Arrow 517 Kapiushon "Hood" Review

 What an incredibly intense episode last night.  Both Stephen Amell and Josh Segarra should be nominated for Emmys for their acting in this episode.  Where to begin? There is so much here from the flashbacks in Russia to current time.  I hope this comes across as organized for you.

       Anatoly Knyazev:  I like this character.  He's a gangster, I know, but there is much to like about him, "He's my favorite Russian."  (HaHa ) What I find interesting is that sometimes in the flashbacks he parallels Felicity Smoak.  Anatoly knows Oliver enjoys killing to much, and it bothers him.  He even tells him that he is like Slade Wilson and Ivo.  He wants Oliver to go back to America. At one point when Anatoly and Oliver are looking for the sarin gas, he tell Oliver, "See what happens when you think first..."  I found that similar to Felicity when she told Oliver he could find, "another way."  When  Felicity first went to work for Oliver and they went to the cafe, Felicity tells Oliver to slip a bug in the phone of Detective Hall, to find out what she knows.  Oliver tells Felicity, "I don't typically do it that way."  Felicity says, "How do you typically do it?"  Then tells her something like threatening them with arrows until they talk, but then he say, "But we can try your way."  She was his voice of reason.  She was the light in his darkness.  Anatoly knew Oliver was too dark and he tried, but as fun and as interesting as Anatoly  is, he is dark as well, and  darkness cannot lead darkness to the light.  I think Oliver knew this about Felicity from the beginning.  Remember when he came back to the states, and he saw her?  He knew he needed her in his life.  It began slowly.

Adrian Chase and Oliver Queen:  Chase has spent the last five years, getting to this point.  He had to be a little bit off psychologically to begin with, but now he has mastered the mind of a psychotic killer.  He not only tortures Oliver but mixes it with his  own brand of psychology that is both eery and terrifying at the  same time,.He does want to kill Oliver, but not before he takes everything from him. He began the torment, and I think it will be build until he takes Felicity, which I firmly believe he will do.  He knows whom Oliver loves and he will use them to drive Oliver to his own kind of madness.   He is methodical.  He has pictures on the wall of people Oliver has taken down.  Then he takes a picture of the Count, and shows Oliver. He says, "He was going to hurt someone."  We all know Oliver didn't want to kill. Felicity knew Oliver didn't want to kill but the Count took her and was ready to shoot the poison into Felicity and Oliver's anger took control, and he drew three quick arrows into the Count.  Then Chase shoots three arrow into Oliver, but not for a kill. Then he stoops down and with wicked gleam in his eyes pulls out a pair of black glasses, and says, "She didn't even know I was in her apartment."

Oliver looked both tortured and angry and then said, "So help me God, if you hurt her."  He was chained and helpless.  He can't protect her or William.  That pain alone is torture to Oliver, and worse than anything physically Chase can do.

Chase is the most diabolic villain Arrow has ever had.  He  makes Slade Wilson seem normal.  Then Chase showed a picture of William to Oliver, and Oliver doesn't even know where William is, but Chase has a way to find him.  Is Chase and his minions part of Helix?  Are they using Felicity, the love of Oliver's life, to bring Oliver down?

Oliver admits that he not only is a killer but that he enjoys it.  The psychological torture of the past six days has done its work. We understand Oliver better.  That was the Oliver we totally didn't understand in season one, because we didn't have the whole picture of his past, however, that's not the Oliver Queen we know in season 5.

Felicity:  We didn't see her much, because the focus had to be on Oliver and Chase, but when we see her, she is at her computer searching, because Oliver's been gone for six days.  When Oliver comes in and throws down his arrows and says he's done. All Felicity sees are his wounds.

Felicity can't look at him. She stares at the wounds.  You can see she's holding herself back. She wants to go to him.  But Oliver can't look at her either.  He seems to look at Diggle or he looks down, and briefly glances at her.  The viewer can feel her pain and his pain.  Olicity is not over. Olicity perhaps begins their  real journey towards each other from now on.

Felicity is going to get the one who did this to Oliver.  She knows who Oliver is.  He isn't a killer who enjoys killling.  Whatever or whoever Helix is, they will try and work the same way on Felicity.

Oliver has to find the light on his own.  Until he does he cannot be the light for Felicity, but I think they will light the way for each other.  It is coming.



Evelyn:  She's also a pawn in Chase's hand.  Chase knew Oliver wouldn't kill her, because he knows that Oliver isn't that  person anymore.  Chase knew the same technique that Oliver did to fake a death, because Talia taught him.  Evelyn didn't die.  I wasn't sure Oliver knew that.

Kovar and Malcom Merlyn:  So Kovar isn't dead thanks to Malcom Merlin.  Did that surprise you?  So is Kovar involved in current time?  Is malcom Merlin involved in current time?

Susan Williams:  She wan't shown at all.  She's not an important part of Oliver's life, and everyone knows it, but I don't think we are done with her either.  She's going to fit in somehow.

Stray thoughts;  This was a difficult episode to watch.  We watched our hero get tortured and it broke hearts.  We watched Felicity struggle to keep herself together, but inwardly she's a mess.
I imagine her looking like this as tshe plots her next move.  The next episodes are going to be so exciting.  We are going to see how well Felicity will come to understand Oliver and He will understand her. The two will become one in thought and feeling. United.

Did you notice that Oliver was Overwatch in the flashback? In the previous episode there was the bullet ridden laptop.  Oliver has always had Felicity in mind.  Remember he had seen her before his trip to Russia.