Arrow: Fighting Fire with Fire review S5 Ep. 15
Fighting Fire with Fire threw viewers a major curve ball with the reveal of Prometheus’ identity.
No doubt us know-it-all comic book readers got thrown for the bigger loop. Adrian Chase unmasked tonight, but not as Vigilante as we expected. Instead, he’s been the cause of all of Oliver’s problems as Prometheus.
I like the twist. It’s not a bad thing to surprise comic book readers with an unexpected shake-up. Granted, this is the show that took three tries to get Black Canary right so that wasn’t unprecedented.
[irp]
On the other hand, I’m worried the Arrowverse is dipping into the betrayed by a trusted friend well too often. That’s a regular occurrence every season on The Flash and Legends is in the midst of it as well this season.
Regardless, this helps explain Chase’s more intense nature. He’s had trouble hiding his darker impulses and now we see they go much darker. I was enjoying Arrow’s Dark Knight homage with Adrian filling the role of Harvey Dent.
At least that continues in some form with Oliver blaming Green Arrow for being a cop killer. Even though everyone in Star City rallied around him to stop the nuclear missile terrorist Damien Darhk from bombing civilization to the Stone Ages…
The big question now though is who is Vigilante? It seemed unlikely Vigilante was Chase as he attempted to gun down Oliver. It can’t be a coincidence that his identity has remained a secret all this time, but to what end remains a mystery.
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This was a pivotal episode for the rest of Team Arrow as well. Thea realized the only thing more dangerous than being a resurrected vigilante with an uncontrollable bloodlust is being sucked into politics. I’m disappointed Thea resigned from Oliver’s staff after her latest blackmail scheme got nixed.
More than any other character, Thea benefited from Oliver’s new gig as mayor. It gave her a different focus beyond the Arrowcave. With her ditching that job, is there much left for her at this point in the show?
At least Thea learned her lesson. Felicity seems amazingly oblivious and Teflon-like in her ability to accept any blame for her actions. First she had the nerve to tell Oliver that Susan is her girlfriend and he needed to fix the damage Felicity did in sabotaging her career. Then it was playing dumb about why Thea wanted the dirt on the councilman.
Felicity’s explanation to Diggle about needed to get a little dark was unbelievably hypocritical. She always strode in on her moral high horse whenever Team Arrow got out of line. I’ll still take Season 5 Felicity over Season 3-4, but to some degree, the writers still consider her untouchable.
I was far more interested in Curtis working on T-spheres than his reconciliation with Paul. And yeah two T-Spheres is a bad look Curtis. Add the third one. Curtis’ enthusiasm and silliness was out of tone with the rest of the episode and the result wasn’t nearly as shocking.
It didn’t make a lot of sense for Paul to do a 180 and we hadn’t seen Curtis making an effort either. Maybe this means more Sad Cat Curtis? Not the worst thing. The Bratva flashback didn’t advance that story along that much besides fracture the squad. There seems to be some padding now to extend the story through the season. If nothing else, we need Dolph Lungren’s Konstantin Kovar back.
Fighting Fire With Fire definitely heats up the home stretch of Arrow’s fifth season. With Prometheus revealed and Vigilante’s identity still a mystery, there’s a lot of excitement in store.
Rating: 9 out of 10
Photo Credit: The CW