Saturday, May 16, 2015

Arrow- My Name Is Oliver Queen

Previously, impressed that Oliver survived their first battle to the death, Ra's Al Ghul extends the offer to be his successor. At first it seemed optional, but then the League of Assassins start killing people in Starling City, framing the Arrow in the process. His identity is revealed to Quentin Lance, who was already angry over learning Sara was dead. Roy Harper takes the fall, revealing himself as the Arrow and goes to prison in Oliver's place. ARGUS helps fake his death in prison and Roy is sent away.
The flashbacks reveal a horrible virus was unleashed in Hong Kong which resulted in the death of Akio Yamashiro, the son of Oliver's handler Maseo. He eventually joined the League of Assassins, was given the name Sarab, and handed this virus over to Ra's Al Ghul.
As added incentive to get Oliver to accept his offer, Ra's personally invades Thea's apartment and stabs her in the chest. Oliver agrees so Thea can be revived with the Lazarus Pit. Unbeknownst to the rest of Team Arrow, Oliver enters in an agreement with Malcolm Merlyn to bring down the League from the inside. To everyone else, it seems Oliver, now called Al Sahim, has truly turned evil. The team, plus the Atom and Maseo's wife Tatsu (Katana), go to Nanda Parbat to stop the plot before it can begin. Sarab's death aside, the raid fails and the team gets captured. Al Sahim maintains his cover, and Ra's Al Ghul officiates the wedding of his reluctant daughter Nyssa and Oliver, while the virus is seemingly unleashed upon Team Arrow, plus Malcolm.

Malcolm managed to stealthily inoculate the others before they were taken prisoner, so nobody dies. To everyone's surprise, the Flash zooms through Nanda Parbat, knocking out every guard and letting the team out, likely the favor Oliver asked him for earlier. Felicity begs Barry for help, but he has to get back to Central City and interrogate Wells, but assures the team that Oliver needs them. While they suit back up, Tatsu returns to her life of solitude.

Meanwhile, Ra's, Oliver, and Nyssa were on their way to Starling City when their plane starts to fail. Oliver reveals his true intentions to Ra's, and a swordfight breaks out aboard the plane. Ra's escapes, the assassins are dealt with, and Oliver and Nyssa make an emergency landing.

Everybody regroups at Palmer Technologies, Diggle still reluctant to trust Oliver after everything, but they set their differences aside for the safety of the city. It's discovered that Ra's Al Ghul's old rival, Damien Dahrk, is also in Starling City, so that when the virus is unleashed, not only is Oliver's home wiped out, but Ra's disposes of his old rival. The team hatches a plan to exchange Dahrk for the virus while Laurel appeals to her father about the bioweapon threat and Ray works on dispersing a vaccine through the air on a large scale.

Thea also decides to get in on the action, wearing the Arsenal uniform Roy left with her during a brief reunion. It's then discovered that the virus has been injected into some of the League's pawns and spreads once their blood is exposed to the outside. The police and team work to keep it contained while Oliver confronts Ra's directly. A swordfight breaks out at the dam, Captain Lance and some other cops looking on ready to snipe whoever wins.

It's an important moment for Quentin. He started out as the Inspector Javert to Oliver's Valjean. Then he became the Commissioner Gordon to his Batman. After learning Sara died and the League framed him for murders, he fell off the wagon (in more ways than one) and became Javert again. Even so, he still had some moments of looking out for our heroes in the past few episodes. He made it clear to Laurel that he would always love her but might not ever forgive her for keeping Sara's death a secret (not to mention taking up the mantle of the Black Canary), but still went out of his way to protect her once gunfire broke out at the police station. When Roy Harper went to prison in Oliver's place, Lance tried to appeal to him to come clean with the truth, not wanting an innocent kid to get locked up for someone else's crimes, not to mention the many criminals the Arrow put away. And then when Roy was attacked and (seemingly) fatally stabbed in prison, he was perfectly sympathetic to Thea. Now, with Oliver's life on the line while he's trying to save the city, he doesn't want to see Queen get himself killed, so sends a message to Felicity.

Oliver wins the fight and stabs Ra's, who in turn passes a ring indicating the title of Ra's Al Ghul is now his, and then falls down dead. Sure enough, Oliver is shot in the chest by the police and then falls off the dam. Before he can hit the water, Felicity swoops in wearing Ray's Atom armor and saves him.

The show's flashback story also comes to a close. Oliver and Maseo torture and kill General Shrieve, the corrupt military man responsible for the Hong Kong outbreak and Akio's death. Akio's ashes are split into three urns; one for Maseo, one for Oliver, and one for Tatsu. They each go their separate ways; Maseo went to join the League of Assassins, Tatsu returned to Japan, but it's not clear where Oliver went, presumably back to Lian Yu, two years remaining until he is officially rescued.

Back in the present, our heroes decide to go their separate ways. With the Arrow identity no longer allowed to him, Oliver takes the opportunity to finally be with Felicity (she and Ray already broke up a couple episodes ago). He tells everybody how proud he is of the team, Thea ready to start crimefighting as Speedy, and Laurel having come into her own as the Black Canary. Their alliance at an end, Oliver hands Ra's Al Ghul's ring over to Malcolm, apparently part of their agreement all along, and so Merlyn returns to Nanda Parbat with Nyssa as the new head of the League of Assassins.

Back at Palmer Technologies, it looks like Ray is trying to get his suit to shrink, and instead results in an explosion. It's unlikely he gets killed (thanks to a third DC show in its way to the CW), but I'm curious to see how he survives, and how this ties into his earlier promoting Felicity to vice president.
Meanwhile, Felicity is driving off into the sunset with Oliver, and it's a seemingly happy ending for them.

All of this makes for a rather satisfactory season finale (and a good way to end the series just in case), but there's one thing I still don't understand: why did Malcolm drug Thea and make her kill Sara? While it's apparent he wanted to get the League of Assassins off his back without risking his own life, it's an incredibly convoluted method. Was taking over the League always part of his endgame, or was this just a bonus for him? Will the League be better or worse now that he's in charge? I hope he takes some time away from the series and lets the dust settle before coming back.

As for Oliver, with the Arrow's mantle retired, what does this mean for next season? It seems to indicate he'll take on the friendlier persona of Green Arrow from now on (something else indicated by Wells' Flash disapparance article that kept popping up), but how he does this without further compromising his no longer secret identity remains to be seen. Also, where will the flashbacks take us? Back to Lian Yu? On missions for ARGUS with the Suicide Squad? I look forward to finding out.

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