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[sc:astop]
And that’s a wrap! Arrow Season 4 came and went, not without our qualms and frustrations, but it held a swagger for a while. On the scale of 1 to pleased, I’m hovering around mildly-amused. While I was stuck at work with some late-night shenanigans, my wonderful co-hosts took the reigns for the reactionary Arrow finale review! Thank goodness someone has something to say, right? The Shadow and Podcast Overlord discuss Arrow Season 4 Episode 23 “Schism”, which originally aired on May 25, 2016.
Schism
While we don’t have to dig deep to understand the title of this episode, because Felicity clearly called it out toward the end, it is very interesting to me that this finale is labeled schism. Season 1 Finale = “Sacrifice”; Season 2 Finale = “Unthinkable”; Season 3 Finale = “My Name is Oliver Queen”. Previous finale titles have been descriptive about the events contained within, but this one is descriptive of everyone’s state of mind. As this season has had its frustrating character nuances, I guess I shouldn’t be entirely surprised. Literally the only person not schisming (my word) was Damien Darhk.
Low Lights
Let’s get the negatives out of the way, what do you say?
1) We know Donna is not a stupid person. She’s had enough screen time this season for us to learn she is a resourceful woman who is willing to make tough decisions. She’s not afraid to be herself, as quirky as taht person might be. So it wasn’t entirely believable to me that we didn’t get more of an indication from her that she knows who the main cast of Star City’s vigilante crew are. I would really like to see, in a season 5 episode, some inidcation that she is keeping their identities a secret (even her knowledge of them a secret) in order to avoid drawing attention. Maybe similar to how Moira revealed to Oliver that she knew who he was masquerading around as!
2) Thea threatening to kill Damien’s daughter…and then immediately releasing her once Damien “let her people go”. It seemed like they needed a profound reason to have Thea go her own way for a bit, but can’t the death of her boyfriend be enough?? And again… no mention of that death.
3) Lyla sending men in after Darhk, only to have them slaughtered. Did her near death experience a couple weeks ago not influence any decision making around this?? How many senseless murders does Damien Darhk have to commit before these people realize guns won’t kill him? Well, it doesn’t matter anymore because Oliver finished him off.
4, 5, 6) Flashbacks.
Highlights
Surprisingly, there were more things I liked in this episode than I didn’t like. I think the lack of redemption this episode had on the whole season is another discussion entirely, but for the episode being what it was and being a finale, it did it’s job to kill the bad guy, save the city, establish our heroes, and set up for the next season.
1) Non-repetitive dialogue. We heard some new conversations in this episode… I feel like the last, oh, ten or so episodes our characters have been having the same conversation over and over. The added component of losing Laurel seems to have inspired everyone to approach their present circumstances in a very raw way, and I like the really frank declarations that came out as a result. Particularly from Oliver and Thea. A lot of good moments.
2) I love the parallel to last season’s finale; instead of Oliver and Felicity leaving town, everyone else does. I want to see them have a solid friendship by the beginning of next season. And not so much the beginning of season 3 friendship, but the friendship that comes after having been through the stuff that they’ve been through. I can think of two friends with whom I have this sort of relationship (restoration after having suffered trust issues), and those friendships are some of the most incredible ones I have. They mean so much more to me because of how overcoming those issues have helped me grow as a person. I want to keep investing in them because they bear so much good fruit!
3) I’ve surprised myself with how many times I took Oliver’s side this season and as such I really like how the present-day Oliver character was presented in this finale. I really like that they’re inducting him as mayor and I really like that he has to learn to rebuild without his team.
Blab Event
No new episodes of Arrow for awhile, but we did think it’d be fun to have another conversation in a couple weeks! We’ll all let the season stew for a while, reflect on the show as a whole, and come back with fresh eyes on Wednesday June 8 @ p.m. ET. Bookmark this bad boy and be ready to have some fun!
Feedback
Arrow might have ended, but we never stop talking about it. Seriously. Never. And it’s never to late to react! Send in your thoughts, written or audio, and we’d love to hear what you’ve got to say. Head to our feedback page and send that straight to our inboxes!
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Happy podcast anniversary!
Yay for host honesty!
I agree with Podcast Overload about why Darkh’s powers seemed to fizzle when he was fighting Oliver in the street. I don’t know about “Arrow”, but I don’t know how they’ll mix “Supergirl” into “Arrow” because they said she’s in a different universe so unless Steven is going to come play an alternate Oliver I don’t get how those two can interact; with “Flash” you have the multiverse and with “Legends Of Tomorrow” you can say her universe is due to choices they’ve made so they could interact as well to a point, but “Arrow” and her I don’t see how they can get together without it feeling like a huge stunt. I get crossovers are fun but you do risk becoming the Justice League instead of individual series; again I worry too many crossovers, which are coming they’ve said with the announcement of “Supergirl” (there’s already a four part crossover planned for December they’ve said), will feel stuntish rather than feeling like solid episodes to the season. We may get some good stuff, but we could also get filler episodes we wish we had the episode time for other plots for the season so we’ll have to see but I’m extremely cautious as well regarding the crossovers discussions. About the only way I could see Stephen on “Supergirl” is if he’s playing a different version of Oliver Queen; this is one of the many reasons I wish they had of waited to do a crossover with “Supergirl” because unless they just say they’re just going to act like the Flash appearance didn’t happen then I don’t know how they’re going to have her involved with these shows since they said she’s in her own universe – only Flash would realistically be able to visit unless the actors play alternate versions of their characters. Nice discussion about multiple shows and one universe though.
