Prometheus, the primary antagonist of Arrow’s Fifth Season has been a return to seasons One and Two in terms of the development of the character’s backstory and the direction of the series as a grounded, super-hero drama.
Prometheus has proven to be violent enough to bring out Oliver’s thought-to-be dormant kill first ask questions later thinking from Season One when his motivation was his father’s list of names.
The biggest question that remained about the Prometheus story arc is the identity of the person underneath the mask. For the character to be revealed to be Justin Clayborn’s son was an idea I could not go along with the idea the Prometheus and Clayborn’s son as being one in the same.
I believed that the reveal of Clayborn was a red herring and that whoever Prometheus truly was had a further connection to Oliver’s past and Season One’s “The List”. The thinking behind my theory was that Prometheus was someone we had seen in a previous Season, not including Season Five. In Episode 5.09 titled “What We Leave Behind” audience members learn of the connections between Clayborn and Oliver during Season One.
Learning that Prometheus was an original take on the comic book character and changing small details in his origin story lead to a compelling season long arc that could force Oliver to press pause on his mission to save Star City by having him come to terms with his demons. Episode 05.15 titled “Fighting Fire with Fire” revealed the identity of Prometheus during an altercation with a vigilante known as “Vigilante”. Following this altercation Prometheus’ identity is revealed to the surprise of audience members. Episode 5.06 “So It Begins“revealed that Prometheus had present day connections to the Starling City police force. These connections allowed for Chase to manipulate Quentin Lance’s history of alcoholism and loss of his two daughters, access Oliver’s collection of arrows from the previous four years and to use John Diggle being a fugitive from the events of Season Four to befriend Oliver before pulling the rug out from beneath the audience’s feet. In episode 05.17 “Kapiushon” audience members were shown that Chase has the ability to break Oliver and reveal a secret hidden away in Oliver’s sub conscience because due to training received from Talia Al Ghul. Learning of the connection between Prometheus and Talia made her appearances in the present day loaded with anticipation and to learn of the reasoning behind the duo’s team-up and to seek revenge to take down Oliver Queen.
The writers strung the audience along just long enough for them to not fall into the same mess that is happening with Arrow’s sister show The Flash in revealing the identity of the season’s antagonist. They provided clues for audience members needed to figure out who was under Prometheus’ mask.
The final five episodes of Arrow now that Prometheus’ identity has been revealed to the public, there are both present day and flashback issues to be resolved by the end of the season. Present day problems include defeating Prometheus, Evelyn and Talia, rebuilding the Green the Arrow’s reputation and defeating the Bratva. The flashback resolutions involve defeating Kovar (again), returning to Lian Yu and coming full circle to the scenes from the pilot episode of Oliver returning home to Star(ling) City.
