Violet recaps Season 5 Episode 13 of Arrow, titled Spectre of the Gun, where a shooter attacks City Hall. Following the recap, both Josh and Violet share their thoughts about the episode.
- His thoughts on Spectre of the Gun, Episode 513 of Arrow
- Her thoughts on Arrow, Season 5 Episode 13: Spectre of the Gun
Felicity has been working on finding Prometheus’s mother, and has now had a breakthrough, thanks to this new data she has access to. She needs a few days to narrow down the exact location though.
At the Mayor’s office, Thea has returned to town. She is very disapproving of Oliver’s relationship with Susan, but he sticks up for Susan. She is surprised to see Rene in the office — who informs her that he is now the new Deputy Mayor’s assistant. Quentin heads out, leaving Oliver and Adrian to chat. Suddenly gunfire breaks out in the office from a masked man. Rene has a gun on him and fires back. The gunman leaves, leaving many dead and injured people. Thea and Oliver are unharmed, but Adrian has been shot. Adrian is taken to the hospital. Rene reports that he shot the gunman, but the gunman must have been wearing Kevlar.
The Arrow Team tries to figure out who the shooter is. Quentin happened to see the shooter on his way out, not knowing at the time that it was the shooter, so he gives a description for the sketch artist at the police station.
Oliver and Thea talk to Adrian at the hospital. He is trying to get dressed and go back to work, but they try to convince him to rest. Oliver tells Adrian what they know: it was an AR-15 assault rifle, and it doesn’t look like Oliver himself was the target, since the gunman was shooting up all of City Hall. Adrian seems to think it might be the Bertinelli family, as that’s their gun of choice. He thinks it’s because Oliver’s in charge of the Anti-Crime Unit. Adrian reluctantly agrees to stay put and get better.
Back at the Arrow Cave, Curtis and Rene get in an argument about gun control and gun rights. Meanwhile, Green Arrow questions a member of the Bertinelli family with the AR-15 assault rifle that was used in the shooting — while the man is hanging upside down. Green Arrow seems satisfied that it wasn’t them, and is about to let the guy down, when the Vigilante shoots the man dead and tells Green Arrow he did him a favor.
Felicity figures out the identity of the shooter based on the sketch. It’s a 43 year old systems analyst with no criminal record. The man’s name is James Edlund, and he had a wife and two daughters, until they were killed in a recent mall shooting. Edlund had been a proponent of the Star City Gun Registry, which the previous city leadership rejected. They conclude that Edlund took revenge on City Hall as a result of them not passing it. Oliver tells them to share the info with the SCPD so they can try to find Edlund.
In the meantime, Thea can’t hold off the press any longer, so Oliver has to go make a statement about the gunman. He gets questions about his administration’s position about the gun registry and gun control, which he tries to dodge, and he abruptly ends the press conference. Oliver is frustrated that he doesn’t know how to handle this problem as the Mayor. His solution is to gather the previous city leaders who were involved with the gun control law rejection for a discussion.
A councilwoman meets with Oliver to talk about the Star City Gun Registry ordinance, which she killed. He vows that the two of them will sit together in his office until they come up with a set of limitations that respects everyone’s rights.
Spartan hits the streets with Dinah to question people about the whereabouts of Edlund, but isn’t having any luck. Dinah tells Diggle about an apartment that she wanted to lease, but she decided not to because of all the questions the application asked. Also, applying for an apartment is something normal people do, and she hasn’t been normal for awhile. Diggle encourages her to try to get the apartment.
Felicity finds out the name of a support group that Edlund used to go to, so Curtis and Rene head over to question the group leader, who is hesitant to supply any information due to confidentiality. But they talk him into giving them the address of a friend that he heard Edlund was staying with. Rene reveals to Curtis that his wife is dead, and he believes that if he had his gun, she’d still be alive.
Wild Dog and Mr. Terrific check out the address. It’s empty, but they find floor plans for his next attack. Rene sees that it’s not floor plans for City Hall, and knows where Edlund’s next attack will be: the hospital.
Oliver gets called away from his meeting with the Councilwoman and heads over to the hospital. There, he confronts Edlund as the Mayor, rather than the Green Arrow, catching up to him before he has a chance to take action. Oliver tells Edlund that the man who killed his family acquired the guns illegally, so the gun registry law couldn’t have protected him. He tries to talk Edlund down, but Edlund decides to put the gun to his own head. Oliver continues to slowly approach Edlund and succeeds in talking him into giving him the gun. As soon as that happens, the police move in and take Edlund down, arresting him.
The next day, Oliver introduces shows the Councilwoman a gun ordinance that he and Rene worked on. She agrees to back him on it, but says she’ll need a favor from him down the road.
Back at the Arrow Cave, Curtis apologizes to Rene, saying he didn’t know about his wife and daughter. Rene says that his daughter is always in a foster home. Curtis says he has a lawyer friend that can help get his daughter back.
Diggle goes over to check on Dinah, who reports that she got the apartment, and also that she’s the newest SCPD recruit.
That night, there’s a candlelight vigil at City Hall for the victims of the shooting. Oliver says a few words in remembrance of them as well as other people he has lost. He then announces the Star City Firearms Freedom Act.
Flashbacks
The flashbacks this week focused on Rene’s past. He’s about to head out to a game in the Glads with his wife and daughter, and goes to get his gun, which is locked away in a safe, but his wife protests. It turns out she wasn’t planning on going to the game after all, because she isn’t feeling well, but he accuses her of using drugs. He found some drugs hidden behind their dresser. They begin arguing, and their daughter Zoe comes in. They try to reassure her that everything is fine. Rene tells her he’s throwing her drugs away, and all the drugs better be gone when he gets back.
When Rene and Zoe return from the game, the house is in a disheveled state, as if someone has broken in and ransacked the place. A man with a gun is holding Rene’s wife hostage, saying she owes him money for drugs. Rene tells the gunman that he’ll get the money from the safe (where his gun is). Zoe enters the room, and there’s a commotion, which ends with Rene’s wife being shot dead by the gunman after Rene is finally able to get to his gun and shoots the gunman.
Later, we see Rene on the phone, begging to see his daughter. Then he sees Damien Darhk being killed on TV. Nearby is a hockey mask. He picks it up. The rest is presumably history.
Her Thoughts on Arrow, Season 5 Episode 13: Spectre of the Gun
Anyone else feel like this was sort of an “after school special” episode? (I feel like I’ve really dated myself with that term, because those probably don’t exist anymore, and most likely haven’t for about 20 years). Because that’s how it felt to me. While I applaud the writers for trying to tackle a tough political issue, and also providing arguments from both sides, I couldn’t help but feel like the tone of the episode was a bit preachy. They tried to weave the preachy parts into the fabric of the episode, but it was very blatantly obvious every time they did so, because it felt kind of off, especially the transitions. For example, when Felicity and Curtis were talking about the issues, the only way to transition it back to the story at hand was for there to be something random and urgent to come up all of a sudden to interrupt them.
Gun control issues aside, it was a nice reprieve this week to have flashbacks about Rene rather than Oliver. It was a huge surprise to me that he had a wife and daughter, especially a daughter of that age. To me, I thought he appeared to be on the younger side, so to have a daughter who looked to be about 11 or so was quite unexpected. I would not have guessed that. Hopefully Curtis’s lawyer friend (is it DA Chase again or someone else this time?) is able to help Rene get his daughter back. However, I’m not sure how that will affect Rene continuing to be a part of the team, since he would be a single parent.
As for Dinah, it looks like she is settling into Star City quite nicely, getting a place for herself, and a job with the SCPD. That’ll be nice and convenient for the Arrow Team to have a connection with the police, since Quentin is no longer employed there, and Billy was killed off.
Not really looking forward to the next episode, which has the return of Cupid. Never was really a fan of that villain, and she seems to pop up once every season, unfortunately. We’ll see if the next episode can change my mind about her, but I doubt it.
His Thoughts on Arrow, Season 5 Episode 13: Spectre of the Gun
COMING SOON
Scenes from Arrow, Season 5 Episode 14: The Sin-Eater
Preview of Season 5 Episode 14 of Arrow
