Arrow #2-23 Recap | The Final Confrontation

<p>Here we are&comma; everyone&period; After 22 episodes of suspense and intensity&comma; the Season 2 finale of <em>Arrow<&sol;em> is finally upon us&period; With both the cast and crew hyping it up as the single best episode they&&num;8217&semi;ve ever done&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s safe to say that expectations were <em>very<&sol;em> high&comma; but did <em>Unthinkable<&sol;em> live up to the hype&quest; In a way&comma; the answer is yes&period; We were treated to some of the best action scenes the show has put together yet&comma; with some spectacular choreography and camera work that felt like it came straight out of a Hollywood blockbuster&period; However&comma; all the nail-biting action came at the cost of the characters&comma; and as exciting as <em>Unthinkable <&sol;em>was&comma; it sadly lacked that guttural emotional impact that made last year&&num;8217&semi;s finale so breathtaking&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I suppose this should have been an expected side-effect&comma; but at the same time I can&&num;8217&semi;t help but feel a little disappointed that some of the episode&&num;8217&semi;s weight was sapped from it due to some weird plot twists at the end that just didn&&num;8217&semi;t need to be there&period; The episode itself started out great&comma; with Roy finally being cured of his Mirakuru-induced rage issues&comma; and I was very glad to see him finally rejoin the team after spending so many episodes on the sidelines&period; I actually think his particular arc for the episode was one of the most effective&comma; as watching him struggle to balance his feelings for Thea and his duty to Oliver and Starling City produced some of the episode&&num;8217&semi;s most emotionally satisfying moments&period; Also&comma; he finally got his own superhero mask&period; Which was&comma; understandably&comma; incredibly cool to see&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>When it came to the action though&comma; <em>Unthinkable<&sol;em> absolutely delivered&period; The inclusion of Nyssa al Ghul and the League of Assassins was very cool to see&comma; especially since they teamed up with Oliver&comma; Sarah&comma; and Roy&comma; and was easily one of my favorite sequences the show has put together yet&period; If I have any complaints about this particular plot being included is that it resulted in Isabel Rochev being killed off far too quickly&period; She&&num;8217&semi;s been an incredibly interesting character this season&comma; her dorky Ravager costume aside&comma; and it was a bit frustrating to see her go out on such an unceremonious note&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>However&comma; seeing all these fully costumed heroes&comma; or antiheroes&comma; I suppose&comma; fighting a small army of super soldiers in the streets of Starling City was a wonderfully nerdy sight&comma; and the choreography and directing were so top-notch that it wouldn&&num;8217&semi;t have looked out of place in a high-budget Hollywood action flick&period; The tension was high&comma; and it all came together to create an absolutely thrilling showdown that perfectly led into Oliver&&num;8217&semi;s final confrontation with Slade&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;05&sol;05103658&sol;72445jpg-a2a2ec&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"aligncenter wp-image-61856 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;05&sol;05103658&sol;72445jpg-a2a2ec&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Arrow Ssn 2-confrontation" width&equals;"800" height&equals;"532" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>After so much build-up over Season 2&comma; finally getting to see Oliver and Slade go toe-to-toe was an extremely satisfying sight that hit <em>almost<&sol;em> all of the right notes&period; Slade&&num;8217&semi;s plan has always been to destroy the people Oliver cares the most about&comma; and I liked seeing Oliver outsmart him on that note and tell Felicity&comma; in a place he knew Slade had cameras observing&comma; that he loved her just to get her kidnapped and thus close enough to Slade to inject him with the Mirakuru cure&comma; stripping him of his superhuman invulnerability&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>While I&&num;8217&semi;m sure many fans were upset that Oliver&&num;8217&semi;s confession of love was kind of a ploy&comma; I was glad to see his relationship with Felicity left mostly vague in the end&period; I think it&&num;8217&semi;s clear that the two of them have feelings for each other&comma; but I was happy to not see them rush into any kind of romantic entanglement quite yet&comma; and I&&num;8217&semi;m more than content to continue to watch them build an even stronger