Arrow - Finale Recap: It Should Have Been Me
The Arrow season finale played out, as producers promised, like a well-made action film crunched into forty-five minutes of awesome television. “Sacrifice” delivered exactly what we’d hoped and more, coupling triumph and tragedy as this series often so brilliantly does. Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) and his team had but one last episode to save The Glades from the maniacal clutches of The Dark Arrow (John Barrowman), Malcolm Merlyn. In the end, who would make the ultimate sacrifice? Would it be Diggle (David Ramsey), who’s been on a mission to prove that Oliver Queen is not alone? Or Laurel (Katie Cassidy), who’d just admitted her undying love for Ollie? Maybe Tommy would side with his father, The Dark Arrow, following one last betrayal from Oliver, or would Thea Queen (Willa Holland), who remains the only Queen family member in the dark, get caught in the crossfire? Would Oliver himself make the sacrifice to honor his father’s dying wish? (Spoiler: No.)
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The show opened shortly following the close of last week’s penultimate episode, with Ollie having been exposed to Malcolm Merlyn, who last week seemed quite distraught after discovering that his son Tommy’s (Colin Donnell) best friend was the vigilante. Things seemed to shift pretty quickly, if you ask me. We found our hero strung up in chains, locked away in some dank warehouse before his initial talk with Merlyn. Tommy’s father wasn’t about to let The Hood get in the way of his complete and utter destruction of The Glades, even after Oliver attempted to reason with him. Murdering thousands would not avenge Tommy’s mother. We already knew that, and the stale plea fell on the deaf ears of a madman. Oliver is younger and faster, but the fact that he never truly discovered within himself what he is fighting for rendered him the perpetual loser in his war with The Dark Archer, who was absolutely certain of his convictions. Thankfully, Oliver was able to finagle a way out, struggling up and out Houdini style before crashing down with a massive thud. Diggle would arrive to lend some backup. Good thing Ollie thought to plant a tracker in his boot!
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Meanwhile, Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) found herself in a different kind of hot water. Detective Lance (Paul Blackthorne) had managed to uncover her hacking hobby, and Felicity was brought in for questioning. More importantly, it seemed as though none other than Felicity would be the one to plant the first seeds of change in Lance’s mind. Oliver, voice disguised, called Lance to alert him to Malcolm’s scheme. Felicity, before leaving to allow Lance to handle the situation, reflected on her own change of heart regarding the vigilante. His love for the people of Starling City makes him a hero, at least to her (and us). Shortly after, Lance would attempt to rally his force behind him to save The Glades, chief included, but he instead found himself suspended for dealing with The Hood.
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Well, the most awkward and tense interaction ever between Ollie and Tommy certainly went down this week. Tommy sideswiped Oliver amidst The Undertaking prep with an impromptu visit to the club. There, he confronted his former best friend regarding his rekindled romance with Laurel. Remember, Tommy caught a glimpse of the two kissing in the window during last week’s episode, just before he could sets things right with Laurel himself. Oliver attempted to apologize, but matters quickly turned to Tommy’s father. Seriously, was there ever a more cringe worthy moment on Arrow than Tommy’s punch and whiff? Oliver merely had to sidestep to win that brawl. We know that, in the end, Tommy saw in his father what evil Oliver had mentioned, whether he chose to admit it or not. The different between Ollie and Tommy was that Oliver never saw his father’s flaws, while Tommy always knew.
Oliver was through with mincing words with his mother, Moira (Susanna Thompson). The Undertaking was about to commence, so Oliver took one last shot at cracking Moira’s façade, attempting to reason with her as straight-forward as possible, even noting that he’d spoken with Merlyn. Seriously, Ollie might as well have shown up as "Hood Guy," or at least, in green eye makeup. One person in the Queen family would do the right thing, even if it killed him. His mother had allowed too much to be sacrificed and too much time to be lost in her quest of keeping Oliver and Thea safe. The Glades would not fall as well. Speak of the devil, Malcolm called Moira while Oliver loomed over. The Undertaking was to be expedited to that evening.
Laurel surprised Oliver just before he could leave Queen Manor to begin his mission, giving Oliver one last opportunity to free her mind of any doubt. The island hadn’t changed him, truly. Instead, it scraped away the garbage that had prevented him from being the man Laurel always loved. He was always this man, our Hood Guy! One request, Laurel: Stay… out… of… The… Glades.
I have to say, I thought the fact that the device that would create the Glades-leveling earthquake was kept underground was a no brainer. Am I alone here? Well, Felicity managed to piece together that the subway symbol printed in Oliver’s father’s book probably contained the location of the machine. Taking it a step further, she managed to uncover underlying fault lines, narrowing down their search for a viable hotspot. Oliver had an epiphany; the device would be located in the exact spot where Tommy’s mother was murdered.
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Speaking of the murder of Mrs. Merlyn, Tommy arrived at his father’s office looking to laugh at Oliver’s heinous accusation that his father would commit such a dastardly deed. Malcolm made no attempt to cover up his scheme. In fact, I believe he’d hoped that playing the voicemail, that captured his Tommy's mother’s death forever, for his son's ears would pull him over to the dark side. Instead, it just freaked Tommy out entirely. The lunatic inside Malcolm had revealed himself. The last step was to show Tommy his secret Dark Archer room, much to his son’s complete and utter shock. Too bad for Malcolm, though, Moira had finally decided to woman-up and come clean. Calling a press conference at her home, Moira took to every major network to out Malcolm as a murderer in a final attempt to evacuate The Glades. A devastated Thea escaped the press frenzy in her quest to find Roy Harper (Colton Haynes), while Moira was arrested for her part in the conspiracy. The jig, however, was finally up, and Malcolm was not about to go down without accomplishing his mission.
