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.

Led by Liza Warner, China White & Cupid break out of prison. While in transit the trio kill their prison guards, let the other female prisoners on the bus off and hijack the bus back to Star City.

While this is going on Oliver pays a visit to Amanda Westfield, Prometheus’s mother. He asks her to give him her son’s name so that he can help him. She refuses to do so because she doesn’t want her son to be caged up like an animal.

After that failed mission Oliver is cornered by Susan Williams. She flat out asks him if he is The Green Arrow. He tells her no. Shortly after Oliver divulges this information to Thea who then tells Felicity. Thea has Felicity hack Susan’s laptop and place evidence of plagiarism on it. Pulling something out of Merlin’s playbook, Thea then passes this information along to Susan’s boss and gets her fired. Susan then tells Oliver about her evidence and that she was planning to go public with that information but now she can’t because she has been discredited.

While Susan lost her job, Dinah got herself one. She is now a member of the SCPD. There she learns about Quentin’s personal vendetta with Liza Warner. Warner is former SCPD and Quentin had thought he had convinced her to turn over a new leaf. We later learn that she turned back because she saw Quentin working for Damien Darhk.

Liza, China White and Cupid take out members of the triad in hopes of finding information on where Tobias Church left his 100 million dollars. While hunting the trio of villainous woman, The Green Arrow is surrounded by ACU and told he is being arrested for the murder of Detective Billy Malone. He is able to escape capture by using a flash/smoke bomb from his bow. Oliver finds out that Prometheus sent Pike Billy’s autopsy that had information connecting The Green Arrow’s arrows with the death of Malone.

Oliver as mayor is able to get Pike to back off and the team goes after Cupid and the lot. Dinah now equipped with the Black Canary mask, given to her by Felicity, is able to knock down China White after she shoots Wild Dog. However, the ladies came prepared with their own group of thugs. Luckily Pike had the ACU track The Green Arrow and arrived on location to arrest all three women.

Unfortunately the big battle has just begun. Prometheus leaked information to the media that Mayor Queen and D.A. Adrian Chase covered up the murder of Detective Malone. Oliver now faces possible impeachment.

Next Week:

Prometheus and Oliver face off

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The post Liza Warner, China White & Cupid Team Up – ‘Arrow’ Recap: “The Sin Eater” appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Star City was not short of vigilantes in last night’s episode of ‘Arrow’. A new vigilante attacked and killed members of a human trafficking ring saving the young girl they were about to sell. He then hung two of their bodies out in the alley for the SCPD to find.

Throughout the episode the presence of this new vigilante makes Oliver question whether or not he should continue on the righteous path or go back to his old ways. The new vigilante is getting results much faster than he is. Ollie reveals his concerns to Susan Williams who reassures him that doing things the right way is the only way. Even if the results are harder to come by. She then goes on to invite him out for a friendly drink.

Thea is once again on Quentin patrol. Quentin comes clean to Thea telling her he never was on the wagon; he’s been drinking the whole time. He then hands her his letter of resignation for Deputy Mayor. Thea won’t let him get off that easily. She goes to talk to Quentin and show him that they are still here for him. That he is like family. Quentin then goes on to tell Thea about the blood and ninja star Prometheus left him. Why is Prometheus trying to frame him? Quentin says he is damaged goods and wants to stay away from Oliver and Thea for their safety. You think he would realize Thea hasn’t and won’t give up on him that easily. Thea brings Quentin to rehab and tells him the Deputy Mayor position will be waiting for him when he gets out.

While this is going on the new vigilante is stalking new prey; a group of robbers led by a former prisoner named Dunn. Oliver attacks the new vigilante before he kills Dunn. Dunn escapes and the new vigilante tells Oliver and company “If you’re not with me then you’re against me.” Oliver tells him that they are against him and in return the new vigilante tells Oliver he is a dead man.

The team then goes on the hunt for Dunn, hoping to find him before the vigilante does. During re-con Spartan goes AWOL and punches a guy a few times. He was unwisely taking out his frustrations on him because Spartan is now a fugitive and had to miss his son’s second birthday. Meanwhile Ragman and Artemis do some re-con of their own, trapping another man in the alley. The man tells them how Dunn picks a bank; he choose them based on their proximity to the SCPD. Unfortunately for Dunn the new vigilante finds them first and goes on the attack. Team Arrow arrives and the vigilante fires at them. Dunn is injured but once again escapes.

Ollie finds an injured Dunn in a hotel. The new vigilante goes on the attack, shooting up the hotel room. Ollie saves Dunn and keeps him safe until they can deal with the new vigilante. John then comes up with a plan to rob a bank in order to draw the new vigilante out. The vigilante sneaks up on Artemis and Mr. Terrific who are staking out in the arrow-van. He takes Terrific hostage and beats him up. He wants Oliver one on one. He then goes on to tell Ollie that he is not getting the job done because he isn’t taking it seriously. Ollie saves Curtis and takes on the new vigilante. He captures him momentarily but a smoke bomb goes off and the new vigilante gets away.

The Green Arrow delivers Dunn to SCPD and Thea tells Oliver about Quentin and the throwing star. Ollie thinks Prometheus knows he is the green arrow.

Back at the arrow-cave Wild Dog shows his sweet side after the mission and brings Lyla and John Jr. to Diggle for a party.

In Russia, Oliver has his own party of sorts’. Konstantine Kovar has… well forces Oliver to have dinner with him while he is captive. A week of capture, a week of torture and he still won’t give anything up. He is very impressed.

