TV Review: Arrow – Season 5 Episode 15 “Fighting Fire With Fire”

Last Updated on July 31, 2021

Episode 15: "Fighting Fire With Fire"

Synopsis: Oliver faces his biggest challenge yet as mayor. Felicity continues down her dark path with Helix. After Vigilante attacks Oliver while he's acting as the mayor, Diggle leads the team in a mission to stop Vigilante once and for all.

Review: For an episode that seemed like it was going to be a game-changer for this season of Arrow, tonight's hour didn't quite hit those expectations despite the big reveal that the villainous Prometheus is none other than District Attorney Adrian Chase. All season, Adrian Chase has been built up to be the other Star City rogue avenger, Vigilante, but tonight the showrunners pulled the old switcharoo and unmasked him as Prometheus. We still have no clue who Vigilante is but that unmasking is sure to happen in the coming weeks and could even fit with the original theory of Adrian Chase actually is. But, for an hour that didn't feature any Oliver Queen as the Green Arrow, this was a surprisingly well made episode and one that shows there is certainly a maturity building into this series even if it did have the most per capita phallic jokes in Arrow history,

Tonight centered around Mayor Queen's impeachment due to his cover up of Green Arrow's involvement in the death of Billy Malone. Torn between being an honest politician and protecting his own alter ego, Oliver had to make some very grown up decisions. The airing of his cover-up though sparked Vigilante to seek and try to destroy the Mayor which put Team Arrow on high alert to track down the gunman before Oliver got truly hurt. That put a lot of focus on Felicity and Curtis. On one hand, Felicity continues down her path of darkness with the Pandora files. Even with kind words of caution from Diggle, Felicity still feels compelled to do something with the powerful knowledge she now possesses, even if it means hurting people for her own gain. By the end of this episode, Felicity formally accepts inclusion in the hacker collective known as Helix. What that means for her future on Team Arrow is a big question mark, but it does give Felicity the most valuable screen time she has had in a while.

Curtis, however, has a much rockier episode. The nerdy tech wiz finds himself even more heroic thanks to finally perfecting his T-spheres which save both Rene and Diggle when the confront Vigilante as he prepares to assasinate Oliver Queen. The spheres are one of the coolest gadgets this show has ever had and gives Curtis' alter ego of Mister Terrific more value than being a cut-rate fighter. I expect a big shift for the character, especially in regards to the big news that his husband, Paul, has served him with divorce papers. Curtis has always been a positive and happy character and in his darker scenes over the last few weeks he has truly become more interesting than ever. I do hope that his transformation into the Mister Terrific from the pages of DC Comics happens with some purpose as he could really be a cool addition to this universe.

With his impeachment imminent, Oliver decides to make a bold move and holds a press conference. Instead of revealing his true identity or throwing Adrian Chase under the bus for the cover up, Oliver blames the Green Arrow and declares the city's hero as a villain and a copkiller. Essentially ruining all of the work he has done for five years in Star City, Oliver put his mayoral role in a higher priority than his vigilante role. This also resulted in the resignation of Thea from Oliver's staff as she finds her bloodlust translated into political machinations and decides to leave to find a way to control her impulses better. Thea and Felicity also set things right with Susan who comes back to Oliver to say she has gotten her job back and will not run the story of his secret identity. Oliver doesn't seem to deny that he is Green Arrow but I also do not recall him ever telling her he was.

In the brief flashback scenes, Oliver helps his Russian friends settle the truth about who is or is not working for Konstantin Kovar which ends in bloodshed. Blah, blah, blah. We still don't jhave any concrete reason to connect Oliver's flashbacks to what is happening in Star City now, but I wouldn't be surprised if in one of the upcoming episodes we get a twist that shows us who Vigilante actually is. The final scene of the episode shows Adrian Chase approaching Susan in a parking lot, offering her an exclusive interview. When she declines until the next day, he menacingly indicates it is really important. Based on that and the teaser for the next episode, it seems like any pretense of Adrian's identity are finally out the window.

I have been hypercritical of this season and just how the Prometheus arc has been handled, but I have to say I did not really see the Adrian Chase twist coming. I mean, it makes sense and I wasn't completely blown away by it, but it definitely added some additional tension to the proceedings while still keeping Vigilante's alter ego as a reveal for a later episode. In DC Comics, Adrian Chase has always been Vigilante so this is a development original to Arrow. It will be intriguing to see how they explain why Chase is doing all of this to Oliver and why he is so carefully dismantling all of the good Green Arrow has done for Star City. I have seen some theories that think Chase is both Vigilante and Prometheus which seems hard as both characters where in two different places during the press conference/Team Arrow fight at the end of this episode. The show is finally getting good again and I am looking forward to how things unfold from here.

Next on ARROW: "Checkmate" airs March 15th – Oliver gets closer to the truth about Prometheus. Meanwhile, Helix refuses to continue helping Felicity until she does a favor for them.