#imwitharrow

Oliver

“Felicity, before I met you, I had a plan. I had a way that I was gonna be.”

From the moment the Queen’s Gambit sank, Oliver had a plan. First, it was to survive, to honor his father’s sacrifice and to make it back to Starling City alive. Over time, that plan evolved, became more complicated – all before he ever stepped foot back in Starling City at the beginning of Season 1. It was hijacked, for better or worse, by Yao Fei, Shado, Slade, Ivo and Sara, Amanda Waller, Maseo, Amanda Waller (again), Reiter and Taina, Kovar, Anatoly, and finally by Talia. Survival transformed into a quest for justice, a determination to honor his father’s wishes and to save Starling City.

But Oliver’s plan wasn’t the only thing that changed. Oliver changed too. Surviving the sinking of the Queen’s Gambit, watching Sara disappear into the dark ocean, witnessing his father sacrifice himself and another would have been more than enough to change Oliver, to transform the careless and spoiled billionaire. But, for Oliver, that was only the beginning. Survival came at an immense cost. And those costs added up over time to a point where by the time Oliver arrived in Russia, he was having a really hard time seeing the forest through the trees.

No longer just a necessity, killing had become a habit. It had become a way to control situations he was in. And, rebounding off the guilt he felt from killing Vlad and then failing and killing Taina, it was easy to seek vengeance for their deaths by targeting Kovar. And then change became spiral. Oliver’s willingness to do whatever was necessary led him into the Bratva, where murder masqueraded as survival and every-man-for-himself masqueraded as brotherhood. 

It’s ironic that Anatoly questioned Oliver’s deeds in 5x17 when his initiation into the Bratva in many ways was the final step – before Talia – of Oliver’s spiral into darkness. It was the final lesson in kill or be killed, in isolation as the best way to proceed.

So, when Talia finds Oliver, he’s ripe to be molded into a life of dual existence. Oliver’s capacity for killing is legitimized. It’s given a name, an identity where before it co-existed with the light that still lived inside Oliver Queen. Talia is as much to blame for the “monster” as she is for Oliver’s ability to do good as the Arrow. She may have trained him as the hero, but she also gave the “monster” the final push into existence.

But, as we know…best laid plans of men and monsters often go awry.

“…I was in darkness. But with your kindness, your generosity, your compassion, your intelligence, your wit, and your trust, you brought me into the light.”

When Oliver decided to return to Starling by way of Lian Yu he finally felt like he was ready to tackle the promise he had made to his father. Kovar was dead* and Talia had trained him to be a vigilante capable of getting things done and a man who could co-exist with his hooded darkness.

But after so long on an island and acting as a metaphorical island, Oliver forgot that life – family, friends, responsibilities, expectations, etc. – has a way of infiltrating everything you do. He did not return to Star City in a vacuum. And he could not have imagined that the life he was returning to – specifically the people he was closest to – was so closely embroiled in the conspiracy he would come to fight.

Quickly, however, cracks began to appear in Oliver’s darkness and his plan started to deviate. His life as the lone archer ended as first Diggle and then Felicity joined his team. The plan changed. He was still co-existing as two identities, but he’d let others into that life. The darkness – the “monster” – was ever so excruciatingly slowly becoming blurred. Diggle and Felicity challenged Oliver’s Hood identity and all the baggage that came with it.

And then Tommy died. And the plan changed again. Killing as a method of justice, of control was replaced with non-lethal methods. And Oliver’s adherence to that promise was a different way that he maintained control. But the plan kept changing and things got messy. But throughout that journey, two things remained the same:

Oliver never resolved his relationship with the “monster.” He never was able to reconcile his two identities into just one entity, something that Felicity highlighted at the end of Season 4 when she described Oliver as living within a schism. Oliver has been and still is at war with himself. He stopped killing in Season 2, but the two sides still existed. He rode off into the sunset with Felicity in 3x23, but the two sides still existed. He decided to run for Mayor, to do more, to be more in Season 4, but the two sides still existed. Those identities had evolved, the man who embodied them had changed, but they were still there at war with one another.

But, the man  – the one deep, deep down – he hadn’t changed. He was still the man who loved his parents, who loved his sister, who loved his friends, who loved his city. He was still the man who wanted to do right by those he met, to do good.

He was still the man Diggle believed in from the very beginning.

He was still the man Felicity trusted.

“When I first met Oliver…he would ask me to do weird things for him…and when I would ask him why he would come up with these ridiculous excuses and I always knew he was lying but I would help him anyway…because I knew Oliver was a good person with a good heart.”

And in 3x17, Adrian Chase took that man and broke him. He made Oliver forget everything he’s accomplished. He made Oliver forget the light that had transformed his life over the course of five years.

And it made Oliver question his legacy – and the legacy of those Oliver was trying to uphold.

It’s easy to forget after 5 seasons and so much plot that at the crux of Oliver’s mission at the beginning of season 1 was not just one legacy, but three. Oliver’s crusade was as much about living up to the memories of Yao Fei and Shado as it was about keeping his promise to his father.

