The end of last season of Arrow saw a lot of goodbyes for Oliver and the team. Thea committed to giving up being Speedy, Diggle re-enlisted in the army, Lance headed off with Felicity’s mom. Laurel died. Oliver was left alone with Felicity, who was no longer his emotional rock, and took up the new role of interim Mayor.
The fifth season opens with a new villain, and a new side to McQueen. Although he is now the Mayor, Oliver’s main focus has still been as The Arrow cleaning up the city, only now he is doing it alone. The workload and pressure is getting too much for one man, and yet he cannot accept that his team is not coming back. Felicity pushes him to embrace the changes but like all of us, Oliver misses those he trusts and relies on the most–which for him is not many. As they face a new threat to Central City and his dual demands of Mayor and Arrow become too much, he finally concede to start training Team Arrow 2.0. Although not fully revealed on the show, the trailer’s released by the CW show Oliver training Wild Dog ( Rick Gonzalez0, Artemis (Madison McLaughlin), and Mr. Terrific (Echo Kellum).
Also, the old Oliver is back. With Felicity by his side, for a while Oliver tried a softer version of himself. He swore not to kill and to have more faith in the system. After Laurel’s death, the crueler and darker side to the Arrow returns. Once again he is killing and even though Thea is firmly against this, as he says to her that he had countless times to kill Damien Dark and he didn’t. Maybe if he had killed him sooner, Laurel would still be alive.
Another crushing blow for Team Oliver/Felicity fans is the introduction of Felicity’s new boyfriend. While we don’t yet know much about him, we do know that he works with the police. For many of us seeing Felicity with someone else just feels wrong. How do you give up Oliver on a technicality?? One that he apologized for profusely and truly tried to make up for, which is very out of Oliver style. For this fan–who used to really like Felicity–I have to say that I am not liking her as much these days. I don’t know what lies ahead for the new Team Arrow, or for Oliver and Felicity, but there is no doubt that Season 5 will bring us some of the best twists and turns yet.
