‘Arrow’ Series Finale Review: “The Last Bow”

We are back, for the last time. It seems incredible that 8 years ago we started a journey that ends here today, with “The Last Bow.” It seems like yesterday … but the journey ends here with an emotional and satisfying ending, that gives us everything we wanted… although not as we wanted it. 

Prepare the tissues because, one last time, here we go!

Oliver’s sacrifice has changed things. Moira and Tommy are back from the dead.  Oliver’s funeral brings all current and former team members together, or maybe just everyone who appreciated Oliver, including our beloved Rory, Thea, Nyssa, Quentin and Anatoly.

Also, Oliver receives the public recognition he deserves when the entire city learns of his sacrifice and honors him through a documentary that tells everything that Oliver suffered and sacrificed for his city. Everything he did. Finally, we see how the city ceases to be ungrateful and returns to Oliver a bit of everything he has given them.  A bit of everything he deserves.

But, although Oliver is not there, his mission is far from over, especially when someone kidnaps William and the entire team, with Felicity at the helm, has to do their best.

Diggle never thought that he’d be here. Oliver wanted to pursue his mission alone. But everything changed when they met, when they found Felicity. Oliver’s whole perception changed and there began his true journey. His true mission.

Oliver’s desire for a lonely mission intimately connects with the flashbacks. In the past, we see Oliver and Diggle’s first mission together and the story of one of the first names that Oliver marked off the list. Through this story, we see the true start of Oliver’s mission. The beginning of his journey as a hero. We see how and why everything changed for him. The change of direction that led him to become Green Arrow .

On that mission, Oliver insists on going alone, despite Diggle’s opposition. For Oliver, the mission will not be complete, it will never end, there will always be another battle to fight. Those words are a reflection of what Diggle says in the present.

However, as always, Diggle does not buy Oliver’s excuses. He can see through Oliver and knows that, deep down, he is afraid of becoming a cold-blooded killer. But Diggle wants to protect Oliver from becoming precisely that.

It is here when one of the moral dilemmas dealt with in the series becomes especially relevant: is revenge justice? For Diggle it is not. For Oliver, it is. At that moment, killing those men is what he sees as correct, even if a small part of himself is lost with each death, with each murder. That sacrifice is worth it for him, but he doesn’t want to let anyone else sacrifice like that.

With that thought, Oliver goes on his mission and sees the truth in Diggle’s words.  Start contemplating a new way of doing things, a new path for his mission. It opens him up to possibilities and this leaves a man alive who, in the present, kidnaps William.

But the important thing here is that Oliver for the first time sees beyond murder, beyond revenge.  Sees all the possibilities. Glimpses who he could be and who he could become, just what he has become in the present: a hero loved and respected by all.

It is for that reason that Oliver, in the end, accepts Diggle company on the battlefield; let him join his mission. Oliver has not completely renounced the idea of killing. He knows that the men on the list deserve it, but he opens up to another possibility, to another way of doing things. Oliver opens up to following another path beyond darkness.

It is at this moment when Oliver’s heroic journey really begins, because it is at this moment when something changes in him. That’s why we have these flashbacks.  They have no other mission than that. Show us how this story began, in the same episode in which it closes. In the same episode in which Oliver gets everything he dared to glimpse in his future in that first mission with Diggle. And it is such a well-kept detail so significant, so delicate … that it’s beautiful.

Meanwhile, in the future, Mia remembers through a dream the sacrifice her grandfather made for her father. It’s nice, but it’s also something that she doesn’t understand … how does she remember something she didn’t live? I guess the explanation is that Oliver told to her and that has made her dream about it, but WTF?!

Sara appears to take her to the present to go to her father’s funeral, and Mia’s face … says it all. It is infinite sadness. An unfathomable emptiness in her heart. And it was my time to cry.

Once in the present, Mia meets Dinah and they talk. Mia feels so bad … her brother was kidnapped and she feels like she has failed her father. He sacrificed himself so she and William were safe and she couldn’t keep him safe. She feels that she failed him with the only thing her father wanted.

