Arrow: "Unthinkable" Review

So much happened in this episode that the first half went by in what felt like a blink. Much like the rest of the season, a lot was established early on and a lot had to resolve for everything to make sense. Not only did this episode resolve almost all of our questions about the season (how does Oliver pin down Slade, how does Sara seemingly die, how does he meet Amanda Waller, how can he stop Slade, will Roy ever see some action?) but also set up huge events to come, for the most part, in the flashbacks no less!

But I'll get to that set-up part later, like, in a whole separate post because oh my goodness there is a lot of potential there.

Also there was a The Flash trailer so if nothing else we had that.

Like I said, the episode starts off quick, with a lot going on. Lyla arrives, on a rogue A.R.G.U.S chopper to come retrieve Diggle before the drone can hit. Roy's alive and finds that he is not up to his old Mirakuru ways as he tries to punch out a Mirakuru soldier but it has little effect. Oliver manages to buy them time and then the five of them, Oliver, Dig, Felicity, Roy, Lyla, return to the Arrow Cave that has been demolished by Slade's men. I can only assume that Verdant got pretty trashed, too.

Diggle and Lyla decide to team up, like usual, to force Amanda to stop the drone while Oliver comes up with a plan to take down Slade...but the catch is he refuses to kill him, as there has been too much death already.

Back at the police station, Laurel goes to find Sara, who is preoccupied by a woman in red pants and then Laurel is knocked out. Sara returns to the Arrow Cave with Nyssa and several members of the League (YES) to fight against Slade. However, they have separate agendas on every account. Oliver wants to spare the soldiers using the cure, Nyssa wants to kill them all so they don't become a threat. Oliver wants to save Slade, Nyssa thinks the only way to stop him is to destroy him. Nyssa wants Sara back...and Oliver not so much.

Yeah, Nyssa's price for bringing in the League is of course her return, to which Sara agrees to save the city. Makes you wonder, though, what she was talking about just before Laurel got hit by Nyssa. She said Laurel couldn't play a part. What did that mean? Was Laurel supposed to go instead for Sara to feel some guilt in leaving? Was Laurel part of the plan to get captured and thus lead them right to Slade? Who knows.

Nyssa agrees but once again disagrees when Oliver says they do it his way. Nyssa and Oliver seem to be great contrasts and I hope to see more of it in the future. Honestly, I do hope they keep Nyssa in as the main League figurehead rather than her sister or father, as her presence on the show has been very empowering, and she's only been on it for two episodes. Plus she's pretty darn gorgeous...

Anyway, Malcolm was indeed shot by Thea but his suit protected him and he follows her around, saying that he is proud she shot him, as it shows true strength in her to do what she thinks is right and follow her instinct. Roy calls her up and asks her to see him at her place, to which Malcolm says he'll be waiting when she needs him most.

We get a flashback to Oliver and Sara being held captive while Slade tests out the Mirakuru on several otehr members of the Amazo, just as Ivo was doing. When Oliver begs for Slade to stop and then tells him that he was the one who let Shado die, Shado's angry Mirakuru vision appears and we get the devil-angel shoulder routine as Slade goes back and forth between Shado, his true love, and Oliver, his once best-friend. Ultimately he decides to kill Oliver right there but Anatoli uses the torpedo to blast the boat, setting Oliver and Sara free to fight off Slade. Oliver takes down two of his men but Slade slips on the Wintergreen Deathstroke mask and it's on.

Oliver and his little gang, minus Roy, bust into Queen Consolidated, where Isabel, Deathstroke, and a couple of Mirakurus await. The League busts in as Deathstroke escapes to weight the new battle scale. Sara and Nyssa easily handle Isabel but before Oliver can turn down Sara after Isabel begs for death, Nyssa kills her because that's how she does it, pointing out that if Oliver hadn't been so soft all this time the city wouldn't be burning, which he takes to heart. It was a little harsh.

We get our first of two awesome back and forths in this episode as we see two very heartfelt conversations between Thea and Roy and Oliver and Felicty. Thea and Roy takes place first, where Roy tells her that he is cured of the drug and is going to run away with her once everything in the city is cleared up. Thea takes his word but Roy gets a text from Felicity saying its time to suit up, and he leaves, a decision that will haunt him.

Oliver brings Felicity to Queen's Mansion in what is probably the biggest moment in Olicity history for Olicity shippers. Oliver tells Felicity that Slade took the wrong woman when he promised to take the woman he loved most, saying that he loves Felicity and he needs her to understand.

