Arrow has been a favorite series of mine since it first aired.  I have been an Oliver Queen fan even in the rougher moments.  This season was one of those for me.  The season struggled from the beginning. As Oliver was continuing Team Arrow alone, with only Felicity (his ex–awkward), because his team had disbanded.  Then he brought in some new recruits, but it continued to be awkward to watch these new characters learn how to work with Oliver.  There was none of that kinship and bond that we are used to seeing within Team Arrow. The entire premise felt forced.

The season picked up a little as a new Black Canary, played by Tina Boland, and a new villain, the Throwing-Star killer, were both introduced.  We come to find out that the Throwing-Star killer is actually named Prometheus and has a long-standing vendetta against The Green Arrow and Oliver Queen, because he knows his identity.

It’s really kind of sad that Prometheus’ origin story is so lame (he blames Oliver for killing his father, some low-name criminal from earlier seasons), because Prometheus himself is a good villain.  Played by Josh Segarra, the character Adrian Chase a.k.a. as Prometheus, is a deranged serial killer who wants to destroy Oliver from within.  Segarra does do an excellent job in playing a psychopath.  He wants to kill everyone and everything that Oliver loves and convince Oliver that deep down he is just a serial killer as well.  As we watch Oliver continue to struggle with his inner demons, as he has for the four previous seasons as well, this time the struggle is more intense.  This time he starts to realize new things about himself and his past, and he even starts to believe Chase that he does enjoy the killing.

In an effort to redeem this hodge podge of a season, the writers bring back many of our favorite characters for the season finale.  Prometheus has kidnapped all of Oliver’s team, as well as his son, and taken them all to Lian Yu–the Island where Oliver was kept for so many years.  With his team gone, Oliver enlists the help of Malcolm Merlin, Nyssa and even Slade Wilson.  Finally some characters with some appeal!!  After a ridiculously long and drawn-out season of tension between Oliver and Felicity, and even some lame dating choices for each of them, finally in the season finale  we see a chance at the redemption of their relationship! What took them so long??

As the team finds themselves trapped on Lian Yu with C-4 spread throughout the island and a kill switch placed on Adrian Chase, Oliver speeds off on a boat with Adrian still looking for his son.  Of course is son William is on the boat and Adrian forces Oliver to choose between saving his son and saving his friends. Oliver manages to shoot Adrian in the leg and grab his son pulling him to safety.  But everyone else he loves is back on the island.  Why oh why does he not check Adrian for other weapons once he is down??  We all know that Adrian is going to kill himself in order to have Lian Yu explode, killing all of Oliver’s loved ones–why doesn’t Oliver see this coming? Sure enough Adrian shoots himself and we watch the entire island behind Oliver start to explode–Felicity, John, Thea, Rene, William’s mother, Detective Lance, Black Canary, Slade, Curtis–all of Oliver’s friends are on that island.  The finale ends with the island exploding and in flames.

Are we truly expected to believe that all of them die?  Earlier in the finale we watch Malcolm sacrifice his life for Thea.  But without any of the other characters is there even a show to watch?  There was an Argus boat stashed on the other side of the island, is it possible that his team made it there before the Island exploded?  I have to believe that they did.  Or at least some of them did.  Originally the writers of Arrow stated that the series would have 5 seasons and that the story would end where it began–on the Island. Is this the ending they envisioned?  It looks like Arrow is set up for another season despite the writers earlier statements.  Given the struggling plot lines this past season, is this wise?  Should they have ended the series here and given us some better finality?

Only Season 6 will tell.  We will have to stay tuned to find out the fate of all of our favorite heroes and villains from Star City.  Although this was not a great season in my opinion, the finale was pretty good, so I give it an 8.