Warning: The following contains spoilers for Wednesday’s Arrow finale
It was (almost) the end of the world as we know it on Wednesday’s Season 4 finale of Arrow.
Picking up right where last week left off, Darhk starts tossing Curtis and Donna around like rag dolls, unless Felicity does his bidding. Oliver comes crashing in to the rescue, but is unable to repel Darhk’s magic. (Now that the baddie is powered by tens of thousands of Havenrock souls, Felicity’s hope in Oliver is not enough to help him resist Darhk’s abilities.) More bummer news: Having grabbed Felicity’s laptop with the Rubicon code, Darhk is able to launch 15,000+ missiles, giving the world just two hours before it all goes kablooey.
Dig and Lyla aren’t feeling too good about their prospects as they say their potential last words to baby Sara, while Felicity tasks Lance to drive himself and Donna out of town to the closest bunker. A glimmer of hope arrives when Curtis tells Oliver about how the Green Arrow gave him inspiration, which in turn prompts Oliver (as himself) to deliver a motivational speech to the rioting citizens of Star City, from atop a taxi cab. Meanwhile, Felicity and Curtis are able to hack and reroute the missile descending upon Star City, but there’s still thousands more to go. Can A.R.G.U.S. disseminate the hack code worldwide in time?
With the city now cheering him on, a glowy-eyed Oliver successfully repels Darhk’s magic as a street brawl erupts between the two camps. Eventually getting the upper hand, Oliver is poised to go in for the kill, but Darhk mocks his ability to do so — after all, didn’t he once spare the very man who slaughtered his mother? “You killed tens of thousands of innocents,” Oliver tells the man in his clutches. “With Slade Wilson, I had a choice. This time, I don’t” — and with that said, he drives an arrow into Darhk’s charcoal briquette of a heart.
With Darhk put down and “inverted horizons” exploding the missiles in space (precisely how TV’s other Hive recently died!), the team celebrates their huge win by… splitting up? A permanently jobless Lance and Donna leave town, Thea decides she’s out of the costumed crusader game and Dig, having confessed his not-good kill of Andy to Lyla, needs some time away from the city to get back on track. So he reenlists in the army!
As Oliver processes this disbandment as well as his offing of Darhk, he pays a visit to Laurel’s grave, where he observes,”You were always better than me, that’s what I loved most about you.” Felicity arrives to reassure her conflicted ex, “The same man who killed Damien Darhk in cold blood gave a city its hope back…. What you’re feeling isn’t darkness, it’s a schism. You’re at war with two sides of yourself.” Oliver then gets a call from a councilman, who proceeds to hand the city’s recent motivational speaker and onetime mayoral candidate an “interim appointment” to the office.
After being sworn in, we see Oliver taking in the wreckage of the lair and the abandoned hero costumes. Felicity enters, a bit to his surprise. “You thought I was leaving, too? Not a chance,” she asserts.
Meanwhile, what did the season finale’s flashbacks amount to? Hopefully, a new hope… for Season 5’s flashbacks. A power-hungry Taiana begs Oliver to kill her, so he snaps her neck (after apologizing for doing so, of course). He then radios Waller to get off the island. Will he take the A.R.G.U.S. boss up on the offer to drop in on “hot spots around the globe,” or will he go back to being a vigilante? “Neither,” he says. “I have a promise to keep.” Russia, here we come!
What did you think of the season-ending “Schism”?
meh…
My sentiments exactly.
I just watched the Flash Finale… Arrow needs to steal some of their writers. The character development at that show is AMAZING!
Yup. It was the same plot as 2×23 Uprising and 3×12 Unthinkable (and The Dark Knight Rises). The people of the city rally around the heroes to defeat the villain in a giant street brawl. I’m out.
They did the same thing to take Brick down.
And with that I am finished with Arrow. 4 seasons and with laurels death, fan service writing I am out.
I left long before Laurel’s death. I got tired of the doom and gloom, along with those annoying flashbacks.
I tried watching DC’s Legends of Tomorrow but that too I lost interest in.
