After enduring four days of torture at the hands of Adrian Chase aka Prometheus, Oliver returned to the arrowcave. There he was greeted by Felicity and Diggle and made the decision to disband the team. As we all know this did not go over well and the team still continued to defend the city without Oliver.

At the beginning of the episode Oliver had completely given up on taking down Chase. The fact that Adrian continued to taunt him at the mayor’s office only reinforced that idea. The man even handed Oliver a knife, saying the only way to kill him would be in broad daylight. That is if Oliver was to do the job himself, which he wasn’t planning on doing. Oliver reached out to his old friend Anatole, who brought along his Bratva brothers to Star City, to have Adrian eliminated.

Meanwhile Felicity was working on her own plan to take down Chase. Helix kindly provided her with the video of Chase as Prometheus unmasking himself. Unfortunately the video was pixelated due to technology Chase was using and Felicity needed direct physical access to Chase’s tech in order to decode it. Luckily for her, Curtis snooped on her laptop and figured out exactly what she needed to decode Chase’s tech. He and his blueberries (metal balls) got the information and hand delivered it to Felicity and Helix.

The Bratva then began wreaking havoc in Star City. First they began by taking diabetes drugs in order to create another street drug to sell in Russia. Their plans were almost foiled by Team Arrow. Diggle then questioned Oliver’s morals and called him out for being a sellout. Oliver then told Diggle to stay out of it. Bratva will kill Chase and the team will remain disbanded.

Later on in the episode Diggle continued to press the issue of the Bratva being in Star City but Oliver was having none of it. Oliver told Diggle about his crusade being a cover for his murdering spree and says to stay far away from him, Chase, the crusade and the Bratva. Diggle being the hard-headed man he is goes against Oliver’s wishes. He wanted to bring in Chase the right way and save Oliver’s soul.

The Bratva then made their move on Chase and so did the team. The team managed to save Chase from the Bratva ambush. Unfortunately this got Chase put into the witness protection program and therefore untouchable, especially for the Bratva. Oliver showed up at Diggle’s place shortly after and punched him in the face for interfering. Diggle then told Oliver to stop pushing him away; he knows who he is and it doesn’t matter to him. He still believes Oliver can atone for his sins just like he did. Oliver just needs to work to be the man who deserves to wear the hood. The man Diggle knows Oliver can be.

Back at Helix headquarters Felicity and Curtis are unmasked by Helix members; they know she is Overwatch and that he is Mr. Terrific. Unfortunately the tech Curtis collected was not enough to unmask Chase on video. Therefore, Felicity and Chase needed to break into Kord (the same place Chase got his technology from) to decode Chase’s face in the video. They are successful and are able to unscramble Adrian’s face.

Unfortunately for Oliver and the rest of the team, the Bratva wasn’t leaving Star City without their 2^nd part of the deal. Oliver refused to give it to them and became an enemy of the brotherhood. He then reassembled the team in order to take down the Bratva. Anatole was prepared for Oliver and the team and took hostages in order to get the drugs they needed. This forced the team to split up. Spartan, Dinah and Wild Dog were on hostage duty while Oliver took on the Bratva and Anatole by himself. After freeing the hostages, Oliver sounded the alarms and forced everyone out of the building.

Oliver and the team returned to a newly restored arrowcave, minus Oliver’s Green Arrow suit. He then had a brief meeting with Anatole before the Bratva left Star City. In that meeting he told Anatole that he is no better than Gregor. Anatole then went on to say he became who he had to become in order to keep the Bratva together and himself alive. Sounds vaguely familiar to Oliver’s reasoning behind his crusade in the very first season.

Oliver returned to the arrowcave and Felicity informs the team that they have video of Chase as Prometheus. The team immediately brought it to SCPD and they attempted to round up Chase. Unfortunately he killed his federal details and escaped before he could be brought into custody by SCPD.

NEXT WEEK:

Diggle and Oliver attempt to get Felicity out of Helix but she isn’t going down without a fight. Felicity believes her involvement with Helix is the only chance they have at capturing Chase aka Prometheus.

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The post Felicity dives deeper into Helix – ‘Arrow’ Recap: “Disbanded” appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Adrian continued to play mind games with Oliver in the latest episode of ‘Arrow’. We didn’t realize just how deep Adrian’s game was until Oliver traveled to a monastery to find Talia Al Ghul. Turns out that Talia trained Prometheus and knew that he was going to come for Oliver. Talia then revealed to Oliver that her last name is Al Ghul and that Raj Al Ghul was her father. She only trained Prometheus because Oliver killed her father. Talia then informed Oliver that Prometheus is Adrian Chase.

Oliver quickly returned to Star City only to discover that Adrian had taken Susan Williams hostage. He then informed the team about Adrian being Prometheus and taking Susan hostage. Oliver and Spartan checked Chase’s home and The Green Arrow was greeted by SCPD courtesy of Adrian. Oliver used a smoke bomb to escape and when he returned to the arrowcave Felicity finally made an appearance after being M.I.A.

