Hey guys!! With
With the writers finally listening to their social media buzz and ratings, and Shadowhunters falling faster from grace in my eyes than my grades, Arrow is looking up for the future. Oliver and Felicity had some necessary communication and made some major breakthroughs in uncovering the underlying causes of their breakup while they were trapped under the lair together, with the rest of Team Arrow trying to figure out a way to get their friends out before they suffocated. With a side story of John and Lyla working through their trust issues, I thought it was a nice parallel to the leading couple. David Ramsey himself has stated that Dyla is the future Olicity, and I'm here for it. All in all, the episode was rife with tension, as well as a perfect amount of action, dialogue, and of course, chemistry. (That OTA scene at the end of an injured and bleeding Oliver carrying Felicity, and the legend John Diggle, carrying the both of them still makes my palms sweat.)
In addition, we got to see some flashbacks of Oliver and Felicity barely being able to keep their eyes (and hands!!!) off each other during the early stages of their breakup, which I'm sure we all thoroughly appreciated. (Wink wink.) While I still maintain that their breakup was unnecessary, Oliver and Felicity actively working through their problems is much, MUCH, better than the alternative: the writers shoving forced love interests on the both of them, like they did in season 5A.
Once this monumental barrier has been overcome, Oliver and Felicity start to get their flirt on again when Felicity throws him a birthday party. Unfortunately, this adorably domestic sequence gets interrupted by Chase, who kidnaps all of Oliver's friends/teammates and takes them to Lian Yu. Oliver needs all hands on deck, and we see the return of Nyssa Al Ghul, Slade Wilson, and Malcolm Merlyn, leading up to the tense season finale, aptly titled "Lian Yu".
Personally, this was one of my favorite finales. The gang's all here, and we really get to see the amount of people Oliver has allowed into his life, and their unique individual impacts on him. Oliver has grown an incredible amount in the last few years, and we come full circle with the end of his 5 years in hell. The final flashbacks also answer a lot of questions, such as how Oliver came to be with that awful wig and goatee. We also get to see a touching scene of Oliver calling his mother to tell her he's coming home, a still painful reminder that both of his parents are long gone.
But back to the present - Oliver's crew comes to confront Chase's crew, which consists of Evelyn, Black Siren, Talia Al Ghul, and Digger Harkness, who is revealed to have secretly been working with Chase all along. Once Chase admits he kidnapped William, Oliver's son and the catalyst for the Olicity breakup, Oliver implores the rest of the team to find a way off Lian Yu while he goes to save his son. Of course, with such an iconic, badass, and seemingly indestructible villain who's always 10 steps ahead, Oliver gets William back, but at the expense of the rest of the team when Adrian kills himself and blows up the whole island, leaving us to wonder who makes it out alive, and who won't. By the way, I'm really going to miss Josh Segarra. Bring him back as Vigilante, writers!!!!!
There's a lot to unpack in this suspenseful, jaw-dropping, well-acted season finale, so here we go! First and foremost, I am proud of the development baby Team Arrow has gone through this season. The newbies have truly grown on most of the audience, and my favorite, Dinah Drake, is the badass, intelligent Black Canary of color we always deserved. One of my favorite moments is when Quentin even acknowledges her as the Black Canary, as she goes off against Black Siren in a Canary Cry-off and nearly defeats her. I never liked Laurel (that's putting it nicely), and think that Katie Cassidy only has the temperament for villains, so Black Siren is a slight step-up. That being said, I still don't want her to be a series regular next season, given that all her annoying ass fans will come back to complain about a show they claim to hate. And if that sounds hypocritical, at least my complaining has a justified purpose. I hope Dinah and the others will get to interact with Thea and Felicity a lot more next season, and that we'll get to see the blossoming friendships on screen. Now that I'm thinking about it, give Felicity her company back. Why was she even fired again?
Next on the list is Oliver and Felicity's "just in case" kiss (!!!!!!!). Just typing that out made me giddy again, wow. After a whole year and more of dangling maybes (see what I did there?) in front of Olicity fans, the writers have finally blessed us with their reunion. And for all the haters who are insisting/hoping that Felicity didn't make it off the island, you're all delusional and stupid, bye. I'm excited to see how their second try at a relationship will improve upon the mistakes they made before. I'm also excited to see Felicity's interactions with William and talk of possibly starting a family with Oliver, which leads me to my third point: doting dad!Oliver is something I never knew I needed until now.
Oliver's (or maybe Stephen's) instinctive protectiveness of the people he loves shined, and Stephen absolutely nailed the scene in which he saves William from Chase's hand. The way he cradles his son is truly beautiful, and shows how far Oliver Queen has grown from the drunken billionaire playboy he was a decade ago. Though I initially resented William, I truly hope that he'll get to play a bigger part in Team Arrow's lives, making some very domestic and fluffy fanfiction headcanons come true as well.
Of course, this is the Arrow writers we're talking about, and their quality of writing is all over the place, so it's far too early to get my hopes up. After witnessing the painful ups and downs of this season, I hope the writers can combine the most popular elements of the show into a strong season 6.
That's all for today, folks! Stay tuned for more recaps like this, and possibly comment some of your thoughts if you agree or disagree.
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