I’ll stick with Greg Berlanti’s two other CW shows. The Flash and Supergirl.
I think it will be a better season 2. It did get better in the end of season 1 but LoT is more forgivable than Arrow with two bad seasons under their belt
I agree with you about the doom and gloom. It’s an insane and inane amount.
One of the showrunners said she likes to accent the emotional. Someone should clue her into the fact that sadness, despair and anger aren’t the only emotions. Her and Guggenheim seem to think that killing off characters is a great way to achieve emotional depth. It isn’t. It’s a lazy cop out that done too much just leaves a show empty.
Plus, although the Dark Knight started a trend of dark superheroes but many of us still want to see the “good guys” prevail and have the show balanced with some light.
ditto…. a little more light might give us some hope and give the characters something to lose. As it stands right now for some of them, dying looks like a good way to go ;) You turned Dig stupid when he believed his brother after YEARS of that boy lying, you took any conflict out the Felicity and Oliver’s relationship when you ENDED the relationship, and you killed laurel, for what reason? Seriously, she was a character we invested in. There aren’t enough of those on the show.
Meh…
it was an OK finale. This season was my least favorite they’ve done. Still not happy about watching it without Laurel next year…
Interesting, you thought it was worse than last season? I didn’t like this one, don’t get me wrong, but I still thought it was better than last year.
Everything is better than season 3. That was a mess.
S3 was horrible s4 was somehow even worse
Season 4 feels worse because I had so much hope it would be better than season 3, so the letdown is that much more painful.
Season 3 was awful. I watched 4 episodes. DVR the rest which was not worth it IMO. Season 4 started with promise with Darkh. But, the second half was so so. I cannot watch the ilrelevent flashbacks. This was my favorite show. This finale left me bewildered. So much promise lost with silly, stupid stuff lingering. They dropped the ball again.
Maybe Barry’s Flashpoint on The Flash will bring her back, lol.
Yeah no, that ain’t happening.
That was a depressing ending to a bad season that was once the flagship show of CW. The misuse of Neal McDonough, the obvious budget cuts, bad writing and catering to fan fiction crowd is the reason for the series low ratings this year.
No hope for this show next season getting back to S1/S2 levels
Sure there is. If they fire Wendy and Marc..
Totally agree about the budget cuts. When the show began it had an almost film quality about it. Now it just looks cheesy most of the time.
Part of that has to do with how many people are in the cast. It’s more cost effective to keep the cast small and rely on guest stars, but then that prevents us from having the character growth that we want. It’s a balancing game and the writers and producers dropped the ball.
I mean, Curtis was interesting and all, but he wasn’t essential to the show. Merlin is a great villain but it’s just the same old story with him.
The only upside is that I think the writers and producers have seen how unhappy people are. The way they ended the season seems like a good setup to bring back the core 3 of Oliver, Felicity, and Diggle next year.
That’s what they said after season 3 about season 4. Nope. They have lost the creative knack that’s needed for a show in its season 3,4,5 year range. I’ve watched shows that have lost their spark at the 3yr. Arrow is doing that too. I wish they’d learn from shows like NCIS, Friends, Law and Order, etc. Some shows have creative writers who keep the interest in their viewers. Even over multiple seasons. Arrow lost me last night.
From your mouth to Berlanti’s ears. The whole DC TV franchise has spread the good talent pretty thin among all four shows, with Arrow getting the leftovers. They’ve forgotten the basic tenant of storytelling: show, don’t tell. There’s a disconnect between writers and audience, where the writers are telling a completely different story from the one the audience is actually seeing.
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Go read critical reviews (from real TV critics) back in season 2. Over and over it’s the archer-soldier-hacker combo praised for making the show work. They’re not only the most effective crime-fighting team, they’re also the emotional heart that gives the show its high stakes.
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Oh, and I’ve said this somewhere else, but put a ring on it and move on.
