Vigilante might have the most uninspired name of all time but the character’s name is not really Arrow‘s fault. Vigilante has his origins in the comics and one of the Vigilante’s main alter egos is Adrian Chase aka Oliver’s D.A. in season 5. Though Arrow has played things coy with their version Vigilante, it seemed obvious that Chase would ultimately share the same persona as his comic counterpart. In “Fighting Fire with Fire” Arrow takes a huge left turn of a plot twist when it comes to Vigilante’s identity and the season as a whole.
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Vigilante vs. Prometheus
Arrow picks things up nearly exactly where we left off with Oliver under threat of impeachment. Since actually watching Oliver go through multiple hearings to potentially lose a job that very few fans actually care about would be as boring as the entirety of season 3, Arrow doesn’t do that. Instead, the impeachment and the Green Arrow’s involvement in it cause Ollie to take a real backseat from his hooded activities. It’s up to the villains and the rest of Team Arrow to take the spotlight. (Oliver’s also consumed by trying to win Susan Williams back, but the less said about that bland love interest the better.)
The main antagonist for this installment is the aforementioned Vigilante. Vigilante hasn’t been a great villain this season as he really just appears to be a poor man’s Prometheus. In “Fighting Fire with Fire” that is basically all Vigilante is. He attacks Oliver’s limo because of his corruption as a mayor and it’s all very blase. Vigilante is really just something to break up the impeachment hearings. He’s a little cherry on this sundae of an episode.
The Prometheus comparisons to Vigilante actually become quite clear when Prometheus gets a little offended that the up-comer is encroaching on his Oliver Queen territory. Prometheus tracks down Vigilante, giving us his first appearance in quite some time on Arrow, and attacks Vigilante for daring to go after Oliver. The fight scene is cool but very quick and ends with Prometheus throwing Vigilante off a building. Vigilante shows up later, telling us he survived, but the real shocker is what follows. Once Prometheus chucks Vigilante, he takes off his mask to reveal he’s actually Adrian Chase underneath. Adrian is revealed as Prometheus and there is more than half an episode to go!
Oliver Calls the Dogs … on Himself
Arrow doesn’t do much with the Chase reveal in “Fighting Fire with Fire.” Chase is shown to be much of a creepy manipulator in the episode. This is a vast improvement over his bland “nice guy” routine. Prometheus being Adrian Chase remains to be seen as a good or just OK thing for the show. “Fighting Fire with Fire” is more concerned about clearing Oliver of impeachment than exploring this bombshell.
Felicity and Thea take the brunt of the impeachment problem. Their solution is to blackmail one of the council members into clearing Oliver’s name. (They’ve obviously learned nothing from the Susan Williams incident which is fine by me. I love to see these two on the edge of legality.) Oliver is less enthused and takes matters into his own hands.
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Oliver calls a press conference and in order to save his job as mayor, he throws himself under the bus. Well, Oliver throws the Green Arrow under the bus. Oliver declares that the Green Arrow is a cop killer and Oliver only covered up Green Arrow’s murder of Billy to protect the people from learning the truth about their hero.
Prometheus’ threatening Oliver’s job was a rather anticlimactic cliffhanger in “The Sin-Eater,” but this result is better than he or I could have hoped for honestly. It’s a logical move by Oliver but it will still have big consequences down the line. There’s even a larger consequence to come out of it that Prometheus probably didn’t foresee.
After getting so close to her dark side again, Thea decides she has to resign from politics. She is becoming too ruthless and needs to take time off. Felicity, however, takes the exact opposite direction. Felicity meets up with her Helix contact and decides she wants to be apart of them full-stop. (I’d rather it be Thea taking this drastic and morally questionable action, but Felicity is a fine anti-heroine substitute.)
Prometheus’ Latest Plot
Between the Prometheus reveal, Felicity’s new venture and Oliver’s decision, “Fighting Fire with Fire” has jam-packed a lot of twists into one episode. The last plot twist of this episode is, sadly, the lamest.
Even though Felicity agrees to work with Helix, she does fix her error with Susan. Susan gets her job back and gets back together with Oliver, telling him that she will keep his secret. The twist comes as Susan leaves Oliver’s office after reconciling. Chase stops Susan at her car. Chase tells her he has a story for her that is a matter of “life and death” aka he’s about to kidnap her. I don’t trust Susan as far as I can throw her (which is not very far considering she is fictional) so this isn’t much of a consequence for me as a viewer. Hopefully, much like threatening Oliver job as mayor, this play by Prometheus will turn into something equally as compelling and consequential.
What did you think of the Chase reveal? Were you convinced he was Vigilante before now? Do you care that Susan is apparently in danger? What did you make of Felicity joining Helix?
Arrow season 5 airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on The CW. Want more news? Like our Arrow Facebook page!
(Image courtesy of The CW)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
Derek is a Philadelphia based writer and unabashed TV and comic book junkie. The time he doesn’t spend over analyzing all things nerdy he is working on his resume to be the liaison to the Justice League.
