The BEST episodes of Arrow season 5
Every episode of Arrow season 5, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Arrow season 5!
After being marooned for five years on a remote island and presumed dead, billionaire playboy Oliver Queen returns home with a mysterious agenda and a lethal set of new skills that he uses in a war on crime in his hometown of Starling City.
#1 - Lian Yu
Season 5 - Episode 23 - Aired 5/24/2017
The battle between Oliver and Adrian Chase culminates in a final epic battle on Lian Yu. After recent events, Oliver decides to recruit a group of unlikely allies — Slade, Nyssa, Merlyn, and Digger Harkness — to defeat Chase. However, Chase has his own army — Black Siren, Evelyn Sharp, and Talia al Ghul — and the forces collide.
#2 - What We Leave Behind
Season 5 - Episode 9 - Aired 12/7/2016
After Prometheus attacks Curtis, Oliver realizes Prometheus knows all of Team Arrow’s secret identities and is planning to come for them one by one. Felicity and Detective Malone discover a clue that links Prometheus to Oliver’s past.
#3 - Missing
Season 5 - Episode 22 - Aired 5/17/2017
Black Siren returns to help Chase. Felicity organizes a birthday party for Oliver while Lance is furious after Rene misses the custody hearing for his daughter.
#4 - Human Target
Season 5 - Episode 5 - Aired 11/2/2016
When Tobias Church captures and tortures one of Oliver's new recruits, Oliver must turn to an old friend, Christopher Chance AKA the Human Target, for help. Meanwhile, Felicity's worlds collide when Detective Malone joins the ACU.
#5 - Invasion!
Season 5 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/30/2016
Oliver wakes up to a life where he never got on The Queen’s Gambit. Robert and Moira Queen are alive and well. Laurel is his loving fiancée and their wedding is imminent. Everything seems perfect, but Oliver starts to notice small imperfections that make him question this new reality. Meanwhile, Felicity and the recruits take on a new threat with help from The Flash and Supergirl.
#6 - A Matter of Trust
Season 5 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/19/2016
Now that Oliver has his new team, they are ready to hit the streets but Oliver doesn’t feel they are ready. Headstrong Wild Dog defies the Green Arrow’s orders and sets out on his own after a new drug dealer, Derek Sampson, who is terrorizing Star City. Sampson proves more powerful than Wild Dog and it is up to the Green Arrow to go head to head with Sampson to save his teammate.
#7 - The Recruits
Season 5 - Episode 2 - Aired 10/12/2016
Oliver’s new recruits for Team Arrow are Curtis, Wild Dog and Evelyn Sharp. Unfortunately, the Green Arrow’s training methods prove to be too much for some of them to handle. Meanwhile, in the flashbacks, Oliver’s initiation into the Bratva continues.
#8 - Kapiushon
Season 5 - Episode 17 - Aired 3/22/2017
Prometheus goes to great lengths to break Oliver. Meanwhile, in the flashbacks, Anatoly becomes worried about Oliver’s increasingly violent tendencies, which come to a head in a brutal confrontation.
#9 - Checkmate
Season 5 - Episode 16 - Aired 3/15/2017
Oliver gets closer to the truth about Prometheus. Meanwhile, Helix refuses to continue helping Felicity until she does a favor for them.
#10 - So It Begins
Season 5 - Episode 6 - Aired 11/9/2016
When Prometheus ups his killing spree, Oliver searches for connections between the victims. Felicity and Curtis discover the victims have a mysterious link to Oliver’s past and this new secret could upend his new team. Meanwhile, Thea has a heart-to-heart with Lance, and Felicity considers telling Malone the truth about her work. In the past, Oliver finally meets Kovar and may not live to regret it.
#11 - Disbanded
Season 5 - Episode 18 - Aired 3/29/2017
Diggle and Felicity are shocked by Oliver’s decision to call on the Bratva to help take down Prometheus. Concerned the Bratva may overstep, Diggle has a hard conversation with Oliver about what happens if things go south. Meanwhile, Felicity learns something shocking at Helix.
#12 - Penance
Season 5 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/26/2016
Oliver and Lyla team up on a secret mission for Diggle. Felicity finds out and disapproves of the plan and opts to stay behind. When Tobias Church launches a deadly assault against the city, Felicity must decide if she wants to send the recruits out sans the Green Arrow.