friendship in future seasons before having it evolve into anything else&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>With Slade&&num;8217&semi;s super-strength gone&comma; his fight with Oliver was made that much more exciting as&comma; for basically the first time&comma; the two of them were operating on an equal playing field&period; Having their fight in the present time juxtaposed with their first real duel shown through flashbacks was a brilliant move as well&comma; and it was a great way to emphasize just how far each character has come&period; Whether or not Oliver would kill Slade in the end has been one of this season&&num;8217&semi;s prevailing questions&comma; especially since Oliver has vowed to never take another life unless absolutely necessary&comma; and while we could argue that killing Slade <em>was<&sol;em> necesarry&comma; I&&num;8217&semi;m glad Oliver found another way&period; While it might not have had the emotional closure it could&&num;8217&semi;ve&comma; having Oliver conquer and then lock Slade up in an underground prison&comma; on the island they used to call home&comma; no less&comma; was both a satisfying conclusion to their conflict and a subtle reminder that Slade is still very much alive&comma; and could easily become a threat once again in the future&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>However&comma; as great as that was&comma; when it came to the other characters in the show&comma; <em>Unthinkable <&sol;em>missed the mark a bit&period; Sarah agreeing to go back with the League of Assassin&&num;8217&semi;s was an expected twist&comma; and it thankfully had the necesarry emotional impact solely because of her somber farewell to both her sister and father&period; It even ended in Sara bestowing her famous Canary jacket to Laurel&comma; which might just be a tease for what future seasons might hold for Laurel and her place in Starling City&period; However&comma; Detective Lance&&num;8217&semi;s sudden collapse afterwards felt like a shoehorned attempt at a cliffhanger that was abrupt and mostly unnecessary&period; I&&num;8217&semi;ve loved Detective Lance&&num;8217&semi;s character development this season&comma; and having him unceremoniously keel over like that was an uncalled for twist that left little closure&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;05&sol;05103650&sol;cdfca57e48bb447ec4faddac9b710ada&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"aligncenter wp-image-61857 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;05&sol;05103650&sol;cdfca57e48bb447ec4faddac9b710ada&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Arrow Ssn 2-Slade" width&equals;"800" height&equals;"532" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Even Thea&&num;8217&semi;s storyline this season was wrapped up without much closure involved&period; I did like her reunion with Roy in the beginning&comma; and both Willa Holland and Colton Hayes gave a really strong performance there&comma; but her entire subplot involving Malcolm Merlyn almost felt like a side-note&comma; which was disappointing&comma; because the thought of Merlyn teaming up with Oliver to take on Slade&comma; or do something other than stalk his daughter&comma; would&&num;8217&semi;ve made the episode that much better&period; I&&num;8217&semi;m definitely excited to see where Thea&&num;8217&semi;s story will go in the next season now that she&&num;8217&semi;s literally run off with her father to do who knows what&comma; but I cant help but wish there had been a little more to it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>All things considered&comma; though&comma; <em>Unthinkable<&sol;em> was a very satisfying and enjoyable finale to a fantastic season of television&period; <em>Arrow<&sol;em> has come a long way this year&comma; and while this episode might not have been the perfect conclusion some of us were hoping for&comma; with big reveals like Diggle and Lyla having a baby together being introduced and then oddly forgotten about&comma; overall <em>Unthinkable<&sol;em> hit a lot of the right notes&period; Above all else&comma; however&comma; <em>Unthinkable<&sol;em> brilliantly set up the next season of <em>Arrow<&sol;em>&comma; and I cannot wait to see what kind of story&&num;8217&semi;s we will get to see in both the present and the past&period; With Oliver seeming to have beaten his arch-nemesis and Thea running off with Merlyn &lpar;who I believe will be a season regular next year&rpar;&comma; and the flashbacks to Oliver&&num;8217&semi;s time on the island suddenly shifting gears and bringing Oliver to Tokyo&comma; courtesy of Amanda Waller&comma; I fully expect plenty of thrills and jaw-dropping twists when <em>Arrow<&sol;em> returns with its Season 3 in the Fall&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;