Arrow S06E23 Review: The Underwhelming Climax

Arrow, Season 6, Episode 23: Life Sentence

Finally, we've got the season finale for Arrow's sixth season and... boy, this season was quite a mess, huh? I didn't think any Arrow season could top the third season in sheer messiness, but at least the third season had a simple mission statement: beat Ra's Al Ghul and his crazy plan to make Oliver his successor. Arrow's sixth season is all over the place, with the Arrow Civil War storyline bogging down huge stretches of the season, the fake-out that is "John Diggle is totally replacing Oliver Queen nope wait nevermind" that was a bit too short for its own good, as well as the very poorly-done villain switch, and eventually dropping the ball with Ricardo Diaz in his last few appearances. The season is not all bad, of course, with many individual episodes being really good, and the actors clearly giving their all despite the uneven script... but still, I genuinely really think that this season isn't that good. And while this episode is done well and shot well and a pleasant episode to watch in a vacuum, it's still a pretty underwhelming climax.

And I will be the first to say that I don't really give a shit about the Samanda Watson/FBI storyline, which just makes all parties involved look like absolute chumps. Team Arrow for having to rely on the FBI in the first place (instead of, oh, ARGUS or Team Flash or the Legends), and the FBI for apparently being such dicks that they're sitting on their hands waiting for Oliver to give his secret identity up and not deal with the supervillain team that's taken over a city.

Speaking of said supervillain, Ricardo Diaz has honestly been reduced to a screaming bad guy. Kirk Acevedo really tries his best with what he's given, and while he's entertaining enough that I will begrudgingly not be pissed that he survives and presumably will continue to be the main villain next season (I mean, Damien Darhk was pretty shit in his first run, and didn't become fun until his second and third seasons in CW) but Diaz's writing has been insanely uneven and inconsistent that I can only muster excitement for the actor, not the character. Add that to me not really buying that he can survive being sonic-screamed off a building and into a water... yeah.

And this episode is... honestly pretty unerwhelming. In-between action scenes (which, frankly, are pretty sloppy by Arrow's own standards), Oliver goes through what the others 'farewell tour' where he speaks to Diggle, telling him to succeed him, makes up with Dinah and Curtis for their past conflicts and apologizes to them, and straight-up has a farewell with Quentin, who dies this episode (more on this later). I feel like it's particularly galling that he doesn't actually get to talk to Felicity and especially William, who really ends up feeling like an afterthought. And even then, the scenes feel more like a checklist. "Who else did Oliver piss off this season?" "Well, there is Rene, Dinah, John..." Curtis apparently doesn't warrant a mention? William, the source of Oliver's motivation for nearly the entirety of the season, also doesn't warrant a proper farewell? Stephen Amell sells the hell out of those scenes, but when I sit down to review the episode, I really realize what a bunch of missed opportunities there are as far as farewells go.

Add that to the fact that, y'know, I still think the FBI case plotline is pretty dumb, and Samanda Watson is just a very generic, short-sighted and poorly-defined "this doesn't change our deal" character... Everything regarding the FBI subplot just feels pretty hackneyed and poorly-developed.

A bit of a disappointment, too, is how Anatoly is handled, how he just shows up, makes his betrayal of Diaz official, walks into the police precinct and makes some fun Russian jokes, and then gets dropped by the episode almost entirely. I mean, we still have the next season and he might play a role there, but honestly, he really deserved a better closure for the end of a season.

Oh, and Quentin dies. The weird NotLaurel/Diaz/Quentin plot comes to a head in the most predictable fashion ever. Diaz threatens Not-Laurel, Quentin arrives to save his daughter, and ends up taking a bullet for him. He lives long enough to talk to Oliver and share a farewell with him (which is genuinely touching, since both Blackthorne and Amell always have amazing chemistry) but ultimately it feels abrupt and Quentin's story really doesn't feel like it has reached a proper climax the way Thea did during her exit of the show.

Oh, and Sara shows up for a brief cameo, but doesn't even get a proper farewell with Quentin? Lame.

Ultimately, I think I'm more disappointed with this episode than pleased. There are a lot of great scenes, in no small part due to Stephen Amell and Paul Blackthorne stealing this episode... but as a whole? The episode isn't a particularly good conclusion to the myriad plotlines that has ran through the sixth season, none of the season-long storylines really have a satisfying conclusion... I dunno. Considering how poorly they paced all the storylines in season 6, it really doesn't lend much confidence for season 7.

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• The Longbow Hunters, while not making a physical appearance here, is the name of a group of villains (namely Count Vertigo, Brick, Killer Moth and Red Dart) that are featured in the New 52 storyline "Broken", which introduced the villainous version of Ricardo Diaz. Longbow Hunters is also the name of an 80's storyline for Green Arrow that was a huge inspiration for Arrow's depiction of the character. 
• Quentin got his pacemaker prior to season 3 after a heart attack during the final episode of the second season.