Arrow Arrow Season 5 Episode 16: "Checkmate"

[Slade W]

S5 EPISODE 16 - Checkmate

OLIVER SEEKS THE TRUTH — Oliver (Stephen Amell) gets closer to the truth about Prometheus. Meanwhile, Helix refuses to continue helping Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) until she does a favor for them. Ken Shane directed the episode written by Beth Schwartz & Sarah Tarkoff.

 

[Jedi Arrow]

Wow, what a fantastically vague episode description.

 

[Slade W]

https://youtu.be/EH-zJFAcoYM

 

[Slade W]

The trailer looks very good. I really like Chase in it.

 

[Deltron3030]

looks like dig in hospital

 

[Slade W]

https://youtu.be/YZ8pUt26EVQ

 

[Slade W]

https://youtu.be/krgs3LS5Shs

https://youtu.be/MZwqnsWTnbc

 

[Pennywise]

Excited for tonight!!

 

[NotNickFury]

Actually, I'm certain that if Oliver just went to the left and kept traveling up those mountains, he would've run into Kal-El learning to fly for the first time.

 

[Mike Murdock]

I liked how they handled why Talia trained Prometheus.

ETA: Does Diggle have a new helmet?

 

[NotNickFury]

Even Oliver is tired of people keeping secrets. I think he's been watching all of the other Arrowverse shows and realized how dumb it is for these characters to keep each other in the dark.

 

[Pennywise]

Great episode so far! Oliver's breakdown at the cave was intense.

 

[rashad]

Damn this episode was amazing. I love this season.

 

[Dninx64]

Good episode.
Its terrifying how Adrian acts around everyone once they know who he is.
Helix is eventually going to become a problem.
Next episode seems it going to be good too.

 

[Slick]

Man that was a very good episode.

 

[Steelsheen]

holy cannoli that was an excellent ep!

i already said they did some fantastic writing this season, but i think a lot of this success also rests with Josh Segarra . his portrayal of Adrian Chase is completely immersive and convincing, we were all on board when we thought he was a good guy, so good we thought he might end up being a sacrificial lamb later on, but now that we know the score everything he's done is so deceptively creepy he should get an award, because dayum t: (and yes that Patrick Bateman look totally helps)

 

[Herolee10]

So is Artemis ever coming back? It's like she dropped off the face of the planet.

 

[Batmannerism]

Honestly, I didn't think much of this episdoe.

What diminished this episode for me is how dumb a character Oliver has become.

He goes off half-cocked to confront Chase with no plan -which of course ends up with Chase laughing in his face, and then trashing the lair ?

When trapped by the explosion did Canary suddenly forget her ability to project powerful soundwaves ? Ugh.


Grabbing Chase's wife was such an obvious ploy, did they not think that a serial killer would be willing to sacrifice her in order to continue his crazy plan ?

And of course Felicity joining an ultra-secret hacker organisation, because that just cannot go wrong.......

Team Arrow seemed to be a lot smarter last season - or at least the writers were a lot smarter.

Anyone see a team-up with Vigilante coming, and Vigilante turning out to be the real Adrian Chase ?

 

[Saitou Hajime]

Adrian's line about Oliver being ignorant of what game they're playing gave me chills. Top 2 villain in the series alongside Slade, and he's probably number 1 because he doesn't have that Mirakuru insanity crutch that Slade had.

 

[Gu3ree]

Well...I will move away from the Adrian Chase is Prometheus topic in a bit...but seriously, did no one seriously suspect that Chase might be Prometheus at all?

Maybe I'm biased. Maybe I've watched too much television to see that coming, but I stand by with what I said, in the end, it was to predictable, (Season 2 anyone?) and it wasn't the least bit surprising to me. I was rather disappointed that the writers didn't make it more puzzling. The fact that he was the Mayor's freakin' assistant, and how much he was on Oliver's side and Diggle's side all for cover. Not to mention how much screen time he was given. Who else apart from Adrian Chase (the guest stars) had as much focus as any of the other recurring guest stars this season?

I was kind of hoping for a better twist, not something too obvious. Susan Williams being Prometheus would have been a better twist in my opinion. The result in the end was disappointing. Okay, done arguing about that.

It doesn't un-work either though. I'll buy it.

Really enjoyed this episode tonight. So does everyone think Oliver will kill Adrian in the end? I've been wondering if at some point what if Oliver might tell the world his secret to scoop Adrian.

I so had a feeling that Adrian was going to kill his wife by the time they brought her to stop Adrian.

Talia Al Ghul...goddammit...I was wondering why they created the Nyssa character. I thought that meant they weren't allowed to do Talia on the series, why now though?

So she doesn't hate her father but Nyssa does. Can't they acknowledge, that the League of Assassins are criminals? She hates Oliver for killing her father. Always something.

 

[Slade W]

That was a very good episode. Talia and Chase (or Morrison, it seems) were great. I didn't like the scenes with Chases wife, as I thought the acting from the actress was poor. Even though he killed her, I didn't like how Chase did seem to care about her. I liked the idea more of him simply being married to her because less people would suspect a settled family man of doing the things that Prometheus has been doing.

 

[NotNickFury]

Talia Al Ghul...goddammit...I was wondering why they created the Nyssa character. I thought that meant they weren't allowed to do Talia on the series, why now though?

Well, the shared universe already had a younger Talia appear on Legends of Tomorrow in its first season, so she doesn't seem to be off-limits.

 

[Slade W]

holy cannoli that was an excellent ep!

i already said they did some fantastic writing this season, but i think a lot of this success also rests with Josh Segarra . his portrayal of Adrian Chase is completely immersive and convincing, we were all on board when we thought he was a good guy, so good we thought he might end up being a sacrificial lamb later on, but now that we know the score everything he's done is so deceptively creepy he should get an award, because dayum t: (and yes that Patrick Bateman look totally helps)

He reminds me of Bale too, and the actor for Brother Blood as well, Kevin Alejandro (who also reminded me of Bale).

 

[Slade W]

Well, the shared universe already had a younger Talia appear on Legends of Tomorrow in its first season, so she doesn't seem to be off-limits.

I think that maybe, early on, DC higher-ups did not want them to be able to use big character like Ra's or Talia, so they could only have Nyssa, but after the great success of season 2, Arrow earned their trust and they then decided that Arrow deserved to be able to use bigger characters like them two.

 

[shabadoo25]

I don't see anyone talking about this, but there are two Chases at play here, right? In other words, twins.

At the end of the ep, there's a Chase at the police precinct and with captured Oliver. I know time could have passed in between, but it didn't feel like it.