SPOILERS!
This was a satisfying season finale, as far as season 3 is concerned…However unlike seasons 1 and 2, it ended on a very climactic note. Leaving me to wonder, exactly where they are going to go for seasons 4 and 5. When the series originally aired, we were informed that it will go for 5 seasons, detailing Oliver’s exile from Starling city over the 5 years, up until when the series began. However this season finale brought closure to a very important character arc for Oliver Queen. Let’s explore:
Here is the brief summary of the episode courtesy of Wikipedia:
“While Ra’s and Oliver head toward Starling City to release the virus, Felicity and the others wake in the dungeon. Malcolm informs them that he and Oliver created a new vaccine, based on Oliver’s blood, which Malcolm used on the team without their awareness. Returning a favor, Barry speeds through the castle disabling the guards and freeing the team. Oliver reveals his deception and he and Nyssa take out the League’s remaining assassins. Ra’s escapes with a canister of the virus. Oliver learns that Ra’s is going to disperse the virus across four points of the city. Felicity locates the four bioweapons, and Oliver organizes the team, along with Captain Lance and the police, to those locations. Oliver is pulled to another location to battle Ra’s, as the team successfully stops the virus. Oliver stops and kills Ra’s before being shot by a police sniper. Felicity, in Ray’s ATOM suit, flies in and rescues Oliver. Oliver cedes the title of Ra’s al Ghul to Malcolm and leaves the league.”
The only part of the episode which threw me out of it, was the cameo of The Flash at Nanda Parbat, when he basically arrived to take out the guards and bust open the team out of the dungeon, after which he had to leave immediately. Much like Oliver’s cameo in the previous Flash episode, this seemed like just a convenient way to move things along, without having the characters themselves do the work. And who even knows how The Flash got to Nanda Parbat, which is apparently in the Indian Mountains.
However, The previous season finale’s were much more grand in scale, than this one. Where the entire city is seen in flames, and there is total chaos ensuing, courtesy of the villain as the Arrow team desperately tries to stop the madness. Even with Ra’s releasing the virus @ four different locations in Starling City, the scale of the attack didn’t seem as climactic. That being said, there were some cool moments, when Diggle realized that the virus was being transported inside the body of Ra’s men, and we saw the team spread out and take out the culprits one by one, with some awesome fight choreography, and it was awesome to see Thea, Oliver’s sister dawning the red suit, which Arsenal (Roy) had previously worn. The attack on the city was neutralized very quickly, due to the ever expanding team Arrow, as opposed to the previous seasons.
The fight between Ra’s and Oliver was so much fun to watch, especially after the last time they fought, where Oliver was stabbed and dropped off a cliff, However I did expect a much more epic death for Ra’s Al Ghul, as they fought on top of a dam, and I was hoping, Ra’s body would’ve been thrown over, as a mirror of what happened to Oliver in the first fight, (Atleast that’s how I would’ve written it) However it was still satisfying to see Oliver standing over Ra’s declaring himself as the new Demon’s head.
This was immediately made void, when back at the base, with the whole team gathered, Oliver finally shed his different masks, He could no longer be the Arrow, as Ra’s took that from him and he wasn’t Al Sah Him. He said that there were enough heroes on the team (seriously) to defend the city, and he just wanted to take some time out and chill with Felicity, as Oliver Queen.
The entire struggle and conflict of the character through the entire series, as with many other superheroes, has been of identity. Oliver Queen/Arrow…It tied in well with the flashbacks in this episode as well, where Oliver violently tortured general Shrieve, for lying to them about the cure for the virus. Which is entirely against what Oliver Queen used to be, he even tells Tatsu ‘That he cannot face his family, and let them see what he has become’.
Now, he is simply Oliver Queen, no longer a saviour of the city. The final shot shows him and Felicity driving off into the Sunset which is a Hollywood super-cliché for a happy ending. For me it symbolized that this character arc is over. And I am curious to see where the writers will take the show from here, and what villains will we encounter in the process.
Cannot wait for the next season!
By:
Dhaivat Mehta
(Editor – ARTbop alternative)
Dhaivat Mehta is a film-maker and performance poet, and a member of the Tauranga Writers…Involved with many aspects of local creativity! As an organizer he was responsible for last year’s National Poetry Day event “Caught In The Act” He also raps and does spoken word under the stage name Mantra