Of course, as Dinah tells her, she is not to blame for anything. This life, the life of a hero is difficult and hard and entails losses, sacrifices and falls … and she did not fail her father. Oliver knew exactly what it was like to try to protect everyone and not manage it because you just can’t control everything. It is impossible. And she can’t feel guilty about that.

Oliver would be proud of her. She is a heroine from head to toe. But Mia is not so sure … she still feels that she failed her father and, like him, she carries by herself the burden of not being able to protect her brother. But Mia will learn, like Oliver in his day, that she cannot control the entire world and should only trust that the people around her, the people she loves, can protect themselves.

For Mia, William’s kidnapping is the opportunity to prove to herself that she can protect her brother and live up to her father’s sacrifice. This time she will not let him down, and bring her brother back. When she succeeds, Dinah takes the opportunity to remind her how proud Oliver would be of her. Not only for saving William but for the decision she has made. And it is then and only then, that Mia feels that it is true.  She honored her father’s sacrifice and protected her family as he would have done, as he taught her.

At the moment of truth, when Mia had to choose between killing her brother’s kidnapper or leaving him alive … she chooses the second option. Lowers the arrow.  Her father did not kill that man and it will not be her who does. Here, Mia is deciding not to be a murderer, just as her father did at the time. Her decision is a reflection of his. Mia chooses the path she wants to follow as the Green Arrow , and is to follow in her father’s footsteps and be a heroine not a murderer. There is no better tribute, there is no better way to honor him than that.

In the midst of all the chaos, there are some moments between Thea and Roy.  She, of course, is angry. Roy only has one solution when something gets complicated: run away. He doesn’t talk to her. He doesn’t trust her or rely on her. What kind of couple are they? And here Thea is absolutely right. You can’t love someone and not trust that person, just run away when something gets complicated.

Roy tries to explain himself, everything that happened to him on that island gave him a different perspective. It’s taught him not to run away, and that he needs Thea in his life. Forever. So, in the middle of a mission, he asks Thea to marry him.

And we’re like WHAT?!  It is true that it is beautiful but … it is also forced. We need too much to complete this story so we can really get excited about this. Yes, those who ship this couple are happy, but that does not mean that we are blind to the fact that this doesn’t make much sense. It is as if we missed half of the story between them and, suddenly, Roy proposes.

In fact, this is just what happened. They left together and, since then, we know by conversations that things went wrong and the have had an intermittent relationship since then. But there are many holes to fill. It is as if we were not in the history of the couple, living it all with them.  We are simply spectators of a marriage proposal but, not having the full story, we cannot really feel what such a thing means for this couple. We can’t live it with them.  We can simply see it from outside its bubble and think “thank you, next.”  And that’s sad.

That said, Thea does not respond until Roy promises that he will not run away from her again and that they will be a true couple. That, even if things get difficult, he will remain by her side. Roy does not hesitate to accept because he has already learned the lesson … and Thea says yes. So they are going to get married!

On other less happy matters, everyone prepares to go to Oliver’s funeral. Diggle doesn’t know if Felicity will appear because a babysitter is taking care of Mia … she hasn’t even been able to get out of bed. My poor baby … is suffering so much … #ProtectFelicitySmoakAtAllCost2k20.

However, Felicity is nothing if not brave and strong, and with her heart and soul broken … she appears in the bunker to find her son and go to her husband’s funeral. She’s back home. Upon seeing her, Diggle melts into a hug with her (and, after 84 years, we have Delicity again). Dinah also hugs her and Felicity gets to work to find William.

Everyone is happy to see her but there is someone who lags behind and does not meet her: Mia. She looks down when she sees Felicity and shrinks, trying to blend in and grow small in that corner, so that her mother doesn’t see her but, at the same time, desperately wishing she would. 

Mia is dying to hug her mother after such a long time. She is so excited to see her … she just wants to hug her, squeeze her tight and never let her go. But she’s so terrified … she’s afraid of her reaction. What if Felicity rejects her? What if she doesn’t like what Mia has become? What if she disappoints her own mother? But what Mia doesn’t know is that that’s impossible. Felicity, like her father, loves her as she is and could never be disappointed.

