killed out of necessity, he liked it, revelled in it even. Evelyn then popped up, the subterfuge revealed, her treachery going to an even deeper level, gleefully leaving Oliver to Adrian’s devices. Adrian however was good to his word and let Oliver go, knowing he had broken him.
Back at Team Arrow HQ, with Felicity and Curtis spouting techno-babble on how they were trying to find Oliver, the man just walked back in covered from the wounds inflicted by Adrian including, in a parallel to Oliver receiving his Bratva tattoo, Adrian having burnt it right off using a blow torch. Broken by his experience Oliver announced to the others that he was done and that he was going to be disbanding the team.
I felt the episode could have explored the psychology of the Green Arrow character a little deeper than “he enjoys killing” because after 5 seasons, he clearly doesn’t. This revelation felt a little forced, an attempt to bring the hero lower than he’s ever been before. But with the Team disbanded (as is the name of next episode), we’ll have to see what’s next in Prometheus’s twisted game of revenge. Oh and I really hope Evelyn gets what’s coming to her, even if in her brief moments of gleeful evil, she was more compelling and convincing and entertaining a villain than Prometheus has ever been.
Written by Nick Whitney, ARROW Beat Writer -- Click to read Nick's posts
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