Plot
When Prometheus begins killing random people around Star City, Oliver Queen is quick to seek a connection between the victims. Felicity and Curtis find one but it ties into Oliver's past and a secret that threatens to destroy the new Team Arrow. At the same time, Thea has confronts Quentin on his drinking and Felicity debates telling her cop boyfriend about her secret life as Green Arrow's tech-support.
Influences
Babylon 5 (the "and so it begins" reference, the scene of Ollie practicing his shots with a pitching machine and talking with Diggle mirrors a similar scene of Captain Sheridan in a batting cage with Security Chief Garabaldi.. Quentin's alcoholism subplot mirrors Garbaldi's subplot from the fifth season) and the Green Arrow comics of Judd Winick (Oliver Queen tries to balance being mayor and being a superhero.)
Goofs
While quoting the line from Babylon 5 correctly, Felicity says the words Prometheus left spelled out in flame incorrectly. The phrase was "So it begins." not "And so it begins."
The stool thrown through a glass door during the rioting scene hits the camera.
The whole subplot about the rest of Team Arrow having a problem with Ollie having been the Star City Vigilante just doesn't ring true. With the exception of Curtis, nobody on the team has shown any objections to killing - or coming close to it - in the past. And Evelyn's objections that there were lawyers and bankers on The List rings particularly hollow given that most of HIVE - the group that killed her parents - were ordinary civilians and Darhk the magician was something unique to the group.
Quentin's alcoholism subplot is the worst kind of cliche-driven melodrama and a waste of the talents of both Willa Holland and Paul Blackthorne.
The Star City Nights music festival gets set up in record time, seemingly happening days after the idea was first proposed.
Performances
Dolph Lungren is a commanding presence as Kovar.
Artistry
The direction of the riot scene does a good job of conveying the confusion of the scene, though the actual choreography of the victims is rather rough.
Trivia
In the opening scene, Felicity tracks Tobias Church's cel-phone to an industrial building on the corner of Apparo and Puckett. This is a reference to artist Jim Aparo and writer Kelley Puckett, who worked on the Green Arrow comic together and were responsible for creating the character of Connor Hawke - the second Green Arrow.
Felicity makes reference to the TV show Babylon 5 in considering Prometheus' cryptic message. Babylon 5 was a Hugo-award winning science-fiction series which pioneered the season-long story-arc concept now commonplace in network dramas. The final episode of the first season ended with Kosh - a cryptic alien ambassador who spoke in riddles - speaking these words during an event that would later prove to have great significance to tthe overall plot of the show.
Oliver using an arrow to clog a gun barrel is a classic trick from the comics.
Technobabble
Curtis fixed the gas chromatograph in The Bunker, last mentioned in 502.
Felicity develops an victimology algorithm to find a pattern between Prometheus' victims, based on one used by ViCAP uses to track serial killers. The computer can then tease out connections that the FBI doesn't generally make. It also cross-references Felicity's own database as well as the SCPD ones.
The algorithm eventually finds a connection between Prometheus' victims - their names can be used to form anagrams of people Oliver Queen killed during his first year back in Star City.
The alloy making up Prometheus' throwing stars contains dozens of genetic markers that Felicity is able to trace to various arrows used by Oliver Queen over the past four years that were taken as evidence by the GCPD. This indicates that Prometheus is either a police officer or is working with someone who has access to the SCPD evidence locker.
Dialogue Triumphs
Quentin: You were not actually flirting with that woman.
Thea: She can literally ruin your career.
Oliver: I haven't done anything yet.
(Quentin and Thea groan together.)
Quentin: Wow.
Thea: I hate that you just said "yet".
Adrian Chase: I'm Adrian Chase. I'm the new D.A..
Green Arrow: I thought crime scenes were below a D.A.'s pay grade.
Adrian Chase: I'm not that kind of D.A.
Green Arrow: Our job here is to keep the peace. Me, Spartan and Ragman will handle the shooters. Everyone else get people to safety.
Wild Dog: Why does Ragman get to have all the fun?
Green Arrow: Because I said so.
(Green Arrow confronts a man with a pistol who is firing randomly into the crowd. He approached the man with an arrow drawn.)
Green Arrow: Put your weapon down!
Man: (turning gun on Green Arrow nervously) I've got a right to protect myself!
(Green Arrow shoots an arrow into the man's gun barrel. He looks at it in confusion as Green Arrow walks up.and takes his gun away.)
Man: Hey! That's my property!
Green Arrow: Not anymore! The Throwing Star Killer isn't here. All you're doing is causing panic. Go home. Now.
Bratva: (To Oliver) You play... what is American term?... douche - very well.
Ollie: I expected them to be upset with me and that's fine but... John, they seemed horrified.
John: No, I wouldn't call it that. Just a bit surprised. Look on the bright side. It does show how far you've come. I haven't seen that guy in a long time. And the way the kids reacted...I think it proves how much you've changed.
Ollie: Except I haven't. I killed Damien Darhk. And I haven't stopped since.
