Arrow (TV Series) Disbanded (2017) User Reviews

Looks like we're not in Russia anymore

[AdamDroge · 9/10 · 30 March 2017]

Listen, I really loved last week's episode. Adrian Chase has proved to be one crazy, maniacal villain. Unlike with "The Flash," they actually decided to reveal the big baddie in "Arrow," which gives us time to have some fun and develop this Oliver vs. Adrian feud. Last week Adrian won. He got in Oliver's head and broke him. Then he sent him on his way, causing Oliver to make some really dumb decisions that in turn makes it so all Hell breaks loose.

The only thing I didn't really like about last week's episode is Oliver announcing to the crew at the end that Team Arrow is being disbanded. Listen. This show is called "Arrow." It's about the Green Arrow. How many times is the show going to try to "retire" the Green Arrow and his team? At this point, it's the boy who cried wolf and I kinda get annoyed every time they go down that route.

But in this case it actually kinda worked. OK, fine. Oliver is going to whine and complain at how awful he is and Diggle is going to talk him out of it. We've seen all this before. It's gone the other way several times, too, as Diggle reminded us. "Arrow" doing "Arrow" things and recycling old story arcs that I grew tired of a long time ago.

Making it more interesting this time around is that Oliver made some really stupid decisions along the way. Let's hire Antoly and the Bratva to come kill Adrian Chase. Because that's going to turn out well. Diggle being in his right mind, while Oliver is still screwed up by Adrian Chase, knows that this is going to be a bad idea and stops the Bratva.

Yikes. Someone just kicked the hornets nest. Now if I'm reading the tea leaves correctly, we're setting up an Oliver vs. Antoly and the Bratva feud and I love it. Especially since Mr. Dolph Lundgreen is still hiding in the shadows.

The thing that makes this so great is that it goes back to a season 2 formula that worked extremely well. Making the flashbacks useful! It's been a long time since I've even cared about the flashbacks, but the last few episodes have been great. I'll admit that I didn't really care for them for most of the season, but now that I know the end goal, it's made me appreciate this whole journey as we've spent time setting up Oliver and Antoly as friends who are both part of the Bratva with Antoly now eventually taking over.

But now we're five years into the future and Antoly and Oliver have gone in two completely different directions, bringing this whole story arc full circle and reminding me of the good ole days when Slade Wilson was our main villain and we were building him up through the flashbacks.

In the meantime, Felicity continues to work for Helix, which has to blow up in her face sooner rather than later, right? But in this instance, they combine forces, with the help of Curtis, to find video evidence that Adrian Chase is in fact Prometheus and they release that to the police and to the world. Being that Adrian Chase is in fact always one step ahead of them, he figures out what is going on just in time to make his escape.

So yeah, I liked this episode! Sure, we had the same recycled story line of Oliver giving up and disbanding the team only to be talked out of it. But in doing so, he kicked the hornets nest and setup what I hope is a season 6 fight against Antoly and the Bratva. They better not wrap that up this season. When we come back in a month, it'll be all about wrapping up Adrian Chase, which I'm also excited for. I'm glad I didn't give up on "Arrow" after a disastrous season 3 and 4 because we're back!

Goodbye Anatoly...

[highmarksreviews · 9/10 · 2 February 2018]

After the gritty showstopper "Kapushion", "Disbanded" is an almost equally as strong follow-up. Great fight scenes and drama aside, Team Arrow felt like something special finally and the uneasy break-up between Oliver (Stephen Amell) and fan favourite Anatoly left many possible stories to be told. The ending though, with Prometheus (Josh Segarra) giving one of the most violent and brutal scenes in Arrow history and humming a cheery tune to it was dark and shocking to watch.

Let My Crusade Die

[ThomasDrufke · 8/10 · 29 March 2017]

It's frustrating to watch Ollie consistently get down on himself from week to week and always need a "pep talk" from someone else on the show, but I've kind of accepted this storytelling as official Arrow canon. It's almost a checkmark that the writers feel the need to cross of their list every single time they write an episode. Is it annoying at this point? Yes. But was it at least handled well tonight? I'd have to say yes to that as well.

The subtly brilliant thing about this episode, which may be unintentional on the writer's end, is that Oliver created his own conflict tonight because of the situation with Prometheus. In other words, even when Chase isn't going after Oliver, he's still in his head and creating problems around Star City. The one undeniable positive this season has been Josh Segarra as Adrian Chase. Much like Slade, some of his most unhinging work is done in the shadows, and not suited up as Prometheus. That's when you know you have a truly terrifying villain.

Ollie hired the Bratva this week to kill Chase in exchange for them stealing some diabetes related drugs they were going to use to sell another drug. Just as we suspected, Ollie realized after a few sit- downs with Diggle that this approach wasn't the right way. And it was those talks that really fueled tonight's episode. I've been missing those 1 on 1/heart to hearts with Ollie & Dig, and we had no shortage of them tonight. Hopefully, this will be the last time Dig has to get Ollie out of a funk (wishful thinking).

