A lot happened in Arrow's mid-season finale "What We Leave Behind," some of it good, some of it more WTF than good or bad. I'll get to all of that in a second. But can we first take a moment to appreciate that Arrow is a show worth talking about again? Last week's episode, the show's 100th, didn't crumble under the weight of the "Invasion!" three-parter, and was instead the highlight of the crossover event as well as one of the finest hours in the show's history. In recent years, I welcomed the mid-season break, happy to have over a month to not think about Oliver Queen and his increasingly convoluted adventures. This year, I am already dreading this break, eager to continue on with the rest of season 5.
Of course, a glance at Twitter tonight revealed not everyone feels that way. The show's new-old creative direction (i.e., let's just go back to season 1 Arrow with a larger cast of vigilantes) is not universally beloved. There were those who greeted "What We Leave Behind"'s big cliffhanger with rolled eyes and pledges to stop watching the show just as there were those who echoed my sentiment of dreading having to wait 5 weeks to see what happens next. Plus, as is inevitably the way, there's the ever-present argument between the Comic Book Firsters (i.e., those who cling to the source material above all else) and Olicity shippers, and that cliffhanger sure drew them into conflict.
Perhaps, then, the best place to start with "What We Leave Behind" is the end:
LAUREL'S BACK...MAYBE?Here's the fiction: the Laurel we see standing in the Arrowcave before turning to our stunned hero and letting out a playful "Hi, Ollie" is either the real Laurel reincarnated somehow, the real Laurel returned due to Flashpoint or other such time travel shenanigans, a Laurel doppelganger from one of the other Earths (most obvious candidate being Black Siren from Earth-2) or a vision/dream/hallucination/ghost.
Here's the reality: Around the time Arrow, Flash and Legends were wrapping up their seasons last April and May, Katie Cassidy, John Barrowmn and Wentworth Miller each signed unique three-show contracts making them series regulars in the entire Arrowverse. The contracts are remarkably flexible, allowing each one of them the time to work on other projects while also remaining attached to the Arrowverse. This news wasn't necessarily meant to be shared with the public, but thanks to The Hollywood Reporter we found out anyway. Furthermore, rumors and quotes from the producers indicated the plans were for Cassidy to return for Arrow 's 100th before rejoining the cast to help shake things up at mid-season, although whether her return is for good or for a glorified guest star arc before hopping to one of the other shows is unclear.
Fiction and reality have finally met now. Laurel Lance or someone who looks just like her is back. It's not much to go on, but the way Cassidy plays her head turn and one line in "What We Leave Behind" leads me to believe she's not the real Laurel but instead Black Siren secretly escaped from STAR Labs and now trying to pull one over on Oliver before Team Flash notices she's gone. It could also be that Quentin checked out of rehab, found the world's last Lazarus Pit and brought his baby girl back, if only to give us more opportunities to laugh whenever we hear his odd pronunciation of her name. Maybe that's how Talia al Ghul factors into the show now, volunteering a secret Lazarus Pit in an effort to make her sister Nyssa happy.
However, there was so much stink made last year about whoever they ended up killing off (which, obviously, Laurel) needing to stay dead to return some actual consequences to this universe that it's just hard to believe they would now go back on that, not after the permanence of Laurel's death has loomed so large over the character arcs and plot points in the season's first 8 episodes. Then again, if they can bring back one Lance sister...
There are pros and cons to all of this as well as a creeping sense that they're playing with fire here, especially if this is meant to be the real Laurel (season 5 would not be well-served by a resurrection storyline). However, we know so very little about this, and in the grand scheme of things its but one, unconnected minute in a far longer episode. What about some of the other revelations?
ARTEMIS PLAYS HER HAND
Yes and no. She wanted revenge last season, and Oliver talked her out of it by taking the moral high ground. This season, she learns Oliver's moral high ground is complete bullshit because he used to be a remorseless killer but chose not to share that information with them. Oliver has always been an imperfect hero, stubborn and often hypocritical. You can see where one of his students like Evelyn might conclude he is the real cancer in the city, the well-intentioned man who lies to himself and friends and whose mere presence invites chaos.
That's not exactly how Arrow 's playing it, though. While Evelyn does have the "need to save the city from you" line, it's more telling how eager she is to be present when Prometheus finally kills Oliver. That's not the eagerness of someone making the tough, but rational decision to do away with a hero who is doing more harm than good; that is the blood lust of someone who was denied their vengeance and has finally found a new target for her anger.
