Arrow S07E22 Review: One Big-Ass Sequel Hook

Arrow, Season 7, Episode 22: You Have Saved This City

And so, the seventh season of Arrow draws to a close. And it's been... an interesting season. We spent the first half of this season sort of like in a little mini-season of its own, with the whole prison arc, and Ricardo Diaz ends up being sort of the big bad of the first half of the season... and then we get the huge revelation that Emiko is in fact a villain, and the leader of the Ninth Circle as opposed to being a mere member to boot. But while I'm happy that we're not being bogged down by half-assed serialization like previous seasons of Arrow, and we've gotten a half-dozen very solid, almost-standalone episodes prior to this one (Star City 2040, the Laurel one, the Diggle one, the murder-mystery one, the Tommy one)... it really doesn't do a good job at really building up Emiko as a villain, or to tie in any of the themes of Team Arrow's good standings with the SCPD particularly well. Between the revelation that Emiko's evil and this episode where she exits the show, we learn scant nothing about Emiko as a character. How much of the facade she was putting up for Oliver and Rene's benefit is true to the real Emiko? Because all we've seen throughout the past couple of months have been just "Emiko steals a bunch of technology and then says something cryptically evil".

And honestly, while Emiko Adachi certainly didn't overstay her welcome and drag on and on and on like Ricardo Diaz was, it really felt like we're missing a couple of focus episodes of Oliver and Emiko actually confronting each other beyond what's essentially "Emiko be good plz." "No." repeated a couple of times at the beginning and the end of action scenes.

Like, sure, the emotional moments of this episode was... satisfactory, I guess. It's something that's symptomatic of this seven-season-long show as a whole, because Oliver finally realizing that violence is not the answer, admitting that he's given in to anger and vengeance over the Robert Queen revelation, and putting an arrow through his sociopathic sister's chest is not the answer is probably the best direction the character could go, particularly in a series that's trying to close Oliver Queen's story. But then we just sort of get the rest of the Ninth Circle head-honchos led by Beatrice -- a completely new character who shows up this episode -- and after a brief action scene which is admittedly badass, Emiko and Oliver team up, then Emiko dies, apologizing to Oliver before she breathes her last. All righty?

There's a brief sub-plot about the SCPD mistaking Team Arrow as villains and what seems to be what would eventually lead to the negative outlook on the vigilantes, but good old officer Binksley (who is only named in this episode) turns out to have survived the SCPD assault and quickly cleared Team Arrow's names. We also have the brief bit with them dealing with Emiko's crazy flesh-eating gas (which is where IMO the Emiko-redemption bit sort of ends up wavering for me), and... and a nice little nod to Laurel II and Bronze Tiger showing up and reminding Team Arrow how forgiving and accepting former villains will sometimes lead to new friends and partnerships. I just kinda wished that we also do put emphasis that at least some of these former villains have served their time, and coming off of an episode where they covered up Roy's murder, it comes off as a bit confused, but... eh?

Oh, and also, Mr. Terrific shows up for one last hurrah, and that whole scene when the full force of Team Arrow, its guest-stars and the SCPD end up taking the fight up against the Ninth Circle... it's pretty neat. But ultimately the Ninth Circle plot sort of gets tied up relatively quickly. I wouldn't say abruptly, but it really could've used a whole lot more substance.

The Future Plot is also tied-up, action-wise, in this episode too, and... I dunno, it's cool action stuff, particularly on Mia's end, but I honestly am even less invested in this part. We get some neat acting as Mia decides to be heroic at last and team up with her brother to blow up the Galaxy One core computer or whatever, but I honestly don't remember much of the actual action stuff on the Future Plot side of things. It's nowhere as terrible as the Baron Reiter flashbacks, but it's honestly something that I probably won't remember as fondly.

