SERIOUSLY DON’T DO IT!

Now that that’s out of the way…. PROMETHEUS IS DISTRICT ATTORNEY ADRIAN CHASE!

Yes, you read that right. Good ‘ole D.A. Chase. The snake in the grass that no one saw coming and whom everyone believed was Vigilante. Props to the writer’s on this epic character reveal. It will definitely go down in the books.

The question remains, who is Vigilante then and why does he have a bone to pick with Oliver? He is obviously good with tech as his visor runs facial recognition software. Is it Tommy? A former Bratva member? A member of Helix (the group that gave Felicity the Pandora files)? Or someone we haven’t even met yet?

The team was close to closing in on the Vigilante thanks to Curtis’s tech. He created some metal balls that can attack and defend against other assailants. Unfortunately he got away. Felicity also used her own weapon in this episode; the Pandora files. The files were used to dig information on Collins who was the deciding vote on determining whether or not Oliver would be impeached. Oliver tells Thea not to use the information she got on Collins from Felicity. He warns her that fighting fire with fire is bound to get her burned.

Diggle then warns Felicity about using Pandora. That it is a dangerous weapon. Felicity lost all her empathy when Billy died and is in danger of going down a dark and dangerous path. Diggle tries to warn her about the consequences of doing so but she clearly doesn’t care. Felicity meets up with Kojo once more and officially joins Helix. What trouble is she going to get herself into and just how much havoc is she going to wreak upon those within the Pandora files?

Speaking of wreaking havoc, Prometheus forced Oliver to do one of three things:

1. Throw Adrian Chase under the bus for the cover up of Billy’s murder
2. Get impeached from office via throwing himself under the bus
3. Throw The Green Arrow under the bus and make him Public Enemy #1 in order to stay in office

Oliver chose the latter and blamed his alter ego for the murder of Billy Malone. Thus making his work as a vigilante that much harder. However, Prometheus’s game is just beginning. Adrian kidnaps Susan Williams, Oliver’s sort-of-still girlfriend, and tortures her.

Other happenings this episode:

• Thea resigns from office and leaves to work on herself before she gets any worse
• Oliver is still mayor
• Oliver saves Anatole and brings information on Kovar to the Bratva
• Paul hands Curtis divorce papers

NEXT WEEK:

Talia Al Ghul returns and tells Oliver that Prometheus is Adrian Chase

Adrian kidnaps Susan and tortures her. What is his endgame?

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The post Prometheus Unmasked! – ‘Arrow’ Recap: “Fighting Fire With Fire” appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

The past came back to haunt Oliver in the mid-season finale of Arrow. “What We Leave Behind” finally revealed who Prometheus is and brought back a beloved character.

In the previous episode we learned that Evelyn is working with Prometheus. In this episode we learn that she has been giving Prometheus intel not only on Oliver but the entire team. Evelyn brings Prometheus Oliver’s notebook (the one with his kill list back from when he was The Hood) and tells Prometheus she wants to be there when he kills Oliver; she wants to watch him die. Prometheus tells Evelyn he doesn’t wish to kill Oliver but he will uproot his life so much that he is going to wish he was dead. And boy did he live up to that promise in this episode.

After Felicity awkwardly introduced Billy as her boyfriend to Curtis and Oliver at the Mayor’s Christmas party, things really turned sour. Curtis gets into an argument with his husband Paul and then gets into a fist fight with Prometheus. He is seriously injured but his cover is blown. Not only does Prometheus know who he is but his husband now knows he is a vigilante and has been lying to him about it this whole time.

While he was being attacked by Prometheus Curtis was injected with Dycloserol. A man off Oliver’s list named Justin Claybourne, introduced the drug 4 years ago when Oliver was The Hood. Oliver went after this man and killed him when he would not lower the cost of the drug in order to save the community he purposely injected with tuberculosis. Oliver thinking Claybourne is Prometheus, heads back to the warehouse where he created the serum. There he ran into a trap from Prometheus. Wilddog and Evelyn are called to come to Oliver’s rescue and that is when Evelyn turns on them.

Evelyn helps Prometheus escape and Oliver informs the team of her betrayal. Rory warns Curtis about Evelyn and Paul overhears their phone call. Curtis finally comes clean and tells Paul he is working with The Green Arrow. Paul is then forced to give Curtis an ultimatum. Either he quits being a vigilante or their marriage is over. Unfortunately for Paul, Curtis has never felt more like himself then when he his Mr. Terrific. He can’t give up being a vigilante.

Billy, who doesn’t heed Felicity’s warning, goes off in search of evidence to bring in Prometheus. He can’t stop hunting the cop killer because it is who he is. Unfortunately for Billy, he is caught snooping around by Prometheus but not before he could send a picture of a baby to Felicity.

