TV Review: Arrow – Season 5 Episode 10 “Who Are You?”

Episode 10: "Who Are You?"

Synopsis: Worried that Prometheus is right and he is truly a killer at heart, Oliver looks for any ray of hope and finds it in what seems to be the miraculous return of Laurel Lance. However Felicity, still reeling from Detective Malone's murder, is bent on revenge – she wants to stop Prometheus at any cost. While in prison, Diggle fights for his life.

Review: At the end of the mid-season finale of Arrow, we were teased with the return of Laurel Lance. Like many comic book shows, Arrow has played with life and death to the point that it becomes hard to care if a major character is killed off because they invariably will return. Well, Arrow has teased Laurel's resurrection multiple times and so far all have been explained away using comic book logic (dream sequence, memory, etc). The supposed cliffhanger ending in 2016 does not take long to resolve as we quickly learn how Laurel could be alive and the answer is she isn't. Well, she is but not really. What I mean to say is this isn't Laurel Lance. Well, it is, but it is the Earth-2 version. You may recall we got a glimpse of the parallel Laurel last year on The Flash where she was known as Black Siren. Here, she returns as part of Prometheus' plan to torment Oliver Queen.

While some may feel this was a cheap move, especially since it was positioned as a mid-season cliffhanger, but it works perfectly within the confines of this season of Arrow. On one hand, it utilizes the Multiverse concept introduced on The Flash which helps the consistent logic across all of these series. On the other hand, it allows further exploration of the main characters relationships in regards to Laurel. Primarily, this episode gives Oliver another chance to face his guilt and the promise he made to Laurel before she died and carry on the mantle of the Canary. It also gives Felicity her meatiest scenes in a long time as she confronts her angry side and steps up to face off with Oliver as well as Para-Laurel. The end result elevates this from what could have been a generic villain of the week episode and instead deepens our understanding of these characters.

It also functions to add to the mystery surrounding who Prometheus could be. While The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, and Supergirl have all unmaked their big bads this season, Arrow keeps the latest Dark Archer's true identity a mystery. Clearly, Prometheus has an understanding of the Multiverse concept but he also knows a lot more about Oliver and the team than he lets on. This season has spent more time putting supporting characters in Oliver's path, including Adrian Chase/Vigilante whose Punisher-esque methods fly in the face of his outstanding work as Oliver's ally in the District Attorney's office. Chase even goes as far as to help Diggle with his legal issues with the military. When and how Oliver and Vigilante will team up is unknown but it is bound to happen. In the interim, we still need to try and figure out exactly who Prometheus is and how he connects to the ongoing flashbacks this season.

Once again, those flashbacks were primarily useless and furthered the time filling story of Oliver versus Kovar in Russia. While most of this week's scenes were focused on Oliver being tortured, the episode did end with the reveal that Oliver crossed paths with another member of the Al Ghul clan. Talia Al Ghul will play a much larger role in next week's story but it is nice to know she exists in this version of things. How and what her role will be is a bit of a mystery. With how significant she is in the DC Comics canon, I would not be surprised in the least if her introduction shares some connection with who Prometheus is and why he is tormeting Oliver Queen. Or, it could just be a nice DC connection the writers threw in that will amount to nothing, like every flashback since season two.

The supporting players mostly take a backseat this week outside of Curtis who continues to recover from his injuries in the last episode. But, Curtis' story is a quicker version of how Felicity felt when she was paralyzed. Curtis feels useless and has to claw his way back to a place where he feels valued and that involves developing a device to stop Black Siren. Curtis has always felt more useful in the Arrow Cave rather than being in the field but this show doesn't need two Felicity-like characters. I am still struggling to see the merit in Curtis as a member of the team in action but there is an awful lot of focus being put on him which will hopefully amount to more than just lip service. Mister Terrific should have a lot more to do that build machines and deliver nerdy quips.

By the end of this episode, we have not progressed much in terms of the season long story. Oliver now feels compelled to recruit and train Laurel's replacement, which means another member of Team Arrow is likely coming. The name Tina Boland is mentioned and she will be formally introduced next week. Boland is an existing DC Comics character and likely to become the new Black Canary. Whether or not she becomes more than that remains to be seen but it is starting to feel like Arrow is cramming way too many characters onto the show which was exactly the problem the series faced when they killed off Laurel last season. Arrow was riding a high quality streak going into the mid-season finale and while I enjoyed this episode quite a bit, it was far from the best this year. Next week looks like a solid episode so hopefully this was just a slight stumble.

Next on ARROW: "Second Chances" airs February 1st – In his quest to take down Kovar, Oliver gets help from a surprising source – Talia al Ghul. However, when she reveals what she wants from him in exchange, Oliver isn’t sure he can accept her help. Felicity attempts to hack the NSA to help free Diggle but when her online efforts are flagged, she faces off against an unknown adversary. Meanwhile, Curtis tells the team about a female vigilante, Tina Boland, he uncovered online who has been wreaking havoc all over the country.