‘Arrow’ Recap: Bratva Move in on Star City
Warning: This recap for the “Disbanded” episode of Arrow contains spoilers.
Once again, Oliver’s strength proves to be the team around him. While Diggle pulls him out of his funk, Curtis and Felicity find (read: hack) the proof necessary to expose Adrian Chase as Prometheus. They’re not fast enough to keep Oliver from bringing the Bratva back to Star City, however, and they’ll have to deal with the consequences of that soon enough.
The Plot
Oliver tries to disband the team, but the team isn’t having it; when he closes the Arrow Bunker and reprograms the locks, the team goes rogue to protect the city. Adrian taunts Oliver in the mayor’s office, handing him a knife to kill him in broad daylight, but Oliver refuses to take the bait. Felicity does more hacking for Helix and gets video of Adrian taking off the Prometheus mask, but his face is digitally scrambled. They need to get the scrambler off of Adrian personally. Meanwhile, Oliver invites Anatoly and the Bratva to Star City to kill Adrian. Their payment: a shipment of diabetes medication, which the rogue Team Arrow tries to intercept. Oliver explains that killing Adrian should be on his conscience, but Diggle tells him he’s crossed a moral line. When the Bratva try to kill Adrian, the team stops them, also getting the face scrambler in the process. Curtis and Felicity break into Kord Industries to retrieve the tech necessary to break the scrambler’s encryption and post the Adrian-as-Prometheus video far and wide. Anatoly says he’ll return to Russia, but he’s leaving hitmen behind with a vendetta against Oliver. Adrian is headed into the Witness Protection Program when the order for his arrest goes out; he kills his guards and escapes as the cops close in.
The Flashback
Anatoly wants Oliver to stay in Russia and help him rebuild, but Oliver is determined to return home in 48 hours. Anatoly takes him on one last heist for old times’ sake: to steal tuberculosis medicine for people too poor to afford it. Anatoly tells Oliver he wants him to stay because he’s afraid of what he’ll become without his positive influence.
That Smug Son of a …
Will this be the last we see of the self-satisfied, smarmy Adrian Chase we all know and hate? Josh Segarra did a great job of establishing the character as a tough, competent district attorney with a secret, but he is truly masterful as the puppetmaster slowly destroying Oliver Queen’s life. Damien Darhk and Malcolm Merlyn both have a rakish charm to them that make them fun to watch, but you want to punch post-Prometheus Adrian in the face every moment he’s on screen. Seeing him taunt Oliver with that knife — begging him to stab him in the mayor’s office — is as psychologically torturous as the physical pain of last episode.
But that’s probably over now. By revealing his face and, oh, brutally murdering his security detail, he’s lost the upper hand with Ollie. What will this new post-post-Prometheus look like? What does that ocean of crazy churning just below that calm exterior look like? Is it violent? Is it dramatic? Is it unhinged laughter like the Joker?
The Double Dump
We all knew that Susan Williams was a fling and wouldn’t be around long, but it’s still terrible to see her kidnapped, tortured, and then dumped by Oliver just to add insult to injury. It’s a classic superhero move: I can’t be with you because being close to you puts you in danger. Which is fine, but he kind of treats his old Bratva buddy, Anatoly, the same way. He gets into a (shady business) relationship with him — knowing full well that it won’t work out — then dumps him after they’ve flown from Russia to *ahem* consummate the relationship. As Felicity will certainly tell you, Oliver is a terrible person to be in a couple with, but you’d think maybe he’d have learned after five years how to be a better boyfriend/organized crime partner.
Quiverful of Thoughts
Stealing diabetes medication to turn into high-grade narcotics? What Star City needs is a protector. What it needs is Wilford Brimley with a bow and arrow.
Line of the Night: “These hackers are mean!” Well, of course it only took Helix eight minutes to figure out who Green Arrow is. The surprise is that so many people still haven’t.
Arrow airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on the CW.
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