Felicity was at Helix headquarters the whole time. Oliver pulled Felicity aside to tell her that he is worried about her. He knows that she is into something but she won’t tell him what she is doing…yet. However, Felicity’s connections came in handy once again and she was able to figure out Adrian’s real name; Simon Morrison. Oliver then gave that information to Captain Pike in hopes of getting Adrian arrested or at least removed from his position as D.A. but that backfired horribly.

Pike was attacked in an alley way by Adrian and is now in a coma. Of course Adrian was there by his side at the hospital. Adrian then told Oliver that if he kills him not only does he kill Susan but he also kills himself. He knows Oliver can’t handle another loss. Oliver headed back to the arrowcave after his chat with Adrian and proceeded to take out his rage on his suit and all his weapons.

In order to get a location on Susan Felicity had to redirect boarder control drones for Helix. She couldn’t do it alone so she enlisted Curtis’s help. He now knows what she is up to and isn’t pleased with the decisions she is making.

Luckily the team was able to use that information to find Susan and Oliver decided the only way to beat Adrian is to play his game. Rule #1, never try to beat a psychopath at their own game. They will always find a way to turn the tables on you. This was the exact case for Oliver. He thought bringing Adrian’s wife to see him as Prometheus would make him stop. Unfortunately for Doris Chase and Oliver that wasn’t the case. Adrian stabbed and killed his own wife to make a point.

This enraged Oliver and caused the two to get into a fist fight. Oliver was even willing to kill Adrian but before he got the chance Talia shot him in the leg with an arrow. The two then took Oliver hostage. Felicity once again had to use her Helix contacts in hopes of finding Oliver. Adrian began torturing Oliver toward the end of the episode as he wants Oliver to discover who he really is.

NEXT WEEK

Only confessing to being The Green Arrow will set Oliver free

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The post Adrian Chase’s True Identity Revealed – ‘Arrow’ Recap: “Checkmate” appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

On this week’s Arrow, the team was on the hunt for a new Black Canary. They found their new vigilante in Central City. Turns out she is a Meta Human with the same abilities as Black Canary from Earth 2.

Tina Bowlen aka Dinah Drake got her powers on the night the particle excelorator exploded in Central City. She and her partner/lover were caught during an undercover sting operation and were taken hostage. Her boyfriend was shot and the particle excelorator exploded when she was screaming in agony. After the incident Dinah quit CCPD and began her quest to avenge her boyfriend’s death. Unfortunately when the team arrived she wanted nothing to do with them and promised to kill them if they got in her way.

Back at the military prison Adrian informed Diggle of a pending case against Walker, the man who is trying to get him killed. Unfortunately Adrian discovered that Walker has friends in high places and got the case slow-rolled so he won’t get the information in time for Diggle to be exonerated. Thank God the team has Felicity.

Felicity successfully hacked the NSA site only to discover that the file on Walker had been permanently erased. However, she didn’t give up and hit up the dark web for the information she needed. When on the dark web she was hacked by Kojo Sledgehammer (played by Kacey Rohl whom you may recognize from Hannibal or Wayward Pines), a huge fan of Felicity during her activist days. Kojo’s hacktivist group Helix gives Felicity the file she needs on top of information that can take down other politicians and high government executives hoping that Felicity will return to the hacktivist community.

The Pandora Files Felicity is given got Diggle released from jail on bail and allowed Adrian to file a motion for his exoneration.

Oliver refused to give up on Dinah and had Curtis create a sonic dampener to suppress her powers and attempt to talk to her. Once again this was a no go and Oliver was forced to take action after she killed one of the guys working for Sonus, another Meta Human who has the ability to control sonic waves and the man who shot Dinah’s partner. Sonus was also connected to Tobias Church and sold Slide (a drug) to children. Team Arrow offers their help to take down Sonus but Dinah wants to do it herself.  Oliver even gave her his road to redemption speech but that didn’t faze her.

Curtis adjusted the sonic dampener to suppress Sonus’s powers and Dinah killed him. Some other cool moments from this battle included: Oliver’s helicopter ride where he hooked on to the copter and shot arrows at Sonus’s men and then proceeded to blow said helicopter up after he was done playing with it. Later on Dinah visited Mayor Oliver Queen and took him up on his offer to join Team Arrow.

In “Second Chances” we also got to see how Oliver got his back in Russia. Talia al Ghul rescued Oliver from his captors and informed him that the hood he wears is from one of her former students Yao Fei Gulong; the man Oliver met on the island. Talia offered up information on Kovar to Oliver if he would hear out her offer. She is the one who trained Oliver to use the bow and arrow and who taught him to give the monster inside him an identity. This is where his famous opening slogan “I had to become someone else, something else” came from along with his first Green Arrow suit and bow.

Next Week:

Oliver and the team head to Russia in 2017 to stop a nuclear arms dealer

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The post A Second Chance For Black Canary – ‘Arrow’ Recap: “Second Chances” appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.