Arrow Season 5 Premiere Recap With Spoilers: Legacy

The episode opens on a ball, where Mayor Oliver Queen is late and the police department isn’t [...]

By Russ Burlingame

The episode opens on a ball, where Mayor Oliver Queen is late and the police department isn't happy about it. Thea is playing interference with an irate police captain while Oliver fights bad guys in costume in Chinatown.

During the course of his fight, Oliver sees a large device that has a number of small bombs strapped to it. Lonnie Machin is the perp, and while Oliver takes him out, a man in a hockey mask tries to disarm the bomb. Felicity is already doing it remotely, though, and Oliver tosses the man aside, telling him to stay off the streets. Oliver shoots him in the knee.

At the police department gala, Oliver shows up at the last minute and offends the police by telling reporters that they're looking into allegations of police corruption. Thea tells Oliver he needs to get his act together.

Arrow Season 4
(Photo: The CW)

In the flashbacks, Oliver is in an underground fight club in Russia. A huge man starts to get the better of him, until Oliver chokes him out, breaks his neck and kills him. After the fact, an organizer traits give him money, but Oliver says he wants intel on Kovar instead. Somebody from the Bratva comes up and knocks him out with a cattle prod.

Back in the present, Felicity has been gathering intel on other vigilantes in town and wants Oliver to form a new Team Arrow. He's resistant.

A group of corrupt police officers break into a drug den and fake a shootout between rival gangs so that they can steal the guns and drugs — but another group of men comes in with heavier artillery. The leader of the group beats the lead cop into unconsciousness and declares himself as the new boss.

Tobias Church, the man who killed the dirty cop, is a criminal who has spent time in Hub City and Bludhaven. With the dead cop out of commission and his people now leaderless, a CSI suggests seeking out Lance, who is back in town.

Oliver goes to visit Lance, who is badly hungover. Donna left him and he made his way back and crawled into a bottle. He challenges Oliver on being an absentee mayor, and Oliver suggests that Lance should come work with Team Arrow when Diggle and Thea return. Lance rejects him and elects to drink more, but Oliver invites him to come to a ceremony honoring Laurel.

In the flashbacks, Oliver is waking up tied to a chair, being lectured about killing the speaker's best fighter. He has the book that Oliver's father gave him, and is reading off names. Oliver insists the man replace the book, but the man wants to know what it means. Oliver tells him that "it was my father's. I'm waiting to use it," and the man tells him that will never happen, and puts a gun to Oliver's head.

At the lair, Oliver has ditched his security detail. Felicity again tells Oliver that Team Arrow isn't coming back and that he needs more help to take on Church and his crew. Oliver isn't interested in a new team, but tells Felicity to track down Church.

Oliver leaves, Curtis comes in, and Felicity convinces him to go check out an address she has for Wild Dog, what they're calling the man in the hockey mask.

Driving around in the back of a truck, Church tells his crew that to really be in charge of the city, they need to "take down the biggest guy," and that's Green Arrow. They're going to get "bait."

On the docks, Oliver unveils a statue for Black Canary — but as the press descends on him, the ceremony is interrupted by a group of Church's men, who shoot up some cops and kidnap Oliver.

At the lair, Felicity wants Thea to suit up, but Thea wants her to look into other sources of intel to track a stolen SWAT truck, which was used to kidnap Oliver and others. Oliver tells Church that he's wasting his time — that Green Arrow isn't coming. He tells Church that if he lets the other hostages go, he'll make sure Green Arrow shows up, but Church rejects him. After Oliver insults Church, Church puts a bag over Oliver's head and punches him, then tells one of his men (a dirty cop) to bring Oliver someplace and teach him some manners.

In the flashbacks, Anatoly Knyazev shows up just in time to prevent the Bratva man from killing Oliver, and orders the man to leave. He nearly takes Oliver's book with him until Ollie reminds him to drop it. Anatoly dislocates Oliver's thumbs to get him out of the bonds, something he says Oliver can teach himself to do. The two are happy to see one another, but Oliver tells Anatoly that he's here to kill Constantin Kovar. Anatoly tells him that if that's the case, he did Oliver no favors by saving his life.

