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in 1x05 when Oliver is getting his tracking anklet put on he tells Moira “It’s not that bad”. Because in his head.... He’s not locked in cell bleeding onto the ground from a gunshot wound or a shark bite. He’s not strapped to a chair in a basement. He’s not tied to a post in the dark after being tortured. He’s not in a cage so small he can’t sit up straight. He’s not chained to the ceiling by his wrists. Yeah... a tracking anklet that won’t let him go onto the lawn is not that bad.
“Please don’t threaten me, I’m in mourning” is such an iconic Prometheus line. It’s like my favorite thing he ever says.
Slade, Reiter, Kovar, Merlyn, Ra’s, Prometheus... there’s a LOT of villains whose first move after capturing Oliver is to remove his shirt...
Chase has Oliver for six days. By the second scene in the cell that time is already starting to wear on Oliver. The entire scene he talks as if he’s slightly out of breath, despite sitting still and having no obvious injuries. He’s sleep deprived, certainly- it’s hard to sleep when you’re chained to a concrete floor awaiting torture at the hands of a madman. Not to mention the fact that the time spent with Chase is probably during the night since at this point Chase is still keeping up appearances as DA, so Oliver’s circadian rhythms and internal clock are being disrupted. We’re also never shown Oliver being given food or water. In six days he must have been given water at some point, or he’d die. Food... Probably some, since when he is released he’s strong enough to make it back to the bunker. But I would bet that whatever Chase gives him to eat, it’s not enough. And he’s stuck shirtless, on plain concrete.
So besides all the torture we see, Oliver spends six days being sleep-deprived, starving, probably cold, chains pulling at his wrists, and in constantly increasing amounts of pain. And then manages to drag himself home without being seen and stitch himself up. Because he’s amazing.
“It’s just you and me now Oliver. You don’t have to talk if you don’t want to. But I don’t think you should be alone right now.”
I love the way Diggle talks to him right here. It’s so gentle. And there’s a protectiveness to it. Diggle stepping out of his friend/brother role to an almost paternal one because in that moment Oliver is so small and broken and vulnerable that that’s what he needs. And there’s such understanding in that offer to just be near Oliver, to be available and nothing else, but also sending everyone else away because Oliver can’t take that many people right now.
I think people underestimate Oliver’s emotional state while trapped in the bunker. I think he’s vaguely panicky and just hiding it well. Because he has this sense of impending doom, the idea that while they are in there Chase is off kidnapping William or something (he IS). Add on to that the possibility that being trapped down there without power could remind Oliver of being trapped in the caves beneath Lian Yu. Or his imprisonment on the Amazo. Or when he was locked in the cave for days without food or water. All kinds of bad memories it could trigger. And there’s the very real ticking clock, counting down how soon they die. So if Oliver’s decisions are made a little hastily, that’s why.
If Dinah’s dead boyfriend, Vinny, DOES end up being Vigilante, I am absolutely only going to refer to him as Vinny-lante.
Oliver climbing up the elevator instead of listening to Felicity is thought of as an instance of him not trusting her but it’s just as much her not trusting him. At that moment, Oliver has a plan. Felicity doesn’t. Oliver is saying “I think I can avoid the booby traps in the elevator and get us out” and Felicity is saying “wait. I’ll come up with something else” but Oliver isn’t choosing his plan over Felicity’s. He’s choosing his plan over sitting around waiting for another plan. Felicity, in the meantime, is not confident in Oliver’s ability to do what he says. She’s not trusting him.
Later, when Oliver is doubting himself because of the failure with the elevator, they go to Felicity’s plan and that fails too. The episode isn’t about “Oliver needs to trust Felicity” like some people make that beginning part out to be; it’s about the two of them needing to trust each other again and rebuild the partnership they once had.
