The Arrow season 5 premiere, “Legacy,” looked to take the show, which had lost its way in recent seasons, back to what made it work in the first place.
As the episode title suggests, the Arrow season premiere explored Oliver’s legacy as the Green Arrow; it also celebrated Laurel’s. Oliver went on a journey through the episode to accept his legacy and come to terms with Laurel’s loss. We also saw Oliver slip back into old killing habits that matched his mindset in the Russian-set flashbacks.
The legacy of the Green Arrow, as seen in this episode, is the fact that he has inspired other vigilantes to take to the street. He confronted one, Wild Dog, and shot him in the leg with an arrow in an attempt to keep him off the streets. It’s reminiscent of his attitude (and aim) toward Roy when he first wanted to help out.
But Wild Dog isn’t the only one who has taken to the streets to do his part; Evelyn Sharp, who we met last season as the fake Black Canary, is apparently active as well. She was on a list Felicity compiled of people for Oliver to consider recruiting.
Oliver, however, was adamantly against bringing new people into the fold. It’s clear that he can’t bear the thought of someone else getting killed in action. Laurel, however, would have told him to get his head out of his butt; as a matter of fact, it turns out the promise she had Oliver make right before her death was to make sure she wasn’t the last Canary.
Side note: This was an oddly-phrased comment to me, considering Sara, the White Canary and the one who inspired her to become the Black Canary in the first place, is still out there. But I know what she meant.
Anyway, the result of Oliver losing his support system is that, in his grief over Laurel’s death, he has reverted to killing. And he’s unapologetic about it, much like The Hood in season 1. Oliver went on a long journey to become a hero who doesn’t kill — his refusal to kill Slade was a high point for his arc — but everything he’s been through has shifted his perspective. Thea wasn’t happy about it, and she refused to be a part of it.
Considering Oliver’s tendency to bottle up his emotions, I’m not surprised he’s struggling so much with the death of one of his closest friends. Oliver takes too much on himself, and now he blames himself for not killing Darhk before he could kill Laurel. Obviously that’s not his fault, but it’s very Oliver of him to believe that it was.
Interestingly, it’s part of Laurel’s legacy — Quentin — that helps set Oliver on the right track. Quentin fell off the wagon after Laurel’s death (it can’t help that Sara is off time traveling so he’s by himself), but being at the dedication of the ugly Black Canary statue pushed Quentin to act.
He found officers that the Green Arrow can trust in the field (because there is widespread corruption in the SCPD), and the Green Arrow led them into action against new baddie Tobias Church, who is played with gusto by The Walking Dead alum Chad L. Coleman.
With this mission a success, Oliver was forced to accept that he can’t do everything on his own. He can’t be the Green Arrow and the mayor and do both jobs effectively. Thus, he created an anti-crime taskforce to take the lead in SCPD and accepted Felicity’s encouragement to recruit others to the cause.
Meanwhile, we’ve entered our last year of flashbacks. The flashbacks in “Legacy” were already stronger than the ones in season 4, so that’s a good start. It probably helps that I’m more interested in Oliver’s Bratva connections than a random mission on Lian Yu. But we got to see Anatoly again, which was nice. We know he will become a Bratva captain, as he used those connections in season 1, but seeing the journey should be interesting.
As for how this ties into Flashpoint, well, I’m guessing this episode takes place after the Flash season premiere; Barry undid the change to the timeline at the end of that episode, though we saw that some things will be off. So I have to assume what we’re seeing here happened after Barry undid the damage, and anything that seems slightly off can be attributed to the new timeline.
So. Arrow is getting back to the basics of focusing on street-level crime. Tobias Church looks like he should provide a strong adversary, as within a day he took control of all the major crime groups in the city. And then there is Prometheus, who showed up in the final moments of the episode and looks like he may follow in the footsteps of season 1’s Dark Archer.
Arrow is at its best when it’s grounded, gritty and action-packed. Keeping the stakes smaller and personal is where the show shines. It doesn’t need magic or superpowers or time travel like its more fantastical counterparts. And it looks like season 5 may be getting back to those roots of focusing on the well-being of Star City. If so, color me excited for the upcoming season of Arrow.
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