Arrow S123 - Sacrifice

Brian G Turner

Fantasist & Futurist
Staff member
Supporter
Joined
Nov 23, 2002
Messages
26,701
Location
UK
Synopsis:
Malcolm imprisons Oliver and leaves him to die, hanging from chains, but he escapes and returns home. In a flashback, Fyers fires a missile at an approaching airliner, but Oliver and Shado manage to override the coordinates and destroy the missile. Afterward, Oliver kills Fyers. In the present, Oliver confronts his mother about the Undertaking, which prompts her to hold a press conference and reveal to the city her involvement with Malcolm and the plan to destroy the Glades. Tommy sees the press conference, and Malcolm reveals that he is the other archer to the dismay of his son. Detective Lance, with help from Felicity, is able to dismantle the earthquake device. Diggle and Oliver go after and mortally wound Malcolm, who gloats that there is a second device shortly before he dies. The device activates and begins to level the east side of the Glades. Thea goes into the Glades to save Roy, who heroically works to help others who are trying to escape the earthquake. Laurel is trapped in her office at CNRI, but Tommy arrives to rescue her. Laurel escapes, but Tommy is caught by falling debris. Oliver arrives too late, and Tommy perishes.

Oh, my - what a finale!

Moira finally has the guts to stand up to be accounted for, with her impromptu press conference to warn of the coming threat...

And Detective Lance takes Arrow seriously and tries to order the evacuation, at cost to himself. But then gets the call saying where the device is, to shut it down. Nice line, btw - "At this moment, the city needs you."

And then we have the big climax of stopping the device from going off, with the classic "cut the wrong wire and the timer goes faster - wait, here's the solution now!" plot element, while Oliver predictably manages to defeat Merlyn...

"If there's one thing I've learned in business, it's redundancy..."

WHAT?! There's another device? Oh, well, I'm sure they'll find it...

And then it goes off, the earthquake begins, and buildings begin to collapse!! I did not expect that!

When Laurel became trapped, I thought we were going for the old "superhero's girlfriend dies" trope - and was surprised that not only Tommy appear and rescue her, but that he was killed in her place.

That was one damn fine way to wrap up so many plot lines - not least as Tommy never approved of either Oliver or his father killing people.

And then it ends - and that was quite a season.

Oh, and there was stuff on the island, too, but despite the action there, it was somewhat overshadowed by what happened in Starling City. Even then, it's been a clever device to have parallel stories running, both with a big stakes ending.

I can only hope that they can keep up the quality of writing for season 2...
 

Similar threads


Back
Top