The action was great as per usual and the overall flow was superior to weeks prior. All in all, there was a lot to like about "Disbanded". That is, if we push aside all of the Helix material, which still seizes to amaze me how pointless it's been so far. It seems like next episode we are getting a Team Arrow vs Team Helix (which is just downright obnoxious) so perhaps we can be informed as to why this is even a part of this season. But as a whole, this show continues to impress. Chase's plan is no doubt succeeding, and now that he's officially on the run from the law, perhaps the Prometheus conflict will get even more interesting.

+Chase still succeeding

+Dig & Ollie

+Ollie vs Team only last one episode

-Why do we care for Helix

8.1/10

Team Arrow Disbanded--Team Arrow Rises

[betterbuddy · 10/10 · 29 March 2017]

The team interaction in this episode was just so enjoyable and so amazing. It was understandable that Oliver was still recovering from the brutal physical/psychological torture while being held captive by psychotic D.A. Chase for six days. As hard as it was to see Oliver so defeated at the beginning of the episode, it was very understandable that he wanted the rest of the team to stay safe and away from Chase.

Like Diggle said repeatedly to him, Chase really did get into his head and really messed with him. When Oliver actually said the words, "let my crusade die" that was like the nail in Oliver Queen/Green Arrow's coffin.

There were just so many incredible scenes between Oliver and Diggle. These two are so good together, and these characters just know each other so well. It was surprising at first that Oliver did not share with Felicity and Diggle immediately in that opening scene what had happened. It took awhile but Oliver did give some of the details about how Chase got into his head when he was talking to Diggle much later on. However, Oliver did go right back into his Lian Yu/PTSD mode from this, which connected even more to his more Season 1 like behavior by calling in the Bratva to take out Chase.

Although the interaction between Oliver and Diggle stole the show, the scene between Quentin Lance and Oliver was also incredible as Chase entered the room to see the mayor. Lance's reaction to that whole discussion was priceless. Although the fight scenes/action scenes were good and exciting, Disbanded was more about character interaction. Finally, it was a neat twist in the end after seeing episode 5x17 Kapiushon that Anatoly nearly admitted that he himself became the monster -- not Oliver. Anatoly mentioned that Oliver would have killed without thinking back in Russia, and they once again discussed what wearing the hood meant to Oliver. Anatoly said that without Oliver's help in Russia, he did not like the man that he became trying to keep the Bratva together. However, it seemed like Anatoly could even see that Oliver became a better person when coming back to his home, meeting Felicity and Diggle, and further developing the Team Arrow.

It will be interesting to see how Kovar will be reintroduced -- if it will be in present day or still in the flashbacks. This might not be the end of Anatoly and Oliver's friendship. However, it definitely took a bigger hit. This was a fantastic ending, by giving Team Arrow "a win" with at least exposing Prometheus as Adrian Chase, but still letting him escape to have his final showdown with Oliver/Team Arrow later. Final moments had a very touching scene with the new improvements made to the ArrowCave for the newbies. Team Arrow Rises!

Great Team moments in this episode. Diggle and Oliver were amazing in every scene that they shared. Season 5 has really become a masterpiece. The stand-alone episodes were all fantastic, and now this Prometheus storyline has really grown into something amazing as well. 10/10

Arrow - S05E18 Disbanded

[j_forbesy · 10/10 · 29 March 2017]

At this point in time, I'm thinking I need to be rewatching the first 2 seasons of Arrow because damn this season is coming close to topping both of them. This episode is one of my favourite of the whole series. Hands down. This episode had everything you wanted while still offering so much for the future. Like Supergirl and Flash, Arrow has a month off and they have continued the trend of entering this break on a high.

I loved everything with Oliver and Diggle. Of all the CW superhero shows, this is by far one of my favourite. They have had their ups and downs throughout the series and you can tell that this relationship is one of the strongest because of that. Diggle had some terrific moments this episode and he stood out as my favourite this episode. Oliver stood out as a close second. He was extremely well written as a character and I thought they wrote his turn from wanting to team to step down to him accepting that Diggle is right was done really naturally and fit well within the episode.

I thought the use of the Bratva was perfect this episode. We have been teased for a while that they will make a return in the present story. I really liked how they ran the parallel of the flashbacks where Oliver was helping them perform a heist for the purpose of money, and the present day story where Bratva is doing the exact same thing. I've really grown to like Anatoli as a character this season so it was great to see both sides of him throughout this episode. For the future of Bratva, I don't ever really see them becoming a main villain for a season but I can see them causing some trouble in the future.

