This season of Arrow has been a tough one to get through for me. I have been a die hard Arrow fan since the show started, but this season has been a struggle. The story line has felt jumbled and forced. I haven’t been a fan of the “new gang”, or of the epic fights between all of the characters. In truth, the new characters have been extremely irritating most of the time. At first I was excited about a new black canary, or black siren coming on the scene, but then Dinah’s character took on a whole new vengeful and hateful role in her anger towards Oliver and somehow her character just dissintergrated. And Wilddog’s attitude was a little cute at first, but then it just got super annoying. He does’t have any super powers and isn’t even all that good of a fighter–Diggle puts him to shame. So really the biggest problem for me this season was just the total lack of chemistry between the characters and the lack of direction for the plot, or should I say plots as the story line was never super consistent. It started off with one evil bad guy played by Cayden James, and his nefarious plot for the city. Then somehow he is captured and we actually feel a little bad for him before he is killed by one of his former crime partners, Diaz–who ends up being truly psycho but up until this point has been a fairly minor character? I mean, come on.
All of the con’s being stated, because I am a die hard Oliver and Felicity fan, I will keep hanging in there until the bitter end. Does part of me wish the show had ended with Oliver and Felicity driving into the sunset a few seasons back? Yes it does. Or even after Damien Dhark was killed? Again, yes. But real fans will be hanging in there until the bitter end to see what becomes of Oliver, Felicity, Diggle and even Curtis, Wilddog and Dinah–even when it is semi-painful to watch, because truth be told this was the original show for all of the super hero series that have been created in recent years and we just feel like we owe it to them to finish what we started.
The Season Finale was definitely filled with some darker moments as we lose our beloved Detective Lance–just moments before Sara gets to say goodbye. This moment parallels exactly when we lost the original Laurel Lance, who was shot and died in the hospital just moments before Detective Lance could say goodbye. It was extremely heart crushing, especially as Oliver is standing there in handcuffs getting ready to be taken away from everyone he loves because he sacrificed himself for their protection. But part of me can’t help but feel that they went over the top this time–even for Team Arrow. Obviously Arrow has been picked up for another season, and even though the creators claimed that they were going to stop at 5 seasons and bring everything back full circle to the Island, we have actually already done that and watched the Island being blown up, so yeah not sure what they have in mind. But if we keep watching–which we will–they will probably keep making new seasons. I do love that Oliver and Felicity are actually married. Marriage is not always the popular decision in today’s society, especially for superheroes, and that was a nice change of pace and a big surprise during one of the cross-over events. If anything makes the season worth watching at all it is definitely the cross-over events.
As for what fate awaits Oliver, or if the team will get back together and now include alternate dimension Laurel, who knows. At this point, I have to think the writers are just winging it, so fans it is anyone’s guess!
