Oliver and the gang work to end Dahrk's threat to the world and the aftermath leads to some surprising decisions....
While I did enjoy the finale, I felt a bit let down. The year started off so well and I was honestly hoping that the show would regain the glory it had in season 2. Don't get me wrong, I truly think that Damien Dahrk was one of the best villains this show has had, bested only by Deathstroke. But the show seemed to almost run out of gas towards the end of the season and sputtered to a decent, but not great ending, quite unlike the ending to The Flash last night which left us with all sorts of questions. I think what has happened is that the show runners has tried to make Arrow too much like The Flash, which is a mistake because they are fundamentally different shows. It doesn't help that the writing seems to be wildly inconsistent and the characters do odd things (Felicity throwing a temper tantrum over Oliver's son for one). I really hope the show can get back to what made it so great in the first couple of seasons, which was a man and his team trying to protect and save a city in a world that is really grounded in reality. Don't get me wrong, i love it when the Flash or someone else comes to visit, but the shows really do need to keep their unique tones.
All that being said, I did like that Oliver has decided to acknowledge that he does have light and dark impulses within him. He wants to be the person who can save and inspire the city, but he also needs to sometimes do things which are more pragmatic than moral in order to do so. For example, killing Dahrk tonight. Was it moral? No. It was cold blooded murder. However, it was the right thing to do. Trying to contain Dahrk has been shown to be next to impossible, so in order to make sure he couldn't threaten the world again, he needed to be killed. While Oliver may not like it, it is something that he can accept and do as a part of protecting people.
Dahrk underestimated what Oliver would do in order to protect the world and the people he loves. Oliver didn't kill Deathstroke in part because Oliver helped to create him because of what happened to Shado. Also, Oliver knew that ARGUS could contain Deathstroke on Lian Yu. Dahrk, on the other hand, enjoyed being the villain and relished the opportunity to kill and destroy and (as I said above) he couldn't be contained in the same way. The two circumstances called for different tactics and that is what Oliver did. In both instances, he applied the appropriate amount of violence necessary to resolve the situation and made the choice to live with the consequences. That is one of the things that makes Oliver the right person for the job. He avoids killing if he can, but he will kill if the situation calls for it. He may beat himself up a little afterwards, but he doesn't torture himself the way Diggle would.
Now that he's mayor of Star City, his life will be very interesting. I am not sure how he will go out at night as the Green Arrow, or if he will. I imagine that he will find some reason to, but I am curious about the how. I can't imagine that any bodyguards he has will be as easy to shake as Diggle was in the first season. I also hope that he and felicity manage to patch things up, because the two of them are very good for each other. Seeing as she's the only one who stayed with him, I am really hoping that things get back on track.
I do like that this year they had Diggle, Thea, and Lance all leave the city. After everything that happened, the three of them really needed to get out and just clear their heads. Diggle needs to come to terms with his brother's betrayal and the fact that his simplistic view of the world needs to change, Thea really needs to think about whether or not she really wants to stay in her brother's world as Speedy or if she'll just go away and visit periodically. And Lance just needs to leave. While I don't hate the character or anything, he has become increasingly marginalized, so having him disappear and resurface on occasion will be a good thing. He and Donna need to go live a good life together.
I'll be back in a week or two with some thoughts about the seasons of the shows of that Arrowverse and where Id like to see them go. And then on June 20th, The Fosters returns. Until then!
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