Welcome to the Legion!

new-baddieLegion contributor Andrea Levine is recapping and reviewing Arrow for us this season. Follow her on Twitter @wysefyre!

Hello, hello! Welcome back Arrow! You have been missed.

Legacy begins five months after season four’s finale. Diggle is who knows where, Thea is Oliver’s PR/everything else manager, and Oliver is still trying to figure out how to be the Green Arrow and mayor of Star City, with Felicity as the sole remaining member of Team Arrow. It’s not an easy life.

Take the SCPD’s Gala for instance. Oliver is supposed to be there to help kick off the Anti-Crime Initiative, but he’s running late, because he’s trying to stop a bomb from going off. He takes down the bomber, while Felicity remotely tries to shut down the bomb. Even though there is a brief interruption by the newest vigilante in town, “Wild Dog,” Felicity kills the bomb and Oliver shoots an arrow through Wild Dog’s leg to get him to stop trying to be a vigilante.

After he saves the city yet again, Oliver finally arrives to at the gala and speaks of how he believes there’s a lot of corruption in the SCPD, so he’s not sure how he feels about ACI. Thea points out how saying that at a police gala is maybe not the brightest idea.

But Oliver’s point is made for him as we go to a new location. Here, a dealer and his girlfriend are counting money, when several cops come in. They want the money for themselves and plan to kill the dealer. But before that happens, Tobias Church enters and everything changes.

Tobias is a ruthless man, who has at least 20 murders attributed to him, not to mention all the ones no one knows about. He establishes his dominance fairly quickly. He kills everyone.

While eavesdropping on the SCPD at the crime scene, Oliver learns Quentin is back in town, and he’s a mess. Oliver goers to visit him. Quentin and Mama Smoak broke up. According to him, they were too different. Mostly, he’s been wallowing in his grief and fallen off the wagon. Oliver tries to persuade him to come to a ceremony being held in Laurel’s honor.

mayor-handsome

At the ceremony, Oliver says some lovely words about Laurel and who she was, and then he unveils a statue of Laurel as the Black Canary. Oliver isn’t given the opportunity to finish his speech, because Tobias Church and his men arrive, in a SCPD SWAT van no less, and start shooting the place up. Oliver and a few other politicians are taken hostage.

At the Arrow Cave, Felicity, Thea, and Quentin are trying to figure out how to find Oliver. Felicity thinks if Thea were to suit up, she could look for clues and leads. Thea refuses. Quentin has a talk with her about it. Thea is just finally starting to feel normal again. She doesn’t want to go back to how it was. She doesn’t want to be involved with the killing. And she feels if she were to become Speedy again, she would lose all the hard work she’s done. Quentin understands. Oliver’s speech at the ceremony struck a chord in him, and he’s realized his life can’t be put on pause anymore.

Oliver and the others are being held at a power plant. Because it’s always a power plant. Tobias is using them as bait. He wants the Green Arrow to come out. He wants to kill the Green Arrow, but no can do, since he already has the Green Arrow. Being the smart idiot he is, Oliver calls Tobias stupid. Tobias instructs one of his men, a SCDP cop, to take Oliver to the back and teach him some manners.

The cop takes pleasure in punching “Mayor Handsome,” but he only get a few licks in, because Oliver gets out of his restraints and kills the cop. He starts fighting his way out, and gets an assist by Thea. Sh put on the mask one last time for Oliver. They try to save the other hostages, but can’t because the area is rigged with a kill cord. If they go through it, it will set off bombs near the hostages. Oliver and Thea have to leave.

speedy-arrow-reunited

Back at the Cave, Thea is pissed Oliver killed the cop. She thought Oliver was past all of that. Killing is back on the table for Oliver. He believes if he had killed Damien when he had the chance, Laurel might still be alive. He will do whatever is necessary in order to protect the people. Thea just thinks it’s a cope out and a giant step backwards for Oliver.

While Felicity looks into how to get past the kill cord, Oliver meets Quentin at Laurel’s statue. He knows Oliver needs help. He gives Oliver the files on several cops he knows could never be corrupt. They are the few he still trusts. Oliver accepts the help. He knows that’s what Laurel would want.

