5x17 Kapiushon

THAT. WAS. EPIC. Hands down for the most insane, intense, suspenseful and darkest Arrow episode ever! I loved every minute of it.

This show has definitely become something else. Dark as hell and brutal af. "Whatever pain I caused you I'm sorry" "I believe you, Oliver. I just don't care". Holy fuck, Adrian is cold. It was his most savage line tonight.

Arrow certainly did the darkest, grittiest, most insane and suspenseful episode I've ever seen, let alone character development. It left me shocked and speechless.

Holy crap! Screw you Deathstroke. Adrian is a fucking savage. He's as psychopathic as Slade, but his anger is not romance-driven. He's totally disturbed in his pursuit of vengeance.

Prometheus is now my favourite Arrow villain. He did what no one could. He broke the freaking Green Arrow. He's so methodical and twisted. Cold and heartless. And that, my friends, is beautiful. He destroyed Oliver completely achieving what no one else has ever managed to do. Not even Deathstroke could face Prometheus' level of darkness. "Shut everything down" Oliver Queen broke and Adrian Chase is responsible.

The only thing in my mind now is where does it go from here? It was only a matter of time Ollie's actions hit him back. Adrian Chase broke him psychologically and physically. Chase is Oliver's Bane. He put some Negan level shit in him.

I got to be honest, the constant switch between the present and the Brava scenes was absolutely insane and so awesome. The flashbacks this season see on point and tonight they tied perfectly together with the present. Speaking of, Brava Oliver is a fucking animal "He gave up pretty quickly. The rest was me practicing". This was, personally, the darkest quote from the entire series. I swear I was standing like what the fuck. I'm ok with watching torture scenes but the minute he said he was practicing got me. The ending fight with Kovar felt so brutal. I loved it!

I think, because Arrow (and most television shows, to be fair) is so bad at managing its themes consistently and so bad at presenting a unified philosophical idea across a number of seasons that the impact of "Kapiushon" might get lost in the shuffle. Four seasons down the line, will we remember what happened in this episode? Will we even remember it a season down the line? Is it even well understood by its audience or its creators? I would like to quote from Slavoj Zizek's Looking Awry (1991) at length to make my point:

The first example that comes to mind is Woman in the Window by Fritz Lang: a lonely professor of psychology is fascinated by the portrait of a female fatale that hangs in the window of a store next to the entrance of his club. After his family has gone away on vacation, he dozes off in his club. One of the attendants awakens him at eleven, whereupon he leaves the club, casting a glance at the portrait, as usual. This time, however, the portrait comes alive as the picture in the window overlaps with the mirror reflection of a beautiful brunette on the street, who asks the professor for a match. The professor, then, has an affair with her; kills her lover in a fight; is informed by a police inspector friend of the progress of the investigation of this murder; sits in a chair, drinks poison, and dozes off when he learns his arrest is imminent. He is then awakened by an attendant at eleven and discovers that he has been dreaming. Reassured, the professor returns home, conscious that he must avoid ensnarement by fatal brunettes We must not, however, view the final turnaround as a compromise, an accommodation to the codes of Hollywood. The message of the film is not consoling, not: "it was only a dream, in reality I am a normal man like others and not a murderer!" but rather: in our unconscious, in the real of our desire, we are all murderers.

I think the utility of this quote should be clear, but to schematize it at bit, we can think of The Hood and Green Arrow alter egos as to the professor's dream as Oliver Queen is to the professor's waking life. As "Kapiushon" would have it, when Oliver Queen takes off the masks he can comfortably say "in reality I am a normal man like others and not a murderer!" but the reality that Prometheus wants to expose is that "in the real of our desire," in the real of Oliver's desire in particular, "we are all murderers." It is worth noting that my initial critique of Arrow being bad at managing its themes is because this characterization of Oliver is inconsistent with the earlier seasons. The Hood/Green Arrow has never been totally bifurcated from Oliver, and Oliver has been well aware of that. Oliver knows that he is compromised by his actions as a vigilante. It is why he can't have normal romantic/sexual relationships, why he can't have a 'normal life,' and these points are constantly explored. The taint of The Hood marks Oliver in the same way his trauma on the Island does. In fact, the earliest seasons seem to be satisfied with the Bruce Wayne/Clark Kent idea of things. Oliver knows he is no longer Oliver. His becoming "something else" is not a disavowal of his murderous tendencies, but rather an acceptance of the fact that what he must do as a vigilante will annihilate the Oliver Queen that once existed. The Oliver Queen we see in the television show, like Bruce or Clark in their mythologies, is a mask. These heroes are their "true selves" in costume, fighting crime. Their public alter-egos are the mask they wear. So, we have a serious tension between the idea of Oliver accepting the "something else" he becomes as the real him that annihilates the public Oliver Queen and the idea of this season and "Kapiushon" in particular that the "something else" is that which exists to carry the weight of murder and preserve the public Oliver Queen. The "something else" of The Hood/Green Arrow serves an inconsistent existential function for Oliver in this season. And yet, the point of this episode is no less interesting.

