Arrow Season 3 Episode 23 - My Name is Oliver Queen Review

Arrow Season 3 Episode 23 – My Name is Oliver Queen Review

Well it’s over … I miss is already.

 

Episode 23 was the finale of season 3 and featured team Arrow reunited to try to prevent Ra’s al Ghul using the bioweapon to destroy Starling City. Meanwhile in the flashbacks we see the aftermath of the unleashed bioweapon as well as the death of Akio.

 

There has been a very mixed response for this episode. Overall I have to say I really enjoyed it. I thought it was exciting, paced well and had some great action set pieces. As an episode of television it did its job. This is the finale of Arrow however, a show that has captured many of us and a show I’m sure everyone reading this really does love. When I was watching it I was really into it, looking back I can see some issues however.

 

I’ll start with the good stuff and as always Arrow delivered some really string and powerful scenes. I’ve seen quite a lot of complaints over the fight scene between Oliver and Ra’s however I thought it was very well done. The choreography was quick and entertaining and the chant in the background was excellent, really adding to the mood and size of the scene. I thought it ended well too, I remember thinking last week it would be really cheesy to have Ra’s get stabbed through the chest in the same way Oliver was however now I’ve seen it I like how it was done. It signified the arc and progression Oliver has made throughout the season, he truly has become something else. While I don’t necessarily thing killing off Ra’s was a good idea I liked how he died with dignity and never lost that class and presence even in death. He was a fantastic villain this season and did the impossible of not being a disappointment in comparison to Slade Wilson.

 

The strongest character in this episode for me was Diggle. A lot of team Arrow forgave Oliver very quickly over what he did but I liked seeing it continue to grate on Diggle. He shook Oliver’s hand at the end but even then you could see Diggle hadn’t forgotten about what Oliver did to his wife and the trust he broke. It really came across how he felt let down by it all and really I think he’s completely right to think so. We all know Diggle is a great character, the voice of reason, our eyes into this insane world and really the glue that hold everything together and this was another great episode. More than anything else I’m glad with so many characters Diggle still holds focus as I’m always glad when he’s in a scene.

 

I liked the flashbacks this week. I think it did a good job of explaining what happened to Tatsu and Maseo’s characters and I honestly found it quite emotional at times. I liked the comparison between Maseo and Oliver both in some way becoming a monster and up until the ending I thought it was quite well done. The problem isn’t really to do with this flashback, rather the ones leading up to it. This had some really big moments and should have been really impactful, the problem is that the flashbacks leading up to this one haven’t been great and thus haven’t invested me in what’s going on. Purely as a single episode however I thought this week’s flashbacks were good.

 

The Flash had a really enjoyable crossover in this episode, a lot of what he said really made me laugh. It amuses me to think what the assassins must be thinking after being taken out in a fraction of a second before hearing some smartass talking about the cool hot tub. I think The Flash is great and apart from being fun his appearance did a good job of showing the juxtaposition between Oliver and Barry and how they do things. The whole episode in fact had some fun moments, the one that stands out to me is when Captain Lance said the city’s under attack, it must be May.

 

Arrow has some really strong characters so I’m not going to ramble about how Laurel, Thea, Malcom and Ray are good well developed characters but I do enjoy seeing all the members of team Arrow interact. It’s fun but it’s also serious when it needs to be and watching the team do what it does is enjoyable in itself.

 

I mentioned problems with the episode earlier, some of my more nitckpicky one were how it was a little cheesy at times, the part where Felicity used the Atom suit to save Oliver springs to mind. Felicity still isn’t that great character she was in season 2, she was kind of summed up when she wanted Ray to save Oliver over an entire city. I’m also not pleased about Ra’s al Ghul dying. While the fight was done well and I’m glad we’ve seen Oliver progress as well as overcome that mental block to allow him to defeat Ra’s., I just don’t think he should’ve died. He’s Ra’s al Ghul, one of the most dangerous men on the planet after all.

 

My biggest problem however is Oliver and Felicity driving off into the sunset. It just seemed really cliché and while I know they’ll come back and there is going to be a season 4 and Oliver Queen isn’t going to stay retired I can’t help but think this will slow down the start to next season but more importantly this seemed like a big last ever episode of Arrow moment with Oliver finally coming to terms with who he is and what he has become and is now happy for it. I’m not against the Oliver Felicity romance, I just don’t want to see it end at some point into next season and then be forgotten. This would really undermine the arc of season 3 as well as negate the point of the drama.

 

There were some big twists in the episode and the significant one I haven’t yet mentioned is Malcom becoming the new Ra’s al Ghul. This is what made the former Ra’s death okay to me, Malcom is a great character, one who we can never quite be sure of the intentions and it makes you wonder if this was his plan all along. It does make me look forwards to an league of assassins based stories in the future, especially after the scene with him and Nyssa

 

So overall the finale was a good one. It was entertaining, enjoyable and did a good job of bringing this up and down season to a close. It wasn’t perfect by any means but one thing’s for sure, I am looking forwards to Arrow season 4.