Arrow: Penance
October 27, 2016 1:16 PM - Season 5, Episode 4 - Subscribe

Oliver is given gout. Quentin is given trust. John is not given an option. Felicity and Ragman are given some hard truths.

Again, as with Flash I'm not posting a thorough review and am instead just putting up a few thoughts, just so we can get the discussion rolling.

Felicity's pink lipstick really needs to go and go now. It does not work with orange (last episode) or red (this episode). As a fan of coloured trench coats, however, I'm highly in favour of her outerwear choice this episode. (And if she saves the lipstick to wear with this coat, I'll give her a pass.)

The actor playing D. A. Adrian Chase was all over the map this week. There were times when I swear he slipped into Billy (from Sirens), which is not a character he should be resurrecting in this show (even though he was great in Sirens).

I thought after Oliver's "don't let the city get destroyed" speech, this would have been the perfect time for Thea to step in and take over as team leader. The newbies needed somebody who knows what they're doing to be in charge and Wild Dog needs to learn to respect not just the senior team members but the senior women members in particular. Felicity had better take him down a peg or two very shortly is all I will say on the matter.

I guess we should have been expecting Baby Canary to turn into Artemis, but a clue would have been nice. I mean it's not like she has ever been shown with a bow before. At least with Roy we got archery training scenes.

So now Oliver is "officially" Bratva. I wonder if we'll get a welcome-to-the-club scene.
posted by sardonyx (11 comments total)
 
So like... did Church not need to use the rocket launchers they stole? That was a weird Chekhov's RPG where it didn't get used.

I wanted Thea to pick up her mantle again too, but I guess she really wants to stick to her civilian side.

I'm hoping they're not retreading the "let's have a sidekick gets kidnapped and shot full of superserum" from the 2nd season but so far they might be doing that with Rene. Although the current serum was supposedly destroyed... so we'll see!
posted by numaner at 4:19 PM on October 27, 2016


Why is Curtis so bad at fighting? He's a former olympic decathalete who has been training. He should be fast as fuck and throwing javelins into people.

Why didn't Rene - trigger happy, can't stop shooting people, fully trained with guns and literally holding two guns Rene - just shoot Church in the face instead of trying to fight him hand to hand? I mean, he literally just got beat up by Oliver in two seconds, and Oliver was nearly taken out by Church.

Why doesn't Curtis wear kevlar, like Oliver? Why is he apparently not armed at all? How is he going to explain he stab wound to the back to his freaking husband?

Why are any of us still watching this show?
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 4:45 PM on October 27, 2016 [1 favorite]


Rene not shooting Church made no sense, but what really made no sense was Rene staying behind to fight Church and a bunch of goons at all. Why is the only person with actual superpowers helping Curtis limp out of the building while a guy who is just a guy with a gun stays behind? After he mindlessly throws away his guns? Apparently this team really does need a leader, because these are some really dumb judgment calls.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 9:52 PM on October 27, 2016


Well, it's not like Oliver is Mr Good Judgement Guy
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 9:57 PM on October 27, 2016 [1 favorite]


Well, it's not like Oliver is Mr Good Judgement Guy
Mr Good Judgement Guy is the most powerful DC superhero. Unfortunately his introduction would drastically cut down episode length so we won't be seeing him.

However, I do expect Mr Bad Judgement Guy (a.k.a. The Flash) will appear in an upcoming crossover.
posted by FallowKing at 11:40 PM on October 27, 2016 [2 favorites]


Why are any of us still watching this show?

Hey, at least it's not The Walking Dead.
posted by Pendragon at 5:11 AM on October 28, 2016 [2 favorites]


I watch the show because, like the other CW-DC shows, it is goofy, escapist, comics fun and I'm not overly concerned with errors in plot logic. I thoroughly enjoyed the Palmer Tech chemical that dissolves everything except the container it comes in and Oliver, who surely must have gotten some of it on himself when he sprayed the floor.
posted by plastic_animals at 10:32 AM on October 28, 2016 [4 favorites]


The can of Aerosolized Dumbass + loss of amazing new leather jackets and/or clothes every episode + the "waited too long, now it's anticlimactic" Mr Terrific role + Thea's retirement from Speedy Superbad to become the mayor's PR mouthpiece who shops exclusively at Express and Forever 21 = I'm breaking up with this show.

No amount of emotional voice-tremor acting from Felicity can bring me back. Not even her mom showing up looking like a charismatic menopausal popsicle with eyelash extensions can win me back. NOT EVEN SHIRTLESS SALMON LADDER OLIVER CAN WIN ME BACK... DAMN YOU, CW!

(Sara Lance taking over the entire city after killing Oliver miiiiiight bring me back... but only might.)
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 9:17 PM on October 28, 2016 [1 favorite]


Ah, please hang around, Unicorn, and keep watching. Then at least I'd have somebody to bitch with about the wardrobe choices on this show. I swear it's half the fun of following this show.
posted by sardonyx at 9:14 AM on October 29, 2016 [1 favorite]


I was just bored.
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:01 AM on October 30, 2016


I'm watching this show because it's fun! And I'm totally hooked on the soap opera. Having a very hard time with the new characters though. Really, the actors. Wild Dog is just awful. Ragman is good. And at least Baby Canary has a name, Artemis.

My WTF moment was the skyhook extraction from the military prison. Giant military plane flies overhead. Arrow and Spartan are wearing a harness. And then poof! Up they go. How did the plane attach to the people? I mean it's a comic book TV show, and a sort of B-list one at that. But that was a particularly dumb sort of thing. Even dumber than Wild Dog taking a punch from Church that knocked the gun out of his hand. (But what about the other gun in the other hand?)
posted by Nelson at 9:54 PM on October 30, 2016 [1 favorite]


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