TV Retrospective: Arrow Season 2 episodes 22-23 review

And so we come to the last TV Retrospective on Arrow, I can't believe I have already done 15 of these, but it's time to do TV Retrospectives on other shows, Starting with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. yay!

Anyway, let's cut to the chase and see what the last two episodes of Season 2 of Arrow have to offer

Streets of Fire

So, Felicity uses her truck to save Diggle, Laurel and Oliver save eachother, Quintin manages to find greneades to use against his soldier. Sebastian calls off the national guard and assures DA Spencer to remain calm. Thea meanwhile is saved by Malcolm Merlyn, perfect

The courier delivering the cure crashed, Oliver and co are en-route, but Slade knows this and is en-route too. Lance has his detective shield back and Laurel has the help of Sara. Sebastian is not best pleased when DA spence is killed by a Mirakuru soldier, gee, maybe your crazy plan was too crazy. I mean seriously, what did he think was going to happen?

Thea’s still scared of Malcolm, not surprising. Even when Malcolm offers to help. Sebastian hears the full extent of Slade’s plan, let it burn. Sara confides in Laurel some of what happened to her, and what she reveals doesn’t faze Laurel at all. This is the Laurel I actually don’t mind watching

Team Arrow approach the cure but Slade’s men get there first, killing the courier and snatching the cure. They decide to relocate from the foundry, knowing Slade has confronted them there before. Sara saves a family as the Canary, and Malcolm defeats the Slade soldier again.

Sebastian decides enough is enough, and steals the Mirakuru cure. Sebastian gives back the cure, and reveals that Slade plans to kill whoever he loves most. And he’s somehow stupid enough not to think that Slade would come after him now.

Oliver is hesitant to test the cure on Roy, especially with Felicity’s objections. Meanwhile the ‘army’ has arrived but there’s no way they could’ve arrived this quickly when the nearest army base is 300 miles away. Quintin alerts the Arrow. It’s ARGUS, Amanda cannot let them leave the city and is planning to blow up the city at dawn to contain them. This motivates him to test he cure on Roy.

Thea finds a gun and aims it at Malcolm, she shoots him

On the Island, Oliver has his Russian friend aim a torpedo at the AMAZO, before coming aboard to rescue Sara and potentially cure his friend. But Slade has broken into the safe and has the cure.

Rating 9/10

Unthinkable

Lots of recap for this one, pretty much Oliver and Slade’s entire history from the Island to now.

Slade’s men attack the tower, Roy’s awake and team Arrow bail, allowing Lyla to blow up the tower with her helicopter. Well, that’s a dozen of them dead. They return to the Verdant, realising that it had indeed been compromised (which means it was a great idea to come back here rather than using his top secret secondary facility) Lyla came for Diggle, and they’re off to slow Argus down.

Thea’s shots accomplish about as much as you’d expect given it’s Malcolm Merlyn. Bullet proof vest. Thea walks away. Meanwhile it’s a massacre out there as police are dropping like flies, Sara has disappeared, Laurel finds her talking with Nyssa, but Nyssa knocks her out.

Roy remembers nothing after leaving for Bludhaven, Felicity assures him he was out the whole time. Sara has brought the League of Assassins into the game. Roy’s given a mask and proceeds to call Thea. The last time they were together in his mind they broke up and in reality, he was ready to kill her, this should be an awkward conversation….

Malcolm warns that Roy is keeping secrets. Meanwhile Ollie, Sara and the league invade the old QC building, and they bring down everyone except Slade, who gets away, whilst Nyssa taunts Oliver for his choice not to kill. One of Slade’s men takes Laurel and now even Quintin wants the Arrow to get back to killing… Jeez, does no-one remember these were people, admittedly most of them career criminals. Felicity gives him a piece of advice that actually flipping works.

Roy continues to lie straight to Thea’s face, the worst bit is I think he actually means some of it. Roy tells Thea he’s never losing her again, and by the end of the episode he’s lost her. Ollie takes Felicity to the Queen Mansion to protect her, telling her that he loves her and casually providing fan bait for all the Ollicity shippers out there.

So, it’s the all-out battle as the armies of Slade and Oliver duke it out, seriously though what’s with all the readys, just fire already! They kick their asses but Thea discovers a bow and Arrow (where did he get those, I thought the Arrow only provided them very recently) Diggle and Lyla release the suicide squad in an attempt to stop Waller, who then reveals that Lyla is pregnant.

Slade now has Felicity and Laurel but it was a trap, Oliver used the cameras that Slade planted that have been entirely useless in advancing his plan to trick Slade, Felicity has the cure and stabs Slade with it.

So, FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! Slade falls and Amanda calls back the drone. Sara leaves with Nyssa claiming she’d die before letting anything happen to Sara, well… that worked out well. But Quintin falls from his injuries. Roy arrives home to find a letter, Thea’s gone away with Malcolm Merlyn. Thea says she’s never coming back… Yeah, that’s gonna work out well for her.

Slade wakes up on a prison, on Lian Yu.  Where he taunts Slade by saying, it’s his fault Oliver is alive in the first place. Slade essentially says “f*ck you, this ain’t over” he’s on a secret Argus prison on Lian Yu. Which is unstaffed so how the hell does anyone survive it?

On Lian Yu, it all happens as you’d expect. Oliver fights Slade, Sara is dragged into the water, the torpedo is fired at the AMAZO, some debris traps Slade, Oliver kills him with an arrow, and doesn’t give him the cure (it’s not like the Mirakuru didn’t bring him back from the dead before and how the heck did the Deathstroke mask end up on the beach that way? Slade wasn’t even wearing the mask when he was killed.

Oliver wakes up in China, Amanda Waller would have words with him.

Rating 9.5/10

And so brings my retrospectives on Arrow to an end, after a couple of one-shots for Spider-man month, I’ll be drawing my focus to Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 1

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Images used in this review are from Arrow and belong to their respective owners. All images in this review are subject to fair use.