Arrow Season 6 Episode 5: 'Deathstroke Returns' Review

Vigilante, Deathstroke, and Two Big Reveals

For the third episode running, Oliver Queen is NOT the Green Arrow. And you know what? It's going great! The tension on the show is palpable, and made even stronger by the continuous delving on long running story arcs. Like I said in my Episode 1 review, Arrow is off the villain-of-the-week track for good. This is proving to be a great tactic --I can barely wait for next week's episode!
This week, meanwhile, continues three of the show's arcs: Vigilante's vigilante-ism, the search for Deathstroke's son, and the investigation into Oliver Queen.

1. Vigilante Returns

After months of inactivity, the vigilante called Vigilante rears his armored head again, this time targeting councilwoman Pollard for propounding the anti-vigilante referendum. By a stroke of luck, Dinah saves her from his first attempt, and sets herself on watch duty while Team Arrow tried to locate his base. When he shows up for a second attempt, she's ready, and shatters his visor in their confrontation forcing him to remove his helmet. And give her the shock of her life.
Vigilante is no other person than Vincent Sobel, her partner who had been shot point-blank in front of her in Central City, and who she had spent three years avenging.
Thoroughly shaken, she relays the news to the team, just before they find where he makes bullets and discover boxes upon boxes of ammunition. Seeing this, she declares Vince a crazed psycho killer and asserts that the man she loved is gone. However, John disagrees and says he is just someone who needs help... just as she did before joining the team. But before she can get over this, news comes --the councilwoman was going on air live at Channel 52, an insecure location perfect for Vigilante's next attempt. Dinah leaves immediately to set up security, but when Agent Watson and the FBI show up, Team Arrow is forced to remain back.
As expected, Vigilante strikes. Dinah quickly comes to Councilwoman Pollard's rescue as Black Canary and fights him off, then stops to talk with him. But before they can, a cop shows up and shoots at them. Vigilante steps quickly and takes the bullet straight in the forehead to protect Dinah. The cop runs off to get an ambulance, but Vince, not dead, takes off his mask and reveals the bullet safely lodged in his forehead. Apparently, he was affected by the Particle Accelerator blast just like Dinah was, and is now a metahuman.
Dinah lets him go, but before he disappears, he leaves a handmade flower in a decorated matchbox in her car, proving the old Vince is perhaps not lost afterall.

2. Deathstroke's son

The central arc of the episode sees Slade attempt to rescue his son, who, as revealed in Flashbacks, was never truly close to him to begin with.
When Slade departed at the end of episode one, he was going to find his son, Joe. Turns out he did, but 'Joe Wilson' is now 'Kane Wolfman', and just like his dad had joined the Australian Secret Service. Unfortunately, one of his missions had gone bad and he was now locked up in a prison in Kasnia.
Slade approaches Oliver for help, and surprisingly, asks for diplomatic assistance. Oliver is reluctant --he doesn't want to be tempted into vigilante duty again and break his promise to his son, but Felicity reminds him of the promise he had made to Slade, and simply advises he tell William about the mission. He takes her advice and together with Slade, travels to Kasnia.
When they get there, things don't go as smoothly as they hope. Slade easily gets information on where exactly his son is being held from an old contact, but when Oliver gets there to bargain for the boy, the prison warden gives him terrible news --Kane Wolfman had died while separating a fight. This devastates Slade. He had not even got to see him and had not wanted to, because Joe, knowing of his activities as Deathstroke, hadn't wanted to see him and had contacted his mother to warn him off. Oliver tells him he still has a chance to say goodbye, taking him to the prison to see the body. Except there is no body. The warden comes clean and informs them that the boy hadn't died, but had been taken captive by a group called The Jackals who wanted to torture him for valuable classified information. Slade suits up at once to go rescue him with quick location assistance from Felicity, but drugs Oliver so he won't be able to come with him and break his promise to his son, even though he would be outnumbered. When Oliver wakes up he prepares to go home, but in an unlikely turn of events, his son calls and reminds him to do all he can for his friend. Therefore, he decides to go help Slade instead.
Deathstroke finds the Jackals hideout and with an awesome combination of Sword and Guns takes down as many as he can. However, they surround him, and the same friend who had provided him the prison info shows up, asking Slade to just go. Slade refuses --he's not going anywhere without his son. He's even willing to join the Jackals in exchange for the release. And here we get our second big reveal of the episode.
The Jackals can't release Kane Wolfman because he is valuable to them... as their Boss.

3. Agent Watson's Investigation

Influencing a lot of the events this episode is FBI special agent Samantha Watson, still conducting her investigation into Oliver Queen. Taking the opportunity when she discovers Diggle examining Vigilante's sniper nest with Dinah and the SCPD, she questions him about his job for Oliver Queen and why he was examining crime scenes. He responds well and puts the whole case to bed, or so he thinks before she subpoenas Felicity and Renee and forces them to answer questions.
She forces the team to remain benched when councilwoman Pauler was in danger just so she and her FBI cronies don't get the chance to either ID or arrest them, and when the councilwoman is saved by the new Black Canary at Channel 52, she confronts Dinah and implies that she believes the Detective is really the Black Canary.
With her insight and relentless, hard-hitting investigation, it seems the question is not if but when she discovers the entire truth, and what she will do when she does.

An exciting episode! What plot point do you want to see continued as soon as possible? Let's know in the comments!

Arrow continues next Thursday on the CW with 'Promises Kept'
Follow me for more reviews on all the arrowverse shows!