In many ways, this was Oliver Queen's flashpoint. After the events of last night's Flash episode, he, Diggle, Thea, Ray, and Sara wake up to a life of what could have been on the eve of Oliver's wedding with Laurel. What we got as fans was pretty much all we could hope for out of a 100th episode. This was a love letter to the show's first 100, and I couldn't have loved it any more.
We've been asking the show for a long time to get back to its early roots, and while the first 7 episodes of the season have sort of done that, it was this "crossover" episode that really nailed that nostalgic feeling I've been waiting for. It's funny, because this isn't really a crossover in the same sense as the two episodes its sandwiched between. This was an Arrow episode at its core. Well, an Arrow episode with aliens trying to take over the world.
At times during the show's run, it's been very hard to not rip on Marc Guggenheim, Berlanti, Kreisberg, or Mericle. They've certainly had their missteps. But what they were all able to put together tonight was nothing short of astonishing. With the exception of a very select few, every major character over the past 5 seasons made their presence felt in some way or another. Moira, the heart and soul of the show for the first two seasons, made her welcomed return. Robert Queen, who many thought would be the Green Arrow of this "hallucination", returned for the first time in 4 seasons. Even Tommy, who is off filming Chicago Med (and they even made a nice wink to that), made a hologram appearance with Roy. And of course, the recently fallen Laurel returned in bittersweet form. That wedding represents everything that could have been with this show if Oliver never went on that darned boat.
Compliment all of that with the fact that Malcom, Damien Darhk, and Deathstroke were all there trying to stop Oliver and company from leaving the hallucination. This made for a nice brief battle sequence for James Bamford to once again show his skills as a director. Thea shooting an arrow for Sara to catch and stab Darhk with? I mean come on, that's just pure comic book glory right there. If only they were able to get Manu Bennett to come back as at least the voice of Deathstroke.
Back in the real Star City, Barry, Kara, Cisco, and the rest of "Team Arrow" were forced with figuring out where the rest of the crew were and how to stop the dominators. I have to admit, there was a part of me that was wondering where other members like Firestorm, Heatwave, Caitlin, Harry, Wally, and others were, but I guess you can only fit so many characters into one episode right? Wild Dog's dislike of Supergirl and Flash was a little off-putting, and then of course fixed quickly, but it made for some fun and humorous moments in an otherwise bittersweet episode.
And that's really what I'll call tonight's episode, bittersweet. As great as it was seeing 5 of Team Arrow's best vs almost all of the show's big-bads, it was just as poignant seeing so many beloved characters for *one last time*. Oliver's hugs to his parents and speeches to Thea and Laurel in the hallucination were some of the best written scenes the show has had in a while. Have I said yet how much I love this episode? Just to throw in a few more nuggets: Quentin was back as a cop and called the Green Arrow "the hood", all of the logos in the beginning of the episode correlating with 5 seasons of the show, and Oliver giving Thea the Arrow emblem were all nicely timed easter eggs and callbacks to the show's history. As a whole, this was by far the biggest departure from a typical Arrow episode that we could have imagined, but it was handled with care and love. One of the best episodes of Arrow of all-time.
+Callbacks and easter eggs to previous seasons
+Team Arrow vs Arrow big-bads
+Moira & Laurel's presence
+Oliver's flashpoint
+Bittersweet
10/10
We've been asking the show for a long time to get back to its early roots, and while the first 7 episodes of the season have sort of done that, it was this "crossover" episode that really nailed that nostalgic feeling I've been waiting for. It's funny, because this isn't really a crossover in the same sense as the two episodes its sandwiched between. This was an Arrow episode at its core. Well, an Arrow episode with aliens trying to take over the world.
At times during the show's run, it's been very hard to not rip on Marc Guggenheim, Berlanti, Kreisberg, or Mericle. They've certainly had their missteps. But what they were all able to put together tonight was nothing short of astonishing. With the exception of a very select few, every major character over the past 5 seasons made their presence felt in some way or another. Moira, the heart and soul of the show for the first two seasons, made her welcomed return. Robert Queen, who many thought would be the Green Arrow of this "hallucination", returned for the first time in 4 seasons. Even Tommy, who is off filming Chicago Med (and they even made a nice wink to that), made a hologram appearance with Roy. And of course, the recently fallen Laurel returned in bittersweet form. That wedding represents everything that could have been with this show if Oliver never went on that darned boat.
Compliment all of that with the fact that Malcom, Damien Darhk, and Deathstroke were all there trying to stop Oliver and company from leaving the hallucination. This made for a nice brief battle sequence for James Bamford to once again show his skills as a director. Thea shooting an arrow for Sara to catch and stab Darhk with? I mean come on, that's just pure comic book glory right there. If only they were able to get Manu Bennett to come back as at least the voice of Deathstroke.
Back in the real Star City, Barry, Kara, Cisco, and the rest of "Team Arrow" were forced with figuring out where the rest of the crew were and how to stop the dominators. I have to admit, there was a part of me that was wondering where other members like Firestorm, Heatwave, Caitlin, Harry, Wally, and others were, but I guess you can only fit so many characters into one episode right? Wild Dog's dislike of Supergirl and Flash was a little off-putting, and then of course fixed quickly, but it made for some fun and humorous moments in an otherwise bittersweet episode.
And that's really what I'll call tonight's episode, bittersweet. As great as it was seeing 5 of Team Arrow's best vs almost all of the show's big-bads, it was just as poignant seeing so many beloved characters for *one last time*. Oliver's hugs to his parents and speeches to Thea and Laurel in the hallucination were some of the best written scenes the show has had in a while. Have I said yet how much I love this episode? Just to throw in a few more nuggets: Quentin was back as a cop and called the Green Arrow "the hood", all of the logos in the beginning of the episode correlating with 5 seasons of the show, and Oliver giving Thea the Arrow emblem were all nicely timed easter eggs and callbacks to the show's history. As a whole, this was by far the biggest departure from a typical Arrow episode that we could have imagined, but it was handled with care and love. One of the best episodes of Arrow of all-time.
+Callbacks and easter eggs to previous seasons
+Team Arrow vs Arrow big-bads
+Moira & Laurel's presence
+Oliver's flashpoint
+Bittersweet
10/10