ARROW Season 5×22, “Missing” recap

18 May

Welcome back, Arrowheads! We’re on the tail end of the season, and it seems we are going out on a good note. The big bad of the season, Adrian Chase, has been captured and imprisoned, which I’m sure is a relief to everyone in Team Arrow. So I guess there’s no big city ending threat this season and the next two episodes is gonna be the gang just kicking back and enjoying some quiet time catching up with their favorite books or TV shows.

Yeah, I didn’t think that either, especially after seeing that grin on Adrian in his jail cell. So let’s see what’s in store now for the Team…in a minute…

The Red Death. First, in our flashbacks, Ollie finds himself in that prison block on Lian Yu, strung up and facing a very alive Konstantin Kovar. Ollie is just as surprised to see him alive as we are, and Kovar has a special present for Ollie: a very potent hallucinogenic called the “Red Death”, which amplifies your sensitivity (especially for Ollie, who has a lot of scars) and causes the user to hallucinate to the point they would end their lives rather than suffer through it. Kovar leaves Ollie alone in a cell with a gun with one bullet, and leaves Ollie to suffer through the drug. He sees Yao Fei, suggesting that because Ollie has failed at so much over the last five years, he should kill himself to stop any further harm to his loved ones. Before he can do that, he sees Laurel, who convinces him it’s better to fight and come home to his family and friends. So Ollie uses that one bullet to open his jail cell and he’s off to put Kovar in the ground permanently!

Surprise Party. In the present at the mayor’s office, Ollie and Thea are just feeling relief that Adrian is in prison and Prometheus is off the streets. Quentin drops by to add how great it is there isn’t some city ending disaster happening right now, and hey, Rene’s still not around after missing his child custody hearing a few days ago. Instead of raising some red flags, Quentin wishes Ollie a “Happy Birthday” and he’s content to just stay in for the night having dinner with his still platonic GF, Felicity. He arrives at the loft, and is surprised to see almost everyone is there for a surprise Birthday party! Well, everyone except Diggle’s fam, who are visiting relatives; Rene, who is still nowhere to be found; and Dinah, who had some work to do at her apartment.

Here’s hoping the leftover cake doesn’t go bad during this episode.

The party goes fine, and everyone eventually leaves but Ollie and Felicity. She’s just happy they can have some quiet after all this Prometheus drama, while Ollie is not so sure everything’s so quiet. It turns out he’s right, because Curtis goes to visit Dinah and finds her apartment has been broken into. He calls Felicity to tell her what’s happening, only to be knocked out by a mystery assailant. So NOW can the Team be panicked?

The Party’s Just Starting. Ollie and Diggle arrive at Dinah’s, and find evidence of someone familiar at the scene: Talia al Ghul. Oh yeah, now everyone remembers Adrian had enlisted her and some other evil ladies to help him who are still missing, huh? Ollie figures Adrian turning himself over was a ruse to let the Team drop its defenses so his associates could take them, and he confronts Adrian to confirm this. Well obviously he did take them, but why?

Thea and Quentin are taken to an ARGUS safe house while the rest of the Team think out who else is out there that could be doing Adrian’s dirty work. Well, there’s Talia and Evelyn Sharp, and Black Siren/parallel universe Laurel, but the latter is in prison, so that can’t be a problem. But it is, because she appears at the ARGUS safehouse and distracts an obviously flabbergasted Quentin as both him and Thea are hit with tranquilizer darts. I thought someone told Quentin about doppelgänger Laurel already? Oops.

Special Guests. Ollie and Dig arrive at the safehouse, and based on the accounts of the injured security people, it was Black Siren and Evelyn all right. Ollie asks Diggle and Felicity to get out of town and into hiding like right now while he finds out what Adrian is up to. So Ollie goes to do that by beating the stink out of Adrian, while the creepy guy chuckles, and gives it up anyway. Adrian heard Ollie tell him in that torture session that his team makes him stronger, and so if Adrian doesn’t get released, he’ll have his team killed. And he should hurry, because if the prisoner transfer of Adrian happens, then Ollie’s team starts dying.

“Holding your gun sideways makes you a badass!”

