Arrow: Oliver Learns We All Need Other People

Title: “Arrow Season 5 Episode 22: Missing”
Genre: Superhero fiction, Drama, Action, Crime, Mystery
Platform: TV – The CW
Director: Mairzee Almas
Writer: Speed Weed & Oscar Balderrama
Rating: TV-PG
Release: May 17, 2017
Cast: Stephen Amell, David Ramsey, Emily Bett Rickards
Feature image: Source

Oliver (Stephen Amell) and Thea (Willa Holland) are watching the news report about Adrian Chase’s (Josh Segarra) capture. Quentin Lance (Paul Blackthorne) walks in with the good news; Oliver’s approval ratings are up to 70%. People are happy that the Green Arrow captured Chase. Thea: “Well, it looks like the Green Arrow is a hero again…whoever he is.” Quentin is leaving to look for Rene. He missed his custody hearing and no one has seen him. Before he leaves he wishes Oliver ‘Happy Birthday’. Thea thinks she and Oliver should go out for drinks to celebrate, but he has plans. Thea: “Please say not Susan Williams.” No, he is going to have dinner with Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards).

“Everybody has their thing, I need socks bad!” Oliver —Queen Arrow

Oliver goes to Felicity’s apartment to pick her up for dinner, but it’s dark and looks suspicious, so Oliver enters carefully. Someone is behind him so he tosses him over his shoulder, it’s Curtis (Echo Kellum), “H – Happy Birthday, E – Everything, everything hurts.” The rest of the crew gets out a weak “Surprise.” After Oliver apologizes to Curtis, the party begins. The birthday cake is green and it has the Green Arrow on it with the number six. Diggle (David Ramsey) thinks the six is for the number of members on Team Arrow. Felicity: “Actually, I ordered the cake for a six-year-old because I wasn’t sure that I could order a Green Arrow birthday cake for a grown man.” Curtis says Dinah isn’t at the party because she had to work late. Quentin shows up with a nicely wrapped present. Felicity tells him about Oliver tossing Curtis. Quentin: “I told you a surprise party wasn’t a good idea.” Quentin couldn’t find Rene and he is a little worried.

Diggle remarks that they haven’t had time to celebrate Oliver’s birthdays because usually at this time of year, they are busy saving Star City from imminent doom. Quentin thinks this is like summer break for the gang. And poses what are their plans with this free time? Diggle is going to take his son fishing. Curtis: “I’ve always wanted to see Florence…the city, not the woman and her weird machines.” Felicity would like to go hiking and sleep under the stars for a night, and afterwards get a manicure and pedicure. Oliver wants to buy some socks. Everyone laughs. Oliver: “Everybody has their thing, I need socks bad!” Thea ‘suggests’ they all go back to the kitchen to get some cake, everyone but Curtis picks up that Thea wants to give Felicity and Oliver a few minutes alone. The two discuss maybe dating again. Oliver is worried as usual, and Felicity tells him he can relax, they won.

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After the party, Curtis is talking to Felicity on the phone; he is going over to Dinah’s apartment to drop off some tech he made for her Canary Scream. He tells Felicity it looks like someone broke into Dinah’s place. Curtis goes in carefully to check on Dinah. Curtis: “Hello? If there’s someone in here. You should know that I know martial arts.” Curtis is knocked out and dragged out of the room. Oliver and Diggle show up soon after. Oliver realizes that Chase is behind this. Diggle thinks he let Oliver capture him so that he could lull them to sleep. Felicity on the phone: “Yeah, well consider me officially woke.” Oliver sees signs that Talia al Ghul’s followers were behind this. Oliver immediately goes to ARGUS to talk to Chase. Oliver asks Chase about the kidnappings. Chase acts dumb. They both scream at the same time, “You know damn well who!” Chase isn’t cooperative.

Back at the Arrow Cave, Oliver has sent Thea and Quentin to an ARGUS safe house. They know that Rene, Dinah, and Curtis were kidnapped. Felicity is ready to go to the safe house too, but Oliver wants her to stay in the bunker with him. She wonders if Oliver wants her there for more than tactical reasons. No, he actually needs her for tactical reasons. He admits that he let his guard down, and now he is worried that William is in danger. Felicity assures Oliver that if she couldn’t find him, Chase wouldn’t be able to either. (Wrong Felicity) Felicity checks a monitor and tells Oliver that the Black Siren (Katie Cassidy) is out of her cell. They both know that Chase will send her after Quentin, and they haven’t told him about her yet. They call the safe house.

