So far, the fifth season of Arrow has lived up to its promise to return to the gritty dark drama that it was during the first two seasons. Oliver’s been struggling to train a new team that does not always trust him, Diggle is in hiding after being falsely accused of a war crime, and Felicity has been coping with her choices in the previous season that lead to an entire city being nuked. Meanwhile Lance succumbed once more to his alcoholism, Thea quit being Speedy in order to focus on a normal life, and everyone has been coping with the death of Laurel Lance.
The series’ 100th episode, “Invasion”, showed the characters an alternate reality and the team worked with their friends to defeat the Dominators. Then in the midseason finale, they immediately had to face the betrayal of one of their own and an attack by Prometheus that lead to Ollie accidentally killing Felicity’s boyfriend, Detective Malone. To top matters off, Oliver discovered Laurel waiting for him in the Arrow lair, very much alive.
From the look of the synopsis for the midseason premiere released by The CW, it would appear that things will hit the ground running as the team deals with quite a bit of fallout from these previous events. Here’s a look at the official synopsis:
OLIVER WANTS JUSTICE; FELICITY WANTS REVENGE — Worried that Prometheus is right and he is truly a killer at heart, Oliver (Stephen Amell) looks for any ray of hope and finds it in what seems to be the miraculous return of Laurel Lance (guest star Katie Cassidy). However, Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards), still reeling from Detective Malone’s murder, is bent on revenge – she wants to stop Prometheus at any cost. While in prison, Diggle (David Ramsey) fights for his life. Gregory Smith directed the episode written by Ben Sokolowski & Brian Ford Sullivan (#510). Original airdate 1/25/2017.
It looks like Ollie and Felicity are having very different reactions to Malone’s death. Ollie has to cope with having fired the fatal arrow. Although he was tricked into doing so, he already has one long list of bodies on his conscious. While he has knowingly killed many criminals in the past, Malone was one of the good guys, and Evelyn’s betrayal after learning about his time as the Hood probably isn’t helping. As for whether Laurel can help, there’s a pretty good chance she isn’t the Laurel he remembers.
As for Felicity, she’s rarely on the front lines, usually staying safe behind her computer. How she plans on getting revenge on Prometheus is unclear, she’s a genius but not generally a fighter. In fact, she’s usually the bright light in all the gloom, though it sounds like that might no longer be the case. It would seem far more likely that any attempts she made against him would put her in jeopardy.
Diggle has managed to stay out of jail ever since Ollie broke him out, but it looks like that time has ended. Previously Dig was ready to give up and allow himself to be incarcerated, racked with guilt over having killed his brother Andy. It seems like now he is ready to fight back.
Arrow season 4 resumes with ‘Who Are You?’ Wednesday January 25 at 8pm on the CW.
Source: The CW