Back at A.R.G.U.S., Dig and Lyla bust in and go straight for the Suicide Squad chambers, busting out everyone in their cells (except Harley Quinn, presumably). Deadshot is worried, though, that Waller is going to fry their brains to which Diggle says "Screw the rules you're now an anti-hero" and they bust into the control room where Waller has them at matched gun-point and reveals Lyla is pregnant with Diggle's child. Random but a good way to segment into the commercial.

In Starling City, the super-heroes of Team Arrow and the League headed by Nyssa march into a tunnel against the Mirakurus in what would be Arrow's second best fight scene ever (don't worry, the best is yet to come) as we see three Archers, tons of sword-wielders, and a bow-staffer take on all of Slade's men.

Also Laurel got captured and Lance showed up to help in order to get Laurel back. So that was cool, especially when he saved Nyssa, who he wanted to shoot before.

Anyway, we got some great action here and also saw our first official glimpse of what will become Arsenal, as Roy donned a red mask given to him by Oliver to be what he needed to be. And he was pretty darn good. He had the bow and everything, taking down Mirakuru dudes and showing off impressing fighting techniques Oliver must have been showing him off-screen.

Oliver, also, displayed great action, able to take down two Mirakurus at a time. But to be totally honest the best fighter out of all of them was Nyssa. I don't know, maybe she's my new TV show crush or something but this chick was awesome, shooting down Mirakurus and kicking them around like they were nothing but bloated dolls. She also had great synergy with Sara, who up until this point I thought was a better fighter than Oliver but now I think that the pecking order is: 1. Nyssa. 2. Oliver. 3. Slade (wat) 4. Sara.

Speaking of which, Oliver gets a nice little phone call that Slade has actually captured Felicity. Ruh-roh. Oliver goes there alone, ready to take down Slade, as Slade reveals that he has once again set-up the impossible choice scenario. Oliver reveals, however, that Slade sees Shado, but that he sometimes sees her as well. But, their visions of her are tainted, and this actually makes a lot of sense. Back in episode 9, Three Ghosts, we saw accurate depictions of the three characters that had affected Oliver, in terms of loss, most: Tommy, Slade, and Shado. We saw a kind-hearted Shado trying to soothe Oliver, we saw a Slade burning with revenge from what we would learn was actually the Mirakuru, and we saw a Tommy urging his friend to fight on. So when Oliver said that Slade and he had two different depictions, it really showed how the two had a lasting impression of Shado.

Of course, we come to find out (which I totally called by the way) that Oliver had planted Felicity in the mansion as he knew Slade had the place bugged and monitored, as Felicity quickly whirls around and gives Slade the cure right in the neck. Sara takes out the other Mirakuru and saves Laurel, then flees leaving just Slade and Oliver.

Deathstroke.

Versus

Green Arrow.

This was, without a doubt, the single greatest on-screen fight I have ever seen. Slade is powered down to be as strong as he was before the Mirakuru, and since Oliver has come a long way to the point where he can fight off a Mirakuru soldier (you know, like Solomon Grundy), he has the strength advantage. When they started fighting it was the coolest thing ever. Deathstroke may not have used his guns but he did use his sword while Oliver had his metal bow, obviously.

The choreography here was absolutely phenomenal. There hasn't been a single fight on television, that I've seen, that was this impressive. Not only that, but we also got our best island-present time tie in we have ever seen on the show. As Oliver fights Slade in Starling City, we also see Oliver fighting the Mirakuru Slade back on the Amazo. It's really a mirroring leading up the big moment(s) where Oliver must choose to kill Slade, or risk letting him live.

We kept get flashes back and forth between the two fights, like how Slade would punch Oliver and in the past Oliver would crash to the ground. Or in the past the two would rush each other and in the present they would blast each other back. The main difference was the ending outcome positions but that hardly mattered.

Back on the Amazo, Oliver pretty much gets whooped but puts up a heck of a fight for a) not having learned to masterfully fight that long and b) holding up against a very, very strong Slade while Oliver has yet to reach his full potential. Slade, however, gets caught by falling metal debris and Slade asks Oliver to make the choice that will ultimately come back to haunt him, and we get to see Oliver make such a choice, as he chose to cast aside the cure and stab Slade right in the eye, and honestly, if I were Oliver, I would totally believe that Slade is dead. However, another blast ensues, knocking Oliver into the water and leaving his fate totally unknown.

