Team GATV Roundtable: Looking Back At Arrow Season 5

How did Arrow do with Talia al Ghul?

STEPHANIE: Jury’s still out on this one. I liked what I saw of Talia, especially that her allegiances tend to be whichever side benefits her at the current moment, similarly to Nyssa, but we didn’t see enough of her actual character for me to form a strong enough opinion about her. That being said, Lexa Doig did fantastic with what she had, and I hope we see her again.

MELISSA: She started off very promising in the flashbacks and I enjoyed Lexa Doig’s performance, but overall, she was underused and while I loved her confrontation with Nyssa, the fight was too quickly lost. I also was disappointed that in the end, it seemed Chase was the one using her, not the other way around. I’d welcome Talia back if she survives the island, but wouldn’t miss her if she doesn’t.

CRAIG: Nyssa was one of Arrow’s most enduring adaptations, so the character Talia had to be “big.” I loved the moments with her in the flashbacks, though I thought it was a bit convenient that she pretty much told Oliver Adrian Chase’s secret at just the right time. Talia is a character I certainly wish we had seen more of; I’m glad we got what we did, though.

(Also: How weird is it that we have members of the Al Ghul family on both Arrow AND Gotham at the same time?)

MATT: I’m still not entirely sold on her heavy involvement in training Oliver in the past, but it wasn’t awful as far as drawing connections goes. I’m just never a huge fan of making worlds smaller when you can avoid it. If they wanted to lean more heavily on the Batman mythos yet again, they could’ve gone with Lady Shiva. That said, the motivation behind her actions being Oliver killing her father served well for her plotting and to connect the history of the series. I like Lexa Doig and would like to see more of her in the part. I’d like to see much more of the Talia-Nyssa dynamic.