SPOILER ALERT! (stop reading if you don’t want to know what happens in this episode)
Arrow definitely knows how to do a finale episode and this one was no different. They crammed a lot into these 45-50 minutes and I honestly have no clue as to what season 4 will hold. Read all about what happened in the finale recap below!
Shrieve’s men come in and try to capture Oliver but he takes them all out and puts an arrow in Shrieve’s leg. Tatsu and Maseo separate their son’s ashes into three small urns. She gives one to Oliver telling him that he loved him. Oliver goes back to Shrieve, grabs his arrow and shoots him with it. Tatsu and Maseo return to find a very badly beaten Shrieve and he tells them that he failed the city. Maseo checks his pulse but he’s still alive so he shoots him.
Maseo tells Tatsu he’s without a soul but she tells him only if he abandons his wife when she needs him the most. He tells her that every time he looks in her eyes he sees his son, his failure and tells her he’s not worthy of her love before leaving. Tatsu and Oliver part ways and he tells her that he just needs to be alone for a little bit.
The Double, Triple Cross
Oliver wakes up on a plane with Ra’s al Ghul asking him about what he was dreaming of and tells him how he’ll help him with bringing down Starling City. The plane starts malfunctioning and at the same time Oliver’s crew wakes up and Malcolm tells them that him turning on Oliver was all apart of they’re plan for Oliver to make sure Ra’s trusts him. Malcolm tells them that they used some of Oliver’s blood to crate a vaccine against the Alpha Omega and injected it with them when they were incarcerated. He tells them to wait for it and Barry comes flying through to help break them all free.
Once they’re free Felicity asks Barry to stay but he tells them that he can’t but that Oliver needs them before speeding off. Back on the lane the engines are failing because they’ve been tampered with. Ra’s thinks it’s Nyssa and is about to make her pay but Oliver stops him and tells him that he’s not Al Sah-Him but Oliver Queen and tosses Nyssa a sword before they all start fighting. Ra’s is able to secure the Alpha Omega before escaping out of the plane first promising that his city will perish. Oliver takes over the plane and directs Nyssa on what to do as he crash lands the plane.
The crew gets back to the lair and Malcolm tells them what to do, they hesitate but Diggle tells them to follow his lead. Oliver and Nyssa drop in and Oliver tries to talk to Diggle but he punches him in the jaw. Ray suggests they give him the room and Oliver tries to explain to Diggle and Felicity why he trusted Malcolm to get close to Ra’s. He tells them that his plan to kill Ra’s and destroy the virus failed but Ra’s escaped and Felicity realizes that he never expected to escape the plane and was going to sacrifice himself. He tells them that now that he’s there he can apologize but Diggle doesn’t want to hear it and tells him they don’t have time for it.
The Backup Plan
Felicity tries to track Ra’s but she can’t find him so Diggle says they need to look at what’s not normal. As she’s reading off different outages Malcolm tells her to repeat one and they find out that Ra’s is only releasing the virus because he wants Damien Darhk. Oliver tells them that they just need to trade Damien for the virus and Malcolm is all for it. They all take their position to snatch up Damien and Oliver swoops in and confronts a very calm guy who tells him that he’s only an employee of Damien. Ra’s kills the employee with a sniper shot and tells Oliver that he’s already released the virus on the city in four different locations.
Meanwhile, Laurel pays Quentin a visit to warn him about the Alpha Omega. Laurel realizes that he’s been drinking and tells him not to lie to her face about it. He tells her that he has it under control but she tells him there’s no such thing and he needs to make a choice either blame everyone else for his problems or throwaway the bottle for good.
Oliver returns and tells them the news and Felicity and Ray try to come up with a plan to administer the vaccine if needed while also trying to pinpoint what locations Ra’s could be releasing the virus at. Felicity and Oliver get a moment alone and he tells her about a recurring dream he keeps having that includes her. He tells her that he can’t defeat Ra’s and she tells him he’s not Oliver or Arrow because he’s become someone else and she tells him that his heart is his key to beating Ra’s – he needs to fight to live.
They find out the possible four locations and the police get involved. At Oliver’s location one of Ra’s men shows up telling him that his presence is requested and Ra’s knows that he can’t beat him but if he doesn’t show he knows Ra’s will continue to threaten his home.
Diggle spots a runner at his location and goes to chase him but gets knocked out. He’s about to get shot but Thea shows up in the Red Arrow garb and shoots three arrows in the guy’s back. Diggle realizes that Ra’s is using his men to spread the virus and the guy cuts his neck with one of the arrows and Diggle jumps into action trying to get people to back away from the guy. The team tries to stop the virus from spreading and Felicity asks Ray if he can make the nano tech airborne to disperse the inoculate.
Oliver meets up with Ra’s and they face off for the second time, Oliver using the sword that Ra’s used to defeat him the last time. As they’re fighting they’ve been spotted on the dame by the police with orders to take them down as soon as they get a clean shot. Quentin calls Felicity to warn her and she tells Ray that he needs to get to the dame but Ray tells him Oliver is one life compared to thousands in the city. Ra’s gets the upper hand and knocks the sword out of his hand but Oliver stops his sword and in a couple of moves puts it through Ra’s telling him that he’s still taking his place. He says some words over his body and Ra’s gives him his ring before dying. As Oliver is standing there the police shoot him and he falls over the dame but the Atom suit comes flying out of nowhere and catches him. Once he’s back on his feet we see that Felicity is in the suit.
The team was able to contain the virus dispersing the inoculate and Oliver gives a speech telling them that while he tried to protect them he’s alive because of them. He tells them that he can no longer be Arrow because Ra’s took it from him. He tells Felicity that he wants to be with her and asks her to come with him somewhere far away. Diggle gets upset and leaves the room and Oliver goes after him. Diggle tells him that he deserves to be happy but he’s not a super hero. Oliver tells him he is and he’s been someone he and the city could count on for the past three years. Diggle tells him that he’ll think about it because he doesn’t know if he can get passed what happen.
Malcolm stops by Thea’s place to talk to Oliver and tell Thea that he’s leaving Starling City as well. Oliver hands something off to Malcolm as part of their agreement and he tells him that he’ll never forgive him for what he did to Sara and Thea. Malcolm returns to Nanda Parbat and we see that Oliver handed off Ra’s ring to him to become the next Ra’s al Ghul. He comes face to face with Nyssa who still wants justice for Sara but he tells her she can try but for now she will kneel before him.
We end with Oliver and Felicity driving off into the somewhere and he tells her that he’s truly happy.
Some takeaways…
– So I spent the last 10 minutes waiting for what the catch would be. Ray done blew himself up trying to get his suit to minimize which I’m sure is just a setup for his spinoff. Malcolm is the new Ra’s, Thea is Speedy or Red Arrow and I don’t even know where Diggle is. I have no idea what season four will look like but I’m hoping that everyone is returning because they kind of played this like a series finale. Hopefully this doesn’t mean that we’re going to get a “new” Arrow because this show isn’t a show without Stephen Amell, the first couple of episodes of this second half proved that. Now we have to wait until fall…
– It’s been a blast as usual recapping this season of Arrow. cannot wait to return with all new season 4 recaps in the fall!