1. The “fanfiction crowd” has every right consume media however they want. Using “catering to the fanfiction crowd” as a criticism invalidates that right. And by “fanfiction crowd” you probably mean shippers and are trying to hold back your misogynistic sneer. 2. You think the “fanfiction crowd” were catered to? Are Oliver and Felicity off on their Honeymoon to Bermuda? Nope. The “fanfiction crowd” think this season was just as crappy as everyone else.
It could have used a good cliffhanger, plot twist, omg what happens next moment.
i personally hate cliffhangers. I’m insulted to be treated as if without such gimmicks I wouldn’t be back. …..
Though occasdionslly the solution to the dilemma is entertaining.
Ugh no. Cliffhangers are one of the most annoying and useless gimmicks in TV. Wrap the story arc. If it was a good arc it feels satisfying and viewers look forward to the next arc.
It was meh finale to an overall meh season.
And what happened to the ripple effect of Barry’s decision. You can’t have multiple crossovers, then have Barry change history, and not have it effect the Arrowverse. I kept waiting for it at the end…and then nothing.
They may address it in the season premiere
That’s assuming that the events of the flash finale did in fact occur before the arrow finale. Remember, there were timing issues with the Supergirl crossover and Barry’s funeral crossover on Arrow as it pertains to the overall narrative.
The ramifications of Barry’s actions should be addressed in the fall on the Flash (obviously) and hopefully Legends and Arrow as well. To me, Flashpoint with elements of “Crisis” thrown in would be the perfect storyline for the November sweeps crossover (now that Legends and Supergirl are on the CW fall schedule).
I think people are making way too much out of The Flash finale. That will likely be resolved in the season premiere and have zero effect on the other shows.
That’s because, I suppose, that many people would like to see it. It has the virtue of never having been done before. I was hoping for an additional scene at the end of Arrow – something like Oliver is shown waking up next to someone we assume is Felicity, but turns out to be Laurel. I’m no big Laurel fan, but that would’ve been cool.
They should address it because now Barry saved his mom after losing his dad. That has major effect… it is like what happened with Felicity finding out about Oliver’s son. Oliver told Felicity just before Barry time traveled and she left. She had the same reaction in Arrow except Oliver chose not to tell her this time. She still threw a fit even though the mom said do not blame Oliver, I told him to keep it secret. It has some effect, but really not much when Barry turned time.
CANCEL ARROW….BRING BACK CONSTANTINE!!!
Keep arrow, bring back constantine, and have more with the two.
There was a reference in an earlier episode about the “darkness” being more than just Dark and his magic. It also said that there was more darkness coming.
Desperately anti-climactic! Honestly, the whole speech inspiring people just comes off cheesy in whatever show they try this tactic on. It never really works. Arrow really needs to do better. Season 3 and 4 have been quite bad. Not just mediocre, but flat out bad.
That was kind of funny.. In that he didn’t do it as the Green Arrow (so he could be mayor, I know), but why would all those people stop to listen to anyone on the roof of a cab when his voice is drowned out by the crowd itself?
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Also – nifty Canadian flag flying off a building down the street during Oliver’s “speech” that was funniest of all.
At least Henry from OUAT wasn’t delivering the speech.
lolz.
The Flash is honest-to-goodness the worst thing to happen to Arrow. The writers who made season 2 so phenomenal moved to Central City where you don’t need Percocet to have a happy moment. Among them was the person who tied everything together and made sure the season-long plots didn’t meander into WTF territory. Because the arcs for seasons 3 and 4? WTF territory.
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The first seven episodes of season 4 gave me hope: no time wasted on unnecessary Olicity drama! Let those two crazy kids be happy! They’re together, it works, the end. Original Team Arrow was back together! Kicking ass and then going out for cocktails together! Curtis was like old school Felicity with the comedy relief! Daddy Lance got told off and stopped being an a-hole!
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Sure, Thea’s bloodlust thing was iffy and Laurel was once again making stupid judgment calls then complaining about how hard it is for her, but at least Sara was back and Neal McDonough was Barrowman-at-his-best levels of delightful villain.
