Arrow Season 5: 7 Ups And 4 Downs From 'New Recruits'

Prometheus makes his mark, whilst Mister Terrific struggles.

by Andrew Pollard
Arrow New Recruits Ups Downs
The CW

Last week’s season premiere was a hugely welcome return to form for The CW’s Arrow. After a previous season that was far too full of dull plot arcs and bland characters, Legacy felt as if Arrow was, as promised, going back-to-basics in terms of reassessing what had made the series so must-see at one point.

Following on from Legacy, the pressure was on New Recruits to keep the momentum going and to keep viewers wanting to return to Star City for the rest of this fifth season. And for the most part, this outing for Ollie and Co. delivered exactly what we’d hoped.

With Oliver now deciding to give in to Felicity’s suggestions that he needs to put together a new Team Arrow, here we see vigilante Wild Dog, tech genius Curtis Holt, and directionless youth Evelyn Sharp testing the waters when it comes to working alongside the famed Master Bowman. Of course, Ollie is forever Ollie, meaning it’s no easy task to be taken under his wing.

Elsewhere, Amertek again rears its head, and a new troubled soul arrives on the scene in the shape of Ragman. Then there’s the already-uber-cool Prometheus to take into account…

New Recruits was another largely brilliant episode for Arrow, although not everything it tried hit the target.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks/Saints, Jamie Hayter, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.