Prometheus takes Billy hostage and the SCPD is forced to go after him, this time with a shoot to kill order.

While Oliver and the team (with the help of Speedy, who seems to be coming out of retirement a lot) go out in search of Billy, Felicity runs the baby picture through facial recognition software. Turns out the baby and Prometheus are one in the same; they are the illegitimate son of Justin Claybourne. Prometheus is seeking vengeance for the murder of his father. Oliver finally puts the pieces of the puzzle together and goes back to the place where he murdered Prometheus’s father.

He arrives at the scene of the crime and discovers Prometheus is staging bodies exactly how Oliver left them 4 years earlier. The only difference is that Prometheus now stands in his father’s place. A battle begins and Prometheus leads Oliver into a room with mirrors. Oliver fires arrows into Prometheus’s chest only to realize he actually shot Billy. Prometheus pulled a play out of The Joker’s handbook and dressed Billy up in his suit and taped a weapon in his hand. Oliver had no way of knowing that it was Billy and reacted out of pure instinct. He returns to the arrowcave and tells Felicity that he accidently killed Billy. Felicity blames Prometheus and forgives Oliver, at least for now.

Oliver then tells the team that Prometheus said anyone Oliver goes near dies and that they should all get as far away from him as possible. The team refuses to leave his side.

At the close of the episode John gets a frantic call from Lyla and heads to their location only to be greeted by the feds. He was set up and is on his way back to prison.

After the team leaves Oliver is left alone in the arrowcave momentarily. As he nears the glass tubes where the suits are kept he is greeted by none other than Laurel Lance. How the hell is she still alive?!?!?!

Arrow returns Wednesday January 25^th, 2017.

To come on this season of Arrow:

Curtis will realize his full potential and the team will attempt another difficult Diggle prison escape.

Clip from the new episode coming Wednesday January 25^th:

For those that have the CW app (if you don’t download it, it’s free!), The CW has given app users an exclusive look into the next episode of Arrow which airs on Wednesday January 25^th:  Oliver is on a mission to find the Russian woman who trained both him and Prometheus. The team is slowly easing Laurel back into reality and filling her in on what she missed. Oliver gets Diggle a lawyer after he decides to fight his wrongful conviction.

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The post ‘Arrow’ Recap: “What We Leave Behind” appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Last night’s episode of ‘Arrow’ “So It Begins” slowly began to unravel clues as to who Prometheus is. The episode kicked off with Spartan (Diggle) and The Green Arrow (Oliver Queen) following Church’s cell phone to a message left by Prometheus. After finding the phone and listening to Prometheus breathe heavily into the other end of the line, all the torches in the building went out and flames on the floor displayed “And so it begins”.

Later in the episode we learned exactly what Prometheus was talking about. The menace killed a mother of two and continued to drop bodies throughout the episode. The team, well Oliver and Diggle, tried to work out a way to decode Prometheus’s message before a 5^th body turned up. Unsuccessful, Oliver once again learns that he can’t do this by himself and conjures up the team to take control of the chaos in an outdoor mall after Prometheus was apparently spotted there.

Riding down on Oliver’s line, which much be awesome, the team of Artemis (Evelyn Sharp), Mr. Terrific (Curtis Holt) and Wild Dog (Rene Ramirez) rescued civilians while Spartan, Oliver and Ragman (Rory Regan) disarmed other civilians. The team saves the city for the moment and heads back to the arrow-cave.

Back at headquarters Felicity enlisted the help of Curtis to decode what message Prometheus is trying to send Oliver. They discovered he is killing people whose names, specifically the letters in their names, rearrange to names on Oliver’s former kill list. Yet another thing Oliver didn’t disclose to his team. Rory, Rene and Curtis were mad but Evelyn took it hard. Oliver was the one who stopped her from seeking her revenge and killing the person who murdered her parents. However, the team had to temporarily overlook this deception and get back to work. Using the algorithm uncovered by Curtis and Felicity, the team was able to figure out who Prometheus may be targeting next. Each team member was then assigned to guard a person.

Trying to reach out to Evelyn, Felicity tried to get her to open up when she is on the subway for guard duty. Not wanting to hear Felicity anymore she turns off her com. This proved to be a huge mistake as Evelyn ran into Prometheus and was forced to fight him. Lucky for her Felicity tipped off Oliver and he arrived in the nick of time to save her and the man she was guarding. Unfortunately Prometheus escaped and left a present (a bomb) behind. Unable to disarm the bomb in time the three escaped the subway via parachute arrow before it exploded. Evelyn then chose to give Oliver a second chance after this incident; he did save her life after all.

