Arrow: Kapiushon

March 23, 2017 4:45 AM - Season 5, Episode 17

Prometheus goes to great lengths to break Oliver. Meanwhile, in the flashbacks, Anatoly becomes worried about Oliver's increasingly violent tendencies.

AV Club recap - Arrow goes to its dark place, but a flicker of hope remains

CBR recap - Prometheus Tortures Oliver For a Dark Secret

IGN review - Oliver Queen faces an uncomfortable truth.

Den of Geek review - Arrow finally figures out how to do flashbacks right.

EW recap - Now this was an episode of Arrow.

posted by oh yeah! (6 comments total)

The true monster is the HIV that habitually plagues the Bratva's upper echelon.
At least get some blood tests done before you swap blood with half a dozen people!
posted by FallowKing at 5:36 AM on March 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

This is my surprised face that Oliver secretly enjoys killing on some level: :|

Seriously, you wouldn't be doing it all the time if you didn't enjoy it on some level. Why are you shocked!? If you really didn't like killing, you'd be shooting people with tranq arrows or some shit.

(Don't mind me, I'm not super enjoying this season, and acting like this is a big dark secret is just not flying with me.)
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:23 PM on March 23, 2017

I really, really liked this episode.

The Evelyn fake-out really took me by surprise. (A tiny part of me was wondering if they were going to have her kill herself, but then I remembered this is a teen friendly channel and I'm sure showing a teenage suicide is a big no-no.) Given that Adrian had no qualms killing his wife, I didn't even suspect that he'd fake killing his puppet/minion.

I've always expressed my fondness for Anatoly and the Russia shenanigans so all of the backstory (with one tiny exception) played well for me. (The exception being everybody seemed awfully casual around Sarin gas, but then again everybody on this show is awfully casual about dropping nukes in the middle of the US so what else can be expected?)

I get where everybody says it really wasn't a secret that Oliver enjoyed killing, of course he did, but I'm also willing to buy that he was trying to construct a narrative for himself and his life--one that would allow him to live with his conscience. This psychological struggle is something that has been part of the show since day one, and we've watched Oliver attempt to deal with it a number of different manners from changing his name and persona to altering his fighting style to attempting to atone for his (and his family's) actions through civic good deeds. I don't have any problem with him being forced to face his blood lust.

Now, I'm not sure exactly what Adrian expects to do next. Sure he's broken the Arrow, and the Arrow is the foundation of the city's vigilante corps, but what's the point? Does he want to be the sole provider of justice? Does he just want to go on a crime spree? I have no idea.

There are so many loose ends and dangling storylines, and I really don't have any thoughts about how or if any of them are going to be resolved. And at this point, I'm very happy with that situation. I've complained a lot about the stupidity of the DCCW shows, so the fact that one is finally throwing me a challenge or two, makes me happy as a bunny come springtime.

Also, I'm just want to put it out there that while I don't think Amell is the world's greatest actor, he has improved so much since the first season. I can't imagine how torturous it would have been to watch season one Amell even attempting the imprisonment scenes from this episode.
posted by sardonyx at 9:19 PM on March 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

I think the same thing is happening that happened in Season 4. (Hell, in Season 3 and 2 and 1.) There are too many fucking episodes. The writers always have a strong ending and beginning, introducing the bid bad and setting up new characters then fast forward to a great 3-4 episode run at the end. Some good stuff in the middle, some plot progression, a good cross over, and a bunch of annoying episodes padding out the season.

Anyway, I think we're coming up on the good stuff again. I feel like there's been a bit of a stretch where arrow in particular lost momentum. The Flash at least had a good 'hook' every episode, even if potential is squandered, like in the recent Gorilla City episode.) But mid-season Arrow episodes just kind of string along the plot until they finally make it to this point in the narrative where the villians plans come to fruition. Then the last few episodes are great. So here's hoping.

In conclusion I loved this episode and am looking forward to the next 6(!) episodes.
posted by kittensofthenight at 12:42 PM on March 26, 2017

In light of the Lynda Carter thread on the main page, I figured I'd post this here. Once again, this is courtesy of the reviewers at Comics Alliance. In this bit of TV showmanship we see Dolph singing, dancing (well, "dancing"), drumming and performing martial arts.
posted by sardonyx at 5:24 PM on March 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

As psychotherapy techniques go, "torture the patient until he confesses his love for murder" is unorthodox. But you can't argue with Prometheus' results. Surely Oliver is going to find some inner peace after this. Bonus tattoo removal!

Also today I learned something. Now I know what Dolph Lundgren doing a Marlon Brando impersonation in a bad Russian accent looks like. Now I know that thing.
posted by Nelson at 9:03 PM on April 9, 2017 [1 favorite]