Team GATV Midseason Roundtable: Arrow Season 5 So Far

What are you hoping for in the latter half of Arrow Season 5?

CRAIG: I’m really curious where the “resurrected Laurel” thing will go, but most importantly, I’m hoping for an exciting reveal with Prometheus, a solidifying of Green Arrow as a positive force in Star City again… and a Black Canary. I might also want the cave to be less crowded, though not by means of killing anyone else, and I’m hoping “Diggle in trouble” will end so he can do his thing without problems. (Really, though, couldn’t the President pardon him after the Invasion?)

MATT: I’d love to see more exploration of the Team Arrow recruits. There are a lot of characters to service, but I think we’ve got to get to know these folks as people rather than the broad characterization strokes we’ve seen. Also, I want Oliver to finally start progressing in his life. I’ve enjoyed the season, but they continue to cover a lot of the same ground that they’ve already explored on the series. It’s time for Oliver’s lessons to stick. If they can’t move past that, I think it would be better to start looking to end the show rather than continue to drag it out to the point of obsolescence.

MELISSA: Now that most of the season has been spent in setting up the new characters and laying out the plot, I’m hoping we can have more focus on the regulars and start to see their independent storylines come together. Arrow’s characters have always been its greatest strength and I need the show to return to allowing the characters to be the close friends and family that previously seasons showed them to be.

A fantastic place to start would be with Oliver and Felicity. Again, I don’t need them immediately reconciled (though hey, I’m open to that too), but I need them back at least to being the close friends and partners they were in season two.

STEPHANIE: I’d like to see more of Quentin and Thea’s surrogate father-daughter bonding. It feels natural that they’d gravitate toward one another given all they’ve lost, and it’s been an unexpected joy to watch Thea looking out for him. Along with that, I hope the Quentin as a drunk storyline reaches a permanent conclusion. It seems like every season he’s falling off the wagon and it’s gotten too repetitive. It’s understandable that he’d look for an out for his grief after experiencing his two daughters dying a collective three times, but maybe he can find a way to channel that grief into a pro-bono city program or mentorship.