ARROW Season 5×18, “Disbanded” recap

30 Mar

Welcome back, Arrowheads! Previously, Ollie found himself prisoner of Adrian Chase/Prometheus, and got a lesson as to what kind of man he is, specifically a guy who probably enjoys murdering bad guys. This educational experience really messed with Ollie’s head, so much so that when he was let go by Adrian, he immediately went back to Arrow HQ to tell the Team he’s shutting down the operation. Sure, Ollie has had his little periods of wanting to pack this Green Arrow thing up, but this ordeal seems to have snapped ol’ Oliver Queen. What does this mean for taking down Adrian?

Favor For A Brother. In the flashbacks, Ollie and Anatoly are relaxing after the death of Kovar (joke’s on them, though, because he’s still alive), and Ollie is outlining his plan to go back to Lian Yu, and setup his return to the public. Before Ollie can go do that, Anatoly asks him for one more favor: to help steal some tuberculosis drugs for people at a local hospital who cannot afford the drug to survive. It’s not hard for Ollie to pull off this robbery, and before Ollie goes, Anatoly asks if maybe he can stay for a bit, help Anatoly get his footing in his new Bratva position. But, Ollie thinks he’s been out of the world long enough.

Team Lockout. Ollie is patching himself up in the HQ, and Diggle, Felicity, and Curtis are trying to figure out what he meant by “shutting it all down”. Well, it’s exactly that, shutting down Team Arrow, but he won’t discuss what happened to him, which makes any talk about this decision a bit difficult. Afterwards at Felicity’s loft, the Ollie-less Team meets up and discusses what to do next, since Ollie has also locked down the HQ to keep them from getting their gear. Well, Diggle’s not going on vacation because of this, so he offers to get some gear from ARGUS, and get the Team back onto the street as soon as possible.

At the mayor’s office, Ollie is getting asked by Quentin about what Adrian did, and guess who shows up to chat with him some more? Quentin has to be dismissed from the room by Ollie, as Adrian rubs in the fact Ollie can’t really hurt him as the Green Arrow OR because of the protection detail on him now, leaving the only way to stop Adrian is publicly, and preferably killing him. Ollie declines to give Adrian that satisfaction, but that doesn’t mean the idea is not far from Ollie’s head. Ollie is so zapped he can barely even break up with Susan, for fear he might endanger her. Later, he meets up in the HQ with Anatoly to ask a favor of him: to have the Bratva kill Adrian Chase!

“After reading what you did the last few seasons, Oliver, I’m going to need a drink. Or the whole bottle.”

Dark Allegiance. Meantime, Felicity is hanging out at HELIX, and lamenting she can’t find any evidence that would incriminate Adrian, and surprise, HELIX has something that might do the trick: a surveillance video of Prometheus unmasking himself, but the facial image is blurred by some masking technology. So all she needs is to find out what tech Adrian is using by getting a scan of him, which sounds way easier than it actually is. At the HQ, Anatoly is willing to accept Ollie’s offer, but needs a quid pro quo from him in stealing a supply of prescription pills. Sounds innocuous enough…

Later, the Team is going all lo-fi with their gear (they might as well look like robbers themselves), stalking out a pharmaceutical company warehouse, and — WHOOPS! — find Anatoly and his men robbing the place. Once Diggle puts two and two together, he goes to the mayor’s office and confronts Ollie about this Bratva alliance. Ollie explains why he got the Bratva to kill Chase: because he didn’t want to get the Team to do that job. Well, how polite of him.

The Lie Built On. Diggle tells the Team what’s going on, and finds Felicity kind of cool with Ollie’s plan. Oh, and Curtis notices some info on Felicity’s computer regarding Adrian, so keep a note on that for later. Diggle manages to break back into the HQ, only to find Anatoly explaining to Ollie he stole those pills because the Bratva needs it for a new narcotic. Ollie finds himself having to explain why he’s breaking up the Team, and it’s because his time being tortured by Adrian made him realize he built the Team on a lie of not wanting to kill people. Also, don’t panic, Diggle, because later tonight, Adrian is going to be dead.