Ollie returns to the HQ, basically empty…except for a surprise visitor: Malcolm Merlyn! He’s there to help find Thea, and Ollie has little choice but to take the nutjob’s help. Meantime, Diggle and Felicity are driving away from town when their car is disabled by some ninja type goons. Well that’s just great!

Making It Personal. Ollie and Malcolm find out about the crash (somehow) and arrive to find Diggle and Felicity gone. Ollie grumbles about how all his friends are in danger now because of him, and Malcolm, admitting how weird it is for crazypants him to have to tell Ollie this, that he’s stronger for having them with him. Oh, and maybe they should bust Adrian out, because his daughter is among those taken. Ollie refuses, but Malcolm warns him if it was personal, he wouldn’t hesitate to do it.

Ollie heads back to Adrian’s holding cell just as ARGUS is about to transport him away, and tells Ollie to be ready for a special phone call. Ollie then gets a call, and it’s a video of his son, William, who seems to be kidnapped too! There, Ollie, NOW it’s personal!

Freeing A Madman. So Ollie seems intent on catching up with the armed security force walking Adrian to the transport helicopter, and gets help from Malcolm. He’s already figured out Adrian would push Ollie into this by kidnapping William, so he’s brought Ollie some gear and they catch up to Adrian’s guard detail. They don’t kill any of the guards, which I guess is good news, and Ollie cuts Adrian loose. Adrian won’t reveal where his captives are until he’s free and clear. Ollie asks why go after William, and he’s reminded he involved Adrian’s wife in this too (you know, the one crazypants Adrian killed himself!). Adrian flies off in the helicopter, and…now what?

I really doubt “surprise kidnapping and being taken to Lian Yu” was in the surprise birthday party plans.

Desperate Times Call For Desperate Alliances. Back at the HQ, Ollie is tracing the flight pattern of that chopper to find where Adrian is going. Malcolm is not a fan of how little resources they have going against Adrian, that trio of bad girls, and a ninja army, but Ollie reassures him it’s worse because he called in backup…from Nyssa al Ghul! She arrives at the HQ, and despite Malcolm’s reluctance to team up, Ollie reminds him they have to do whatever it takes. Oh, and Nyssa finds out her sister is among the baddies that need to be taken down. Shelve the awkward talk though, because Ollie finds out where Adrian is: on Lian Yu! Time for a plane trip!

On Lian Yu, Quentin, Felicity, Diggle, Thea, and Curtis are being dragged somewhere by our evil band. Felicity knows Ollie is coming for them, but everyone else knows he can’t take on all these bad guys alone. Well, even if he does have Malcolm and Nyssa, Ollie is still overmatched. And he knows it.

Cut to a familiar ARGUS holding pen on Lian Yu as Ollie comes in with a bag of goodies, and walks up to the main cell, saying, “I need your help.” Cut to:

“Hello, Kid. I’m glad you came back.”

Yep. Ollie is asking for Slade Wilson’s help. Well, this season finale next week is certainly gonna be a nail biter!

–Comic book connections: So this marks the return of Slade Wilson proper to the Arrowverse since season three. We won’t dwell on the reasons why that was (because they are varied and confusing), but glad to see he’s back. And unless you’ve seen the plot description for the season finale, you know there’s another Arrow baddie coming back. No spoilers here.

–Quentin doesn’t take that long to accept that evil Laurel is not his Laurel. And that brief scene with both tells me evil Laurel is actually not all that cool with kidnapping her dad, parallel universe or not.

–That gag of the Green Arrow cake being ordered for a 6 year old was nice. Also that it has the same art style as a few pieces of Arrow fan art online was a nice touch.

–Dinah and Rene are not among that line of captured Team Arrow people. Are they hanging out somewhere else?

–Was anyone else expecting Roy to show up for this reservist Team Arrow? Oh well.

–“Everybody has their thing. I need socks…bad!”

–“I’ve always wanted to see Florence…the city, not the woman and her weird machines.”

–“I admire you, Oliver. It’s takes a special kind of idiot to actually get dumber over time.”

That’s it for now, but come back next week for the recap of the season finale, “Lian Yu”…