Nocking Point: Arrow, Episode 506, "So It Begins"

I've got to truly hope that the ending of this episode is an obvious mislead. The alternative would be terribly, terribly disappointing.

The entirety of the present-day focus of "So It Begins" is on Prometheus, the new big bad in town who has it out for Green Arrow [STEPHEN AMELL]. As Oliver and Diggle (DAVID RAMSEY) track him, Oliver is adamant with Felicity (EMILY BETT RICKARDS) that he does not want the new recruits brought into this investigation until the threat level has been assessed. And apparently the threat level is pretty high, because Prometheus is a master of killing people with ninja throwing stars, and has now begun killing seemingly random civilians.

As Thea (WILLA HOLLAND) arranges for an arts and music festival (thrown together with almost zero notice, not the months of planning such events take to assemble), television reporter Susan Williams (CARLY POPE) takes the the airwaves to tell the city about the Throwing Star Killer, setting the populace into a mass panic. When people riot at a local mall because someone thinks they see him, Oliver decides it's time to bring the rest of the team in -- Wild Dog (RICK GONZALEZ), Artemis (EVELYN SHARP), Mr. Terrific (ECHO KELLUM) and Ragman (JOE DINICOL). Together, Team Arrow quells the riot, but afterward they learn about Prometheus and that Oliver has been keeping them in the dark.

This pales, however, to their reaction when they learn the message Prometheus is sending Oliver with the murders. The victims' names are anagrams of names that were on Oliver's "Year One" list. Finding out that the Green Arrow used to be the serial-killing Hood doesn't sit well with them, particularly with Artemis who saw Oliver as something better than that.

The team splits up to cover other potential victims who can be deduced from Oliver's original list, resulting in Prometheus attacking Artemis on a train. Green Arrow arrives to provide an assist, but Prometheus disappears leaving behind a bomb. This allows for a rather cool escape scene using a trick arrow that I really liked.

What I didn't really like was the intimations about Deputy Mayor Quentin Lance (PAUL BLACKTHORNE), and I don't mean the storyline that hints that he hasn't just fallen off the wagon but never got on it in the first place. Having analyzed one of the throwing stars, stolen from her police detective boyfriend, Billy Malone (TYLER RITTER), Felicity has found trace amounts of DNA in the metal alloy, matching Oliver's past victims. The deduction is that the throwing stars are made from the arrowheads Oliver used back then, and all of those were kept in the police evidence locker. And the closing scene of Deputy Mayor Lance sitting alone in his apartment examining a throwing star is either an ominous OMG or a deliberate red herring.

I'm really hoping for the latter. Lance as Prometheus doesn't work on so many levels, let alone the notion that he would somehow develop ninja skills on Oliver's level (although maybe he took a correspondence course with Ted Grant). It's just a little too unbelievable, and too trite. Let's hope that Lance is investigating a different angle on the killings and we just are meant to think he's Prometheus for a week. And if that's the case, my money is on Billy Malone!