Maybe not tell your buddy that, because the Team figures out Adrian’s protection detail schedule, and discover where the Bratva might hit it. Well they’re right, as the cop car driving Chase to his safe house is ambushed by Bratva gunmen. Adrian gets wounded and to safety, thanks to Team Arrowless arriving to stop the gunmen, but not before running into Curtis, who slyly has one of his T-spheres scan Adrian before the Team leaves. I’m sure Adrian wasn’t expecting that kind of response from Ollie.

Maybe bring a pro with you next time you break into a place, you two.

Unbreakable Deal. The next day at the Mayor’s office, Ollie is informed that this attack on Adrian means he’ll have to be put into the Witness Relocation Program until further notice, meaning not even Ollie or the Bratva will know where he is. He shares that news with Diggle, and Diggle confronts Ollie with some stone cold facts. Ollie saved Diggle from rotting in prison because of his guilt, and if Ollie believes in redemption for his friend, it’s as true for Ollie to believe in redemption for himself. So I guess he can call off the Bratva, huh? Well, no, because they have to get one more ingredient to their new drug, and Anatoly makes clear if there’s any interference, Ollie could find himself an enemy instead of a brother.

At HELIX, Felicity is struggling to find out how to snag Adrian when Curtis unexpectedly shows up! Yay to dropping detectable nanites into people’s breakfast! He has a readout of what Felicity needs to unscramble that video, but to make it work they need to break into the maker of that scrambling tech, Kord Industries. At the HQ, Ollie brings in the rest of the Team, and guardedly asks for their help (and kind of apologizes) in stopping the Bratva.

Severed Bonds. At the manufacturing plant, the Team arrives (and Ollie’s got some new clothes, since he’s not feeling comfortable in the Green Arrow garb, I guess) and confronts Anatoly. But he brought insurance, mainly factory workers as hostages. The Team is left to save the hostages, as Ollie fights the rest of the Bratva. Instead of taking this to a bloody end, Ollie sets off the factory’s alarm, leaving everyone to flee the place.

Also, Felicity and Curtis are off on their own little side mission, using the tech from Kord Industries to unscramble that video. So you can imagine the relief the Team has after saving the hostages and stopping the Bratva, when they return to HQ to find they finally have the proof they need to take Adrian down!

This guard should feel lucky. Some people pay top dollar for this kind of quality kinkiness.

Fallen Brotherhood. Ollie meets up with Anatoly again, and finds that despite stopping the Bratva’s plan, some of them are not leaving town with Anatoly, but likely hanging around to get payback on Team Arrow. Ollie is crushed to see his friend become almost like the men they fought back in Russia all those years ago, but Anatoly says that’s why he asked Ollie to stay instead of return to Lian Yu: to avoid ending up compromised like those men. Well, that’s a tragedy. Maybe Ollie can see what good he is when he is around.

Meantime, Quentin has informed the police about the evidence implicating Adrian as Prometheus, and that leaves just informing the WitSec guards around Adrian about this. Of course, that suspicious text alerts Adrian, who brutally murders the guards (via pen or spine breaking). Then he drives away from the scene, whistling along to the radio, still covered in their blood. What a note to leave us on until late April when we hit the home stretch of the season!

–Comic book connections: None this week, excluding the reminder of Kord Industries being related to Ted Kord, the Blue Beetle.

–You know, we’re ripe overdue for a reveal of HELIX to not be as nice as we thought they were. Also, they figured out the identity of most of Team Arrow, so…I smell problems coming.

–Apparently Thea is still on vacation, so no help talking down her brother this episode.

–Man, David Ramsey is the MVP of this episode.

–I’m curious where the last few flashbacks of this season take us, now that Ollie’s going back to Lian Yu to set up his return to public life. Will we get a return of the resurrected Kovar before that happens?

–“Blueberries weren’t the only surprises in those pancakes.”

–“Fine. You’re the new Dig.”

–“Such a burden, always being right.”

That’s it for now, so comment below and we’ll see you in late April for the recap of “Dangerous Liaisons”…