Arrow: What the hell is going on?

I’ve been a fan of Arrow since the show started, hell I can go back to the Smallville days and proclaim my allegiance to the Green One but this season has me a bit torn.

To start with, the team was torn apart. There was the death of the Black Canary, the departure of Speedy and Diggle, the breakup of Felicity and Oliver and Oliver becoming Mayor. Oh, how could I forget the new recruits? Seems as if everyone in Star City knows who the Green Arrow is now.

But, let’s get down to why I am writing my first recap after all these years on the show I love. To be honest I am lost. The first half of the season was about heartache as we dealt with the loss of Canary. The team mourned her, the City mourned her and then we mourned her. But what was that at the end? How in the hell did she come back?

The week prior we had to watch as our team of heroes traveled to outer space to fight aliens, now back on earth, we were taken down a path I knew we were over with. The return of a dead person. How many times can they keep doing this and not expect fans to be a little pissed about it? Are they that hard up for ratings?

Who is Prometheus? We get that he’s the son of a business person that Oliver killed 4 years ago but to Oliver, he’s more than that, thanks to his fighting skills. But Oliver cannot recall, so that means we sure as hell don’t know either. Poor Curtis. He just doesn’t fit with the team. I mean, he has his moments but last season he was some computer geek and now he’s a trained fighter. I can’t recall a fight he has won yet. His best bet is to stay at the base with Felicity and work on the tech stuff that he’s obviously good at. Rene is the Wild Child that goes off script every episode that loves to remind everyone within earshot that Oliver knows he doesn’t follow rules. And why does he carry a gun if their job is to not kill? Just curious abut that one, the same with Diggs.

And why do the writers of the show keep putting Felicity through so much pain? She lost her first boyfriend who turned out to be some computer wiz turned deadly hacker. Then she lost Barry (Flash) to lightning, then she dumped Ray for Oliver. Got shot, dumped Oliver then her new boyfriend Detective Billy was killed by Oliver. Wow. She has had a rough time on the show.

But as I was watching “What We leave Behind” I was beginning to question why do I even watch the show. It has lost its way with that episode I thought. There are too many storylines to follow. By bringing in a new team it was to spice up the show but what it did was make it more confusing. Now, Laurel is back. She is back like she went to the store for a few weeks and returned because it was closed. How are we supposed to feel about that?

Is Felicity mad that Oliver killed Billy or is she just putting on a show for everyone? Who is the reporter? She is Russian obviously by the Vodka she gave Oliver but what was she sent there to do? I remember the flashback scene when Kovar tells Oliver that he and Bratva made a deal. But that flashback went cold for two weeks. Now what?

All in all, it was solid for me up until the Canary rebirth. They can spin this is so many ways that will make sense or they can destroy a decent season 5.

Stay tuned…

Mark Wilson

Mark has been covering Sports and Entertainment for the past six years. His work has been featured on Bleacher Report, ESPN, Fox Sports, Teen Vogue, and many other websites.