Arrow, 5.05 - "Human Target"

Warning: SPOILERS IF YOU HAVE NOT WATCHED.

Hey everyone! I'm back and better than ev- no, I'm really not. Arrow continues its season 5 streak of making me sad after I watch, but like the little blurb of this blog states, I continue to suffer through because I am too invested in these characters, particularly Arrow's, to back out now.

I'm saddened to admit it, but the Arrow writers have lost the ability to properly write characters. They keep introducing underdeveloped character after underdeveloped character, and nobody ends up being written well, not even the core three that the majority of the audience stayed for. They don't understand anyone's motivations and personalities anymore, and it's just saddening. It's a disservice to both the old and new characters, many of whom are WOC, something that Arrow severely lacks. I want to love them, but I have to wonder how fast they will be overtaken by bad writing. At this rate, I bet I could write a better season 5 than these supposedly professional writers.




Anyways. This week, the team manages to find and rescue Rene before long. However, we barely see any of this happening. The place Church is holding Rene hostage is supposedly untraceable, especially given the grim and ominous ending of the last episode, but they seem to find it no time. Inconsistent writing in the Arrow writers' room strikes again. Turns out, Church let this happen because Rene, in a tortured haze, reveals that the Green Arrow just happens to be the mayor of Star City.

Rene naturally struggles with guilt and self-doubt about accidentally exposing Oliver, and Diggle - who is still a fugitive, by the way - uses some weird meditating voodoo technique to get him to remember more of what happened. Have we ever seen this being done on the show? No? Okay, just another thing the writers want us to accept. Also, now that I'm on the subject, I keep going back and forth on whether I like Rene or not. I want to, considering he's a MOC and has been through a lot, but...sometimes I just can't stand when he talks back to people trying to help - namely, Oliver and Diggle. It's like he thinks they haven't been through their own very real and valid trauma.

With this new knowledge, Church hires an assassin to kill Oliver and officially kickstart his plan to unite the biggest drug dealers together. Oliver is shot in public and declared dead immediately after....only, it turns out that this whole thing was a ruse. Oliver, anticipating the shooting due to Rene's confession, hires the Human Target to pretend to be him and "die" in his place, allowing him to lay low until he can capture Church. Somehow, the Human Target can withstand bullets, and doesn't die. Another thing Arrow doesn't bother explaining. I thought they had declared they were going back to basics. Yeah...somehow a seemingly bulletproof person doesn't seem to be proving that. I mean, yeah, he could be wearing a bulletproof vest or something, but at least give us some hint on how he survives and does this as a job. Anyways, Church is finally apprehended, only to be killed by the bigger villain of the season - Prometheus. I'm really curious about who is under that mask. Prometheus has made me feel real fear for Team Arrow, something I stopped feeling after season 2.

Meanwhile, Oliver continues to struggle with his dual life of being the mayor and a vigilante (with his new vigilante children). Some irrelevant councilman is suspiciously adamant about not voting for Oliver's rezoning plan, and with some digging, the Queens discover he is actually being backed by a company that would be harmed from rezoning. The Queen siblings slayed this episode, honestly. Oliver and Thea continue to make a great sibling duo, and I love that they always have each other's backs. I also appreciate how Oliver's natural intelligence finally begins to shine through this episode - everyone always wants to pretend he's stupid, given his not so pretty past, but it's not surprising that a man who survived 5 years on a dangerous island and among dangerous people, returning to fight bad guys in his city, picked up a few things along the way. Oliver genuinely cares about his people, and that shines through in his mayoral run.

And now the part I've been dreading the most yet have the most to rant talk about - the state of Olicity. Now, you should already know from my review of last week's episode that I am incredibly bitter about them. This bitterness was augmented this episode, where the writers had the audacity to give us a domestic scene between Felicity and Billy, her ugly new boyfriend. A DOMESTIC SCENE THAT PARALLELS OLICITY. Yes, they just HAD to imply that Felicity and her boyfriend had sex during his lunch break. On Oliver and Felicity's old bed. In Oliver and Felicity's old loft. Why couldn't we have had more of this with Olicity? And the worst part? Felicity hasn't even told Oliver she moved on. Yup, Oliver finds this out through the HUMAN TARGET, of all people. Oliver swings by - literally - to talk to Felicity, and she admits she was scared to tell him until she thought her new thing with Ugly BF was real. She still doesn't know if it's real.

Kill me now - don't even get me started on the phenomenal acting on Stephen's part. The heartbreak and hurt in his eyes, as well as the nuance of his grimace, is so real. I felt it in my bones, and it was one of the most relatable moments of the show. This is especially prominent in Oliver and Felicity's conversation after apprehending Church and all seems well. The Arrow writers stay unable to write, and Oliver and Felicity end up encouraging each other to move on - despite nearly getting married a mere few months ago. Ironically, the one time the two act like how they were in season 4 is when they wish each other well with future significant others - there's even a long eye staring scene where both clearly seem to forget they're not supposed to be in love with each other anymore. Basically, the episode they promoted as the "Olicity episode" all summer long killed Olicity. And maybe I'm being overdramatic, but a part of me has died with them. I know there's a lot of Olicity controversy, especially in the comic fandom, but Olicity was my home and my safe space. A sense of security and hope has gone dark inside me, and I don't know if it'll ever come back. The one small positive thing that has come out of this is that Arrow has the best and smartest leads ever - Emily and Stephen themselves have repeatedly expressed their dissatisfaction of this new development, and I am here for it. I feel like the Arrow writers told them to follow the script, but their natural chemistry trumped everything and they ended up completely ignoring it.

This episode wasn't as bad as the previous one, but I still was upset after finishing it. I feel like I invest so much of my time and energy into wanting the show to be successful and get nothing in return. I'll forever love the cast and the characters, but is it worth it to be mentally exhausted after each episode?

Rating: 7.8
Extras that didn't make it in: Evelyn and Curtis being in awe of John Diggle is my aesthetic, but they are also me. "Spartan is such a badass!" Artemis marvels admiringly. DAMN RIGHT. John Diggle should be acknowledged in his glory, and always deserves more appreciation. Also, that reporter gets on my nerves. Why does she want to snoop around in Oliver's business so much?

*I will probably finally motivate myself to catch up on Supergirl, so expect a review soon! If not Supergirl, it will most likely be Pitch.