Well it’s allllll right, even when push comes to shove
Well it’s allllll right, if you got someone to love
Well it’s allllll right, everything’ll work out fine
Well it’s allllll right, we’re going to the end of the line
Well it’s allllll right, if you got someone to love
Well it’s allllll right, everything’ll work out fine
Well it’s allllll right, we’re going to the end of the line
So. The final episode of Arrow. My, my. I suppose before I start with the snark proper, there should be a bit of thoughtful introspection.
The year was 2014. Barack Obama was still president, the San Francisco Giants were World Series Champions, and I was a bright-eyed, bushy-tailed young recapper eager to prove my worth.
I was approached to write a weekly entertainment piece for a website called Pop Sugar. (Don’t look for it now, it’s gone the way of the Electric Banana.) I decided it would be fun to write a snarky recap of a show I was truly over the moon for – a little superhero program called Arrow.
It became one of the genuine joys of my life, writing those recaps and seeing them go live on Pop Sugar. So when Pop Sugar folded, I thought, “These recaps need a new outlet, goddammit.” Thus, Television Woodshed was born, and my Arrow recaps had a permanent home.
Now, here we are in 2020, and Arrow has just wrapped up its run. Stephen Amell has said the ending is bittersweet. I agree. As the years have come and gone, I’ve found less and less time to devote to recapping Arrow, and honestly, the quality of the show has been in freefall for quite some time. I realize that a show needs to evolve, bring in new characters and so forth, but I was never a fan of Wild Dog, Mr. Terrific, or any of the post-Caity Lotz Canaries. The flash-forwards offered stunning new vistas of opportunity, but then crashed to the earth like a Roswell weather balloon. And the less said about Emiko, the better. Yes, I’d say there were at least three or four times when this show jumped the shark, and it truly limped to the finish line with this final season.
Still, it’s been part of my life for six years now (eight, when you consider that I was watching it before I started recapping it) and I confess that I will truly miss it. But its legacy – the Arrowverse – will live on, and maybe I’ll fall in love with something else just as I did with Arrow all those years ago. I’m not holding my breath, but we’ll see.
So, the finale …
We start in a flashback to 2014, when Moira made the Sophie’s Choice that saved Ollie and Thea but turned her into Slade Wilson’s kebab. But ho! What’s this? In this new Post-Crisis world, Oliver saves Moira from getting skewered! What a twist! Then we have documentary footage (!) of current-day Moira and Dinah and Rene and Digg talking about how great Ollie was. He really was, wasn’t he? Until, like, Season 5 or so.
Oh, I see what’s happening here. Do you remember Season 7, Episode 12? No, of course you don’t, why would you? But that entire episode had a faux documentary crew filming Ollie and friends for a faux documentary called “Emerald Archer,” and now that not-documentary is going to be a not-memorial. Up to speed? Sweet, merrily we roll along.
Rene picks up Digg from his sit-down and they walk through a suburban neighborhood, discussing how crime in Post-Crisis Star City is, like, gone, baby. Gone. You know how you can tell? A black man and a Hispanic man are walking through a nice neighborhood and no one’s called the cops.
Back at The Quiver, it’s time to get turnt! Digg, Rene, Roy (with a brand-new cybernetic arm, hopefully featuring Kung-Fu Grip), Dinah, and Laurel drink some wodka in Ollie’s memory. Everyone starts talking about what to do next. Rene is going to run for mayor and Dinah’s been offered the Chief of Po-Po position, but Digg doesn’t feel like the mission’s over. Surely someone in Star City is cheating on their taxes, right?
Flashback! Whoa, was not expecting that. We go back to Season 1, when Digg was a confidante but not part of the team yet. Digg complains to Ollie that he wants to be out in the field, but this being Season 1, Ollie only has eyes for The List. He decides to go after the next name on The List, a human trafficker named John Byrne. Okay, now I know that John Byrne has a reputation as a cantankerous old coot, but he’s an amazing comic book artist and would never get involved in human trafficking. I refuse to believe it!
Flash-forward! Jesus, I’m getting whiplash here. Mia is sleeping in her posh bed in her posh room at the Xavier/Luthor/Queen mansion when Sara time-portals in. Mia seems put out, but Sara can time-portal into my bedroom anytime she pleases. Seriously, do it. Sara says she’s there to take Mia to her father’s funeral. Oh. Yay. Better than a day at Disneyland.
