Oliver can’t go it alone, as Mayor or the Green Arrow, something he has to learn in the Arrow season 5 premiere. Things aren’t going back to how they were, and that means moving forward with a new team (for his night job) and a new unit (for his day job), especially when it comes to a new villain in town (and the villain’s new crew).
Here’s how Oliver and Church begin to put together new units in the season 5 premiere.
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At the Police Gala, Oliver Calls out Corrupt Cops
He’s not going to consider the Anti-Crime Initiative without major reform, like investigating the allegations of widespread corruption in the police department.
Felicity Tries to Get Oliver to Consider Bringing People into the Fold
That is, instead of putting an arrow in them, like he does to Wild Dog. But Oliver is adamant that he doesn’t need a new team; in his mind, Diggle and Thea will come back.
Tobias Church Makes His Presence Known in Star City
He begins by taking out some corrupt cops with his crew — and using his brass knuckles on the one who claims to be in charge. Of course no one else wants the job after that, so as Church puts it, “I guess it’s going to have to be me.”
Church’s MO is to leave behind a gold coin (hence the “Charon” nickname), and the police already know about him and his crew from the damage he’s done in Hub City and Bludhaven.
Felicity Thinks That with Church out There, Oliver Could Use Some Help
“For the past five months, you have been frozen in amber, waiting for things to go back to the way things were. They’re not. You need to move forward,” she tells him, again trying to get him to see that he needs his own “crew” to take care of Church and his. It doesn’t work.
Church Decides to Target the Green Arrow
His goal is to find the biggest guy in the yard, in this case, the Green Arrow in Star City, and put him down to send a message to not screw with him. And to do so, he needs bait: the Mayor.
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Oliver Needs to Start Thinking About the Future, and That Includes a New Team
But the people out there are amateurs, he argues when Felicity again brings them up, and not only can they not replace the old team, he doesn’t want them to. Felicity then reminds him of the promise he made Laurel — to not let her be the last Canary.
Oliver Can’t Take on Church Alone
Since he currently doesn’t have a team and Thea won’t go back out there with killing on the table again, Lance has a solution: officers in the department that he trusts. Oliver works with them to rescue Church’s hostages.
Oliver Announces the Anti-Crime Unit
He had been reluctant to embrace the ACI because of the widespread corruption in the department, he announces, but there are still good men and women in the SCPD. The four officers he can trust are going to be part of the Anti-Crime Unit, reporting to him, as they begin the process of saving their city.
Church Also Gathers a Group of Men Under His Command
They can only stop the Green Arrow by working together, he explains, under a single command, and yes, that’s him. They need someone from the outside, which he knows because he got inside the organizations of everyone he has gathered.
Oliver’s Warming up to the Idea of a New Team
He also agrees to recruit Curtis after he’s attacked while looking into Wild Dog.
What do you think of the new units being put together? Which one — the Anti-Crime Unit, Church’s new crew or the new team — do you think will be most successful?
Arrow season 5 airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on the CW. Want more news? Like our Facebook page.
(Images courtesy of the CW)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
If it’s on TV — especially if it’s a procedural or superhero show — chances are Meredith watches it. She has a love for all things fiction, starting from a young age with ER and The X-Files on the small screen and the Nancy Drew books. Arrow kicked off the Arrowverse and her true passion for all things heroes. She’s enjoyed getting into the minds of serial killers since Criminal Minds, so it should be no surprise that her latest obsession is Prodigal Son.
