This season has given me so many unexpected turns. In some ways, season seven has gone back to old school Arrow, and in others, it’s creating a new path. I don’t like everything the writers are doing, but I am enjoying the ride.
We finally got Diaz (Kirk Acevedo). I thought catching him would be more fulfilling. I was in disbelief that they finally did, at first. Then when the episode came back from commercials and confirmed it, I breathed a sigh of relief, but that’s about it. Maybe it had something to do with the faux Green Arrow coming in and saving the day. OTA (minus Oliver) and NTA did a lot to take him down, too. Or maybe I wasn’t as excited because catching Diaz wasn’t the point, saving Oliver (Stephen Amell) was.
This episode for Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) was especially surprising. The writers wouldn’t let you know which way she would turn. In the future, she seems to have turned dark, though, we don’t have all the facts to confirm anything. She does have some pretty cool high tech stuff. We just weren’t sure how far she would go to stop Diaz. I didn’t like how she almost let Anatoly (David Nykl) die, and I didn’t like how Anatoly tried to get her to kill Diaz. While I’m not liking all her decisions, that’s not to say I’m not enjoying her storyline, because I am. She’s keeping us on our toes.
Felicity pointing the gun on Diaz was one of the best parts of the episode. I wasn’t sure if she would pull the trigger or walk away. Either seemed absolutely possible, and I wouldn’t have been surprised by either choice. I was not expecting Laurel (Katie Cassidy) to come in and stop her. Laurel has really changed. And she’s not bad at this whole lawyer thing. She found a way to get Oliver out. All Oliver has to do is cooperate with the FBI.
That was the moment I was waiting for. The moment when we were told Oliver would be let out of prison, and the moment when Felicity found out he was coming home to her. It was hard not to cry happy tears for that beautiful Olicity scene.
While OTA and NTA were finally catching Diaz and putting a stop to his plan, Oliver was dealing with his own stuff in prison. His sidekick turns out to be not so innocent after all. I was beginning to wonder about Stanley (Brendan Fletcher). The way he acts there’s no way he should be in there at all but he is. I guess Stanley really being bad is no surprise. One of the rare non-surprises in an otherwise pretty unpredictable season. But I don’t know what his endgame is.
At first, I really liked the flash forwards. Now there is too much going on in that timeline. When we had the flashbacks it paralleled with what was currently going on, and it helped make sense of the current storyline. The writers are clearly trying to do the same but with it being a flashforward. Instead, we just jump to conclusions or have more questions. It’s not the same thing. And I’m still not accepting that Felicity is dead. According to Dinah (Juliana Harkavy), it happened a few weeks prior. That makes me think she’s still alive. It will take a lot for the writers to get me to believe this. I’m either in serious denial or I’m on to something. Time will tell.