Back at The Quiver, there are several heart-to-hearts going on while Digg does the salmon ladder and Roy tattoos the Mark of 4 onto Dinah’s wrist. Man, folks have some boss new talents in the Post-Crisis world, don’t they just?
Flashback! Ollie is determined to hunt down and kill John Byrne, possibly so his collection of old Fantastic Fours will be worth more money. Digg still wants to come with, to prevent Ollie from being a cold-blooded murderer. In response, Ollie flips up his Green Arrow hood, which is the Arrow equivalent of Tom Brady flipping his helmet off on the sideline when the Patriots are losing.
Back at The Quiver, nobody bats an eye that Mia from 2040 is hanging around. It must be nice to be that jaded about time travel. We see a quick flashback to last week’s goddamned backdoor pilot where William gets drugged and kidnapped and Mia does nothing, and Mia wonders aloud if she’s really Green Arrow material. Well, you’re a 67-pound girl with all the consistency of a box kite. So … no. There’s a news report here in the present that William has been kidnapped. Is that his new gimmick in the Post-Crisis world? Getting kidnapped all over the place?
So, I guess because William’s been kidnapped, errybody shows up to the party – Curtis, Lyla, Thea, and Ragman (livin’ in a movie) join Digg, Dinah, Laurel, Roy, and Rene in The Quiver. We’re gonna need more wodka! And just when you think we’ve reached capacity, the elevator opens and reveals … wait for it … Felicity (Smokin’) Smoak! Now it’s a party!
Felicity does her tappity-tappity on the computer and finds a long list of places William could be. They’re all gay bars, but we’re not here to judge. The big team splits up into little teams. Roy and Thea search a rooftop, and naturally Roy asks Thea to marry him. Off of her reply of “Ummm …” we check in on Rene and Ragman (daddy’s little cutie) searching … someplace green. Still no William. Digg and Lyla search a hallway but find squat, and Lyla gets all pissed off. Stupid hallway! Finally, Mia – in her Green Arrow getup that actually looks black – finds William and asks the NPC dragging him along who he is. For that answer, we’ll need to …
Flashback! Oliver fights his way through a beer factory. Now, it’s a great fight sequence, and I don’t want to be that guy, but when Ollie enters he’s got, like, eight arrows in his quiver TOPS, and he fires off about 117. Also, he wastes an awful lot of beer, which is a sin and a shame. At the end of the beat-’em-ups, Oliver ends up on a rooftop and finds John Byrne! Not that John Byrne – though that would have been cool – but this episode’s John Byrne. Turns out it’s the same John Byrne that’s kidnapped William in the present. Does he also kidnap him in the future? This guy needs a hobby! So Mia spares Byrne and tells him he’s going to prison. Are … you going to take him there? Because he’s, y’know, twice your size and clearly crazy.
Back at The Quiver, everyone is happy to have William back –though only God knows why – and Sara asks Felicity if she wants to meet the adult Mia, even though her infant Mia is still at home. Yeah, no, hard pass. The news reports that the new Green Arrow is on the scene, and Mia is all proud of herself and her spinoff.
Flashback! Digg is showing off his guns when Oliver comes back from the Battle of the Brewery. He tells Digg that he didn’t kill John Byrne after all, and that maybe Digg will be field-ready one day. I’ll just point out here that if Ollie had killed John Byrne, he wouldn’t be bedeviling us in the present.
Back at the Xavier/Luthor/Queen mansion, Roy once again asks Thea to marry him and she says yes, because we need a quick happy ending and we’re running out of episode.
At the SCPD, Laurel shows up to talk to Mayor Lance. Mayor Lance! So happy you’re here! Laurel asks Quentin why all the other Earth-1 dead people were brought back Post-Crisis, but not Earth-1 Laurel. Oh, I can answer that one – Earth-1 Laurel sucked. Quentin says as much, but in nicer terms, and we get a Lance family hug.
And back to The Quiver we go! Dinah, Rene, and Digg gather to talk about, y’know, things. While Rene is going to stick around in Star City to be mayor and evolve into that awful wig, Dinah and Digg are moving to Metropolis to see if they can get some screen time on that Superman and Lois Lane spinoff. Who can blame them, right? Digg admits the mission is over, and as they all get in the elevator, Dinah throws the switch that kills The Quiver’s power. I hope that thing doesn’t power the elevator as well.