I really enjoyed Felicity's Helix story line this episode. I liked how Curtis was dragged into it because I think they always have some great on screen chemistry together. It was cool to see them go in and do a mini heist by themselves because it reminded me of when Arrow started and it was just Oliver and Diggle doing the small jobs. Now that Curtis appears to be in with Helix, I'm interested to see where they are going to take it. I think that Felicity will leave the team to join Helix full time and Curtis will be the official Felicity for team Arrow, but I think Felicity will continue to help out with stuff in the future.

This episode has changed this season from here on out. Prior to this episode, the Green Arrow was the villain of Star City, but now it is Chase. I really liked that they played this flip still with a while to go in the season. For once we are going to see Chase on the back foot, something we are yet to see in this season. I'm not sure how this will involve bringing the Green Arrow back, but my prediction is that for it to happen, Oliver will have to own up to what he has done to the public.

As usual, all the action was great as you'd expected it. I usually don't touch on much of the action because it is so well choreographed each week but we have had some stand out sequences the past few weeks so I thought I should make mention of that.

Looking to the future, I'm not actually completely sure where this season is heading for the last leg. Team Arrow is back but the Green Arrow is yet to be redeemed, if he ever will. Chase has been exposed as Prometheus and his on the run from the police. Helix appears to be playing a bigger role and looks like they are going to come into the fold at the pointy end of the season. Quick note, there was part of me that thought when they revealed Chase's face that it was going to be someone else. I assumed that it was when he first takes his mask off on the roof top but i wouldn't put it past the writers to chuck a spanner in the works.

Overall, I loved this episode. Arrow is back and I am so happy for that. It sucks that we now have a month break from all these shows but all of them should be hitting the ground running when they come back and Arrow appears to be leading that charge.

10/10

Not bad at all

[rptileofficial · 8/10 · 5 April 2017]

No matter how much Adrian tortured Oliver and destroyed his life, Oliver's decision was right in my opinion. He should have let Bratva to kill Adrian and job would be finished and others wouldn't die. But we all know that there are 5 more episodes left and the directors always want to surprise with the ending on the episode

Shame on you Anatoly !

[Samx_ · 10/10 · 15 January 2020]

This episode reminds of American Psycho. Eh..kinda disappointed in Adrian, I actually liked him a lot Why did he have to be one of the bad guys :(

cool episode + one of the bratvas

[badiconproductions · 10/10 · 3 March 2018]

Very good paced episode directed by JJ Makaro. I really enjoyed that bearded dude who played the Bratva. Where is he? Dead? :-) Nice work. Should see him more.

I am *not* Bratva?

[iamsrktoo · 8/10 · 13 May 2020]

With the previous episode ending with Oliver disbanding Team Arrow, because of Adrian's successful attempts to break him and make him realize what a psychotic murderer Queen is, I was looking forward to a bit more than just our everyday Joe Queen.

Oliver, although seen completely hopeless, has still one card left, one trick up his sleeve that he thinks he can use against Chase.

And what would be better than to call our very own Brotherhood back in the present day game? That was the highlight of the episode, for me. But it all started feeling like taking a turn down the drain when Team Arrow started interrupting the Bratva's plans and all.

I get that it was one of the only way to help save Ollie's soul, but there would've been other ways than to let Chase run free rather than holding him in custody. Just another excuse to get the season running.

With that off of my chest, I love the flashbacks and how Anatoly requests Oliver to stay, in confusion of what he might become if he leaves and then, showing us exactly how crooked he had become. Team Arrow got to reveal Chase's identity to the public and that's another thing I was expecting from this episode which it did.

So, apart from a few things, this episode wasn't that bad at all. I'm curious to see where does this leave Oliver with the Bratva. Do they wage a war aainst their American captain or does Anatoly respect his friendship with Oliver? Guess there's only one way to find out.

+ Chase's identity revealed and escape. + Team Arrow's undying hope

• Being too nosy in the affairs of other people

+ The Bratva.

Well that improved

[fatality713 · 7/10 · 29 March 2017]

So ((((SPOILERS)))) This was one of the best episodes I have seen. It got back on track by getting Oliver being the main character. Also the secondary characters were just that, secondary.

Only issue is that Felicity still gets to play front and center, as always, by getting the info and being the saviour in the fight scene, this time by being in the field. Not to mention her long winded plot they have going on. Don't hate her, think she gets attention at the expense of others and plot. If not for that the show would have been a 8 or 9.

where are the bratvas?

[petraredds · 10/10 · 6 March 2018]

Bring back the badass bratvas. sometimes you create cool characters and shortly you make them disappear without much of an explanation. Anatoly should have his permanent Brava bodyguards.

No green arrow

[ralph_vint · 9/10 · 19 September 2018]

Just saying that John diggle should of been green arrow or Curtis holt