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A Hero Falls: Oliver Queen Reveals The Monster Within — Can Viewers Ever See Him The Same Way?

Tortured by Adrian Chase, Oliver broke his silence, and his revelation will reverberate across all of Star City.

By Rachel CarringtonPublished 6 years ago 2 min read
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This post contains spoilers for Arrow Season 5.

For the past five years, #OliverQueen's monologue told viewers that after five years in hell, he had to be someone else — and all along, we thought that someone else was a hero. What we didn't know was the truth behind the mask, and tonight, tortured by #AdrianChase, Oliver broke his silence, and his revelation will reverberate across all of #StarCity.

We've known for five seasons that Oliver was tortured on Lian Yu, and we believed he was driven into life as a vigilante to honor his father's memory. To us, he was a wounded soul who'd overcome the darkness of those years and who'd served justice on those who would do Star City harm.

We believed he'd killed for self-preservation, and only left bodies in his wake because of his desire to live. Beneath Oliver's abilities to take life, though, lived a darker, deeper secret, one that just may change how #TeamArrow sees him in the future.

In a fierce moment of rage and utter desperation, a moment played to perfection by #StephenAmell, Oliver told #Prometheus (Adrian Chase) that he killed because he wanted to. And the moment proved that Prometheus knew Oliver better than he knew himself.

We caught a glimpse at the darkness within Oliver's soul during flashbacks to Russia. Oliver tortured one of Kovar's men for information, and even Anatoly was disturbed by the level of Oliver's brutality, especially when Oliver tells him that the man didn't last long. He'd continued to torture the man for practice.

In addition, it's clear that Oliver didn't have to kill the men whom he killed in Russia, but he did it because he was good at it — and he liked it. He had the power and skills to take a life, and even though Anatoly assured him justice could be served without killing, Oliver chose to kill. It's a difficult piece of information for those who look up to Oliver Queen and even more so for those who idolize the #GreenArrow.

The end of the episode shows Oliver returning to the Arrowcave, where he tells the team that he's done, presumably laying down his bow and arrow. He's coming face to face with the fact that he isn't just a hero; he's also a killer, one who has taken lives when that wasn't his only choice.

However this plays out over the next few episodes, we can be sure of one thing: Oliver's declaration will change him forever. Maybe it was a truth he didn't even realize until he was pushed to the limit by Adrian Chase's torture, or maybe it really was a secret he'd been hiding all along.

Whichever is true, coming face to face with the evil inside will leave more of a mark on Oliver than the tattoos on his body.

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About the Creator

Rachel Carrington

I'm an avid writer and reader. I've had over 53 novels published and over 2,000 articles. Here I review movies, TV series/episodes, books, and write about entertainment. www.rachelcarrington.com

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