Somewhere near the water, Quentin presides over the revealing of the Green Arrow memorial statue. Which, if we hadn’t already seen it in last week’s episode, would mean something. Everyone stands around with candles and Quentin talks about how much he hated Ollie, and then he reveals the statue. Which is way better than that scary-ass Black Canary statue from Season 5. But still. Seen it.
On the grounds of the Xavier/Luthor/Queen mansion, everyone gathers for Oliver’s funeral. And when I say everyone, this time I mean it – Moira and Thea. Roy. Emiko. William. Tommy and Laurel. Nyssa and Talia al Ghul. Sara and Quentin. Mia and Felicity, who do finally meet. The Flash and Supergirl. Digg and Lyla. KGBeast. Curtis, Rene, and Ragman (never see you leavin’ by the back door).
As they debate who should say something, Kara says that words seem meaningless, so Digg says a bunch anyway. He says them very softly, so I can’t imagine those mourners who are standing 40 feet away from him under rain-tapped umbrellas can hear anything, but it’s the thought that counts.
As he speaks, we see a wrap-up montage of everybody getting on with their lives and calling their agents to see if there’s anything new lined up for them. Those who aren’t being spun off, anyway. As Digg packs up his family for the move to Metropolis, a meteor strikes nearby – happens all the time, trust me – and blows him back into the moving van. He’s fine, of course, and in the spot where the meteor lands, he finds a little box and opens it and it glows green and OH THANK YOU GOD THANK YOU JESUS DIGG IS THE GREEN MOTHERFUCKING LANTERN!
We find ourselves at the end of last season, in 2040 when The Monitor promised to reunite Felicity with Oliver. They walk through a portal, and Felicity finds herself in the old Queen Consolidated building, where she and Oliver first met, and there’s Oliver, alive and well. It’s not stated outright, but it appears as though Ollie and Felicity are going to spend eternity happily ever after. And what better way to end a series than that?
Next time! There is no next time, stupid, that was the series finale. But let me take this opportunity to thank all the Arrowheads who followed my recaps lo these many years. I truly appreciate it, and I will miss our time together. See you all ’round the Arrowverse!
#arrow #arrowfinale #arrowfadeout #arrowseason8 #arrowcw #stephenamell #katiecassidy #davidramsey #emilybettrickards #wilddog #blackcanary
The year was 2014. Barack Obama was still president, the San Francisco Giants were World Series Champions, and I was a bright-eyed, bushy-tailed young recapper eager to prove my worth.
I was approached to write a weekly entertainment piece for a website called Pop Sugar. (Don’t look for it now, it’s gone the way of the Electric Banana.) I decided it would be fun to write a snarky recap of a show I was truly over the moon for – a little superhero program called Arrow.
It became one of the genuine joys of my life, writing those recaps and seeing them go live on Pop Sugar. So when Pop Sugar folded, I thought, “These recaps need a new outlet, goddammit.” Thus, Television Woodshed was born, and my Arrow recaps had a permanent home.
Now, here we are in 2020, and Arrow has just wrapped up its run. Stephen Amell has said the ending is bittersweet. I agree. As the years have come and gone, I’ve found less and less time to devote to recapping Arrow, and honestly, the quality of the show has been in freefall for quite some time. I realize that a show needs to evolve, bring in new characters and so forth, but I was never a fan of Wild Dog, Mr. Terrific, or any of the post-Caity Lotz Canaries. The flash-forwards offered stunning new vistas of opportunity, but then crashed to the earth like a Roswell weather balloon. And the less said about Emiko, the better. Yes, I’d say there were at least three or four times when this show jumped the shark, and it truly limped to the finish line with this final season.
Still, it’s been part of my life for six years now (eight, when you consider that I was watching it before I started recapping it) and I confess that I will truly miss it. But its legacy – the Arrowverse – will live on, and maybe I’ll fall in love with something else just as I did with Arrow all those years ago. I’m not holding my breath, but we’ll see.
So, the finale …
We start in a flashback to 2014, when Moira made the Sophie’s Choice that saved Ollie and Thea but turned her into Slade Wilson’s kebab. But ho! What’s this? In this new Post-Crisis world, Oliver saves Moira from getting skewered! What a twist! Then we have documentary footage (!) of current-day Moira and Dinah and Rene and Digg talking about how great Ollie was. He really was, wasn’t he? Until, like, Season 5 or so.