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Then the Baby Mama plot was reintroduced, and with the Baby Mama came the Olicity drama. What most people don’t get is shippers don’t need Olicity to be the focus of the show. Let them be happy. Let it be a given that they’re together. Put an effing ring on it and move on: that’s what makes shippers happy. The whole thing was distasteful and made no one look good (though not as distasteful as “celebrating” Ollie and Laurel’s “love story” practically on Tommy’s grave).
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The second half of the season was 100% terrible plotting, besides the “let’s do something stupid to cause ~drama!” stuff. Too much time was taken breaking down Oliver and Felicity’s relationship (seriously, It’s irresponsible to play Russian roulette with your characters, saying someone’s gonna die but having no clue who it’s gonna be… until Laurel suddenly became the most reasonable person in the lair.
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Then she dies because her dad pissed Darhk off and we were subjected to the “tragic love story” of Laurel and Ollie… Really?! Oliver’s the love of Laurel’s life?! Laurel’s death was all about her dad, and her life was all about her toxic relationship with Ollie. There’s no celebrating any other relationship we saw her form on the show, but we get one last chance to see how much the writers have no idea how their audience interprets things. Laurel Lance deserved far better, and I was rarely able to see her as a real person and not a poorly constructed character with terrible writing, played with tenacity by Katie Cassidy.
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It was a mediocre season that took a bunch of really strong elements that worked in previous seasons and completely misused them. Well, I can say with complete honesty that Arrow is the reason why I want to go into television: I’m 100% certain I can do a better job running this show than Guggenheim.
I guess DC had to balance out the great Flash finale doing Flashpoint, Legends of Tomorrow introducing the Justice Society and the amazing DC Universe Rebirth with something mediocre. I’d rather watch more Alphas than any more of the Olicity and Friends show.
Rebirth was amazing! Glad to see another reader on here!
meh finale!
That was an incredible episode and an awesome season finale. Can’t wait for next season!
Sorry fellas, but I loved this episode not every season finale has to end on a will-they-or-wont they-the world\demon\ex-lover is coming to get or us kind of a way,its nice to go out everyone intact if not mentally but physically sort of a way!jeff
Agree. It was a solid season finale. There’s some opportunities for solid storytelling in the future.
Same. I don’t need cliffhangers all the time. They wrapped up some things and set the characters on new paths to be explored next season. That’s all I need.
Great that Oliver will be back to having a day job. Happy to have the focus off the romance side of things. Not the best season but I am hopeful that they will get back to the point where the focus is back on Oliver. Overall didn’t hate the season as much as I did S3.
This got an F for me. There was one minute of glimmering hope that it would be like Charmed’s season 3 finale…everyone dying, nukes hitting, then a magical (timeline) reset because of the flashpoint paradox from yesterday.
I couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t excited about it. All the characters did something. The teams broken up. Oliver is mayor. Those should be big moments. I think the the problem, for me, is they’ve done such a bad job writing these characters lately. With all of them making out-of-character decisions for almost 2 whole seasons, I’m just not as invested in them as I used to be. I will say this for the last few episodes – they’ve been better than the rest of the season. They weren’t great by any stretch, but they’ve been better than the rest. The bee episode is still the worst super-hero thing I’ve ever seen on TV.
I expect/hope flash’s decisions will affect everything. It’ll be interesting seeing things be different. It might be what arrow needs to fight it’s own stagnation. I’m assuming they’ll have to do another reset at some point, to get super girl into this world. I’m holding out hope for that. If they can recharge, maybe they can get Arrow back on track. Seasons was, and still is, one of my favorite super hero arcs.
This felt like a series, not season, finale. Now what?!
Barry reset the shared universe over on the Flash so they get to start over?
I…liked it. I’m in shock because I hated the magic storyline and the flashbacks with the passion that can only be rivaled by how much hate Malcolm Merlyn, and I’m rolling my eyes hard at how Oliver defeated Dhark, BUT I though the action was solid, and I’m pleasantly surprised that I liked that ending. Dig reenlisting opens up some awesome story opportunities, and I have to say the Oliver/Felicity scene was great. I was a little confused by everything they said about Laurel because that’s not the Laurel I remember seeing on my screen, but whatever. All in all, I’m excited to see what they do with Mayor Oliver, Army Dig, and hopefully, Smoak Technologies CEO Felicity. I think there’s a lot of new story opportunities there.
