Arrow
Season 5 Episode 12: “Bratva”
Directed by Ben Bray
Written by Oscar Balderrama & Emilio Ortega Aldrich
Created by Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim, Andrew Kreisberg
Starring Stephen Amell, David Ramsey, Willa Holland, Emily Bett Rickards, Echo Kellum, Paul Blackthorne, Josh Segarra, Rick Gonzalez, Joe Dinicol
The CW
Air Date: Wednesday, February 8th, 2016, 8:00pm

Last week on Arrow, the team went shopping for a new Black Canary, but nobody was quite right according to Oliver (Stephen Amell). They found a promising young meta vigilante with the same power as Laurel. She was after the poeple that killed her partner. After ducking them for a while, Oliver showed her another way, and she was on the team. Adrian (Josh Segarra) was able to free Diggle (David Ramsey) while pissing off a shady general. Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) went back to her “hack-tivist” ways. In the flashback, Talia al Ghul (Lexa Doig) started training Oliver.

Spoilers below.

Arrow 5.12 “Bratva” review: 5 years ago, Talia gave Oliver a training exercise using low-level thugs. He passes swimmingly. Talia’s real task is to find the real drug pusher (flashback-back on Thea scoring drugs). He does by unflinchingly shooting arrows into the guy, and she pushes him to go back home, and finish crossing out the names in the book for his father.

Oliver is “seeing” that reporter, Susan Williams (Carly Pope), when Lance (Paul Blackthorne) returns from rehab. They get the news that General Walker (Garry Chalk) shot his way out, and is selling a nuke to Russia. The team heads across the globe, but Wild Dog (Rick Gonzalez) is on babysitting Lance duty because he’s too “wild.” He tries to help him prep for his interview, but Lance can’t take the fake questioning, especially when he asks about Laurel (Katie Cassidy). It turns out right in the end. Turns out, Lance inspired a baby “Wild Dog.”

Upon their arrival, Anatoly (David Nykl) greets Oliver with a punch in front of everyone, because he inadvertently caused a brother’s death 3 years ago when tracking Slade Wilson. He needs help finding General Walker .

Felicity, with Dinah’s help, figures out how to get to Walker’s phone. She acts like Bratva to get access. The team moves in, but they were expected. They are fine, but Walker escapes. John goes “Rocky III” on the guy they capture. Oliver doesn’t like what his team has done, especially after Rory (Joe Dinicol) mentions Felicity “crossing a line.”

Oliver agrees to do Anatoly a favor, involving threats and broken fingers. He takes Dinah Drake (Juliana Harkavy). And confides that he is dragging people down. She reassures him. He, in turn, tells Felicity and Diggle that they have to be better than him or Prometheus wins. Anatoly comes through with the location and cheering fighting men.

The big confrontation happens, and there are two heroes this episode. Diggle, who confronts evil Walker and does not kill him despite the taunting. And Rory, who decides to take the impact of the nuclear blast (Walker triggered the nuke) inside the rags, when Felicity cannot disarm it. Something happens to the rags, obviously, so he has to go away.

Oliver and his girl finally really get together. She’s playing him. I don’t know whether to be happy or sad about that. Sad, because he has no luck with the dames. Happy, because there’s no spark. He has more fire with Dinah. We are getting ever closer to Oliver’s appearance in the pilot, and I’m excited about that. I hope this means the return of Moira and Tommy, even if it’s just glimpses of old scenes.

Other notes:

– No DA this episode, and that’s a shame. He is becoming one of my favorite characters. I hope he survives the season.

– Loving Felicity’s secret “Mr. Robot” life.

– Welcome back, Quentin Lance. The team was not the same without your snark.

– The B-team seems to struggle becoming cohesive. They are in and out. Dinah seems more on Oliver and Diggle’s level than theirs. They are all cool and likable, but don’t feel cemented yet.
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Arrow airs Wednesday nights at 8:00pm on The CW.

The CW synopsis:

Arrow
Bratva (Ep# 512)
OLIVER RETURNS TO RUSSIA — A mission takes Oliver (Stephen Amell), Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) and team to Russia where they meet up with Oliver’s old friend, Anatoly (guest star David Nykl). Meanwhile, fresh out of rehab, Lance (Paul Blackthorne) returns to the mayor’s office ready to get back to work. However, when Susan (guest star Carly Pope) asks for an interview with Lance to discuss his addiction, he balks and it’s up to Rene (guest star Rick Gonzalez) to help keep things on track. Ben Bray directed the episode written by Oscar Balderrama & Emilio Ortega Aldrich (#512). Original airdate 2/8/2017.

Videos

Arrow | Bratva Scene | The CW

Arrow | Inside Arrow: Bratva | The CW