I have mixed feelings about Malcolm; he makes a good bad guy, but I could do without him at times. He feels like a bad guy who’s been defeated yet keeps popping up, it’s like whack-a-mole with him. Maybe it’s just how often he’s own when there’s already so many characters to start with and one heck of a bad guy already they have to face but I could do with him in less episodes throughout the next season…I actually think that would make him even more scary as a bad guy because you’ll be wondering what he’s been up to versus wondering why hasn’t Oliver hasn’t killed him yet.
If Curtis became Mr. Terrific early on in S5 I could see him filling in for John physically as well, but if Roy is coming back then he needs something to do so I assume he’ll fill that role when he comes in. I do have to say I wonder if the season may be too packed with characters, I get people love Donna Smoak for her humor and potential life lessons and Quentin for his toughness and John for his relationship with Oliver and so forth, but could “Arrow” suffer from a case of “too much fat on the bone” as it were; I know he’s just one character but if Roy does come back and so do John and Thea and we have Curtis on the team as well when is everyone suppose to get their fair share of screen time? I have to say that felt like part of the issue with Laurel in the episodes I saw, it’s not that she was a bad character but she just felt there and really not that connected to the team – I fully believed she could have walked away from the team at any time and been fine; when she did get her own plot it didn’t feel long enough and left me wanting more which can be a good thing I know but it can also be bad when you want more because the character doesn’t feel as developed as others.
I don’t want to kick out characters just to get others in, but I do worry about all the characters getting their time with such a large cast. I could see Quentin as security for Oliver; yes to more Nyssa but again I want her shared with “Legends of Tomorrow” for Sarah personal plots and Nyssa kicking butt there as well. I have to disagree about Felicity being a down point this season because honestly had it not been for her I wouldn’t be watching the show; the other characters are growing on me, but no one has grabbed me like Felicity so if she was off the show I most likely wouldn’t watch it. There would still be good elements to the show I’m sure but I don’t know how many I would care about without Felicity there.
It may be because I only started watching the show when “Legends of Yesterday” aired, but the issues given to Felicity don’t seem that different from others; since I am a new fan, please feel free to expand on these topics with some backstory to clear up any misunderstandings you see. What makes her parental issues different from Thea having to deal with Malcolm this season, beyond the fact Felicity seems to like Donna at least and Thea wants Malcolm to leave her alone? How has she turned arguably turned Oliver into a killer this season when no one else is stopping his actions either really? As for the missile plot, I’m not sure what else she could have done to stop it. I get frustration over reactions not seeming realistic, but I don’t get how Felicity is that much different from other characters this season.
Yes to honesty all around, hosts and commentors; if all you can come up with for an episode/plot sometimes is negativity then say how you feel about it. I can understand not wanting to be downers all the time, but sometimes actions are just bad. I’m sorry to hear this season has been hard on all the long time fans, hopefully season five will give a good mix for all! Yay for the snowpocalypse reference. 🙂
Things I would like to see in season five…
More direct into the episode openings when they can because those are awesome.
The flashbacks feeling related to the episode they appear in as there were episodes this season I was left wondering “Why was this in here?” and thinking the screen time could have been better used.
I personally would love to see Olicity on the series, but in a way that feels more realistic and less soap opera-y. Let Oliver and Felicity scream and yell at each other when they’re mad, let them be sickenly sweet when they’re happy, let them have days where their relationship can inspire characters, and if they want a lazy day on the couch as it where (they’re together but nothing couple wise is mentioned because maybe they have bigger things to deal with or theirs no time for a couple moment in the episode because it’s so jammed pack) then that’s okay too. I know some writers don’t think it, but you can have a pairing together while still having drama for them. Let Olicity face things together like they did Felicity being paralyzed instead of having Oliver look for someone who will tell him it’s okay he lied.
Speaking of Felicity being paralyzed, that storyline needs to come back because it’s too good just to be written off with a literal flick of a switch.
Again if they’re going to have a large ensemble cast then let every character have storylines both on the team and off and both with and outside of Oliver; I know he’s the lead but he’s not the end all be all to their lives. All the characters need to feel like solid characters instead of interchangeable pieces or just fillers.
If it’s the final season then some characters get to retire instead of dying as their exits. Again this was not an unrealistic path I felt Laurel could have taken.
If you have a guest character on they’re used as well as Vixen was during her appearance.
Those are just some off the top of my head points I’d like to see; what are some things you all would like to see in season five?