Arrow season 3 finale (episodes 20-23) review

It's time for the final episodes of season 3 of Arrow, can it make up for the bad buildup with a kick-ass finale... spoiler alert, no!

The Fallen

Why is it the episodes either not starring Oliver Queen in Starling City or not in Starling City at all seem to be the best ones.

So this week, Ollie plans to save Thea’s life by taking her to the Lazarus pit and what I said about the Lazarus pit not driving people temporarily insane, turns out I was wrong and it did just that. But it can also heal minor wounds, something it would not do in the comics.

So he does but Thea does not come back whole, at least not at first, she seemed to have forgotten about everything from the last 2-and-a-half years except for Malcolm Merlyn being her father but I think she’s back mostly undamaged by the end.

Diggle’s talk with Maseo was a great moment for their respective characters. And we find out about what we’d suspected for a while. His son died during the China flashback era.

Ollicity, let’s get to this point. So Ray confronts Felicity over the kiss she and Oliver had in the last episode, and he realises that they’re still in love. Ra’s encourages her to share her feelings with him before it’s too late, and because Oliver is suddenly not by his sister’s side, they do (it.) Aside from the fact that Ollie should really have been at Thea’s side, I have no opinion on this whatsoever, but it did lead to an incredibly goofy plan to try and get Ollie out, which ultimately failed.

Malcolm is wasted as a… Well, I can’t really say hero but… Not-villain. His character hasn’t done squat in weeks. Come on, if you’re gonna make Malcolm something, have him do something!

In the Flashbacks, we see them go after the virus, eventually dealing with the guards of a decoy truck then eventually heading into the main streets of China, after a struggle, the virus is released. It’s still not all that interesting, although some words from Tatsu in the flashback do inspire Maseo’s actions in the present (although it’s taken him what 5 years to remember them?)

Rating 8/10

Ah Sah-him

Season 3 of Arrow just has not been on par with the other series, the lead villain’s motivations aren’t all that interesting and they seem intent on reminding us of comic book plots every time he’s on screen, except these comic book plots involved Batman!

Anyway, so Ollie is put under some hypnotic bullsh*t from Ra’s al Ghul and is forced to fight what he thinks is Diggle, turns out it isn’t Diggle at all but just a pawn from the league for Ollie to kill. Ra’s then reveals the origins of the HIVE organisation that’s likely to be the villains in the next season (please, please be more interesting than these guys) headed by Damian Dahrk

Anyway, so he’s sent to Starling City to capture Nyssa and bring her back to Nanda Parbat. This leads him back into conflict with his former allies. It’s nice to see Felicity and Diggle together in their optimism. Ollie is not easily broken, we’ve seen him withstand torture in the flashbacks but whatever Ra’s did to him, it broke him entirely and he’s not the man he once was. I have no idea whether he can be that man again but he’s in the Flash in a couple of weeks, so we can assume this change is not permanent.

That being said, it does set up an interesting status for our characters. Turns out Laurel didn’t tell Nyssa that Ollie had taken the place of Ra’s (because you know, holding things back before worked so well for her) the news clearly has her worried. Nyssa’s development in this episode makes me hope she survives this. Seeing a more relaxed Nyssa, still haunted by her past but able to move past it and live a more comfortable life is more interesting that Ollie and his guilt complex of the week.

It’s actually also interesting seeing Ollie as a villain of the series. We can truly see how his mind works with him knowing exactly what he had to do to draw Nyssa out. Kidnapping Layla was a bold move and provided the foundation for an excellent action scene with the introduction of Thea Queen as a new arrow wielding hero.

My one question is why Paul Blackthorne was credited in this episode? I’ve made it very clear that I am not a fan of his developments in the back half of the season. Resenting the Arrow for hiding Sara’s death is one thing, hunting him believing him to be a murderer despite plenty of evidence against that theory is something else entirely. But I’m going off topic. I’m kinda glad he isn’t in this episode, his character assassination this series has been painful to watch

Rating 7.5/10

This is your sword

And I hope you fall on it!

So, it was all part of Oliver’s master plan to infiltrate the league of assassins and bring it down from the inside, and the only person he trusted with this intel is MALCOLM f*cking MERLYN! And how did he just randomly appear in Nanda Parbat after talking to Thea in the last scene anyway?