Later on in the episode we learn that Kovar’s maid is Tiana’s mother. The woman from the island who Oliver killed along with her brother. Tiana said Kovar was a monster. Kovar then throws out another hand from his bag of many tricks and gives Oliver the file of Pyotr Friedkin, the guy he killed jail and gave info on black market site now controlled by Bratva.

Done with the games Oliver pulls a knife on Kovar and tells him to release him. Kovar is able to trick Oliver and he is recaptured. Kovar beats up Ollie and he learns Bratva made a deal with Kovar.

There seems to be a lot of double-crossing going on in the arrow-verse. Speaking of…

Artemis is a double agent! She is working with Prometheus!!!! But why? What does he have over her? Or does she know him? Who is Prometheus?!?!?!

Next Week:

Heroes v Aliens 4 night crossover event! Crossover palooza!!!!

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The trailer for the CW event showed us a little bit of the action to come. Everyone teams up to take on aliens or World War Z zombies as Barry refers to them. And by everyone I mean everyone: Supergirl, The Flash, HR Wells, Caitlin Snow, Cisco Ramone aka Vibe, The Green Arrow, Wild Dog, Spartan, Artemis, Ragman, Felicity Smoak, Sarah Lance aka White Canary, Ray Palmer aka The Atom, Mick Rory aka Heat Wave, Amaya aka Vixen, Nate Heywood aka Citizen Steel (who has acquired himself a super suit) and the team of Martin Stein and Jefferson Jax also known as Firestorm. There will also be an appearance by the infamous Deathstroke aka Slade Wilson in this crossover event. He appears for a second in the trailer about 15 seconds in.

According to inverse.com, the aliens the heroes will be facing are called the Dominators, an invading alien species that wants to take out humanity. If you remember the first time Barry met Supergirl in season 2, she was not aware of any of the other DC heroes like The Flash or The Green Arrow. Supergirl is in her own DC Universe not directly connected to one another like The Flash, Arrow and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow are. Therefore Barry has to do some traveling in the multiverse to get Supergirl into the arrow-verse in which his world exists. Barry will bring her in hopes that she can help decimate the alien problem and they sure will need it as the aliens are rumored to have mind-controlling abilities.

The trailer itself shows sequences where Supergirl and The Flash look to be fighting in tandem and then Oliver blaming Barry for their predicament. It seems like each episode of the crossover will stay true to the universe it is in. Meaning, The Flash episode will have its light hearted feel while the Arrow episode will have its usual darker tone.

It looks like a lot of action and humor are coming our way. Check out the trailer for yourself:

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The post [WATCH] Heroes v. Aliens Trailer: A 4 Night Crossover Event 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.

Everyone in the arrow-verse is seeking penance. Oliver for all the people he has killed, Felicity for all the people she blew up, Lance for his alcoholism, Diggle for killing his brother… the list goes on and on. This week’s episode of ‘Arrow’ taught us a great lesson. We have to keep the guilt from our past mistakes from swallowing us up in whatever way we can.

Oliver has made a lot of mistakes and a lot of tough choices along the way. “Penance” revealed Oliver’s third and final test in his initiation to Bratva. Oliver gets himself put in a Russian prison for the night in order to get information on Constantine from Pyotr Friedkin. After threatening Friedkin’s family he is able to get the information he needs. Friedkin asks him to kill him shortly after. Oliver completes the deed and is finally initiated into Bratva. “[with Russian accent] Welcome to Bratva Oliver.”

Back in Star City Oliver goes to talk to Rory who hasn’t shown up for training since Felicity told him the truth about Havenrock. Rory tells Oliver that he has to leave the team. He understands what Felicity did wasn’t her fault but he can’t bare the constant reminder. Later on in “Penance” Felicity talks to Rory and it still results in the same conclusion. He won’t come back to the team. Therefore, Felicity must make a tough call and sends the team after Church when Oliver goes rogue to save Diggle.

Church stole a device and rigged to blow up the evidence vault. He and his crew then take ceased weapons and then proceed to obliterate the vault. The DA and Lance escape with their lives all while Oliver and the team are brawling. They thought they could stop Oliver from breaking out Diggle. That was their first mistake. Rule one, do not get in Oliver’s way.

Oliver then steals a molecular device from palmer tech and with the help of Lyla heads to the military prison where Diggle is being held. Unfortunately the mission does not goes as planned and Lyla tells Oliver to abort the mission. Mr. Queen is having none of that and attacks a guard in order to get all the prisoners returned to their cells. He then uses the anti-molecular device to break Diggle out of prison. However the two run into trouble when they reach the extraction point but that doesn’t stop them. Harness + Lyla flying a military plane = mission success.

Back in Star City Church is at ACU (Anti-Crime Unit) headquarters trying to take out every person in the building. Felicity makes another difficult call and sends the team in after him. Lucky for her Rory comes back and helps the team goes after church.

At ACU headquarters the team blows up the building to save the ACU members. Rory uses himself as a shield and absorbs the blast. Curtis is stabbed in the back and Wild Dog takes on Church to allow the team to get to safety. Church and crew takes him hostage as Quentin saves the rest of the team. They are forced to leave Wild Dog behind.

Back at the arrow-cave Felicity can’t find Wild Dog using her tracking system. Unbeknownst to her he is being tortured for information in a warehouse. Rory calms her down and tells her that they will find him. He also promises to help keep the guilt from this and Havenrock from swallowing her up if she promises to do the same for him.

Next Week:

The team sets off to find Wild Dog.

Church learns that Oliver is The Green Arrow.

Mayor Oliver Queen is shot.

Another enemy arises.

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