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TV REVIEWS: FTN Reviews Arrow Season 05 Episode 19: Dangerous Liaisons

April 27th, 2017 by Todd Black Comments

As the returns continue, each episode paints a picture for what is coming in the final episodes of the season. While Flash tried to show us the future that awaited us if Iris dies, and Gotham showed the arrival of more villains, Arrow kept itself contained and focused more on the characters than anything else, and it really worked.

What I really liked about “Dangerous Liaisons” is that with the exception of the recap intro, we didn’t see Prometheus (outside of an arcade image) nor did we go to the flashbacks. This was a bold move, and one that really worked in the episode’s favor as the cuts were much more clean and allowed for a more focused story.

Moreso, it gave direction to some of the other characters arcs and allowed them to blossom in fun ways. Felicity of course being the main target here as we got to see her true plunge into the “dark side” (Diggle’s words!) as she willingly went along with numerous plans of Helix’s in order to get Prometheus caught.

The joy of this particular storyline was the irony that was both shown and talked about. Felicity chastizing Ollie, Diggle, and even Lyla for their willingness to make dark choices and yet when she has to make them she gets made into the bad guy. Arrow made sure that all sides of the argument was heard, not just for Felicity, but for Lyla too, and they also made sure that Helix wasn’t made out to be pure evil, as that would’ve ruined the point of the story, they just wanted their leader back from unlawful imprisonment, and if it meant finding Chase, why not free him?

This of course led to many discussions between Lyla and Diggle about what Lyla was becoming. It was funny to hear Waller’s name brought up here, as well as Lyla defending it because the “view is different from this side of the desk.” It’s an interesting argument, if we knew everything that was wrong in the world, would we go to extreme lengths to prevent bad things from happening? Lyla and Felicity apparently could, while Diggle and Ollie weren’t so sure. Oliver and Diggle knew the burden and cost it would bring, and didn’t want them to suffer from that.

Then, there was also Renee and Quentin, who had another great bonding storyline over the topic of daughters. I’m glad that Quentin pushed for Zoey to see her father in order to make Renee see what he was missing, because I was honestly wondering what had happened in that storyline too, I hope that this isn’t over though, because Renee deserves more story time, especially since he’s been promoted to a season regular in Season 06.

And as for that ending, Helix freezing out Felicity, then them finding Chase was in the building was pretty interesting, and I look forward to seeing where things go from here.

4 out of 5 nerds

Todd Black is reader of comics, a watch of TV (a LOT of TV), and a writer of many different mediums. He's written teleplays, fan-fictions, and currently writes a comic book called Guardians (guardians-comic.com). He dreams of working at Nintendo, writing a SHAZAM! TV series, and working on Guardians for a very long time!