Oliver rounds up the cops and together they storm the power plant. Lots of fighting. Tobias makes a run for it, and one of the cops gives Oliver the bad news. The kill cord is not just surrounding the hostages. The whole building is rigged to explode. They get the hostages out, but Oliver wants to go after Tobias. Tobias is in a helicopter. Oliver jumps out a window and using an arrow, attaches himself to it. He climbs up. Tobias and he fight, but he’s thrown out of the copter. And that’s when we get another fun surprise from Oliver. I don’t know if it should be called the “Arrowchute,” “Para-Arrow,” or “Parrow-Chute,” but that is a good arrow to have.

The next day, Oliver holds a press conference, and expands on his comments about corruption in the SCPD. He knows it’s still their, but he also believes there are still many good cops. He has decided to create an anti-crime unit. Its members will report directly to him.

That night, Tobias gathers leaders from many of the different criminal organizations in Star City. He believes the only way to defeat the Green Arrow is for them all to work together. He will, of course, be their ultimate leader. When someone objects, Tobias points out he was able to infiltrate all of their organizations within 12 hours. Then he kills the objector to get his point across.

Meanwhile, Felicity and Curtis have been on a mission. Felicity thinks it’s time to try and find new recruits. She knows Thea and Diggle are not coming back. Oliver is against the idea. After Laurel, he doesn’t want to risk anyone else’s lives for this. Noble and self-sacrificing idea, but Felicity won’t take no for any answer, so she ropes Curtis in to help her. Curtis tries to locate Wild Dog, and he’s attacked by Wild Dog and a few others. This is a turning point for him. When Oliver finally caves and agrees to give the newbie vigilantes a try, he wants to be recruited by Oliver too.

The episode ends with a cop leaving the SCPD station, talking on his phone with his wife.He is attacked by an archer. He thinks it’s the Green Arrow, but we quickly learn it’s not. The archer kills the cop.

bratva

This season the flashback takes us to Russia. It looks like Oliver has been asking around, trying to get information on Kovar. He’s the guy Taiana said caused all kinds of problems. In order to get intel, Oliver has to take part in a fight club. He wins by snapping the other guy’s neck. Unfortunately for him, Oliver is tased before he can learn more about Kovar’s whereabouts. This is what happens when you kill the other side’s best fighter. Especially when the other side is the Bratva.

Oliver wakes up tied to a chair and one of his captors has his father’s book. Oliver doesn’t take too kindly to this. Barbs are exchanged and it looks like Oliver is going to get a bullet in his head, but a surprise appearance by his old friend Anatoly gets him his freedom.

After Anatoly frees Oliver by dislocating his thumbs, ow, Oliver learns Anatoly is a Bratva captain. He also knows about Kovar. Kovar is basically untouchable. He has an army surrounding him. No one can get near him, except maybe someone in the Bratva.

The flashbacks conclude with Oliver having to survive a group beatdown. If he survives it, he will be allowed to begin the process of joining the Bratva. What a way to say hello to a new member. Yeesh.

Other points of interest

~ Most of Oliver’s political knowledge comes from the West Wing.

~ Oliver’s mayoral nickname is Mayor Handsome. What’s up with that?

~ Bludhaven gets a shoutout. We really need to visit there.

~ Felicity has a new boyfriend. Who is this guy?

~ Laurel made Oliver promise she would not be the last Black Canary.

~ Did anyone else think the bat in Tobias Church’s hand was a nod to The Walking Dead? When I saw it, my first reaction was “Lucille?”

~ For that matter, did anyone else think of Wild Dog’s mask as a nod to Stephen Amell’s Casey Jones?

Last season was messy. The show became too big and was all over the place. The premiere felt a little more contained, almost like we are getting back to basics. This is good. Chad Coleman is menacing as Tobias Church and after the blundering of Damien Darhk, we need a villain who can conjure up real fear.

Does anyone else worry we might have to listen to a lot of “what would Laurel want/do?” As nice as it is that she’s still helping, I don’t like the idea of the writers treating her better in death than she was while she was alive.

What did you think of the premiere?

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Andrea Levine

Andrea Levine is an East Coast based geek, who has more fandoms than she cares to admit. When she isn't talking about the latest geeky news, she's obsessing over musical theater. Her dream is to successfully bring geekdom and musical theater together (I'm looking at you, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark). You can read more of her exploits as Wysefyre over at [insertgeekhere].