The season's not tied up as cleanly as I thought it would, and I suspect some hasty rewrites are in order when they realized they were going to get a short eighth season to wrap things up. Bronze Tiger survives the season, and despite massive death flags, he still gets to spend time with Connor and Connor doesn't end up becoming Diggle's adoptive son yet. We also don't learn how Star City becomes a wasteland yet, or how Rene became an evil, misguided politician. I guess we could infer that Roy's guilt-ridden "soul-searching" was how he ended up in Lian Yu? We also get the origin of the "Mark of the Four" sign that Future Roy and Future William talked over, and while the dialogue is a bit forced, the acting and emotion between the cast members who have stuck together since the first season is genuine, and I genuinely felt "awww I'm going to miss you guys when your show is over" when I watched that scene.

Of course, with the threat of Emiko gone and... and we get a bit of a montage as plot threads are wrapped up. Oliver gives this speech about how he had started this crusade alone and was convinced that he was going to end it alone, but he's built up a small Arrow-Family of his own, and he's... he's now content to leave Star City in their hands, preferring to go off and stay in that cabin with the pregnant Felicity. And... and we get a pretty montage of Felicity giving birth to baby Mia and the two of them being adorable parents and all...

AND THEN THE MONITOR SHOWS UP. Presumably this still takes place in 2019, prior to the spooky-scary Crisis that's been foreshadowed in The Flash, Supergirl and (sorta) Legends of Tomorrow, and if you remember last year's crisis crossover, Elseworlds, you'll remember that Oliver made a deal with the Monitor seemingly to save Flash and Supergirl's life. And Oliver's delivery of "I thought I would have more time..." is amazingly delivered, and it sort of puts into perspective why, this time more than any other, he's so willing to throw his vigilante crusade to spend time with the love of his life and his newborn daughter. I'm curious just how much of Oliver's actions throughout the post-Elseworlds episodes would take a different turn when he knows that his days are literally numbered?


That scene where Oliver says goodbye to Felicity is amazingly acted, doubly so knowing that this is Emily Bett Rickards' exit from the Arrowverse. And as Oliver disappears with the very apologetic Monitor into the mysterious portal, we go into 2040-era Star City, where future-Felicity goes on a very emotional and sad goodbye to William and Mia next to Oliver Queen's grave, in a goodbye that feels a bit more permanent than just going into hiding with the rest of the vigilantes. This, of course, leads to Felicity going off on her own and summoning the Monitor, noting that she had promised Oliver to take care of her children until they can clearly take care of their own... and now that they can, she's going to go to wherever the Monitor took Oliver, making it a relatively peaceful... non-death?

Overall, it's... it's definitely an interesting ending. The whole Monitor stuff felt more like build-up for the eventual Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover, but the episode as a whole felt... it definitely felt like an end of an era. It's mostly satisfying, I would say, with some genuinely nice tear-jerker moments and a very fun action sequence to cap Emiko off. It's just a shame that the actual overall plot of this season hasn't been paced particularly well, and both the Ninth Circle and the whole Vigilante Act stuff ended up sort of petering out. I wouldn't say the plot management was as bad as The Flash, but it's kind of pretty close.

Still, this episode is going to be pretty damn memorable for the beautiful montage of a former loner and brooding vigilante finally deciding to trust his crusade to his team of friends, finally burying all of his family's past sins to bed as best as he could, serving time for the crimes he had done during his crusade, and finally enjoying some peace and quiet with his family until the inevitable Monitor stuff happens. That's... that's a great ending for Oliver Queen, honestly. And while we still have one last season to go through, with the uncertain nature of returning cast members (Rickards certainly isn't returning, and even if she does I'm assuming it'd be for a quick scene or two) I'm definitely uncertain just what we'll cover in the eighth and final season of Arrow, coming later this fall. This season, on the other hand... it's all right.

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• Previous main villains Slade Wilson and Adrian Chase are briefly brought up by John when talking about Emiko's crusade.
• While it's still ambiguous what happens to Oliver Queen and Felicity Smoak at the end when the Monitor takes them away, the original comic-book Crisis of Infinite Earths had a pair of superhero lovers -- Superman and Lois Lane of the original Earth-1 -- electing to stay in a pocket dimension together instead of being caught up in the fusion of all the Earths in the Multiverse.