Damn – that’s how you do a season finale, Arrow. “Unthinkable” hit the ground running and didn’t let up once; the breakneck pace saw the return of multiple characters (some presumed dead, because Arrow), the death of one, the departure of a few more, and revelation after revelation.
Everything is still going to shit in Starling City. The Mirakuru Army (I’ve decided to use that phrase instead of “lil’ Deathstrokes”) is running amok, but luckily the cure seems to work, as Roy wakes up at the beginning of the episode. He does so right in time for Team Arrow to be screwed, as a bunch of Mirakuru soldiers are making their way up the clocktower stars. Oliver, Diggle, Felicity, and Roy all escape via kick-ass zipline, right before the clocktower – and the soldiers inside – get blown the hell up by none other than Lyla Michaels. One hell of a cold open.
Elsewhere, we find out that Malcolm Merlyn is still alive. Of course he’s still alive. He explains to Thea, “It’s called Kevlar,” as he hands her the bullet she shot him with. Thea, have you seen how ridiculously bulky Malcolm’s getup is? Even without Kevlar it’d probably stop a bullet. Thea tells him that if she sees him again she’ll kill him (which must be a pretty hollow threat to Malcolm, as both of his children have tried to do so) and goes to meet Roy at his place.
(Deep breath)
Sara and Laurel are at the police station with Quentin. Laurel is ordered to stay put, but is almost immediately tranquilized by Nyssa, Ra’s al-Ghul’s daughter and Sara’s erstwhile lover from the League of Assassins. This is for her own protection, as the League gets together with Team Arrow for a Rumble in the Bronx Tunnel Out of Town. I gotta say, thank God for this cure. Is it something of a deus ex machina? Yes and no. Cures for diseases are routinely made out of the same bacterial strains, so it’s at least somewhat rooted in reality, and more importantly, it offers a way to defeat Mirakuru soldiers without blowing them up or electrocuting them, which was becoming old hat. Oliver is still trying to cling to his “no kill” policy, which is impressive. Stephen Amell sells the hell out of his performance tonight as a man desperately clinging to a moral code that may not only be antiquated but could possibly get him killed.
After Nyssa kills Isabel and most of the Mirakuru Army is either incapacitated or exploded, Oliver takes Felicity back to the mansion, where he tells her to stay. He says Slade will take Laurel because he wants to hurt the woman Oliver loves, but that woman…is Felicity. “I love you,” he says. I was honestly shocked by this; they’ve been teasing it for a while and I expected them to keep doing so. I’m convinced that a good 80% of Arrow‘s female viewers didn’t see the end of the episode because they raced to their computers to start writing fan fiction about “Olicity.”
(Inhales from oxygen tank)
Thea, left alone in Roy’s house, does some snooping and finds arrows and various other vigilante impedimentia under his bed, causing her to leave.Diggle and Lyla storm ARGUS, after releasing Deadshot to act as backup, and demand that Amanda Waller cancel the drone strike. This leads to a Mexican standoff where Amanda reveals that Lyla is pregnant. Wouldn’t be a season finale without a surprise pregnancy! Let’s look at our checklist: someone alive who we thought was dead, check; someone pregnant, check; now all we need is for the bad guy to be vanquished.
Oliver and Slade fight, and it does not disappoint, but a bigger event happens first. Namely, Felicity giving Slade the Mirakuru cure. The whole “I love you” scene was just a feint – Oliver knew that Slade was spying on him, so if he could get Felicity kidnapped, he knew Slade would be too focused on Oliver to notice that she had a syringe full of the cure. She sticks him with it, but it doesn’t seem to slow him down much during the fight. As he helpfully explains, “It wasn’t the Mirakuru that made me hate you.” Slade is a man of barely contained rage on a good day, and Oliver never sees him on a good day.
The fight is masterfully edited. Actually, it might be the best fight that Arrow has ever done. Present-day Oliver and Slade transition seamlessly to the Oliver and Slade of the past, fighting aboard the Amazo. Both fights end in similar fashions: on the Amazo, Slade was trapped under a falling beam and Oliver put an arrow through his eye (with his hand, not a bow, which I thought was a nice touch); in Starling City, he’s bound and tied to a pillar. Will Oliver kill him? No, but it’d be a hell of a lot more convenient for him if he did. Arrow wants to keep Slade Wilson in its back pocket. The Green Arrow has never had the deep bench of villains that Batman enjoys, so it makes sense that they’d want to keep one around for future use. Deathstroke is the show’s rainy day villain. In any case, Slade’s capture convinces Amanda to call off the drone strike.
Sara leaves with the League of Assassins, and gives Laurel her coat. Will Laurel be the new Black Canary? I don’t care! Because right away, Quentin has what looks like a heart attack, but nope, he got poisoned during a fight with a Mirakuru soldier. Is Quentin going to die? Again, no. Arrow isn’t going to kill a main character off screen between seasons. This is the CW, not HBO.
Thea leaves too, but with Malcolm. For the first time in a long time, I’m interested in a Thea Queen plotline. Sorry, Thea Merlyn. Man, people on this show have the best last names.
The last revelation “Unthinkable” offers is that Oliver and Amanda Waller had a previous working relationship, during the five years he was supposedly marooned on an island. Well, I guess Hong Kong is an island too, so you got me on semantics, Arrow.
This season has been sometimes good and sometimes great. There were some truly classic episodes, like “Suicide Squad” and “Deathstroke,” and some filler like “Time of Death.” All in all, it rebuilt nicely from the literal rubble of season one. And with the DC Universe expanding on TV thanks to The Flash and Gotham, I can’t wait to see where Arrow takes us next.
Season Grade: 4.5/5
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