Felicity looks at Mia from afar. She is so surprised and excited to meet her. Terrified of doing so, it’s like being in front of the abyss about to jump, to live an experience full of adrenaline. You want to do it, but … you feel so afraid that something may go wrong. That feeling intermingles with Felicity’s desire to see the person Mia has become, to meet her. To hug her daughter. Felicity looks at her with such pride.

From afar she sees her baby and can only be proud of the wonderful woman she is. She is simply perfect. The perfect manifestation of the love between Oliver and her. Her heart simply jumps with the vision of her, her daughter, her little girl … already so big that she is a heroine in her own right. It’s something which Felicity can’t even wrap her head around. She has just left a little Mia waiting for her return and now, Mia is in front of her, already an adult. But she just saw her, was close to her, so knowing her … is a gift too big to refuse.

Laurel decides to go talk to Quentin to explain that, although she is there, Laurel of Earth 1, her daughter, is still dead. She feels guilty about it and wishes she could fix it … but Quentin, as always, is sympathetic to her and tells her there is nothing she has to fix. Although without saying it, Quentin makes her see that he also considers her his daughter and that, thanks to her, somehow he still has his daughter there.

This scene starts from the wrong premise from the beginning.  It seems as if Laurel were an interchangeable clone, and if it is not Laurel of Earth 1, then there is Laurel of Earth 2 that serves the same purpose. This does no favors to the character. And all this makes no sense, because the very basis of the scene is wrong. Although Quentin insists on it, Laurel of Earth 2 was never his daughter. But, finally, we have already accepted this, so it’s not time to complain now.

Continuing with the scene, I don’t understand why Laurel of Earth 2 would feel guilty that the Laurel of Earth 1 has not returned. She has nothing to do with it. And since we are talking about it, Oliver either. It seems like Black Siren indirectly reproaches Oliver for not having brought Laurel back, and after Oliver sacrificed EVERYTHING to recreate the Multiverse, he does not deserve a single reproach. The writing of this character started badly … and ends worse.

Once everything is over, Diggle looks at the bunker with nostalgia. Thinking about all the things he lived there, the family he found. All the people who made that possible and the person who united them all: Oliver. John cannot believe that Oliver’s mission ended, that it really ended, and that his brother is not there by his side. He always thought that Oliver would be there, always, and now that this moment has arrived … it is a physical and emotional emptiness that cannot be filled. But Diggle feels that Oliver is somewhere, that he is now more than the Green Arrow … and he doesn’t know the reason.

And the time comes. The funeral of Oliver Queen, the hero of the city, arrives. Our hero. Everyone gathers in front of a grave and a tombstone in which they make it clear that there is no body inside. Which means that … OLIVER IS LIVE IN ANOTHER DIMENSION OR WORLD! YAAAS BITCH!  I knew that, somehow, Oliver would live. 

Once we recover from joy, we return to the scene. Quentin is the first to speak.  For Oliver, he was like a father and for him … Oliver was like his son. At first, he hated him, blamed him for Sara’s death and the city’s violent drift. He pursued him, locked him up, despised him with all his heart … and he was wrong. When he met him, when he really did, he realized that what Felicity told him so long ago was true: Oliver was a hero, a good man. The most honorable of men. 

He decided to sacrifice himself for the city that saw him be born, even if that meant following a path of loss and blood, to lose a little of himself in every fight. To fall and get up again and again. To give everything for people who would never know, and even despised it. Oliver left a mark on each of them, both those who knew him and those who did not. Oliver taught them so many things … but one of them is that everyone can change.

Oliver did it. He was a playboy who only played with people and their feelings. Later, he was a murderer and, later, a hero, a father and a husband. It is for him, in his honor, that everyone is there today. It is thanks to him that everyone is who they are today, that they found a purpose and a family. That’s why Oliver deserves everything they can give him. That is when Quentin uncovers the statue of Oliver. Of the hero who saved them all, in every way in which a person can be saved. 

Once everything is over, Thea and Moira talk about the injustice of Oliver not being here. That he had to die for everyone. Then, they bring out Robert’s sacrifice. He was the man who started it all. His suicide triggered a series of events that made Oliver what he was. And they are right. Robert Queen was the reason that everything started and not only because of his sacrifice but because Oliver, in the first place, took it as his mission to atone for his father’s sins by getting rid of the villains that plagued the city.

It is in the middle of that conversation when Emiko appears and Thea recognizes her as her sister. Moira, despite her disappointment, understands that Emiko is not to blame for anything and welcomes the family. She accepts her and gives Emiko what she always longed for: a family. A good ending for this character.

Another character who also ends his story is Tommy. He is alive now and we learned that he was married to Laurel of Earth 1 so, Merlance is endgame! In fact, that couple always made more sense than Oliver and Laurel (and had much more chemistry as well). The characters really fit (Tommy even gave his life for her) and their story was not toxic, as with Oliver. So I’m glad they decided to make it clear that Laurel’s fate … was Tommy. 

In Tommy’s case, his ending is bittersweet, since the love of his life is dead but he has just met the other Laurel and, in some way, that makes him feel that he is close to her again, even if it is strange. 

Nyssa and Talía also have their time to clarify things. They have always looked at each other with some envy and caution, but there is something that united them: their father. Both feel a mixture of love and hate for him. But we doesn’t get more time because Sara appears next to Nyssa, and Nyssa makes it clear that Sara will always be her love. Sara, on the other hand, only manages to nod with a tense smile. For Nyssa, Sara meant the world, while for Sara … Nyssa meant a lot but not as much as she meant for Nyssa. A bittersweet ending for this couple. 

I‘m glad that they have taken the time to put an end to the stories of secondary characters that they opened. Thus, there is no loose end and we can close those stories along with the series, without remaining in doubt of what would have happened. In this way, the end does not feel incomplete.

Those who have also had their time alone have been Mia and Felicity.  Finally, mother and daughter have met. Mia takes a deep breath, gathers her courage and goes to her mother to introduce herself, but Felicity already knew who she was. When she sees her, she cannot contain the emotion and tears up when she really gets to look at her, when she knows that Mia is real and sees the woman she has become. The woman she will become. When Mia tells her that she met Oliver and that he trained her, that he taught her to be the heroine she is today, the tears Felicity was trying to contain simply escape without control. Emotion overflows in Felicity, as a reflection of ours. 

For Felicity it has been an invisible weight to have had the privilege of raising Mia and William, of seeing them grow and that Oliver could not have lived with her. But now, knowing that he had time with their children and that he got to know them … means the world to her. That invisible weight disappears and only the joy remains, the happiness of knowing that Oliver also had the opportunity, the gift, to enjoy their children and what every father wants to do: teach them to travel through life, taking them by the hand until the time has come to release them. 

Felicity sees in Mia so much from Oliver … she knows he would be proud of her. That he felt the same pride she feels when she saw her. And so she says it. Mia just hopes so, just longs for her to be right and for her father to take pride in her and the way she carries his legacy. And then they embrace, totally emotional. There is a huge mix of feelings in that hug. The joy of reunion, the sadness of Oliver’s loss and all the emotions in between. Pride, pain, suffering, longing, hope, love. All united in that hug between mother and daughter. Both cling to each other, not wanting to let go, as if only with that hug they could stay forever. It is a hug that heals the wounds that both had open and in living flesh. 

It’s in the middle of that hug when Barry arrives. He was the one who was there in those last moments with Oliver. For Barry, Oliver was also the person who changed his destiny. He’s The Flash thanks to him and he loved him so much … he feels a huge weight. He wish he had done more, saved him. He can’t stop wondering why Oliver is dead. He does not stop turning the possibilities. In his head there is the question of whether he could have done more and cannot help remembering what happened again and again, looking for what he could have done to obtain a different result. 

But Felicity doesn’t blame him for anything. She knows him and knows that if there had been a chance to save Oliver … he would have done it without hesitation. And, no matter how many differences I have with Barry, that’s totally true. 

After that small and emotional moment, we have another little Delicity scene with that hug between Diggle and Felicity. John squeezes her hard, so she feels he has him there, as a friend and as a brother. Like her family. He will never leave her alone, and can always count on him. Diggle supports her physically and emotionally as only the family can do it. After that hug, Kara also does the same, she also had a special affection for Oliver. 

That’s when the time comes to say a few words in honor of Oliver. Felicity has a lump in her throat and can’t even speak. She would be unable to say anything without breaking into a thousand pieces in front of everyone. But she knows who is the one to say something at that moment: the brother Oliver chose, Diggle. 

And so, John takes Felicity and Lyla by the hands, so that they both accompany him in his words, so that they say them silently with him because he knows they feel the same as him. At that moment, Diggle starts talking. 

His first words are for Oliver’s change. The Oliver they are saying goodbye to is not the same one he knew. In fact, that difference is clear between the history of the past and the present. Now, Diggle is saying goodbye to his brother, the man who taught him to be better and at the same time became someone better. Oliver changed everything. The lives of those who are there, the lives of people who did not even know him. Our lives as spectators. Oliver inspired so many people, so many souls … we included. A single man, a single hero … that changed absolutely everything both on and off the screen. 

For John, Oliver was his family. They were brothers. Simply. They were beyond friends, beyond comrades in arms. They were family, on and off the team. Their relationship was born unexpectedly but from a mutual need that none of them recognized at that time. Diggle needed to feel that he could save the brother he could not save, and Oliver needed someone to teach him that he could be more than a murderer. And, without waiting for him, his brotherhood bond grew stronger every day, together with Felicity, they formed an increasingly large family. A more ambitious mission. A project for all who felt lost. They changed lives and built their own stories as heroes. 

Now, the hero who changed them all, who made the best of them, is gone. But life goes on. Nobody knows what the future holds but if something can be expected, it is the unexpected. Oliver is not there, but his mission, the mission of saving the city and protecting each other, will always endure. It is the mission that inspired each hero, with and without a mask. It is the mission that inspired us as fans. The one that made us follow Oliver’s long journey for 8 years.  What made us follow a dark and broken man until we saw him in a true hero who shines with his own light. That will always stay, in all our hearts. Because Oliver is also in our hearts, he will always be part of us, just as he will be part of this universe and every hero that was inspired by him, shaped and created by him. Saved by him.  Oliver is also ours as much as theirs and we will never, ever forget him. 

The universe is bigger than all the characters imagine. What we all imagine. But something is certain: in every universe, there will be an Oliver Queen because he and his story will last forever in each and every one of us. 

And so, with a look at Oliver’s gravestone, the funeral ends and we cry. Even more. It seems appropriate to highlight the epitaph. Loving father, brother and husband. It’s emotional. There we see included everything Oliver is to his family. But the epitaph also includes what Oliver is for the city: “the hero of Star City.” It is really emotional to see how, not only his family, but the city recognizes Oliver’s work during these years and respects him as his hero. Oliver finally succeeded, after so many years, he managed to see himself as a hero and be that in the eyes of others. The circle closes.

After this emotional scene, we relive the scene we saw in 7×22 and Felicity goes with The Monitor to find Oliver. In that aspect, nothing has changed. She raised William and Mia and was hoping to be able to meet again with Oliver, living halfway, for her children, for 20 years. That time has passed and the time has come to meet the love of her life. 

She appears, young again, in the dimension in which Oliver is. At first, she is alone in Oliver’s office at Queen Consolidated. She immediately recognizes that office and just smiles. It’s so Oliver … he’s not there but his presence is everywhere, and that office reminds her of simpler moments, at the beginning of their relationship and she smiles with a mixture of happiness and nostalgia. 

But what Felicity still doesn’t know is that this office has a special meaning for Oliver: it’s where he first saw her. The first person who made him smile. And this means, that the producers have made Oliver meet here with Felicity, it means that Oliver fell in love with Felicity in that moment, from the first moment he saw her, even though he couldn’t see it then. 

Suddenly, Felicity sees a red pen, exactly the same as she had when she met Oliver. It’s something that’s mythical Olicity and she can’t help it. She just takes it and puts it in her mouth, remembering …

She sees Oliver’s picture with her father, takes it and examines it, in a reflection of the first time Oliver saw her. It is at that moment when Oliver appears, looks at her and smiles, just smiles, happy to have her there, to be with her again and to remember that moment. The moment that changed everything for him. The moment he fell in love with a blonde girl with glasses who talked too much, was all light and made him smile for the first time in what felt like millennia. 

Felicity feels his presence before seeing him. Looks up and sees him. She drinks him in. