Well, the season finale for Arrow last night was not nearly as dramatic and crazy like The Flash but it did end with team arrow…disbanded.
Oliver and Felicity are the only members of team arrow while the rest of the team struggle with their own demons. Thea left the team to reflect on her struggles and find her peace, mostly due to her daddy issues with Malcolm. Diggle left to enlist in the army again leaving Lyla and her daughter. We can’t forget about Quentin Lance, who left his job and left the city with Felicity’s mother. I’m sure they’ll be back in season 5 when the new threat arrives in Star City.
This episode, overall, was pretty strong. The rubicon dilemma was giving me such a headache but you can’t have an Arrow episode without some hacking by Felicity Smoak. It gave some dramatic flair to it when the missile was flying towards the city and then Felicity and Curtis hacking into the missile at the last possible second. The fight between Dhark and his ghosts vs. Oliver and the city was pretty awesome to see. Knowing that Dhark was a former League of Assassins member, it was cool to see that sort of combat against Oliver. It was quite a fight but in the end, Oliver had the final blow and delivered the arrow right through Dhark’s heart. Yes, I’m happy Dhark is gone but it does leave Dhark’s daughter with no parents. It makes me wonder if we’ll ever see her again in future episodes/seasons. But, before the final fight, I was impressed with Oliver’s speech just like everyone else was. That moment really shown Oliver’s character more as a person than a hero. Every word he spoke touched not only the city but to the audience as well. So, it was interesting to see Oliver officially become Mayor at the end because of his one speech. Looks like he has a lot of work to do as the Green Arrow and Mayor of Star City.
Season 4 of Arrow, I feel, was not as impressive as I’d hoped it be. I believe that you can’t have a great hero unless you have a great villain. Neal McDonough as Dhark was awesome but he didn’t have that “it” factor like Malcolm Merlyn and Slade Wilson had in season 1 & 2. Ra’s al Ghul in season 3 was good but I feel like, since then, the show is straying from Oliver’s heroic tale but more on Oliver and Felicity. The end scene with Felicity staying by Oliver is foreshadowing that there’s still hope for the both of them. Flash backs this season lacked the correlation to Star City like it did the first 2 seasons. It just didn’t flow well with story and it didn’t make sense. After the events on Lian Yu, Oliver is keeping his promise and go to Russia, which I’m sure will be the flashbacks for the next season. But, this will also be Oliver’s last year of flashbacks before being rescued. So, he’ll probably go to Russia and end up being back on Lian Yu. The writers and directors will have a tough time with season 5. I feel like this has to be the grand showcase of Oliver being a hero and to correlate that through the flashbacks on his last year on the island. I might be unrealistic but that’s what I want for this show. What do you all think?