I laughed at all the Laurel mentions. They were really propping her as someone she was not. As long as she remains gone, I don’t mind!
When Oliver says, “You were always better than me,” I rolled my eyes.
Literally everyone is better than Oliver, even the villains.
That’s actually realistic.
The whole attempted “retconning” of Oliver and Laurel’s relationship was pathetic. Oliver was the love of Laurel’s life, despite cheating on her multiple times, including with her sister? Then, Laurel was somehow better than Oliver? The writing this season reached new lows.
So I’m re-watching this show (from season 1) and I’m currently almost finished with season 2. I don’t understand where people are coming from the the “reconning” of Oliver and Laurel’s relationship. He may have cheated on her but she always loved him. She chose Oliver over Tommy but Tommy just managed to come and try and save her and die in the process. She slept with Oliver the day before Tommy died. Drunk/drug addicted Laurel still wanted to hookup with Oliver even after Tommy had died. Laurel has always had strong feelings for Oliver but it just didn’t work out. It makes sense to me that she would think of him as the love of her life even if it didn’t work out.
Laurel was better than Oliver. How wasn’t she better? How many people did she kill? She was a good person with a huge heart, who helped people as a lawyer and a hero and was crapped all over by Oliver. That is the truth. He can make amends but that can’t change his past. Oliver no matter what he does will never be better than Laurel.
What a dull ending to an equally dull season. I can’t pick out one thing I enjoyed this season. I’ll give it another chance, because I’ve watched it this long, but if by it’s midseason finale if it isn’t keeping me interested I will not continue when it returns after the new year. This season was a chore. I watched it out of routine.
Can’t like this comment enough… Felt obligated to watch it… Hardly any excitement!
I’m just wondering where the other nukes went. Felicity was able to hackforce one but what about the other ones?
Plotholes…plotholes everywhere.
Felicity and Curtis sent it to space…they mentioned it…but then their special effects budget went to The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow, so….
Cooper gave her control of Rubicon and she was able to shut it down.
Curtis got the idea to “invert their horizons,” sending them into space to explode. #NotaPlothole
Had they not done the incredibly stupid, pointless, “adds nothing to the show,” lazy way to attempt to create dramatic depth killing off of Laurel and omitted the “we’re taking a break” by Thea and Diggle, I’d have been okay with the season.
I liked it. Not the best episode but it wrapped up most things and also left things open. Shocked that Diggle went back to the army. How are they gonna get him back?!! I liked the open ending with Oliver and Felicity. They looked like a team and there was a bit of hope there. Very nice. Sad for Thea, she needs to cut Malcolm out of her life. I’m annoyed Malcolm still lives but if he’s always gonna be around he needs to be fully bad. Love that Oliver became Mayor. It was great to see him be a source of hope for a change.
So with the end of the world fast approaching, not once does Curtis mention his husband? Maybe you’d want to call your beloved or try to be with him as nuclear missiles are about to destroy the world?
Just another example of how there were never any real stakes we all knew the bombs wouldn’t go off, even the characters didn’t take it as a real threat lol.
Yes, he did.
It’s like you folks don’t actually watch the show.
He mentioned his husband a couple of times..
He’s about to become a Team Arrow member with meta powers, right? The hubby will fall to the background, just like Olicity did.
I’m glad this season is over. What started out as good idea with the introduction of Damien Darhk turned into a long, hard slog of a season. Easily the worst one so far.
Awesome! Loved it
I’m really over all these prolonged fight sequences. They are so choreographed and drawn out, and are usually meaningless. I could do with a lot less of them next season.
I was super distracted by the Damien Darhk stunt double, who was a physical mismatch in multiple ways.
Yes! It was remarkable in the worst possible way! Lol
Yes, that was quite funny.