And Adrian Chase convinced Oliver that the “monster” that Talia had helped create, that had returned to Starling City with a single-minded mission in 2012 hadn’t changed at all. He made him doubt his worthiness.

“The Hood is who you are. You don’t think you deserve it? Fine. Work to become the man who does.”

He made him doubt whether he deserved anything more than darkness.

“…you brought me into the light. You let me know that I deserved it. You were that light.”

Now Oliver will need to battle back from the brink. He has been at his lowest of lows. 

As we know, 3x17 was not Adrian Chase’s endgame. He wanted to break Oliver to the point that Oliver only had 2 choices: resort to attempting to kill Adrian in broad daylight as Oliver Queen. Or see that the only way to eliminate the threat of Prometheus is to kill himself.

Adrian Chase/Prometheus

But just like the deviation of Oliver’s plan over the course of 5 years will be his saving grace, so too will the deviation of Adrian’s plan be his downfall.

Tonight’s episode showed that while Adrian might be ten steps ahead of Oliver and Team Arrow, he couldn’t anticipate EVERYTHING. And while we may eventually learn that Helix is part of his plan and he did plan on Felicity, Adrian, much like Voldemort, has underestimated the lengths that the hero’s friends will go to to save his soul and defeat the villain.

And, furthermore, Adrian Chase himself has possibly forgotten that the very “lesson” he tried to teach Oliver applies directly to him too. When the “monster” is in control, mistakes are made. Because you get lost in the weeds. 

Adrian, by the end of 5x18, has completely given in to his monster. But unlike Oliver, there isn’t a good man underneath his hood. The monster has taken over and overpowered the man completely. 

Felicity

As much as she described Oliver as existing within a schism last year, Felicity is living within one this year too. She is living two identities, trying to be Overwatch and Ghost Fox Goddess at the same time. Felicity will never go DARK dark, because she will always possess that light. She’ll always be the bubbly, babbly genius that serves as one of Team Arrow’s moral compasses. 

But after a year from hell, Ghost Fox Goddess made a resurgence.

Felicity had a plan. She was going to do good, she was a hacktivist. But that plan crumbled when Cooper warped their intentions. 

A plan for a normal life replaced it, but that too changed when Oliver Queen walked into her cubicle and then wound up in the back seat of her car bleeding. And despite the bumps along the way, Felicity’s journey returned to an arc of being able to do good and effect real change in the world in which she lived. 

She had power. She had control.

But those accomplishments and that arguably upward swing came crashing down in Season 4. She was shot, she lost her job, she made a devastating choice regarding Havenrock, her team disintegrated…

The power to effect change waned somewhat, her purpose was minimized, her confidence diminished. Her ability to protect disintegrated. Between Havenrock and Billy, death and destruction had finally touched her in a way it hadn’t before.

Her faith in the way things could be accomplished – had been accomplished – was shattered. She needed a new outlet. She needed her power and her influence back. And Helix has given that to her.

Felicity’s light is still there, her optimism is simmering under the surface…but it has taken a back seat. Now, Felicity is Team Arrow’s realist. She’s the doubter, the cynic.

She has lost patience with taking the time to do everything the absolute right way and is okay with cutting corners to get results faster and better.

We’ve always know Felicity was willing to go to any length to protect her team, particularly Oliver, but she’s never been so careless with her own safety and the consequences to not just her but also those around her. 

This was all extremely clear tonight as Felicity left Team Arrow minus Oliver in the dust to go to Helix. Diggle is trying to be the optimist in 5x18. But Felicity is immediately the realist. She knows Oliver might come around, but she also knows it might be too late by the time he does. 

Felicity knows Oliver. She knows that Chase got inside his head. She could see it immediately. He dressed his own wounds. He won’t let anyone near him. He can’t even look at her. She knows that he has shut completely down. She knows he’s not exaggerating. She knows that he’ll stop at nothing to keep Diggle, etc. from trying to keep Team Arrow going.

She doesn’t have faith that he’s going to come back from this, not in time to defeat Chase. And she is certain that he needs to meet his maker. 

Helix has given Felicity her power back. And she’s going to wield it. Consequences be damned.

Anatoly

I wanted to briefly comment on Anatoly in this episode. 

There was another layer to Anatoly and Oliver’s story tonight that I wasn’t expecting. As much as the Bratva’s present-day appearance in this episode was plot-driven, Anatoly’s presence was more complex. In 5x17, Anatoly questioned Oliver’s dual identity and also questioned where Oliver was headed with the increasing comfort in brutal murder and torture.

But, in 5x18, it became apparent that as much as Adrian Chase is a mirror to Oliver, so is Anatoly. When Oliver left Russia, Anatoly was a good man who had been thrust into a position of power. But, power is corrupting and Anatoly has not fared so well.

Indeed, as Oliver has shed darkness and embraced light over the course of five years, Anatoly has shed his light and embraced more and more darkness. 

He has had to go dark in order to survive, much like Oliver did.