It has been a long and bumpy road, but here we are, the season three finale of Arrow. Ra's plans on releasing the Alpha & Omega bioweapon on Starling City and Oliver and Team Arrow must work together to try and prevent it from happening, Ray releases a vaccine, saving everyone and Oliver fights Ra's and kills him. In the end, Oliver retires from being a superhero to be with Felicity, Thea is now Speedy (called it!), they hint at Diggle getting a mask, Malcolm becomes the new Ra's Al Ghul and Ray apparently blows up...what an odd place to end it. Meanwhile in the flashbacks, Oliver tortures general whatshisface for releasing the bioweapon and the wheels are set in motion for Maseo joining the league and Tatsu going into a life of exclusion, while Oliver says that it's not time for him to go home yet as he doesn't want his family to see him this dark.So in comparison to other season finales, this is the most underwhelming, they yet again decide to put the city in danger again except the dilemma is solved so quickly that it feels more like a background point, as if they fix the problem just as quick as it arrives, really undermining the danger that this is supposed to have. More focus is given on the fight between Oliver and Ra's, which is great if you want your finale to be smaller and more personal, but trying to have both just weakens each other. The fight itself was underwhelming because of how little detail there is surrounding it, the police officers are on the bridge ready to shoot despite the fact that they have no evidence to prove that these guys are responsible, any reason to know that they are there or why they should shoot on sight instead of arresting them. Not to mention that they just glance over the fact that Oliver kills Ra's despite Oliver not killing, if there was no other option then they should probably put some more emphasis on that fact and give him some reaction, he's gone two years not killing anyone and now he breaks that oath with no worries?
Then there is the wrap-up at the end, i like how they ended things for Malcolm, Nyssa and Thea, they fit perfectly with where they've been developing their characters all season and seems like a logical place for them to end up. Diggle didn't even seem to have any kind of closure apart from them planting the seeds of him wearing a mask, which i guess does reflect how very little he's had to do this season. Ray just blowing up came completely out of nowhere, and didn't he sign over the company to Felicity anyway? They set that up last week and they're already ignoring it? Then there is Oliver's decision to just abandon his post to be with Felicity, now on one hand this does make sense, the whole season has spent a lot of time showing how Team Arrow can function without Oliver, but him just up and leaving, throwing caution to the wind seems like a pretty big leap. Then there is Laurel and Captain Lance, who didn't even get a scene giving them closure, there was a discussion about their alcoholism and Lance now trusts Team Arrow again (even though he says in the episode that he still doesn't) but there was no closure, they don't reunite or say they never want to see each other again, nothing.
I haven't really spoken about Matthew Nable's performance as Ra's Al Ghul, mostly because i was waiting to see the full extent of his role. I can safely say that Matthew did a good job as Ra's, he came across as intellectual, intimidating, physically threatening, i very much enjoyed him in the role. My problems will him lie solely in the writing, that being they pretty much made him an intellectual jesus; by that I mean he always knew what everyone else was planning and what they were going to do before anyone actually did it, why? Because the writers said he knew, except of course when Oliver was going to betray him, he didn't see that coming, yet every move Oliver made after that he knew it every step of the way...how the fuck does he do that exactly? So overall, he was a good villain, not a great one, I still think Deathstroke was a cooler villain.
The flashbacks for this season have been the most pointless, adding very little to the overall plot and being so stretched out that some episodes only give us one flashback scene, showing how little plot they actually had for this story and it probably could have been finished halfway through the season if they didn't feel the need to draw it out so much. Also repeating what they did last year of having the flashbacks have story motifs reflecting what's going on in the present (The alpha & omega weapon) didn't flow nearly as well as last season and it shows a pattern that this show is going to repeat each season. Last season the flashbacks did feed into the overall story of the season but they also had their own story to tell and it was well paced and engaging on it's own, these flashbacks didn't have that.
So given what was set up for next season (which was honestly very little) here's what i except/hope will happen next season. So with Oliver and Felicity gone and Ray apparently blown up, what remains of Team Arrow is Diggle, Thea & Laurel, they'll realise that they can't handle this on their own, the show will play it up that they need Oliver even though really they'll need Felicity. Oliver and Felicity will return but because Oliver can't be The Arrow, he'll have the new identity of Green Arrow (Because it's about goddamn time!). With Ray they'll just do what they did with Barry, put him in hospital until his spin-off show starts. We will see very little of Malcolm and Nyssa because this is where their involvement in the story ends. And Diggle will get a mask and a secret identity finally, whatever that is, i don't know, probably not Green Lantern as everyone keeps guessing (Especially seeing as Flash made a hint towards Hal Jordan yesterday) As for a major baddie or story-arcs for next season, i have no idea because they didn't really give us any clue, this season was obviously going to be Ra's because they set it up that way, next season could be anything.
So overall this was an okay season finale for an okay season. This season has had a handful of great things about it, but the bad stuff sticks out more so. The story this season felt very padded, as did the flashbacks which were very poorly paced, the focus on Oliver and Felicity's romance was awful, Oliver himself wasn't even that good of a character this season and the plot holes were more present than ever. But the good things still remain, the supporting cast were better than ever, both in terms of acting and character growth, the action was still great and the production value has been slowly improving.
I give the season three finale of Arrow a 7/10
I give the whole of season three of Arrow a 5/10
Was a disappointing year, not gonna lie, but hopefully things will be better next year.
-Danny
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