Arrow has had a bumpy season since its return from the winter hiatus back in January and this week was all about the final war against Damien Darhk as Green Arrow and his team go toe-to-toe with him once and for all.
Let’s start with the flashbacks that concluded exactly the way that we all expected although with a slight twist. Reiter goes bye-bye and Taiana gets so powerful that she begs Oliver to kill her before she hurts him or anyone else. I’ll admit that I didn’t see Oliver having to kill Taiana coming at all because I just didn’t. The thing that made it difficult to care though was the consistently weird pacing because every time we go back to the flashback, we spend barely two or three minutes there before we go back to the present.
This has been one of the biggest problems with the flashbacks all season because they are so brief as if Arrow doesn’t know whether or not it wants to even tell flashbacks anymore. In addition, did the flashbacks do anything to make Oliver’s backstory interesting? It did not as all it did was to just help setup the story that they will tell in Russia in Season 5 of Arrow. But having to spend over 20 episodes with lackluster flashbacks just to get to that point was exhausting.
As the team is trying desperately to take down Damien who has gotten overpowered like crazy, Oliver has one of the best moments that he has ever had in the series. As the citizens of the city is, understandable so, going berserk with over 15 000 missiles being ready to end the world, Oliver gives one heck of an inspiring speech to those people. Now mind you, it was dependent on the fact that Curtis had given him a huge pep talk about what the Green Arrow meant to him, but still it didn’t take away the fact that Oliver delivered a powerful message.
This is the type of Oliver Queen that I have always wanted to see more of, the inspiring, optimistic and brighter version like in the comics. Seeing Stephen Amell kicking butt in that scene reminds me that we have always known that he can play Oliver like that which is why I desperately hope that he will get to in Season 5. We know he can do a great job with it if the writing allows it and I hope that the writers are taking that into consideration as they plan out the fifth season probably as we speak. It may also be what we are getting since he became the interim mayor of Star City which we sort of already knew was coming due to Ruvé Adams’ death last week.
The whole showdown against Damien Darhk with Oliver now being fully able to repel his magic was….alright. Seeing the citizens joining the team in fighting H.I.V.E. while Oliver and Damien had their fight reminded me so much of The Dark Knight Rises. I’m not saying that it was a rip-off because tons of films and shows have city fights like that. Although knowing that Arrow has always been heavily inspired by Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight trilogy, it just made me wish that the final showdown had been something different. I’m glad that Oliver killed Damien because 1) it was absolutely needed and 2) I just wanted some revenge for Laurel. Although the killing of Damien didn’t have that pop effect that I thought it would.
Which is one of the overall problems with this season finale which I will say was an improvement from last year’s finale. “Schism” wasn’t horrible, but it just didn’t have anything that made it stand out. The whole thing with Diggle, Thea and Quentin leaving didn’t have a huge effect because they have sort of been hinting for weeks now since Laurel died that this team would possibly not be standing by the end of the season. Given that no announcement was made tonight that any of them are exiting the show: that is also another sign that this is just temporary as they will have all come together by the time we are done with the first half of Season 5. The thing that would have had an impact was if Felicity had decided to leave too because then it would have felt like Oliver was now completely alone. Yet she is the one that stays and the finale does what we saw last season by ending the season with a shot at the two of them in the lair, which just makes it feel like it was an Oliver/Felicity season finale, not an Arrow season finale.
Overall, “Schism” was a solid season finale that wrapped everything up both in the past (ish) and the present, but just didn’t have anything to make it stand out, compared to the season finales of The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, Supergirl and Gotham.
Arrow, which has been renewed for Season 4, will return this fall on its regular timeslot on Thursday nights at 8/7c on The CW.
[Photo: Bettina Strauss/The CW]
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