“Oh, my god. It can’t be.” Quentin Lance —Arrow

Thea and Quentin are bored. Thea would really like to have her phone now. The ARGUS agent guarding them gets a phone call, but something interferes with the call. He goes outside to check to see what is happening. Thea: “I don’t know about you, but I’m sure as hell not staying here.” Quentin: “You read my mind. Let’s go.” They find the agent knocked out. They split up to investigate; Quentin sees a figure hiding and tells her to come out. It is Black Siren made up to look just like Laurel. Black Siren: “Hi, daddy.” Quentin: “Oh, my god. It can’t be.” Black Siren: “It can be. Daddy, it can. Don’t worry, I’ll explain everything.” Thea walks in and tells Quentin not to take his gun off her. It is not what it seems. Both get hit by darts. Evelyn Sharp (Madison McLaughlin) walks in. Black Siren tells a fading Quentin, “I’m so sorry daddy.”

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Diggle, Oliver, and Felicity arrive at the safe house. Oliver thinks Chase is trying to leverage their friends to gain his freedom. Oliver asks Felicity and John to go out-of-state and not tell him where they are going. They don’t want to leave him alone, but Oliver feels that if he doesn’t have to worry about them, he can focus on finding the rest of their friends.

Oliver goes back to ARGUS to toss Chase around. He points a gun to Chase’s head and tells him he isn’t going to kill him. He’s not going to be the person Chase thinks he is. He will make sure that Chase never leaves jail. Chase tells Oliver that he is wrong. Everyone in his orbit suffers, and the only way to keep them alive is to let him go. They are transferring him to Idaho, if Oliver doesn’t stop the transfer his friends are dead. As Oliver leaves the cell, Chase tells him he is one big loss from losing it all. Could it be Thea, Felicity, or someone else?

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Quentin and Thea are in a truck. She is trying to explain to an unbelieving Quentin about parallel universes. He wants to believe that Black Siren is his Laurel. Sara came back from the dead, why not Laurel? She finally convinces him when she says the parallel universes are as real as Metahumans and aliens. He realizes this Laurel is not his daughter.

Felicity and Diggle are driving out of town. She has a really bad feeling that they shouldn’t have left Oliver alone. Oliver is alone in the Arrow Cave. Both John and Felicity are questioning their decision to leave. Oliver hears someone behind him, he throws the tip of an arrow at the intruder; Malcolm Merlyn (John Barrowman) catches it. Malcolm: “See your sense of hospitality is still intact.” Oliver is not happy to see Malcolm, he is still mad at him for turning William over to Damien Darhk. Malcolm assures him he is only there for Thea. Someone who I think is Talia al Ghul steps in the middle of the highway. Diggle speeds up and she gets out of the way causing John and Felicity to crash. They get out of the car unharmed, but the rest of the League of Assassins surround them. Felicity: “I told you I had a bad feeling.”

“I admire you Oliver, it takes a special kind of idiot to actually get dumber with time.” Malcolm Merlyn —Arrow

Malcolm and Oliver arrive at the scene of the accident. Malcolm: “I would’ve thought you’d have tagged your pets by now.” Oliver corrects him, “friends”, and answers, “Curtis did put tracking nanites in Felicity, but they were rendered useless when Chase set off an EMP.” Malcolm is upset that Oliver won’t make a deal with Chase for Thea, his sister, Malcolm’s daughter. Oliver doesn’t think they’ll keep their part of the bargain. Oliver tells Malcolm about his worries about being close to people. He feels like he needs to be separate from them to protect them. Malcom expresses his opinion on Oliver’s worries: “I admire you Oliver, it takes a special kind of idiot to actually get dumber with time. Human connections is what keeps us human. It’s sad that it’s a sociopath who has to point this out to you. You can’t live on an island…but you are always going to have people in your life Oliver and they will always need you. For better or worse, baggage and all, and if you can’t accept that, well your past is going to stay your anchor.” Oliver gets a call from ARGUS, they are transferring Chase now. Oliver is going there to ensure that it goes smoothly. He thinks he and Malcolm can rescue everyone.

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Black Siren asks Quentin if his cuffs are too tight. Quentin doesn’t believe she cares. She explains she is helping Chase because he freed her and he assured her that he wouldn’t harm Quentin. He tells her his Laurel wasn’t that stupid. She looks sad.