Also, of all the people that could possibly help Ollie convince the others he’s faking it, Tatsu? Really? My god folks we’ve reached a level of stupidity so rarely seen on TV these days (outside of Teen Titans Go) it makes me want to puke

So, Tatsu faces off against Maseo in a battle for his soul, that was sort of interesting (although the way it was built up was ridiculous) there were a few funny moments and the scenes between Roy and Thea were generally well handled.

Erm, there’s no stupidity with Quintin which is good, and actually some of the character interactions are decent, it’s just the stupidity of the story dragging everything down, and I don’t necessarily blame the writer for this. Because of the serialised nature of the show there were likely plot beats in this story he/she had to hit.

The other problem this episode has is its sister series the Flash. Promotional materials for the next episode of that show Oliver in his Ah Sah-him costume helping out the Flash. Since Ra’s al Ghul most likely wouldn’t care about Wells, it’s certain that Oliver will not remain Ah Sah-him very long (if the premise itself didn’t make that obvious.) Although the scheduling of the episodes means that Tuesday’s the Flash will be ahead in time from Wednesday’s ‘I am Oliver Queen’

Felicity just signed some papers without looking at them? (They were transfer of ownership papers, what the hell?) Diggle’s got anger issues, unsurprisingly (Oliver’s plan relies on p*ssing them all off) not a great plan

Rating 6/10

My name is Oliver Queen

For 5 years I was stranded on a Hellish island, and now I’m cursed to say variations on this phrase OVER AND OVER AGAIN!!!

OK, now yesterday's Flash episode really doesn't make any sense! So Oliver, whilst still part of the League of Assassins managed to travel from Nanda Parbat to Starling City, pick up a nanite plot-convenience device for an arrow, travel to Central City, help defeat the reverse Flash and ask the Flash for a favour (which ultimately was the rescue) and ALL WITHOUT THE LEAGUE NOTICING?

So yeah, much like the Flash yesterday, most of team arrow was saved by the magic of a gratuitous cameo, oh and Malcolm Merlyn inoculating people via Oliver’s skin grafts. Tatsu decided the writing was too terrible for her character and left.

Yeah, this was not a great finale, I’m sorry to say… But it’s been built on the flimsiest of foundations anyway, that this was inevitable. The last few weeks, really most of the back half of the seasons has been dreadfully weak. Given that I gave the mid-season finale a 9.5, and the highest score I gave any episode past that is an 8 (and to be honest, I may have been a bit generous with some of them) isn’t great, especially since in past seasons, the build-up to the finale is the best part. 

There are some really delightful moments, but the problems linger. The plan is still dumb, the Damian Daahrk element felt forced, plot convenience came to the forefront thanks to magical inoculation, and there’s always the rip-off Iron Man suit I can make fun of (although, if Ray’s tests are anything to go by, assuming he survived, I may yet stop using this remark)

So Oliver’s plan was to sabotage the plane and send Ra’s and himself falling to their deaths, what he didn’t count is the plane having a parachute. DUMBEST PLAN EVAH!!!!

So Ra’s escapes and it’s up to team Arrow to contain the virus and disperse the antidote. And thankfully a little bit of redemption for Quintin as Laurel slaps some sense into him, and he actually starts doing something!

So Oliver faces Ra’s off once again rather than sticking around to contain the virus first because THAT WOULD ACTUALLY MAKE SENSE. And of course the fight goes on and bla, bla, bla, Diggle punches Oliver in the face, it was my favourite part of the episode.

Thea takes on the guise of Red Arrow/Speedy, Oliver decides to go away with Felicity, Diggle decides to walk away for the time being, Malcolm Merlyn gets the rank of Ra’s al Ghul (he survived being by Ra’s blade, so prophecy fulfilled?) and Nyssa stays with him to erm… to erm… kill him? Ray blows up his lab

Oh yeah the Flashbacks, absolutely nothing happened! Oliver decided to stay in China because… We’ve still got 2 more years before he returns. Maseo walks away to join the League and Tatsu leaves for Japan. So glad that nothing was accomplished with these flashbacks at all, can’t wait to see exactly where these are leading next season…. Yeah, I’m not gonna be doing regular reviews of season 4, instead I’ll be covering the spin-off series Legends of Tomorrow.

Rating 6/10

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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.