Oh, I see what’s happening here. Do you remember Season 7, Episode 12? No, of course you don’t, why would you? But that entire episode had a faux documentary crew filming Ollie and friends for a faux documentary called “Emerald Archer,” and now that not-documentary is going to be a not-memorial. Up to speed? Sweet, merrily we roll along.
Rene picks up Digg from his sit-down and they walk through a suburban neighborhood, discussing how crime in Post-Crisis Star City is, like, gone, baby. Gone. You know how you can tell? A black man and a Hispanic man are walking through a nice neighborhood and no one’s called the cops.
Back at The Quiver, it’s time to get turnt! Digg, Rene, Roy (with a brand-new cybernetic arm, hopefully featuring Kung-Fu Grip), Dinah, and Laurel drink some wodka in Ollie’s memory. Everyone starts talking about what to do next. Rene is going to run for mayor and Dinah’s been offered the Chief of Po-Po position, but Digg doesn’t feel like the mission’s over. Surely someone in Star City is cheating on their taxes, right?
Flashback! Whoa, was not expecting that. We go back to Season 1, when Digg was a confidante but not part of the team yet. Digg complains to Ollie that he wants to be out in the field, but this being Season 1, Ollie only has eyes for The List. He decides to go after the next name on The List, a human trafficker named John Byrne. Okay, now I know that John Byrne has a reputation as a cantankerous old coot, but he’s an amazing comic book artist and would never get involved in human trafficking. I refuse to believe it!
Flash-forward! Jesus, I’m getting whiplash here. Mia is sleeping in her posh bed in her posh room at the Xavier/Luthor/Queen mansion when Sara time-portals in. Mia seems put out, but Sara can time-portal into my bedroom anytime she pleases. Seriously, do it. Sara says she’s there to take Mia to her father’s funeral. Oh. Yay. Better than a day at Disneyland.
Back at The Quiver, there are several heart-to-hearts going on while Digg does the salmon ladder and Roy tattoos the Mark of 4 onto Dinah’s wrist. Man, folks have some boss new talents in the Post-Crisis world, don’t they just?
Flashback! Ollie is determined to hunt down and kill John Byrne, possibly so his collection of old Fantastic Fours will be worth more money. Digg still wants to come with, to prevent Ollie from being a cold-blooded murderer. In response, Ollie flips up his Green Arrow hood, which is the Arrow equivalent of Tom Brady flipping his helmet off on the sideline when the Patriots are losing.
Back at The Quiver, nobody bats an eye that Mia from 2040 is hanging around. It must be nice to be that jaded about time travel. We see a quick flashback to last week’s goddamned backdoor pilot where William gets drugged and kidnapped and Mia does nothing, and Mia wonders aloud if she’s really Green Arrow material. Well, you’re a 67-pound girl with all the consistency of a box kite. So … no. There’s a news report here in the present that William has been kidnapped. Is that his new gimmick in the Post-Crisis world? Getting kidnapped all over the place?
So, I guess because William’s been kidnapped, errybody shows up to the party – Curtis, Lyla, Thea, and Ragman (livin’ in a movie) join Digg, Dinah, Laurel, Roy, and Rene in The Quiver. We’re gonna need more wodka! And just when you think we’ve reached capacity, the elevator opens and reveals … wait for it … Felicity (Smokin’) Smoak! Now it’s a party!
Felicity does her tappity-tappity on the computer and finds a long list of places William could be. They’re all gay bars, but we’re not here to judge. The big team splits up into little teams. Roy and Thea search a rooftop, and naturally Roy asks Thea to marry him. Off of her reply of “Ummm …” we check in on Rene and Ragman (daddy’s little cutie) searching … someplace green. Still no William. Digg and Lyla search a hallway but find squat, and Lyla gets all pissed off. Stupid hallway! Finally, Mia – in her Green Arrow getup that actually looks black – finds William and asks the NPC dragging him along who he is. For that answer, we’ll need to …
Flashback! Oliver fights his way through a beer factory. Now, it’s a great fight sequence, and I don’t want to be that guy, but when Ollie enters he’s got, like, eight arrows in his quiver TOPS, and he fires off about 117. Also, he wastes an awful lot of beer, which is a sin and a shame. At the end of the beat-’em-ups, Oliver ends up on a rooftop and finds John Byrne! Not that John Byrne – though that would have been cool – but this episode’s John Byrne. Turns out it’s the same John Byrne that’s kidnapped William in the present. Does he also kidnap him in the future? This guy needs a hobby! So Mia spares Byrne and tells him he’s going to prison. Are … you going to take him there? Because he’s, y’know, twice your size and clearly crazy.