Perhaps Evelyn is in some way now lying to herself about her true intentions, which might also be why she's turning such a blind eye to the trail of innocent bodies being left behind by her new boss. However, what's more intriguing to me is how she got Team Arrow personalized Christmas gifts and referred to them as her only true family. Was this hint of one last supper for the team meant to simply play up her Judas status, or was it a true glimpse into how she feels about them, setting the stage for an arc where she tries to convert Rory, Wild Dog or Curtis to her side?
PROMETHEUS AND THE FLASHBACKSIt seems too easy somehow for Prometheus to be the heretofore unmentioned and unseen son of someone Oliver killed while working through his father's list in season 1, yet that's the theory "What We Leave Behind" offers. This theory remains crucially uncomfirmed by episode's end since we never do see under that mask, thus freeing us up to continue with our alternate theories - Is it Tommy? Is it actually the hot reporter Oliver's shacking up with, unaware she's pulling a real Marion Cotillard in The Dark Knight Rises on him?
Prometheus' actual identity doesn't really matter at the moment. Instead, what matters is that this is a villain of Oliver's creation, a clear effort to bring the show full circle and again adjudicate Oliver's moral failings as a would-be hero in the first season. In practice, though, Prometheus is beginning to feel like a more secretive version of Deathstroke circa season 2, i.e., a vengeance-seeker opting to destroy Oliver by first eroding his support structure before moving in for the kill, although Prometheus also appears hellbent on destroying Oliver's legacy and exposing his hypocrisy. Manipulating Oliver into killing Felicity's boyfriend was a particular stroke of genius (a deathstroke if you will, which you shouldn't because that's a terrible pun).
FELICITY AND CURTIS ARE NEWLY SINGLE AND NOT-SO-READY TO MINGLEI've mentioned this before, but one of the single most effective emotional moments in the history of this show is an early season 1 episode-ending montage set to a beautiful Blake Neely score and Diggle speech about the consequences of Oliver's absence as well as his return. So single-minded has Oliver been in his pursuit of those names in his father's book he's been blind to the emotional wreckage surrounding him, with the montage checking in on the other characters at their low points, most memorably Laurel retrieving a drunk Quentin from a bar.
That's the same type of emotional punch "What We Leave Behind" was aiming for in its own ending montage serving as the visual exclamation point on the end of Oliver's sentence about everyone around him suffering simply because of their association with him. Felicity and Curtis are an emotional wreck after having lost their respective spouses, and Diggle has been recaptured.
The problem with all of this is that for as much as I have enjoyed season 5 it feels like the herd needs to be thinned with the cast right now because most of these secondary relationships aren't getting the development they need. For example, how long has it been since we've seen Curtis' husband, and weren't we just getting to finally kind of know Felicity's boyfriend? And where exactly are Wild Dog and Rory by the end of all this? They're conveniently missing from Oliver's sad montage of broken friends because they don't have any real storylines right now other than serving as effective comic relief.
Nitpicks:1. Don't let anyone who wrote any of those " Rory Gilmore is a terrible journalist" essays catch wind of what's happening with the hot reporter on Arrow right now, especially since she just slept with the man she's meant to be investigating. Then again, Rory's just Rory; the reporter on Arrow might be the big bad. Sleeping with Oliver might be part of her evil plan. Still, this is kind of an ugly trope Arrow's falling into.
2. That bit with Prometheus and the mirrors was supposed to be an Enter the Dragon homage, right?
3. Wild Dog attempting to understand Flashpoint is adorable.
4. Is Green Arrow wanted for murder now? Or are the authorites just blaming Felicity's boyfriend's death on The Throwing Star Killer?
5. The concept of flashing back to some hinted at, but unseen season 1 adventure is solid on paper, and certainly built to an effective finale with past merging with present. However, it was also a tad fanservicey, particularly Oliver's meeting with Felicity which tried to pay homage to those memorable early scenes between the two but came off as overly obvious imitation.
6. What if Curtis just went back to being Felicity's computer tech back-up? Would that appease his husband? Frankly, Curtis seems better suited for that role anyway.
7. Thea should have been with Felicity during the closing montage, consoling her.
