Arrow Review: Vigilante (Season 5 Episode 7)

It’s hard to kill that last bit of hope. Very, very hard. It endures, especially for something you love.

You throw water over it, dirt, you kill the oxygen supply, and yet, it remains, steadfast, unwavering. That’s just the way it is with hope. It clings.

Until an episode like this, that is. Because yes, Arrow Season 5 Episode 7, titled “Vigilante,” has just about killed any hope I might have harbored that this show could ever go back to being the one I loved.

Now I’m just going through the motions.

We watch TV for many reasons: We do it to see ourselves in the characters that populate our screen; we do it to escape a reality that gets infinitely more depressing by the second. Sometimes, we even do it to pretend there is a chance at a better world.

Either way, there’s always a reason. A reason we watch. A reason we invest.

Mine is pure escapism. I like superheroes because they represent what’s best in us, even when they fail. They, after all, get up and keep trying.

Oliver Queen was that hero – flawed, conflicted, but ultimately, thanks in great part to the people who populated his world, relatable. It wasn’t easy to like him, but like him we did. We invested in his journey.

Invested. Past tense.

You know what I feel like? I feel like I was watching a movie and then, in the middle of it the lights come on and another one starts playing. I complain, because, that’s not what I signed up for, but I’m told that I – and the rest of the people in the theater – am imagining things.

This is the same movie; they’ve only just improved the special effects.

Except it doesn’t feel like the same. The faces are vaguely familiar, but the people are different, their motivations have changed.

I’m confused. I’m angry. But through it all, hope remains.

Hope that, if I just stick to it for long enough, I could, maybe, see in these new people the ones I’d invested in at the beginning of the movie. Hope that, if I stay, I’ll eventually be sucked in again.

I’m here to tell you, Arrow writers, that hope has fled the building. I’ve seen the light. And boy, does it hurt.

Last season, when the show killed Laurel Lance after finally sorta turning her into the character she always had the potential to be, I defended that decision. I thought – there was no more story-line for Laurel. It’s not that they don’t know how to write female characters; it’s that they’re trying to shake things up, make it better.

These were, after all, the same people who’d created Felicity Smoak, arguably one of the best female characters television has seen in the last few years. They had to know what they were doing.

Lies.

If this episode proves anything is that, in Arrow-land, if you’re a woman, you can only be a love interest, comedic relief, family member, annoying or just plain evil. Nothing else is acceptable.

Or worse, nothing else is allowed.

Felicity is the exception, and maybe, that is the problem. Maybe she was taking too much focus away from the masks, the anointed ones. Maybe they can’t stand that.

Maybe they are tired of people talking about Olicity and not about the action scenes or the villains. Maybe they want us to care less about Oliver’s romantic life and more about his standing as a hero.

Maybe they never understood we are perfectly capable of doing both.

Either way, they did what they thought they had to do. They “fixed” it. And in doing so, they ruined it.

There might be a way back from this, Arrow, but right now, I can’t see it. Right now, I don’t even care.

Right now all I want is to forget you exist. I need an escape from you.

How ironic is that?

Other things to note:

• Curtis, you used to be funny. You aren’t anymore.
• Wild Dog calling Felicity “blondie” is just a symptom of the disease called disregard. It’s not even on him, the show has pushed Felicity to the side, made her the blonde who’s there on the lair and somehow knows things. How can we expect Wild Dog to respect her if the show doesn’t?
• “Then you’re a dead man,” says Vigilante as he shoots somewhere other than at Oliver and runs. Ooookay.
• Oliver’s going on a date, but somehow Wild Dog and Curtis are the only ones whose reactions we get to see? Really? Do I have to remind you that Oliver and Felicity were engaged? Should I just write a list of things you seem to have forgotten about that are really important, for continuity’s sake?
• Thea/Quentin was the highlight of the episode, even if it feels like it was all wrapped up too neatly and easily. There’s more to this, isn’t it?
• Yes, Vigilante. We know who you are. We’re not dumb.
• I’m all for Felicity being on the field, I am, but what’s the reasoning for her being there? Is there one?
• I don’t even like Evelyn, and yet making her evil is a punch in the gut. Your one new female character is the evil one. Really? REALLY? But you’re a real feminist show, Arrow. Real feminist.

What did you think of this episode of Arrow? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Arrow airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on The CW.

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