In hopes of catching Prometheus, Felicity stole the throwing star left at the crime scene from Billy’s desk. She discovered that the throwing stars have a specific and rare type of alloy. Digging deeper Felicity determined that Prometheus gathered the arrows from Oliver’s murders in previous years and melted them down in order to make his own weapons. The only way that he could have had access to that was if he had access to the SCPD weapons vault. Therefore, unveiling that he is a member of the SCPD.

Later on she came clean to Billy about taking the throwing star and the fact that she works for The Green Arrow, hence her late nights and frequent disappearances. Billy told her she is a criminal but accepts it and her because it’s for a good cause. That went much better than anyone thought.

Later on Lance was visited by Prometheus; he woke up after an alcohol induced blackout with a cut on his arm and a throwing star on his coffee table. Why didn’t Prometheus kill him? Does he know Prometheus? Is this a warning of his impending death?

“So It Begins” also showed us the beginning of Bratva’s war with Konstantin Kovar. In Russia, Anatoly taught Oliver how to make a bomb. The two are ambushed by Kovar’s men moments after Oliver almost blows himself up. Kovar has declared war against Bratva and Oliver was forced to go undercover as his former playboy self to blow up Kovar’s new casino.

Oliver and Ishmael Gregor are captured by Kovar when trying to blow up his casino. Gregor was killed but Oliver is left alive. Could Kovar or a relative of his be Prometheus exacting his revenge on Oliver? If so, what did Oliver do to Kovar?

Next Week:

A new vigilante arrives and starts killing people. Like the team really needs this now.

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The post Prometheus Sends Oliver A Message, ‘Arrow’ Recap: “So It Begins” appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

As we saw in last week’s episode of ‘Arrow’, Wild Dog (Rene) is being tortured by Church and the team is having difficulty locating him. However, Oliver is optimistic that they will find Rene in this week’s episode, “Human Target”.

The Green Arrow and crew kick off the episode by picking up some human targets of their own, specifically street thugs, in order to find Church. While Church tortures Rene he reveals his reason behind coming to Star City. He needs the city’s water access in order to build his drug empire. Unfortunately Rene also gives Church a bit of information. He tells him The Green Arrow’s true identity; Oliver Queen. Moments later Oliver comes to his rescue and Rene comes clean.

Back at the arrow-cave Diggle calls in a friend with a “unique skillset” to help Oliver deal with Church. Diggle also tries to talk to Rene about what happened when he was being tortured to see if he remembers anything that can help the team figure out what Church is up to. At first Rene doesn’t remember anything but Diggle tells Rene about when his brother tortured, which in turn gets Rene to open up. We finally learn why he was dishonorably discharged; He beat a P.O.W. to get answers.

Diggle helps Rene go back to when he was captured to help unlock repressed memories. He is able to remember Church mentioning a meeting with the head of crime lords from other cities at private airstrip outside Penny Town. Church is looking to create the largest drug empire on the east coast.

Mayor Oliver Queen also got into some hot water with a councilman. He was trying to convince him to vote yes on re-zoning to create lower income homes. The councilman won’t budge due to Queen Industries and the city building sky rises instead of low-income homes in the past. Later in “Human Target” Oliver discovers the real reason behind is no vote; the councilman wants the land for himself as he has investors interested in the land. Oliver manages to get the councilman on his side by the end of episode. Mayor Queen also convinces Susan Williams to give him 1 month without bad press in order to earn her trust and work to fix Star City. He then gets her number.

I don’t think this potential relationship will last long as Susan is already digging for dirt on Mayor Queen the minute she leaves his office. A source of hers, Ian, gives her dirt on Oliver’s past. He uncovers a photo of him from 5 years ago in Russia when he was supposed to be on the island.

We also got to see Oliver in Russia in this episode. Oliver meets the head of Bratva, Viktor and is threatened by him. Viktor tells Oliver he isn’t really Bratva and he will never truly be Bratva. He then attempts to have Oliver killed in an alley way by luring him with a young woman who seemed to be in danger. Oliver is saved by Christopher Chance who was hired by Anatole.

Back in Star City Church makes his move on Mayor Queen. He hires a man to take him out. Turns out that man was being impersonated by the guy Diggle was talking about; The Human Target aka Christopher Chance. The same man who saved him in Russia 5 years before.

Oliver fakes his death in order to get Church to move forward with his plan in order to figure out what he has planned.

The team then figures out Church’s plan and heads out to break up the party. Spartan (Diggle) rejoins the team and so does Wild Dog. At the airstrip Wild Dog goes after Church again and loses him after an RPG goes off. Ragman and Artemis are about to be taken out by the archer Church hired but they are saved by Chance who was in disguise as a thug.

Oliver finds Church inside an air hanger and takes him on mono-e-mono. After beating Church up, he tells Oliver about Prometheus and his quest to end Oliver. Mayor Queen returns to the podium and civilization after Church and crew are captured and the rezoning for lower income housing passes. However, in route to prison the transport van Church is in is attacked. Prometheus comes for him and Church gives him The Green Arrow’s real name in hopes of having his life spared. Prometheus thanks him for the information and then kills him. That escalated quickly.