“I think you’re about to get a phone call.” Adrian Chase — Arrow

Oliver arrives at the transfer. Chase: “I think you’re about to get a phone call.” It is William and he is begging for someone to help him. Oliver tries to stop the transfer. We get our big action set piece. Malcolm assists Oliver. Malcolm: “This would be easier if we could kill them.” “Then it’s not gonna be easy,” responds Oliver. Oliver catches up to Chase who is about to commandeer the helicopter that was going to transfer him. Oliver asks him why he involved William in this, he is innocent. Chase says Oliver involved his wife, and she was innocent too. (He doesn’t bother to mention he killed her.) Chase takes off in the helicopter.

Malcolm and Oliver go back to the Arrow Cave to track Chase’s plane. Oliver called for help. The help is someone Malcolm won’t be pleased to see. Nyssa al Ghul (Katrina Law): “Husband.” (Speaking to Oliver) (With a hostile stare at Malcolm) “Mr. Merlyn, I assume you have no title.” Oliver reminds Malcolm he said he’d do anything to get Thea back. Malcolm tells Nyssa that one of the people they are fighting against is her sister. Oliver thought he should tell her in person. The tracker they are using tracks Chase heading to the Island. Malcolm wonders how he knows about it, Oliver figures that Talia told Chase about it. On the plane ride there, Nyssa smiles because it is where she met Sara.

Team Arrow (except for Rene and Dinah) is chained up together. Chase walks up to them with his army. Felicity tells Chase that Oliver will be coming for them; Chase is counting on it. The team worries that Oliver is going to try to rescue them all alone. Oliver goes to the ARGUS prison on the island. Oliver: “I need your help.” Slade Wilson (Manu Bennett): “Hey, kid. I’m glad you came back.”

Flashback

Konstantin Kovar (Dolph Lundgren) and his goons have Oliver chained up. Kovar is going to inject Oliver with a drug the KGB designed for torture, the Red Drug. Kovar says the drug will show Oliver his sins (a flashback of Oliver killing Taiana); his failures (a flashback of Shado dying because he picked Sara to live over her); his guilt (a flashback of Oliver smashing someone’s head in); his bloodlust (a flashback of Oliver looking at someone he just killed); his inhumanity, no flashback here. Kovar slides a pistol in Oliver’s cell, it has one bullet. He tells Oliver he knows who is responsible for his pain. He thinks because Oliver is strong, he’ll last fourteen minutes. Oliver hallucinates Yao Fei (Byron Mann), he tells Oliver he squandered Yao Fei’s sacrifice by letting Shado die. He names everyone Oliver has lost up to then. Yao Fei: “Those closest to you are fated to suffer for your sins.” He commands Oliver to make the same sacrifice he made for Oliver. Oliver points the gun to his head. He hallucinated Laurel talking him out of killing himself. She tells him his mother, Thea, and her need him at home. If he doesn’t come home, her sister and his father died for nothing. Oliver shoots the lock and walks out.

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The theme for this season has been Oliver learning that he needs other people, no matter how inconvenient it is. Oliver has always thought he can protect the people he loves by placing distance between himself and them. Adrian Chase is playing into his fear that people suffer who are around him, that they end of paying for his sins. His noted frenemy Malcolm Merlyn has to explain to him he needs people, our connections make us human. The people around him make him stronger. So instead of trying to face Chase and his army alone, he is gathering a new army to save his friends. What a group he has recruited, all of them have tried to kill him at one time or another. If these people, Malcolm, Nyssa and Slade Wilson, don’t try to kill Oliver, Adrian Chase will be getting the comeuppance he deserves.

If you look at the episode closely, its purpose is to set up the pieces for the season finale. It does a masterful job doing it. The episode is highly entertaining. Even though Chase was doing some truly awful things to Team Arrow, the episode was very amusing. The surprise birthday party was fun. It was nice seeing this usually tortured group have fun. Once everyone was kidnapped, Malcolm brought the dark humor. It was nice having John Barrowman on “The Legends of Tomorrow”, but his natural home is “Arrow”. He and Stephen Amell were great together. The scenes between Quentin and Black Siren were interesting. It seems like in her twisted way she might actually care for Quentin. Since Katie Cassidy will be a regular on the show again, I’m interested in what kind of relationship they will form. The only drawback, I could have done with less torturing of Oliver in the flashbacks. It felt gratuitous. (Maybe it was just a way to keep Amell shirtless.) It was a fun episode and it did a great job setting up for the season finale. I can’t wait to see Slade kick ass.

Grade: A-