Team GATV Roundtable: Looking Back At Season 3

Did you like the season finale? If yes, why? If no, why not?

LAUREL: I did like it. It wasn’t the best season finale ever, but it was very entertaining. Saving everyone in Nanda Parbat was done well, as was the final battle in Starling City. I’m even OK with the drive off into the sunset — it was done in a heavy-handed way, but the idea of that relationship doing something other than causing two people to moan about each other? That made me happy.

DEREK: This thing was tasked with saving the hot mess of a season preceding it, so I did try to watch it on a curve, especially given that the Al-Sah Him arc was a gutsy way to close out the season. And there are certainly things I love about it. I mean, we got Diggle punching Oliver in the face and Thea suiting up as Red Arrow, and both were wholly satisfying. The Flash’s cameo was fun. Oliver’s fight with Ra’s paled in comparison to his fight in “The Climb,” but it wasn’t terrible. And while I prefer finales where everyone physically comes together to stop the bad guy a la “Unthinkable,” at least everyone had something to do. It wasn’t a terribly exhilarating finale, but it was relatively entertaining.

The major issue with it is, again, that it just seemed like a list of things that needed to happen, and they happened. Most characters, other than maybe Thea, don’t end in a new place from where they were at either the start or middle of the season. And as much as I don’t want to harp on the Olicity thing, the finale — and the entire conclusion of Oliver’s arc — hinges so specifically on how we buy the two as a couple. So we have Oliver, who just spent the last quarter of the season lying and murdering people, get a “revelation” that Felicity is the vital missing piece of his identity and humanity because…why, exactly? She rescued him in the ATOM suit? Love conquers all? Even worse, Felicity, initially one of the most noble characters of the show with an admirable and evolving perspective on heroism, is shown to now have a narrow vision with only Oliver’s best interests in mind and no one else’s. She risks sacrificing the city to save Oliver, and they both drive off and leave everyone to clean up the mess. I get how this plays into the “romantic getaway” idea, but they aren’t any better for each other than they were at season’s start — considering what Felicity’s put up with and how she’s changed, they’re arguably worse for each other — and that’s bothersome. Spinning that as the “happy” ending is even more bothersome.

STEPHANIE: I’m ambivalent about the season finale, which is probably the worst place to be. At the time, I enjoyed watching it well enough, but reflecting on it now, it’s not that thrilling. There were cool moments, like Barry showing up, the fight in the back of the jet, and Thea donning her costume, but the whole threat of the virus fell flat. I found it clever that they relied so heavily on the flashbacks to demonstrate what would happen if the virus were released, but its re-emergence in Starling City was too convenient and its conclusion rushed. My major complaint about Ra’s attempting to release the Omega virus is that the means do not match the man. Ra’s is the leader of a centuries-old organization that kills with swords instead of guns and yet he’s using a modern day bio-tech virus to destroy the city. I would have much rather seen the League of Assassins descending on Starling in the dead of night.

CRAIG: I didn’t like it that much. There was probably no right way to resolve everything — and I DID like how some of it was resolved, like the new status quo for Malcolm, Thea’s costume, and more — but I didn’t like the notion that Oliver Queen is back and is expected to just be forgiven for all that he put everyone through, especially by Felicity. While going off into the sunset is a shipper’s dream, Felicity deserves a lot better. Oliver needs to earn her respect back, because what he did this season was all pretty crappy, even if he felt he was doing it for the good of the world.

MATT: Hooh boy. Not sure I need to recap my finale review, but no, I was not a particular fan of it. There were things to enjoy in it like the Flash cameo, the teamwork aspect, the raid on Damien Darhk’s hotel room (even though it was too short), Thea’s reveal as Speedy. But there is so much that just falls flat, particularly the final showdown between Oliver and Ra’s. What worked about the initial fight in “The Climb” was the rawness and the brutality of it. Here, everything about it seems artificial and so low stakes that you can’t really buy into it at any point. Most specifically, the cops arriving in force with orders to flat-out assassinate the Arrow stretched credibility, especially when they actually take the shots sending Oliver over the dam for that patently ridiculous save by Felicity in the A.T.O.M. suit.  I could go on and on, but no, I didn’t like it.