Arrow Review: Fighting Fire With Fire (Season 5 Episode 15)

Arrow Season 5 Episode 15 “Fighting Fire With Fire” flips the morality script even more than last week’s disappointing outing, leaving us in direct conflict with what the show is asking us to feel.

On the one hand, we’re supposed to see what Thea and Felicity are doing like a bad thing – proof that Thea is turning into Moira and Felicity is “descending into darkness” or something of the sort. Instead, we see it as …normal. Good, even.

Because, let’s face it, wouldn’t Thea and Felicity have done the same or worse to protect Oliver at any other point in this show’s run?

Allow me to introduce Exhibit A: Felicity drugging Oliver to try to sneak him out of Nanda Parbat

Exhibit B: Thea being willing to kill to save her brother.

Exhibit C: Diggle/Roy taking Oliver’s place – and Roy even taking the fall for him, so the Arrow could continue “saving the city”.

So, first argument’s out the window. This is not a timing issue – Thea, Felicity, and even Diggle would have done this and more at any other point of the show.

What’s the second argument? Something about morality? To that I say …come on, Arrow.

I went into this subject in last week’s review, but it bears repeating: moral standards on this show being what they are it’s really hard to swallow the way the writing seems to frame what Thea and Felicity are doing as somehow worse than what Oliver does every night.

And that’s not even going into the hypocrisy of Oliver pretending he’s morally superior because he’d rather fall on the sword.

Look, here’s the problem: The show can’t just TELL me Oliver’s morally superior, they had to SHOW me Oliver getting to a place where he could legitimately express these concerns without coming off as a hypocritical jerk. Guess what?

They haven’t.

But that’s the least of their problems right now, because …well there’s also Prometheus, aka Adrian Chase. Yeah, you read that right. AD Adrian Chase is indeed Prometheus.

Raise your hand if you saw this coming:

The show telegraphed the reveal in such a way that I’d almost convinced myself it wasn’t possible, they couldn’t be that obvious. I should have learned by now not to give this show any credit.

If that wasn’t enough, the cherry on top of this sundae is, of course, Susan Williams, a character so useless and badly written I have a hard time deciding what the writers actually intended us to feel for her.

Were we supposed to ship it? There’s more chemistry between Oliver and Lance than there is between him and Susan Williams, and hey, that would at least be buzz-worthy. Plus, the Lance/Oliver relationship has been rocky, but at least Lance has never slept his way to information.

Were we supposed to feel sorry for her? Were we supposed to empathize? Were we supposed to …dare I say it …worry?

Main character’s love interest gets kidnapped/manpain ensues is a classic trope. Problem is the trope only works if we actually care about the love interest.

You know who cares about Susan Williams? The same people who didn’t know Chase was Prometheus, that’s who.

Another week, another disappointing, exasperating and frankly boring episode of Arrow. Oliver’s an idiot, Thea is gone, Diggle gets to play sensei and not much more, the newbies are just stand-ins and Felicity, my dear Felicity, is relegated to two minutes an episode when we’re supposed to be in the middle of a Felicity-centric arc.

I’m not here to tell you what to do, but if you want my advice – stop watching. Turn off the TV, or better yet, go watch a show that respects its characters. I’ll be here to tell you what happens, at least till the end of the season.

Can’t make any promises after that.

Other things to note:

• How much time has passed? How has Dinah 2.0 gone from getting sworn in to being on the Mayor’s detail and working a crime scene?
• The Susan storyline was bad enough BEFORE Oliver ordered Thea to fix it and then went and asked Felicity for advice. This is something no one does with their ex. NO ONE.
• Not even kidding, I have never in my life met one person who could have/wanted to have these conversations with their ex. I’ve never heard of such a person. I’ve never even seen a person like that depicted in fiction.
• You know why? Because it’s impossible.
• Also, if you really cared about Susan you’d be more concerned with her than with your impeachment, Oliver.
• Though, to be fair, he’s fought way harder for Susan-freaking-Williams than he ever did for Felicity, so maybe he does care.
• ALERT! ALERT! Diggle and Felicity acknowledged each other!
• Look, if I were Oliver I’d have a lawyer on speed-dial. ANOTHER ONE. Also, how can the DA possibly represent the Mayor in this case? Isn’t that like a total conflict of interest?
• Do I need to suspend disbelief on that too?
• Can we get that Dinah/Felicity/Thea/Lyla spinoff now please?
• There’s a lot of gun violence in this hour. Maybe they should do a special episode about that. Oh, wait …
• What kind of paramedic lets a guy get away with “I’m suspending concussion protocol”?
• Limo jokes are not funny. Neither are “Little Drummer Boy” ones.
• There were flashbacks? I fell asleep.
• Oh, yeah. The doctor knows about Oliver being the GA. Like everyone else should, if they, you know, used common sense.
• No one ever hears anything on this show – not even a full blown gunfight going on in the building next to where to Mayor is holding a press conference.
• Oliver basically confessed to the crime, but then everything is fine, because what is common sense? This is a TV show!
• Thea Queen is MY Queen and if this is the last time I see her on this show …well, less and less reasons to even give this a chance after this season is over, right?
• If Paul ends up being Vigilante I swear to God …
• For the ending to be effective someone would have to care about Susan Williams. No one does.
• In fact, kidnapping Wild Dog would have had more emotional resonance, and I don’t even like Wild Dog.

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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