Arrow (TV Series) Checkmate (2017) User Reviews

We're Just Getting Started

[ThomasDrufke · 8/10 · 15 March 2017]

Not since season 2 have we had a villain quite like Prometheus. A great deal was revealed this week, and Josh Segarra finally got a chance to shine as both Adrian Chase and Prometheus.

I guess I'll start off by discussing the connective tissue between the present and flashbacks came to a head tonight as Talia revealed herself to be aligned with the throwing star killer after all. There were a few questions regarding her history coming into the episode, especially because we know she's Ras al Ghul's daughter. I'm glad the confusion was cleared up as she agreed to train Chase after she heard of Oliver killing her father (back in season 3). I still don't really see the point of her in the show at all as of now, but that could easily change in a future episode.

Another pointless plot point is Felicity's trips to Helix/Pandora or whatever it's called. Sure, Pandora gives Felicity the power and resources to track down missing people and somehow exonerate Diggle of his crimes, but why is this something we need this season? Doesn't this very plot device demean the purpose of Oliver's new team? There has to be another way for the writers to use Team Arrow to take down baddies. Let's not have all of it revolve around technology and hacking. Not to mention the fact that every time Felicity comes on screen the tone shifts for the worse.

However, I loved just about everything else from this episode. Segarra is holding his own against the entire cast. Besides his scenes with Ollie, I particularly loved when he would continuously popped up around Quentin. He's already getting up there on the list of best CW superhero villains. His calm, ominous, and snarky presence is exactly what this season needs. It doesn't hurt that the writing has been so dang good for him of late. As much as I enjoyed bits and pieces of Ras and Damien Darhk, they don't hold a candle to what Prometheus is doing right now. Hopefully, this is only the first of many Prometheus centric episodes to come.

This felt more like an episode from the early days of Arrow than it did an episode that lives in a world with meta-humans. Going back to the basics of what made this show great in the first place makes for a promising finish to the season. My only complaints come from small plot points that deal with Felicity. If we can only push those aside and keep the focus on Ollie and Chase, then we will be in for quite the ride.

+Felt like season 2

+Love Segarra's performance

+Prometheus is always ahead of Ollie

-Felicity's arc feels tonally inconsistent

8.8/10

Ten Steps Ahead

[TheBlackFlash · 10/10 · 17 January 2019]

Most of things of this episodes are pretty great. The Episode is just awesome. One of the best episodes of Arrow. + Adrian Chase is a great villain. + Great Fight Scenes + Good Flashbacks + Josh Segarra Performance + Grappling Dialogue

Unforgiving

[highmarksreviews · 10/10 · 2 February 2018]

It would seem that Arrow has found a truly compelling and menacing big bad this season. Adrian Chase (Josh Segarra) was finally given a chance to unleash himself and boy was it a showstopper. The brutal and desperate fights, dramatic depth and plot escalation truly elevated "Checkmate" above many others.

Best episode in season 5

[elviznation · 9/10 · 16 March 2017]

This is the episode you don't wanna miss. We have never seen a villain that badass since Slade Wilson. Also I love the flashbacks this season they are on point. Recently I can't wait for new episodes of Arrow. It's my favorite TV show again. They had their fall in season 4 but season 5 is something else. It reminds me a lot of season 1 and season 2.

Arrow - S05E16 Checkmate

[j_forbesy · 9/10 · 15 March 2017]

After last episode's reveal that Adrian Chase was Prometheus, I was so excited to be jumping back into this show after a week off. I liked how they last week was the week off because this week starts to kick of the home straight for this season.

I can see already that this review is going to be slightly more towards the negative side. While I still really liked this episode overall and my overall rating is still high, this is an episode for me that should of been a 10/10, but it wasn't.

I'll start by talking about Prometheus. While I liked the reveal and I'm really liking Chase as Prometheus, I had a few problems this episode that I thought built from last week. First of all, personally I wanted a whole episode where us as the audience knew Chase was Prometheus. Although we got half of an episode of it last week, I would of liked to see more of it. By having more time like that we could view Chase in a different light before he starts to get all the attention from the team. I thought the Flash did a really good job of that in their first two seasons where we find out who the villain is, and then we get to see the villain in action while our hero is completely unaware.

Sticking to the point of viewing Chase in a different light, I felt like they have been a little to on the nose with the way Chase has acted since the reveal. I noticed this last episode and again this week, but just his general behaviour during his job as DA has had a massive shift from how he was before hand. While this episode was a little more logical because whenever we saw him, it was usually with someone who knew the truth, but even scenes such as his speech had a dark, un-Chase like tone to it.

Moving onto Felicity, I'm liking how they are giving her something to do that isn't Oliver related. I really like when we learn more back story from our characters and I'm liking how they have turned a bit of her back story into a story arc of this season. While I'm not sure where it is heading in the long run, for the meantime it is at least enjoyable and it serves as a good plot device to get information that is going to future the story.

Touching on the flashbacks, while I'm not hating them, I am slowly starting to lose interest into them. Even though Talia had a big part in this episode, which I will touch on later, I feel like the Bratva story is winding down to a close. If this was an episode where not much happened, I probably would be more harsh on the flashbacks, but because there was enough happening in the present day story, I could give them a pass. Hopefully the flashbacks step up a bit in the next few weeks. Maybe turning their attention onto Oliver returning to the island for the last third of the episodes would build well towards him getting off.

A massive positive for this episode was Talia. I really like when they cross the flashbacks with the modern day story and this episode did that really well. I loved when she was in the flashbacks and I thought she did a great job in the present story. While her role was quite small, I like that it seems as though she is hanging around for a while because it means we will get so much more of her. As someone who is a big fan of Nyssa and for the most part enjoyed when Ras was around in season 3, it's great to be getting another Al Ghul in this story because I always enjoy when one is around.

Overall, I said a lot of negatives about this episode, however I still thought it was really solid. It might of been the case of expectations verses reality, but I expected this episode to be a bit bigger than what we actually got. There was still plenty of positives however and I am liking how they have started to build towards the end of the season.

8.5/10

Things started to get in motion but.....

[Abdulxoxo · 7/10 · 2 August 2020]

Who plaits curtis/Mr terrific hair whenever they want to go out in the field. I need to know. I mean it could take at least 15 to 20 minutes to plait that hair. 😂😂😂 Do they sit around and wait for his hair to be plaited? Or they have a special technology for that? Hahah

Things started to heat up. We know who Prometheus is. What remains now is, who vigilante is and what role will he play in the story. And please Oliver stop blaming yourself for every teensy weensy thing that happen to you. Dude does his best. Stop blaming him for everything!!!

terrible as always

[xpitox · 1/10 · 21 March 2017]

What a painful show to watch that is. More and more i get convinced that its a show for 12 year old and its fine I guess. In a world of arrow anyone can go to some monastery training for few month and become greatest martial arts villain, or may be Oliver is really bad learner since it took him so long to master his fighting skills. Oh and scene in a monastery such a joke. Oliver open the main door, behind it a hall/corridor where some dudes sparing, like they don't even have a training/sparing room for it, and they wearing a ninja masks cos you know you must conceal you identity in a middle of nowhere in super remote mountains LOL as soon as they see Olivery one pull down the mask to speck to Oliver WOW. Thats what kind of show that is A joke. Terrible, terrible writing its never gets better.