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TV REVIEWS: FTN Reviews Arrow Season 06 Episode 05: Deathstroke Returns

November 10th, 2017 by Todd Black Comments

Let me be clear, I’m giving this episode a 5/5. But it’s NOT just because of Manu Bennett…though he certainly was a highlight!

“Deathstroke Returns” was more than just the return of Slade, we also had the return of Vigilante, and the return of the flashbacks! That’s a lot of returns for one hour, but they handled it well.

First and foremost, anytime Slade Wilson is on Arrow, it’s a better show, and Stephen Amell along with Manu Bennett just have great chemistry together. And this episode showed the progression of their relationship to the extent that Slade wanted his help not as the Arrow, but as Oliver Queen, to help give a “diplomatic” solution to his problem in regards to finding Joe. And no, he was serious, he did all he could to keep Oliver from getting his hands dirty.

And while we knew that Joe wasn’t dead, it was a treat to see Deathstroke truly return and go to war on the Jackals in order to find him. Now, yeah, the ending was a bit telegraphed that Joe was at least a part of the group, but him being the leader is sure to affect Slade greatly. How greatly? We’ll see.

Oh, and I loved how Oliver also did his best to not get involved physically, and that it was a prompt from his son that made him go to help Slade at the hideout.

Meanwhile, Team Arrow had to deal with the return of Vigilante, who was revealed to be Dinah’s old partner Vincent! Didn’t see that coming. No, really, I didn’t! In the comics, Adrian Chase was Vigilante, but this twist was just as good as the Prometheus one, as it lends more drama to Dinah and what to do with him. Seeing that he too got affected by the Dark Matter explained a lot, including how he survived his fight with Prometheus last season.

Now, while I do wish that they gave more reasoning behind his going after the councilwoman, it was small potatoes to the scene that him and Dinah had at the end. And that matchbox on the car? I almost cried there.

Oh, and our dear FBI agent is making the rounds to build up her case against Oliver. I love how she’s going after Team Arrow piece by piece to see what sticks, as well as pointing out obvious “coincidences” that are hard to ignore. I really hope this storyline continues on this path.

Finally, the flashbacks gave us some fun insight into Slade’s life, and even tied into Season 01 of Arrow! All the while, giving us more proof that Slade wasn’t much of a father to Joe, and why he’s trying desperately to be one now.

“Deathstroke Returns” is by far the best episode of the season so far, and this was just part one of arc! Let’s hope the finally is good too.

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!