Back at The Quiver, everyone is happy to have William back –though only God knows why – and Sara asks Felicity if she wants to meet the adult Mia, even though her infant Mia is still at home. Yeah, no, hard pass. The news reports that the new Green Arrow is on the scene, and Mia is all proud of herself and her spinoff.
Flashback! Digg is showing off his guns when Oliver comes back from the Battle of the Brewery. He tells Digg that he didn’t kill John Byrne after all, and that maybe Digg will be field-ready one day. I’ll just point out here that if Ollie had killed John Byrne, he wouldn’t be bedeviling us in the present.
Back at the Xavier/Luthor/Queen mansion, Roy once again asks Thea to marry him and she says yes, because we need a quick happy ending and we’re running out of episode.
At the SCPD, Laurel shows up to talk to Mayor Lance. Mayor Lance! So happy you’re here! Laurel asks Quentin why all the other Earth-1 dead people were brought back Post-Crisis, but not Earth-1 Laurel. Oh, I can answer that one – Earth-1 Laurel sucked. Quentin says as much, but in nicer terms, and we get a Lance family hug.
And back to The Quiver we go! Dinah, Rene, and Digg gather to talk about, y’know, things. While Rene is going to stick around in Star City to be mayor and evolve into that awful wig, Dinah and Digg are moving to Metropolis to see if they can get some screen time on that Superman and Lois Lane spinoff. Who can blame them, right? Digg admits the mission is over, and as they all get in the elevator, Dinah throws the switch that kills The Quiver’s power. I hope that thing doesn’t power the elevator as well.
Somewhere near the water, Quentin presides over the revealing of the Green Arrow memorial statue. Which, if we hadn’t already seen it in last week’s episode, would mean something. Everyone stands around with candles and Quentin talks about how much he hated Ollie, and then he reveals the statue. Which is way better than that scary-ass Black Canary statue from Season 5. But still. Seen it.
On the grounds of the Xavier/Luthor/Queen mansion, everyone gathers for Oliver’s funeral. And when I say everyone, this time I mean it – Moira and Thea. Roy. Emiko. William. Tommy and Laurel. Nyssa and Talia al Ghul. Sara and Quentin. Mia and Felicity, who do finally meet. The Flash and Supergirl. Digg and Lyla. KGBeast. Curtis, Rene, and Ragman (never see you leavin’ by the back door).
As they debate who should say something, Kara says that words seem meaningless, so Digg says a bunch anyway. He says them very softly, so I can’t imagine those mourners who are standing 40 feet away from him under rain-tapped umbrellas can hear anything, but it’s the thought that counts.
As he speaks, we see a wrap-up montage of everybody getting on with their lives and calling their agents to see if there’s anything new lined up for them. Those who aren’t being spun off, anyway. As Digg packs up his family for the move to Metropolis, a meteor strikes nearby – happens all the time, trust me – and blows him back into the moving van. He’s fine, of course, and in the spot where the meteor lands, he finds a little box and opens it and it glows green and OH THANK YOU GOD THANK YOU JESUS DIGG IS THE GREEN MOTHERFUCKING LANTERN!
We find ourselves at the end of last season, in 2040 when The Monitor promised to reunite Felicity with Oliver. They walk through a portal, and Felicity finds herself in the old Queen Consolidated building, where she and Oliver first met, and there’s Oliver, alive and well. It’s not stated outright, but it appears as though Ollie and Felicity are going to spend eternity happily ever after. And what better way to end a series than that?
Next time! There is no next time, stupid, that was the series finale. But let me take this opportunity to thank all the Arrowheads who followed my recaps lo these many years. I truly appreciate it, and I will miss our time together. See you all ’round the Arrowverse!
#arrow #arrowfinale #arrowfadeout #arrowseason8 #arrowcw #stephenamell #katiecassidy #davidramsey #emilybettrickards #wilddog #blackcanary
