Arrow‘s Series Finale Was Really a Beginning for the Show’s Most Underrated Character

Eight seasonsand who knows how many arrowheads by and by , Oliver Queen hasfinally save that blessed city . Who would have thought back in 2012 , watch that marked-up , haired adult male run around on an island , that all he needed to do was command some mighty cosmic powers ?

Arrow ’s serial finale , “ Fadeout , ” had a intimidating job . Not only was it mean to exit the threshold on the CW ’s flagship superhero show , but it also had to do so after the dramatic conclusion of this yr ’s crosswalk , Crisis on Infinite Earths . I ’m not indisputable what the creatives ’ intellection was on the timing of this one , but ending a series after your lead character fail and you ’ve attempted abackdoor pilotfor that character ’s daughter does not a throb finale make .

https://gizmodo.com/crisis-on-infinite-earths-was-already-wrapped-before-it-1841039962

The gang’s all here. (L-R): Colton Haynes as Roy Harper, Katie Cassidy as Laurel Lance/Black Siren, Audrey Marie Anderson as Lyla Michaels, Joe Dinicol as Rory Regan/Ragman, Emily Bett Rickards as Felicity Smoak, David Ramsey as John Diggle/Spartan, Echo Kellum as Curtis Holt/Mr. Terrific, Rick Gonzalez as Rene Ramirez/Wild Dog, Willa Holland as Thea Queen, and Juliana Harkavy as Dinah Drake/Black Canary.Photo: Colin Bentley (The CW)

If I ’m being honorable , I got tired of Arrow a long time ago . But every time I said I was going to stop watching , I did n’t . A big part of that was because of work , of course , but also I wanted to see what DC Comics Thing the show might do next . Even those who were dedicate to the 23 - episode seasons can admit there were a slew of ups and downs , and last nighttime ’s episode did a capital chore of reminding everyone of that fact . We got flashbacks , baby !

Interspersed between grieve ( oh so much grieving ) sessions was a combination of actual old footage from years by and newly filmed scenes meant to take berth in those earlier 24-hour interval . None of them read all that much — though they did bestow us one more fantastical brawl ; if there ’s one affair on Arrow that was always top - pass , it was the fight stage dancing — but it leave asterisk Stephen Amell to in reality do something in the instalment . Because again , Ollie is dead .

speak of the dead , “ Fadeout ” also comprise Avengers : Endgame proportions of character returns . Though it ’s never made explicit just how much influence Ollie himself had on the Earth - coalesce multiverse mumbo - jumbo , all of his favorite people are back from the all in and Star City — and Star City alone — no longer has any criminal offence . It … frankly makes no sense but we ’ll stray with it for the sake of a happy close . Ollie ’s mama Moira ? He plain saved her from Deathstroke in this existence ( again , do no sense as a mickle of ripple effects would have happened ) . Tommy Merlyn and Quentin Lance are also active once more ( but we do n’t see exactly how that happened ) , as is Ollie ’s sister Emiko — who , if I ’m wholly dependable , I had already forget whole about .

Photo: Colin Bentley

Diggle isn’t ready to retire.Photo: Colin Bentley (The CW)

Which institute me to my next idea , because a lot of people have died on Arrow but not everyone was brought back . Obviously , you would n’t have expected Ollie — if he did indeed have control over what happened — to bring back all the villains but as Earth-2 Laurel rightly points out : Why is she here ? Quentin tells her it ’s because she ’s keen the way she is and does n’t involve “ fixing , ” but the veridical - human race answer is , of course , character growing . The writers have put in a plenty of oeuvre evolving this Laurel from a childlike baddie to a reclaim and echt hero . That said , the history hand us yet another handbill excuse when Thea take Moira why her Padre was n’t returned along with all the others . Moira suggests Ollie could n’t have wreak back anyone whose death made him the submarine sandwich he was which , again , makes no good sense and is middling rude to some other multitude ( RIP Walter ) .

But hey , was n’t it nice they bring back Joe Dinicol as Ragman / Rory Regan alllll the path from time of year five ?

Long story short ( too late ! ) , we had two unlike memorial services for Ollie . There was one for the public which also unveiled a swanky young statue of him in his Arrow gear wheel that literally read : “ He Saved This City . ” The other was just close friends and family and featured additional cameos by Supergirl ( Melissa Benoist ) and the Flash ( Grant Gustin ) . Also , young William got nobble for a turn but that was mostly a wastefulness of clip . It did give Roy an extremely inappropriate placement to propose to Thea though so … yay ?

Argentina’s President Javier Milei (left) and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., holding a chainsaw in a photo posted to Kennedy’s X account on May 27. 2025.

As everyone kick the bucket their freestanding path , we finally ostentate to the moment in the future where Old Felicity gets escorted to section unknown by the Monitor to meet up with Oliver . Is it the island ? No , thank god . Is it some other kind of soothe paradise ? No . It’s … the Queen Consolidated offices and Felicity is young again . It ’s meant to be cute , the office where Ollie first encounter her , but it just feel so bizarre . Also , I guess she ’s just dead now too ? They call this blank space the “ hereafter ” and mention they ’ll have a long fourth dimension together but I really hope they uh , go somewhere else .

While that was the proper ending of the finale , it was n’t the highlight of the episode . Not only did John Diggle get his own salmon run moment ( hell yeah ! ) , he ’s on his direction to being a superpowered submarine . While the bit was something telegraphed on the show for a while , it ’s honestly perfect . Diggle seemed the most thwarted to read there was no more crime to fight in Star City — he ’s always been the one to save the daytime — so when that meteor fell from the sky I was so beaming he was about to find a unexampled caper . Yes , Diggle finally got that Green Lantern ring .

It would have been enough of an uplifting moment on its own but when you pair off it with the decision he and Lyla made to move to Metropolis , it gets even better . call back , thatSuperman and Loisshow star Tyler Hoechlin and Elizabeth Tullochjust got the greenlight and they ’re on the same Earth as everyone else now . Is David Ramsey going to team up up with the Man of Steel ? We do n’t have the official parole just yet , but something tells me Green agency go .

William Duplessie