Checkmate – After learning the identity of Prometheus, Oliver finds himself increasingly unable to fight him; has Oliver finally met his strategic match? Helix starts demanding services in return for helping Felicity and in the flashbacks Oliver and Knyazev make a desperate attack on Gregor’s Bratva loyalists.
Last episode’s Prometheus reveal was great. In mere minutes this episode is better for the elaborate strategic game being played and the delightfully sinister charisma beung employed by Adrian Chase. This really takes Arrow back to mid/late season 2 where Slade Wilson took pleasure in tormenting Oliver by becoming part of his everyday/family life. The same approach has been applied to Chase in his cocky indifferent defiance to carry on in his DA role within City hall as if nothing has changed, despite all of Team Arrow knowing his identity. It’s a superb example of the team being outmanoeuvred before they even knew what game they were playing, with Chase positioning himself in ways that the team can’t dare touch by day or night. This develops well into themes of frustration, particularly for Oliver, which in turn only make his moves more careless. The main Prometheus story also has a good mix of surprise and pre-design while deepening Chase a villain character of pure conviction. We even see that’s he’s willing to sacrifice anyone and anything for his plans. However despite all cards now being on the table there is still dome good mystery over Chase’s end game. He repeatedly states he has no intention of killing Oliver. It smells like the show might working a Dark Knight Rises style play; where Oliver will be kept alive and helpless to watch his city crumble.
Anyone that’s watched even one prior season of Arrow knew Talia al Ghul would be turning up in the present day eventually after debuting in the flashbacks. Yet I really liked the way they’ve used her here as an antagonist. Talia trained Chase/Prometheus because he came to her just after Oliver killed Ra’s al Ghul in the climax of season 3 and as we’ve seen with Nyssa, thirsting for vengeance is very much in character for a daughter of the demon. I completely didn’t clock that Talia had not used her full name during the Russia scenes which then nicely explains why Oliver did not seek Talia out during his troubles with Ra’s al Ghul. Speaking of Nyssa, now Talia is definitely batting for team evil we need to see Nyssa used as an unlikely rescuer/ally. Katrina Law please come back.... we have cookies and Big Belly Burger.
The Felicity/Helix plot progressed nicely as she seems to be gradually groomed by the organisation towards their, as yet unknown, agenda. It creates an interesting comparison between Felicity and Oliver’s arcs like Felicity is now repeating Oliver’s mistakes with her villain still lurking in the shadows. It seems likely this will either somehow link up to the Prometheus story eventually or alternatively this could be setup for a tech/information based organisation as the season 6 big bad. The Helix live camera phone feed was another nice Nolan nod to The Dark Knight’s city wide sonar system used by Lucius Fox. It similarly presented as being too much power for any one entity, marking Helix as a dangerous organisation.
Even the flashbacks had a good episode. Being primarily action based they broke up the tense present day scenes well. Both the bar and ice hockey arena shoot outs were visually enjoyable and later also managed to further Oliver towards the Hood persona. After speaking of it with Talia, this is the first time we’ve seen Oliver adopt his character in battle rather than merely being Oliver Queen with a bow & arrow. The gravelly voice gets a debut and he even refers to himself as someone else. It’s all good steps towards completely the flashback origins story which looks increasingly like it could happen this season.
Checkmate has transformed the Green Arrow/Prometheus conflict into a battle of wits as much as a physical conflict and for the first time since season 2 it feels like the show has found just the right balance in his nemesis. Now we just have find out which will break first; his body or his spirit.