“Human Target” also showed some trouble in paradise for Billy and Felicity. Billy tells Felicity he took a job at the ACU and asks if Oliver knows about the two of them. She lies and says he does. This comes back to bite her when Chance accidentally lets Oliver know about Billy and Felicity. Oops. Oliver later confronts Felicity about her relationship with Billy and the fact that she hid it from him. Did she avoid telling him because there is a chance she still wants to be with Oliver?

Next Week:

Prometheus tries to bait Oliver killing people to send him a message. He is saying Oliver is the serial killer. Who is this guy and why does he hate Oliver so much?

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The post ‘Arrow’ Recap: “Human Target” appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Trust has been a major theme in the last two episodes of Arrow. After recruiting a new team, Oliver quickly loses said team due to his inability to trust them and vice versa. His Bratva (Russian) style training tactics didn’t really help either. Only able to trust himself, Oliver is forced to face Ragman, the lone survivor of Havenrock who is out for revenge.

Amartech, the company offering to help with a health event for Mayor Queen has been doing some dirty dealing. One of which was giving Damien Dhark the bombs that blew up Havenrock. Hence why Ragman is slowly taking out members of the company. The CEO gets a taste of his fury when she is meeting up with Tobias Church. Oliver joins in the fight and let’s Church almost kill him in hopes of recruiting Ragman to team arrow. He is successful as Ragman saves his life.

After Church’s encounter with The Green Arrow, Prometheus confronts Church and tells him to lay off The Green Arrow; he wants him for himself.

We also got to see Diggle in action. Unfortunately he and his unit are ambushed by his lieutenant who are stealing the last known bomb. The young solider is killed and Diggle is taken hostage. He is then thrown into a cell with Floyd Lawten aka Deadshot. Well a hallucination of Deadshot.

Lyla visits Diggle and he tells her he isn’t well. He feels he deserves to be punished for killing his brother and clearly has severe PTSD because of it. Lyla then turns to Oliver for help; she wants him to break Diggle out of prison.

Mayor Queen hires Quentin as Deputy Mayor and that causes a political frenzy. Luckily Thea is there to handle it on Oliver’s behalf and puts that reporter in her place. Putting his trust in Quentin, Oliver realizes he needs to do the same with the new team.

Team Arrow assemble!… errr suit up. I’m gonna leave the catch phrases to Mr. Queen.

The team: Oliver, Evenlyn Sharp (Starfire), Curtis Holt (Fair Play), Rene Ramirez (Wilddog) and Rory Regan (Ragman) team up to take down Derrick Samson played by Cody Rhodes. Samson is a stardust dealer who was first attacked by Sharp and Wilddog and falls into chemicals becoming practically indestructible. The stardust drug mixed with the chemicals changed his body composition giving him enhanced strength and the inability to feel pain. Samson steals a molecular device in order to make everyone else like him and take back Star City from Church.

In action Curtis is saved by Rory when he is trying to disassemble a bomb. The Green Arrow also figures out how to make Samson immobile; he slices his tendons. Score 1 for new team arrow! As a reward Oliver shows the recruits the arrow cave.

This episode also showed us how Oliver gained his definition of trust. We are taken back to Russia where Oliver is mid-initiation into Bratva. He gets the team of guys he is with to work together to ring the bell. Next thing he knows they are all shot and killed. Oliver is then asked to trust Bratva and Anatole. He hesitates but later learns that all the recruits except himself were criminals who escaped justice. Oliver is then cut on his back by his Bratva brothers showing his trust in them not to kill him with his back turned.

Felicity puts her faith and trust in Rory not to kill her when she tells him the truth about Havenrock. She was the one who diverted the bomb from a highly populated area to the smaller region of Havenrock. Rory looked heart broken when he told her. Will this be too much for him? Will he leave team arrow? Will he seek revenge against Felicity even though it wasn’t her fault?

Felicity’s other half Billy Malone (Detective Malone) summons the Green Arrow with a fake B&E radio call. He then goes on to tell Oliver about Prometheus.

There was a lot of great comic relief in this episode. Curtis provided most of it a usual but Felicity and Oliver had some zingy one-liners. Especially the mention of hockey masks. Great TMNT Casey Jones reference.

Next Week

Oliver attempts to break Diggle out of prison but the new team is preventing him from doing so.

Church is planning something big and the team goes after him.

SIDEBAR: CROSSOVER PALOOZA (aka Flash-Arrow-Legends-Supergirl crossover) IS COMING!

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The post ‘Arrow’ Recap: “A Matter of Trust” appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.