Back at headquarters, Oliver readied a new bow for one final showdown with Malcolm, who apparently had the power to activate the mechanism manually as well. Diggle refused to let his friend go alone, and Oliver, finally, let him in completely. Scrappy Felicity also refused to leave Oliver’s side, at least in spirit. It was up to her to disable the earthquake device, but she’d need help. Oliver called in one last favor from Detective Lance, who was ready to do his part to save his city, whether he was suspended or not.
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Roy witnessed the chaos of the great Glades escape from his window before hitting the streets himself. The Glades were devastated by the anarchy of the evacuation, landing Harper in a sticky situation with a group of muggers. He handled himself well enough, whipping out some of his own brand of ghetto ninja skills we've become accustomed to enjoying. That is, until the last standing thug pulled out a gun, prompting a lurking Thea to render him unconscious with one single smashing of a liquor bottle. Roy’s hero. Thea Queen. It wouldn't have been a finale without some of Colton Hayne's signature reaction shots:
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So expressive!
Malcolm easily overcame the police force that arrived to arrest him, leaving only Tommy left to eliminate his father. Sadly, he was no match. Oliver discovered a barely conscious Tommy on his father’s office floor, and the two had a quick moment of friendship mending before Ollie ordered him to get to safety. Diggle managed to uncover Merlyn’s secret room, and in turn, Malcolm Merlyn himself, ready for combat. A grappling match between the three ended with a knife in Diggle’s upper chest, leaving Oliver alone in his final rooftop battle with Merlyn, which was one hell of a showdown.
Detective Lance managed to discover the massive weapon underground in no time at all. I mean, that things screamed "evil weapon of doom"! The timer read “seven minutes,” to which Felicity replied:This thing will be a paperweight in three.Unfortunately, that wasn’t exactly the case. Lance managed to follow her directions exactly, only to find that the machine had some sort of emergency protection against tampering. The clock jumped down to two minutes, sentencing Lance to death. My favorite part of the finale might have been Lance’s final call to Laurel, who was dealing with chaos in her office. He pleaded with her to leave The Glades before giving a tearful goodbye, begging her to go on living without him. After hanging up, Felicity snapped the man back to reality. Felicity is unstoppable, and the two managed to shut down the machine after all.
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Before we review the end of the final episode of the season, let’s take one last trip back to Island Hell, shall we? Oliver managed to undo his ties just before Fyer’s man could launch the first missile at the commercial airliner in the sky. Man, did it feel good to watch Ollie stab the soldier who’d attempted to dupe him a few weeks back, huh? Fyers made the order himself as the trio battled the mercenaries around them. The weapon fired, giving Ollie and Shado (Celina Jade) just minutes before the plane would be shot out of the sky. Shado managed to reprogram the chip inside just before falling from the moving missile launcher. Oliver, just in time, slipped the newly programmed chip back into the machine, ordering the missile to crash land mere feet away, destroying the enemy camp. Oliver, however, seemed to be the last standing survivor. That is, until Slade (Manu Bennett) revealed himself, a bit dirtied up but alive. Shado, on the other hand, found herself in the arms of Fyers, who gave Queen a choice; Shado or a flight off of the island. Oliver, bow in hand, delivered his first kill shot through the chest of Fyers.
Remembering the passion he has in his city and his father’s last request, Oliver managed to defeat Malcolm Merlyn, without killing his best friend's father, as a bloody Diggle watched from the sidelines. Mission accomplished? Not exactly.If there’s anything I learned as a successful businessman, it’s redundancy.CW "Arrow"
Malcolm had planted another device across from Lance’s location, and it was about to detonate. As the machine went off, The Glades began to tremble and shake. The subsequent scenes of characters we've grown to love cowering in fear were heavy with suspense. We knew someone would be "sacrificed," tainting Oliver's victory, and the finale was heading into its last few minutes. Roy sent Thea to safety after deciding to stay behind to help the injured. Roy singlehandedly proved Merlyn wrong. The people of The Glades do care. Laurel, on the other hand, was not as fortunate as Thea. The second device began to tear her office to the ground. As most of the employees escaped, Laurel was caught beneath a bit of heavy wreckage. Oliver, recognizing the location of the second device as Laurel’s street, made haste in an effort to save her. In the end, it was actually Tommy who showed up to rescue her, professing his love for her before releasing her from the cement pinning her down. Laurel ran to the safety of her father’s arms outside. Tommy, however, was crushed.
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Oliver sifted through the debris, discovering Tommy conscious, but trapped. After lifting the rubble, we realized that this was not the case, and all was not as it had originally seemed. Tommy had been impaled, and with moments left to live, he set things right with Oliver, dying in his best friend’s arms. Oliver cried out as the first season winded to a sad end,It should have been me.
Arrow truly hit its stride in the last half of Season 1. It was always good solid television, but by the time both the actors and writers got into the groove of interpreting the story of a classic DC comic book legend, the series became even more compelling and complex. Funny enough, Oliver Queen ended his debut season with half a failure, but that's what made the finale so fantastic.
What did you think of the Arrow Season 1 finale, Episode 23, “Sacrifice”? What did you think of the show’s first season in general? Did you expect Tommy to meet his demise? (I thought we’d lose Malcolm, prompting Tommy to take his place to avenge his death.) Where does this leave Moira Queen? What will Tommy’s death mean for Laurel and Oliver? How will Malcolm react when he learns that his plan killed his only son? Will you be tuning in for Season 2?
Thanks for reading my Recap and Review of Arrow, Season 1 finale, Episode 23, “Sacrifice”! Hit the comments below or tweet me your reactions to the episode @JoeTranch to keep the conversation going!