The general consensus from the Arrow fandom is that the fifth season was a mixed bag. Personally, I thought it was a resurgent season, even as some elements didn't entirely work. The Vigilante subplot went nowhere, and I think the series bit off a little more than it could chew by introducing and re-introducing certain characters into the narrative. The Adrian Chase arc started out well enough, but then became too convoluted and repetitive at times. But the season ended with every major character on Lian Yu, then, somehow, the writers actually went ahead and literally blew up the premise of the show by having Chase detonate all the bombs he had planted on Lian Yu.

Presumably, very few of the characters who were on the island, survived the multiple blasts. At least it would give the writers a chance to start over with a new slate. They did say over this past offseason that the show's trademark flashback structure would disappear. So why not go ahead and forge a completely different path from what came before? Perhaps I was being a bit too ambitious in my hopes for this aging show.

The big question hanging around this premiere episode was how in the heck nearly everyone on the main cast made it off Lian Yu completely intact. That was definitely a surprise. Out of everyone who was on the island (which was everyone but Oliver and William), the only person who would be confirmed dead was Samantha, Oliver's ex, and William's mother. That event is the impetus for the "current" storyline of William ignoring Oliver's repeated attempts to be a father to him (at Samantha's dying request on Lian Yu), and eventually revealing that he regards Oliver as "the bad man" responsible for his mother's death.

It's actually a nice little side plot that only adds to all the things that are on Oliver's plate. Oliver, the playboy and vigilante, now mayor of Star City, is wading into an area he has never been in before, and he has no idea what to do. That makes his scenes with Raisa, the woman who basically raised him in his childhood, tender and poignant. There's no getting around it: Oliver continues to live a violent lifestyle, and it's one that isn't conducive to being a good father in any way. But Oliver is at least giving it the ol' college try, and by the end of the episode, in spite of spending the majority of it being afraid of him, William has given him some bit of leeway.

It's a fitting contrast to the other paternal drama that goes on in the episode. That involves a very damaged Quentin Lance who, despite holding the position of deputy mayor, is put in the tenuous position of possibly having to kill his daughter. Only, she's not really his daughter. She happens to be the Laurel Lance of a parallel universe, now wreaking all kinds of havoc in this universe. He almost killed her on Lian Yu, and it had to have been brutal for him to even consider shooting her there in the first place. He's so affected by that shooting that he completely freezes when given the opportunity to at least stop Black Siren by shooting her again. Quentin's thought process here is rather questionable, though. Everyone, even Oliver, knows and accepts the fact that this isn't the Laurel that they all knew and loved. She died two seasons ago. Quentin is the only one who cannot accept that this is not his Laurel. It's the fallout from her re-appearance last season, as it seems that Quentin wants to keep whatever reminders are left of his daughter, even if he has to accept the crazy notion that she's from a different universe.

As it is, someone mysteriously saved Black Siren from perishing on Lian Yu, and now may be the mysterious Big Bad that is financially backing Black Siren and her group of mercenary gunmen (it really makes me uneasy to see so much gunfire on this show after the real life events in Las Vegas earlier this month) terrorizing Star City, and specifically targeting Team Arrow for some reason. Black Siren is apparently in the market Curtis' T-spheres, a versatile weapon that no longer makes Mr. Terrific a liability in the field. Indeed, he, Oliver, and Black Canary II are the only fully functional members of the team right now.

If Black Siren gets her hands on even one of Curtis' T-spheres, that would significantly weaken the team and make the bad guys that much more powerful. And that's on top of the end reveal that someone has outed Oliver's secret identity as the Green Arrow with indisputable pictorial evidence. Thea is mired in a coma at the hospital (after previously being thought of as dead on Lian Yu), and Diggle is suffering through his own form of PTSD that is causing him to not be his normally accurate marksman self. The stage has been set for what should be a season that doesn't really look mapped out. Let's see how long the writers can maintain a hold on the storylines that they set up here.