Prometheus sends Arrow "Underneath"

Honestly, is Prometheus the best villain this show has ever had?

I mean people talk a lot about Deathstroke, but Prometheus has been nothing short of terrifying. This guy didn't even show up in last night's "Underneath" until the last five seconds of the episode, and he was still terrorizing Team Arrow while being totally off camera the entire time.

Spoilers beyond the fold.


So last week Helix had given Felicity one more little bump in her quest to find Prometheus, just as they cut her loose. It was supposed to be some kind of high tech tracker thingie, but just as the episode ended, there was an explosion that sent Oliver and Felicity flying back. Oops.

"Underneath" picks up right where that one left off. The explosion wasn't that bad, but the power is totally out and Felicity knows right away what happened: an EMP was set off. How does she know? Because the high-tech chip in her spine that allows her to walk is no longer functioning and she can't feel her legs.

Well, crap.

This is apparently the episode that was promised to us by the whirlwind interview spree Wendy Mericle went on right before Arrow came back from spring break. Mericle did promise that Ollicity would work itself out, and that there was a reason why we never saw Oliver and Felicity discuss their relationship and break-up in any meaningful way. Well "Underneath" is the episode where that finally happens, and you Ollicity haters may be groaning right now, but the episode was surprising well-written and phenomenally well-acted. Considering there was very little action beyond Oliver being an idiot and falling for booby traps Prometheus had left behind, the episode really kept me engaged. Nor was the romance stuff overly heavy-handed or mushy. There was also a sense of urgency overall, because the Arrowcave is airtight and pretty much a nuclear bunker, so without power, Ollie and Felicity would run out of air within a few hours.

As it turns out, after the end of season four and apparently before the beginning of season five, Curtis slyly arranged for Oliver and Felicity to have a one night stand, and it was kind of sweet and adorable. But afterwards, Felicity tells him that she's not ready to discuss what happened yet. So I guess here we are, ready to discuss!

Ohhhh, mmmmyyy!
I don't talk very often about the actual craft of filming with the CW shows, but I feel like Arrow deserves special mention in this episode. Considering the entirety of the show, save for a few scenes, happens inside the confines of the Arrowcave, the cinematography and clever framing (like the love scene above and the use of the wine bottles in the foreground) was phenomenal here.

The camera only leaves our trapped heroes a few times, to show that Team Arrow has become aware of the plight of Oliver and Felicity, and they are doing whatever they can to get their fearless leaders out. But Prometheus' stupid traps make that difficult, especially after one of Oliver and Felicity's attempts from the inside releases methane gas from a pipe.

Anyway, I am also happy to announce that the marriage problems that John and Lyla started having last week did not drag on until season end! Despite Diggle having a bug up his butt for a lot of this episode, he finally realizes that Lyla is doing what she thinks her job requires, and that he kind of does the same thing for Team Arrow. In case you care, they do end up working it out by the end of the episode. I kind of didn't, because it was trumped-up drama of the kind Diggle is famous for every season, but I also understood that in this case, it was very much running parallel to the story of Felicity accusing Oliver of not trusting her (over Helix). Lyla accuses John of the same thing.



Ultimately, during a scene when Oliver thinks he's going to die, he admits to Felicity what happened in Prometheus' dungeon and that he thinks he is a monster because he "enjoys killing." If you regularly read my reviews, I did mention back during that review that I had no idea what the hell I, as an audience member, was supposed to do with the revelation that the titular hero has a taste for killing. Well thankfully, Felicity lets all of us off the hook here, as she points out that Chase had just tortured Oliver for a week without end, so Oliver would have admitted to damn well anything just to make it stop.

She's not wrong. This is the same argument that people use to point out that the US torturing terrorist subjects doesn't work because when you torture someone, they are liable to say whatever you want to hear, if it means the pain will stop.

Ultimately, Felicity still believes Oliver is a good man, and that there's a reason she's always trusted his plays, even when his decisions seem questionable. She wants the same consideration from him, even as she has gotten just a tiny inkling of the personal toll his sacrifices and decisions have had on him, now that she has made similar choices.

I think this means Ollicity is back on? Maybe? I'm not sure. There was a lot of emotion for sure in this episode, and as usual, Stephen Amell and Emily Bett Rickards have fabulous chemistry together. It is a little sad, though, that the writers seem incapable of having Felicity shine by herself (as in last week's episode where she breaks with Team Arrow over Helix). She seems to do best when she has Stephen Amell on the screen with her (or back in the day when she used to have more crossovers with Grant Gustin from The Flash, another leading man she had fabulous chemistry with). I don't honestly know if that's a shortcoming of the writing (which I suspect) or of Emily Bett Rickards herself.

As I noted earlier, the larger-than-life Josh Segarra does make a short appearance in this episode, in the final scene, and the result is nothing short of chilling. It's not really surprising that Prometheus would make this play in the final episodes of the season... but it's still freaking terrifying.


Why yes, that is Oliver's son William he's talking to.

Arrow airs on Wednesdays at 8/7c on the CW.

Ivonne Martin is a writer, gamer, and avid consumer of all things geek—and is probably entirely too verbose for her own good.