John: Yeah, well... don't forget who you are talking to, man. I know first-hand what it's like to be a murderer. I know the difference between a good kill and one made out of pure rage. You killed Damien Darhk, Oliver, because you had to.You took down Church's men because you had to. The List was something different. You were targeting lawyers. Stock-brokers. You were killing as a first resort - not a last.
Ollie: Well, Prometheus is just... drudging that all up again. I want to move forward. I'm trying to move forward. but I... I feel stuck.
John: I think you're being hard on yourself. Which is a bit annoying because that's usually my and Felicity's job. But Oliver, in that official capacity, I think you are moving forward. I think you're evolving. I think I think you're growing.
Ollie: What makes you so sure?
John: Because that guy with The List wouldn't even have thought to ask the question.
Ollie: Is everything okay?
Evelyn: No, it's not. For a long time I blamed you for my parents dying. That you were responsible for leaving them to suffocate in one of Damien Darhk's testing chambers.
Ollie: I know.
Evelyn: It took a lot for me to come work with you. Knowing all this...it doesn't make it any easier.
Ollie: Evelyn, are you sure you should be out there tonight?
Evelyn: Yes, I am. Because I'm doing this - protecting people? - for me. Not for you.
Evelyn: I was a jerk. And I'm sorry.
Ollie: Evelyn... I'm sorry. I'm sorry for your parents. I'm sorry that I'm not the man you thought I was. But John reminded me, as he does, that I'm trying to be that man. And I might actually be getting there. Slowly. In the meantime, I would really appreciate your patience.
Evelyn: Sounds reasonable to me.
(The two shake hands.)
Kovar: When I was a boy, my mother told me a story about her grandfather. She said he grew a turnip so large that he could not pull it up by himself. So he asked his wife to help him, but together they could not do it. So he asked my uncle, my aunt - everybody to pitch in, but yet they could not pull the turnip out of the ground. And so I said, "Mama, mama - did he ever pull the turnip out of the ground?" And she said yes. But only - only after they called everybody in the village. Every man, woman and child. Every farmer. Every vagabond. Every animal, even. The dogs and cats.... And finally...together...they wrestled it free.
Ollie: Does your story have a point?
Kovar: Yes. That without unity, one cannot accomplish anything in life. As I got older, I realized it also meant something else - that scum never amount to anything without help. That the Solntsevskaya Bratva can pull at the turnip all they want, but they will never, ever... ever... set it free.
(Kovar stands and approaches Ollie's fellow Bratva officer.)
Kovar: Oh. yes, that and... don't become a damn farmer!
(Kovar snaps the neck of Ollie's fellow Bratva officer.)
Continuity
Oliver learned how to make a bomb from Anatoly.
Oliver failed high-school chemistry twice.
Anatoly notes that Bratva learn many different skills in their downtime, including bomb-making, working with electronics and welding among other trades.
In the flashback, Oliver finally comes face to face with the man he's sworn to kill - Konstantin Kovar.
Gay Eked was a divorced mother of two. Her criminality was limited to three parking tickets.
Peter Meld was a cab driver.
Curtis fixed the gas chromatograph in The Bunker, last mentioned in 502.
Thea discovers that Quentin never stopped drinking.
We learn Lt. Conahan's first name - Sam.
The first four people Prometheus killed are Sam Conahan (501), Tobias Church (505), Gay Eked and Peter Meld. Their names form an anagram with four victims of The Star City Vigilante - Adam Hunt (101), Ted Gaynor (111), Palmer Cokes (mentioned in 108 but not seen) and Sachi Beech (never mentioned before.)
Oliver informs the rest of Team Arrow that he used to be The Hood, The Arrow and The Starling City Vigilante.
Rory Regan's family has their own schnapps recipe.
Evelyn Sharpe. is 17 years old.
Oliver is seen using a tennis ball launcher to practicing his target shooting, as he did in 101.
After Wild Dog was abducted in 504. Felicity put trackers in all of Team Arrow's costumes.
All of the potential victims are put under police protection by Mayor Queen's order.
Felicity tells Billy Malone that she is working with Green Arrow.
Prometheus is either a police officer or somehow has access to the SCPD Evidence lock-up.
In the final scene, we discover that Prometheus was able to break into Quentin's home, stab him with a throwing star in his sleep and leave it cleaned on his coffee table.
Untelevised Adventures
We never did see Oliver's encounters with Sachi Beech or Palmer Cokes.
The Bottom Line
This is one of those unfortunate episodes which somehow manages to have too much going on and yet still seems padded out. The subplot with Evelyn, for instance, is intended to give her some much needed character development but it doesn't even start until the episode is over halfway over!
Most of the supporting cast has little to do but stand around saying they don't trust Oliver now that the know he started his vigilante career as a killer, even though most of them started out similarly green (no pun intended) or haven't shown qualms about killing in the past. At least this finally settles the question on if the team is supposed to use lethal force or not, though it does beg the question of what Wild Dog loads in his guns. And then there's Lance and his cliche alcoholic subplot which doesn't do much except remind us that Willa Holland and Paul Blackthorne are still on this show.
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