Season 7 episode 22 “The battle between Oliver and Emiko comes to a boiling point which brings back some familiar faces and leaves others in dire jeopardy.”
The Good & The Bad
The Good
1. Finale time, and what a finale it truly was! Let’s begin with the multiple returns to the show. We see Curtis, Laurel, and Bronze Tiger return to help Team Arrow with the Ninth Circle and Emiko. For me, usually, this is what I love about the finales. The returns. It’s always so nice to see some great characters return, especially Bronze Tiger. It would have been great to see Thea return, but we can’t win them all, can we?
2. Some of the fight scenes as a whole during the finale were incredible. Especially the scene where John, Roy, and Ben fight in the computer room. That was the highlight in terms of action, there was so much more. The flash forwards had some epic fight scenes. Mia was incredible. Emiko was equally as good. The first half of the episode was just filled with action. You need to see it for yourself.
3. Let’s talk about the 1v1, Oliver vs Emiko. This scene was amazing, showing the truth depths of brother and sister. Oliver wins the fight, after doing so the Ninth Circle shows up. A woman, unnamed throws a knife at Emiko which hits. After the shock hits, she throws another until Oliver stops it. After we see another epic fight scene. Oliver and Emiko, brother and sister, fight against the Ninth Circle. After they destroy the Ninth Circle, Emiko goes up against said woman, and she’s thrown through a wall. She dies, and predictably apologises to Oliver for everything. The building is rigged with explosives, and Oliver escapes. A quite shock ending to Emiko if I’m honest. I thought she would have lasted longer, but she had such a good run. It was a nice ending to Emiko, in such a way.
4. The flash forwards had some moving moments, we finally see the mantles being passed down to the younger generation. The flash forwards were extremely slow during the season, they picked up slightly the last couple episodes. My only annoyance with the flash forwards, as I feel they never served any real purpose to the present story. When we got flash backs, they build Oliver’s character up to the present. However, Mia was fantastic.
The Bad
My only bad with this finale was it ended a little too quickly. Emiko died in the first half of the show, after that it was emotional, understandably. I just feel like it could have been dragged on for a little bit longer as the action was great.
Holy Shit Moment
Stephen Amell has announced Arrow will be ending after a 10 episode stint for season 8. We all kind of figured it out that he will die during Crisis after making a deal with The Monitor. Well, he showed up at the end of the episode. He told Oliver he will die, and he cannot prevent his passing, however if they work together they can save the multiverse. This entire scene was incredibly overwhelming. I’ve been a fan of Arrow since the start, and knowing it’s ending soon got me emotional. He said his goodbyes to Felicity and baby Mia, and left.
At the very end, with the flash forwards after the mantle has been passed. Felicity meets with The Monitor who takes her through a breach to see “Oliver”. We know by the gravestone he dies in 2019, so definitely after the crossover this December. Questions did arise though. Is it the Oliver we know? Is it an Oliver that’s lost his Felicity as Felicity lost her Oliver? I’m confused. We know Emily is now officially finished with the show, I’m sure we will find out all the answers in season 8. It’s also rumoured Monitor will show up in all the Arrowverse finales. Will next season of Arrow be a Green Arrow and Monitor story ark? I’m intrigued.
Verdict
An emotional, well driven ending to season 7. Arrow had an incredible season right from the very beginning, and ended as well as it started. We got further insight to everything with The Monitor’s deal, and it’s definitely got me hyped for October to roll back around.
Rating: 9.7/10