Reasoning from the characterization of Oliver in "Kapiushon" and season five more broadly, inconsistencies with earlier seasons bracketed for the moment, Oliver's admission that he kills because he wants to and likes it is a fascinating one. In a way, Prometheus's bragging seems like premature congratulations. Viewers of Arrow have watched Oliver for five years. Is there any question that he doesn't enjoy his work? In season one, we saw a determined man without a trace of guilt. Even in his moments where he was forced to kill, the lives he took never haunted him more than the lives he couldn't save. Most superhero stories and action stories more broadly require this kind of calculation. Murdering those who would murder is fine. It is, of course, one murder to prevent many others. So, then, if we are making such crude calculations to cheer on our heroes... does Oliver's confession really make a difference? Whether or not Oliver enjoys violence, or is otherwise compelled to murder, it doesn't change the fact that he has saved lives (based on the aforementioned formula). What Prometheus reveals is not a successful indictment of his crusade or even a moral failing on the part of Oliver. The calculation I mentioned is the same one that makes Dexter (the titular lead of Dexter [2003]) a hero when he is, in fact, a serial murderer and has a compulsion to kill. But we think of Dexter and Green Arrow differently. We think of Dexter and Flash differently. Should we?

There is a desirous compulsion on the part of any superhero to do violence and perhaps to kill. Rather than revealing anything about Oliver, Prometheus reveals to us our own delusion. We are able to identify with heroes as they gleefully brutalize and kill super villains as long as the murder is followed by sufficient brooding. Prometheus (and the episode itself) doesn't seem to realize the universality of its indictment. Nor does it realize this indictment should be directed at us, the viewers, rather than Oliver. Oliver disavows his murderous desires (or compulsion) to the persona of The Hood. But we see the synchronicity of both and yet allow ourselves to be sucked into Oliver's internal fantasy. Think about Barry Allen's wise cracking as he throws punches. Is violence really supposed to be so funny? Throwing a punch is no small thing. The sensation of a fist connecting with a body or face at the extreme speeds of The Flash must be a harsh one. And yet Barry experiences something as he administers those blows. Is it enjoyment? Would it make him less of a hero if it was?

"Kapiushon" brings to light the function of desire in super heroics and calls into question the disavowal audiences perform as they watch the violence unfold on page or screen. Must we believe that our heroes are pained at every punch and tortured when they must kill? Is that the fantasy we have to believe to see them as heroes? Or can we admit; to be a truly great super hero, you must enjoy your work.

And fucking Evelyn bitch! Please, just die. Someone please snap her next once and for all. Someone has to kill her in ways that'll hurt. I can't stand that fucking traitor. just die already. I knew she was still working with Prometheus. I didn't feel sorry when she "died", in fact, I knew he didn't kill her. Had Adrian killed her, he will have always had a place in my heart (not that he already has it).

I loved Stephen Amell's performance. He's always great, but he screaming his heart out while being tortured makes you feel it's real. Stephen gave the best performance I've ever seen tonight. Amazing performance as well from Josh Segarra. Phenomenal acting by both. I'm definitely gonna miss Josh Segarra after this season. The two of them had some of the most powerful scenes I've ever seen. "Because I wanted to! And I liked it" chills in my spine that delivery gave me goosebumps.

I fucking love Anatoly. He's definitely my favourite Russian "Anatoly Knyazev, gangster"

I couldn't help but think how different Season 1 would've been if Anatoly had said Malcolm Merlyn instead of "American businessman". The same if Malcolm had known it was Ollie who. I think Malcolm's only point is to revive people. Plus, John Barrowman 3 out of 4 episodes this week, yass.

Not sure how it'll all evolve next episodes, but after seeing next week's promo, everything's going down. Adrian's grin, though. Tonight's episode was brutal and Adrian Chase = straight psychotic savage. He's the real spawn of Satan. Even Slade had limits but this guy, he's straight savage. I'm certainly enjoying him, though. And Josh Segarra's portrayal has me embellished. Anyways, let's see how Ollie recovers from this and how he faces Adrian "I don't give a fuck" Chase.
This episode is the proof that Arrow can go from 0 to 100 real quick. When he wanted Ollie to confess for a Dec there I thought he wanted him to say "I have failed this city". He's hardcore af going all Jigsaw. He's fucking scary and I like it.