ARROW Season 5×09, “What We Leave Behind” recap

8 Dec

Welcome back, Arrowheads! Team Arrow 2.0 is about to start the holidays with a big ass lump of coal in their Christmas stocking, being they got a traitor in their ranks. That traitor is Evelyn/Artemis, who either is still upset her parents died incidentally because of Team Arrow last season or that she’s learned Ollie murked a lot of guys over the years, but who can say. Millennials, am I right? She’s helping Prometheus get all kinds of dirt on her teammates, which can’t be good news for anyone. But who is Prometheus? And what does he have planned to give our heroes for this Winter break?

The Prescription Is Death. Instead of finding out more on Ollie’s adventures in Russia, we cut to about four years ago, just as Ollie is bringing Diggle into his crusade to end bad guys. At the Original Arrow Cave, Ollie has found a new target for his arrows: Justin Claybourne, a pharmaceutical magnate who peddled an expensive cure, dycloserol, for an illness he created and released into the general public. A lot of poor people who couldn’t afford dycloserol died as a result, making him worthy of Ollie’s kill list. Ollie visits Claybourne during a shady business meeting, and warns him to confess to his crimes, or pay the price. When it seems Claybourne won’t make amends, And when discovering the true extent of Claybourne goes beyond price gouging drugs to creating a marketplace by releasing a virus, Ollie thinks its time to kill the man. Diggle warns him about these type of killings having unintended consequences, like that’s going to come up later this episode.

‘Tis The Season. Before we get to what happened to Justin Claybourne, lets discuss present day events, as Evelyn checks in on Prometheus, sharpening his tools in his abandoned building hideaway. She’s brought some photos and info on Ollie and her teammates, all with the belief she’ll get to be there when Prometheus kills Ollie. Prometheus is all, “you stupid teenager, I said I wasn’t going to kill him, In going to make him wish I did”. While we mull Evelyn’s poor decision making, the Mayor’s office is having their Christmas party, and Thea seems to have organized a good one. Ollie brings Susan as a date, as Felicity brings Billy, and awkward conversations ensue. Among the awkward talk is when Curtis’ hubby, Paul, asks about that “start-up” with Felicity that is keeping Curtis away those nights from home.

At the Arrow Cave, Rene, Rory, Diggle and his son are hanging back for their own holiday bash as Evelyn stops by to give them Christmas stockings as gifts. When you care enough to hand craft stockings for the people you’re betraying. Anyway, Curtis is following Paul out of the party, unconvinced Curtis is involved in some kind of “start-up”, when Prometheus shows up. Curtis fights him to let Paul get away, and gets a knife to the chest for it. Oh, that cannot stand.

“Totes betrayed you, Oliver! Hashtag TotallyBetrayedYou ! LOLZ!”

Close To The Heart. Curtis is recovering at the hospital, and while this near-death experience is getting Paul to ask even more questions, Ollie and Felicity drop by to find out what happened. Even Billy wants to find Prometheus, which concerns Felicity. The exam on Curtis reveals a drug on the blade that struck him: DYCLOSEROL. This reminds Ollie of the Justin Claybourne incident, and Felicity finds there are no heirs around. But, there is some power activity at Claybourne’s facility that shouldn’t be there. Time to investigate.

The Team arrives, and Ollie finds himself surveying one of the floors alone, and being pointed towards a specific place, where Prometheus is waiting. Ollie and Prometheus fight, and while Ollie notices a particular move Prometheus makes, Rene breaks up the fight. But then, Evelyn reveals herself to be the turncoat she is. She tells Ollie that he’s a fraud, and that the city needs to be saved from him, and whatever, you just hitched your horse to the bad guy, traitor. She fires a flash bang arrow and she and Prometheus escape, leaving the rest of the Team with the bad news.

Who We Keep Close. Besides getting the Team’s loved ones into safe places, Diggle brings Felicity some evidence from the facility, mainly bone fragments. Felicity leaves finding out who those ashes belong to in Rene and Rory’s hands, while Felicity has to talk to Billy. He has figured out the Claybourne connection to Prometheus that Team Arrow did, so Felicity tells him they got it taken care of. She’s panicked he might get killed by a guy who has no trouble killing cops, and probably for good reason.

At the hospital, Curtis gets a call from Rory about Evelyn’s betrayal (which probably happened after she learned about Ollie’s murderous past), and Paul confronts his husband about what us really happening. Curtis comes clean about being with Team Arrow, which is upsetting to Paul, who doesn’t want the pain of worrying about whether Curtis might get killed as a result. So Paul draws a line in the sand: its either being a vigilante for Curtis or being Paul’s husband. Oooooh.

“Ladies and gentlemen, in this corner, the Green hooded murder machine from Starling City! You will fail fighting him! The Hood!”

Consequences. At the Arrow cave, Thea is hanging around per Ollie’s insistence, just as the results of the identity of those bone fragments is revealed: its the remains of Justin Claybourne! At Claybourne’s abandoned office building, Billy arrives to look around. He finds something unusual in a not quite dusty lockbox: some documents and a baby photo. He sends a snapshot of the photo to Felicity, just as Prometheus shows up behind him!

Felicity is puzzled by this photo text from Billy, but Ollie recommends comparing faces to find a connection. Ollie takes a trip back to the mayor’s office to learn from DA Adrian that Billy has gone missing, and to suggest Ollie order a “shoot to kill” for cops when finding Prometheus. He does it, and returns to the Arrow Cave for more bad reveals: the baby in the photo is Claybourne’s illegitimate son! And Ollie mentions that specific move he saw Prometheus do is one he learned from a woman who trained him in Russia. That son would be old enough to have had plenty of time (four years worth) to learn about fighting the Green Arrow in order to seek revenge. Ollie tells Felicity about Billy and promises they will get him back alive. Oh, and Curtis shows up to help, because ultimatums are not his thing.

Ollie and the Team are out searching for Billy, and Ollie gets a visit from Thea, back in her Speedy garb. Ollie laments how this killing of Claybourne has lead to the making of Prometheus, and Thea tells him there are good and bad versions to everyone’s legacy, and that he shouldn’t focus on the bad so much. He remembers about Claybourne’s office building, and says he will search it alone. In retrospect, that is a MASSIVE mistake.

Past Haunts. Ollie arrives at the Claybourne building and sees several bodies that are not Billy. Its familiar though to Ollie, as we see what happened four years ago as Ollie stormed that building looking for Justin. He killed Claybourne’s security and then Claybourne at a pool on the building’s roof. At that same pool now, Prometheus is waiting, asking if he hesitated when murdering Justin. They fight, and Prometheus escapes to another floor. Ollie follows, and some taunting from Prometheus about everyone around Ollie dies is piped through the building. Ollie senses Prometheus behind him, so he turns and puts several arrows into his chest. Its only after that he sees Prometheus’ weapon is TIED TO HIS HAND. Then he sees a speaker on his chest, blaring Prometheus’ voice. Ollie pulls off the mask to see its…A BOUND AND GAGGED BILLY!

Yep, OLLIE ACCIDENTALLY KILLED FELICITY’S BOYFRIEND. OH MAN.

Yeah, group hug after accidentally murdering your ex-girlfriend’s new man.

Who We Touch. A broken Ollie returns to the Arrow Cave, and instead of being secretive, he tells Felicity everything that happened. She’s heartbroken, but says she knows that Prometheus is responsible for Billy’s death. Ollie can only offer his friends the advice to get clear of him as much as they can. But Diggle comes in to hug his friend, saying, “we are where we should be”. They group hug, and I got tears in my eyes.

Add to that, Curtis comes home, and Paul realizes Curtis can’t stop being a hero, but he can’t stay around him if that’s the case. Diggle gets a call from Lyla about something wrong with their son, and arrives at the safe house to find a heavily armed team waiting for him (he did escape from a military prison, you know). Ollie visits Susan, and finds himself lamenting his legacy, and she reminds him there are always bad consequences mixed in with every good one. Was she taking notes from Thea somehow?

So while everyone’s holidays seems to be going to crap, Ollie arrives back at the Arrow Cave to find someone else there. Who, exactly? Well…

“Hi, Ollie.”

“…”

So, I’m sure we’ll get answers when the show returns in January, right? RIGHT, GUYS?

–Comic book connections: Prometheus in the comics learned his abilities a different way, mainly through CD-ROMs containing the techniques of the world’s greatest fighters, which include Batman, obviously.

–So do we all still think this is some random kid who wanted vengeance for his father’s death? It would add some interesting symmetry to the Ollie of season one if that was the case. Also, will we somehow find a connection to said Russian trainer in the flashback this season? Should I even need to ask?

–So, if Laurel’s dead, then is this Laurel we see a result of Flashpoint OR some parallel universe Laurel? Keep in mind, what did happen to that evil alternate reality Laurel from The Flash last season?

–They do discuss that whole stuff about “Flashpoint” and “alien abduction” stuff from the last episode like people do when they maybe don’t want to discuss insane things that happened.

–Ollie thinks “Die Hard” is a Christmas movie. THERE. ISSUE SETTLED.

–Despite my boss’ opinion, that flashback to Ollie and Felicity reminded me of when that relationship was interesting. There, I had a few seasons to think on it, and that’s my two cents.

–“Think in Flashpoint I dated her in high school?”

–“And if I don’t?” “I aim higher.”

–“She always did give off that ‘Children of the Corn’ vibe.”

–“I don’t like rules…or listening.”

That’s it for now, but enjoy the holidays and come back in February for the recap of “Who Are You?”…