At the lair, Lance comes and tells Thea that he has a location on Church — he's using the city traffic cameras to give Green Arrow a way to find him. He tells Thea to get out there and fight, and she says she can't. She finally feels normal and she's scared of losing "real" life like Laurel did. Lance tells her that he understands the need to hit pause on life, but that he can't — they need to get on with it.

In the backroom of the power plant where Church and the hostages (revealed to be members of the city council) are, the dirty cop starts beating up on Oliver, who tells the man that "if you hit me again, I'll kill you." The cop tells him he's delusional, but Oliver has dislocated his thumbs and broken free of the chair. He kills the man, telling him nobody can know his secret, and then he and Speedy (who has just arrived) make their escape, with Oliver explaining they can't save the hostages without setting off some failsafes that would kill all the hostages.

At the lair, Oliver and Thea argue about whether or not lethal force is justified in their line of work. Oliver says he's done holding back because if he had killed Darhk early on, he would have saved Laurel. He tells Thea that Malcolm Merlyn was right: either Oliver has to be willing to do whatever is necessary, or he shouldn't be out there. Thea says that's why she can't do it ever again.

Felicity once again tries to sell Oliver on the idea of a new Team Arrow. She tells him that they're already out there on the streets with or without his blessing, but he's reluctant to train them. Felicity tells him to remember the promise he made to Laurel on her death bed, but Oliver still isn't hearing what she has to say.

Back in Russia, Anatoly warns Oliver that Kovar has an army behind him, but tells him that if Oliver wants to listen to him, he can get him close to the man. He tells Oliver that "The shark that does not swim, drowns," and that Oliver needs to forget the promise he made in the past and move on. Oliver asks him if he's going to help or not, and Knyazev says yes.

Curtis, walking around a bad part of town, calls Felicity about Wild Dog before being jumped and mugged.

At the Black Canary statue on the waterfront, Oliver calls Diggle and gets voicemail. Lance joins Oliver, who recites the proverb about the shark back to Lance. The pair agree to move forward together. Lance gives him a dossier of a small handful of officers to help Oliver — assayer and as Green Arrow — move forward. Oliver agrees instantly, saying it's what Laurel would have wanted, and then flashes back to Laurel's dying request that she not be the last Black Canary. She says that way, a part of her will always be out there with Oliver.

At the power plant where Church has the hostages, Lance sends some cops to infiltrate the building while Oliver and Felicity banter about whether or not they're a "team." Church, playing "Duck Duck Goose" with the councilmen, is about to attack one with a baseball bat when Green Arrow and the cops invade. While the cops focus on the hostages, Oliver takes on Church. One of the cops notices that the building is in danger of exploding, but Oliver isn't willing to leave without taking Church into custody. The police get the council to safety and Oliver makes his way through the exploding power plant, shooting a grappling arrow onto Church's escaping helicopter. The two fight inside of it, but Church gets away while Oliver uses another trick arrow to parachute away.

The next morning, Oliver introduces the Anti-Crime Initiative that the police brass have been pushing, forming an "Anti-Crime Unit" of Lance's recommended officers who will answer directly to the Mayor's office.

Tobias Church, meanwhile, has brought together the heads of the local gangs, including the Bertinelli family. Church has Bertinelli assassinated by one of his own men when he challenges Church's authority.

At the lair, Felicity once again pushes Oliver on the new team, and he relents, bringing the files on Wild Dog up onscreen. Curtis, bruised and bloodied, shows up to demand he join Team Arrow, too.

In Russia, Anatoly tells Oliver that the only hope he has to kill Kovar is joining the Bratva. He says the initiation might kill him if he's not careful, and puts him in the center of a room full of goons, telling him that if he survives he can begin the process of becoming Bratva. The men jump Oliver.

Later, Oliver and Diggle are talking via Skype. Oliver asks Diggle whether he thinks they should put together a new team, and Diggle says yes. Oliver is a little disappointed Diggle isn't clinging to the past like he was, and Diggle asks what the status is of Oliver's relationship with Felicity.

Felicity, meanwhile, heads home and sits on the couch, getting a back rub from a man who is decidedly not Oliver.

Outside of the police department, one of the cops from the anti-crime unit is heading home when he's attacked by a man in a black hood, using a bow and numerous blades. The man kills him.

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