Also, Sara was dragged into the water in a way very remniscent of the Queens' Gambit, so, that's how Oliver believed her dead and we can say goodbye to her flashback character. And probably Slade's, which kind of sucks because Slade was really cool.

But speaking of Slade, Oliver and Slade manage to continue fighting to the point where they are bludgeoned and exhausted. Oliver manages to pin Slade against a wall, though, and bind him with two arrows, but instead of killing him, he decides to spare his life. He calls up Amanda, telling her it's over, and Amanda calls off the drones.

In the aftermath, Sara goes back to the League but also hands Laurel her leather jacket, obviously signifying that Laurel is to become the next Canary when the time is right. But before we can go anywhere, we see that Lance is struck by internal bleeding caused by an earlier attack on him from a Mirakuru, and he begins to lose his ability to breathe as well as starts choking blood.

Roy returns to his place where he finds a note written for him by Thea on all of his Arsenal gear, saying that their trust is broken and that she has to prove to herself that she is not weak enough to fall for any of this again, so she decided to leave. As it turns out, she decides to leave with Merlyn, so, yeah. The places they can go are pretty much limitless.

In a prison, we see Slade sitting behind bars, in a rather large cell, while Oliver sits on the other side. Slade tries to taunt him by saying that Slade turned him into a murderer and in the end that means he won, but Oliver counters with the fact that Oliver may have been a murderer, but when he stopped and proved to Slade that there was a way out that didn't involve killing Slade, that he was something more. Oliver pointed out that Slade's life meant that Oliver was indeed a hero. I really wish Oliver would have said, "I was a murderer before, but now I'm something more. I'm a hero...I'm the Green Arrow." Because...why not.

Slade barks that he will fulfill his promies to Oliver as Oliver shows that he is being kept in a sealed prison under A.R.G.U.S. watch...on Lian Yu. HA! Eat it, Slade. The irony is real!

Diggle and Felicity are there on Lian Yu, too, of course to show that everything has come full-circle as the season started with them finding Oliver on the island. Diggle gives Oliver and Felicity a moment where it is revealed that the big Olicity moment was just an act for Slade to believe they were really having a heartfelt moment, and what really happened in that moment was Oliver needed Felicity captured so she could give Slade the cure. Aw, no. Just kidding, I don't ship it. I kind of like Oliver as a solo gun, a relationship binds him to having to save a damsel in distress or whatever.

As they prepare to board a plane, Felicity asks where he learned to fly a plane while stuck on the island or Amazo for five years and as it would turn out we get our first big confirmation that Oliver was not on the island for a long period of time. As Oliver awakens, he is given clothes by a couple of Chinese security guards and then when we walks out of the building, there stands none other than Amanda Waller, welcoming him to Hong Kong.

The POTENTIAL here!

That also explains how Oliver learned Chinese! Ah, it's all coming together so neatly.

But, regardless, this was a fantastic finish to an absolutely awesome, remarkable, unforgettable season of Arrow. It was mostly action-oriented as it needed to be, but it also cut off some loose ends that needed to be cut while also leaving a lot hanging for a return next season. Though the situation is not nearly as dire as it was at the end of Season 1, I think that the end of this season certainly means that we have a lot to look forward to, as we are not limited to one specific thing (the city being, you know, blown up and stuff).

There are, though, several elements left to ask about, like: In the past, what leads Amanda and Oliver to hate each other, and what does she need him for in Hong Kong (Outsiders Outsiders Outsiders Outsiders Outsiders)? How does Oliver get back on the island for two more years, and what does he find there? In the present, again with Amanda, how will she take to being sort of beaten or proven wrong by Oliver and Diggle? Will she use her blackmail against them?

I don't know if you're noticing but I'm pretty much setting up Waller to be a big season 3 player...

More questions, though, such as how big an impact Lyla and her unborn child will have on Diggle? And speaking of impacts, how will Roy take Thea's loss, as the last shot we have of him is of him looking down at his mask that Oliver made to fight alongside him? How will Oliver continue on, as he is totally broke and his only skill is to be snarky and take down criminals? And what of the Arrow Cave? The only people who know his identity are either dead, on his side, in a prison, or taking his half-sister to places unknown, so, I wouldn't say it is too compromised. Will Verdant get picked up and Oliver be able to kind of rebuild it?

But the biggest question of them all: Is Solomon Grundy going to return, is he even alive?

All these questions and more will be answered in the fall, hopefully...maybe...please? But for now I am more than satisfied with this episode and this season. A great end to an unthinkable season of Arrow.