TV REVIEW: Season Finale "Arrow" S7 E22 “You Have Saved This City”

This season-ending cliffhanger episode opens with the members of Team Arrow being captured by authorities, both in the present and also in the flashforward storyline 20 years in the future.

One last look at Felicity.

In the present, Emiko has just escaped Team Arrow…again…and holds all the pieces of a lethal bioweapon she and the Ninth Circle intend to unleash on the city…but where? “Good thing you called for back-up,” say a couple of old friends.

Unfortunately, Oliver (Green Arrow) still hasn’t given up on trying to redeem his sister Emiko, introduced this season as the half-sister he never knew he had. He wants to break the cycle of abuse and violence his father introduced into the Queen clan. This storyline has been a cliched, forced, repetitive, and tiring aspect of this season, one that thankfully comes to an end in this episode.

In the future, the Team Arrow of Tomorrow—Felicity, daughter Mia, stepson William, and Connor Hawke—fight to end the authoritarian rule of Star City, and its army of robocops, and disable the Archer program that could be used to hunt them all down.

As the episode neared its end, there was lots of talk about “carrying on the legacy” and “the team’s spirit living on” and “it feels like the end of an era”, so it had all the signs of the last episode of the series, and not the usual cliffhanger. However, instead of an end, there were scenes of a beautiful beginning, and an explanation why Felicity won’t be seen in the final season of Arrow either in the present, or in the flashforward adventures. A very sad and cosmic explanation.

As Arrow cliffhangers go, this was a very weepy one. Be prepared.

WATCH FOR:

• a nice mirroring of action between the present and the future

• the most ill-fitting, unflattering eyeglasses ever

• a “Terrific” pun

• some cool wannabe Wolverine claws

• a passing of the torch, in this case, Oliver’s bow and arrows