#13 - Second Chances
Season 5 - Episode 11 - Aired 2/1/2017
In his quest to take down Kovar, Oliver gets help from a surprising source — Talia al Ghul. However, when she reveals what she wants from him in exchange, Oliver isn’t sure he can accept her help. Felicity attempts to hack the NSA to help free Diggle but when her online efforts are flagged, she faces off against an unknown adversary. Meanwhile, Curtis tells the team about a female vigilante, Tina Boland, he uncovered online who has been wreaking havoc all over the country.
#14 - Vigilante
Season 5 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/16/2016
When the bodies of two criminals are dropped at SCPD, Oliver realizes there is a new Vigilante in Star City. The team is split about whether they should stop someone who is helping keep the city safe. Diggle is frustrated with his new situation and Thea fights for Lance who confesses a shocking secret. Meanwhile, in the flashbacks, Oliver finally sits down with Konstantin Kovar.
#15 - Fighting Fire with Fire
Season 5 - Episode 15 - Aired 3/1/2017
Oliver faces his biggest challenge yet as mayor. Felicity continues down her dark path with Helix. After Vigilante attacks Oliver while he’s acting as the mayor, Diggle leads the team in a mission to stop Vigilante once and for all.
#16 - Legacy
Season 5 - Episode 1 - Aired 10/5/2016
After Laurel's death and the departures of both Diggle and Thea from Team Arrow, Oliver takes to the streets solo to protect Star City's citizens as the Green Arrow. With Felicity guiding him from the bunker, Oliver is forced to deal with a city that has become overrun with both criminals and a slew of new (and painfully inexperienced) vigilantes. Watching Oliver try to balance his jobs as both the mayor and also the protector of Star City, Felicity suggests he form a new team, but Oliver resists. However, when a deadly new criminal, Tobias Church, enters the picture, Oliver realizes the best thing for the city might be a new team of superheroes. Meanwhile, the flashbacks take us to Russia where Oliver faces off against the Bratva.
#17 - Dangerous Liaisons
Season 5 - Episode 19 - Aired 4/26/2017
Oliver, Team Arrow, ARGUS and the SCPD kick off a citywide manhunt for Adrian Chase. Helix tells Felicity they have a way to find Chase but they will need something big, and illegal, from her in return.
#18 - Bratva
Season 5 - Episode 12 - Aired 2/8/2017
A mission takes Oliver, Felicity and team to Russia where they meet up with Oliver’s old friend, Anatoly. Meanwhile, fresh out of rehab, Lance returns to the mayor’s office ready to get back to work. However, when Susan asks for an interview with Lance to discuss his addiction, he balks and it’s up to Rene to help keep things on track.
#19 - Honor Thy Fathers
Season 5 - Episode 21 - Aired 5/10/2017
Oliver returns to the mayor’s office and faces one of his most pressing issues yet — the forced release of dozens of violent criminals prosecuted by Adrian Chase. Meanwhile, a crate is delivered to Oliver’s office containing a mysterious corpse encased in concrete.
#20 - The Sin-Eater
Season 5 - Episode 14 - Aired 2/22/2017
China White, Cupid and Liza Warner break out of Iron Heights and head to Star City for revenge. Oliver tries to bring in the newly formed girl gang but the ACU intervenes mid-fight. To his surprise, they are there to arrest the Green Arrow for the murder of Detective Malone. Meanwhile, Lance feels responsible for the prison break after Warner tells him she heard about him working with Damien Darhk.
#21 - Underneath
Season 5 - Episode 20 - Aired 5/3/2017
Things get intense when Oliver and Felicity are trapped in the bunker together. Meanwhile, Lyla and Diggle deal with their marital issues.
#22 - Who Are You?
Season 5 - Episode 10 - Aired 1/25/2017
Worried that Prometheus is right and he is truly a killer at heart, Oliver looks for any ray of hope and finds it in what seems to be the miraculous return of Laurel Lance. However, Felicity, still reeling from Detective Malone’s murder, is bent on revenge — she wants to stop Prometheus at any cost. While in prison, Diggle fights for his life.
#23 - Spectre of the Gun
Season 5 - Episode 13 - Aired 2/15/2017
A traumatic attack on City Hall triggers painful memories for Rene about his family. Flashbacks reveal how Rene went from simple family man to a hero named Wild Dog. Meanwhile, Oliver must deal with the perpetrator behind the attack and realizes the best way to do so is as Mayor Queen instead of the Green Arrow. Tensions run high in the Arrow bunker.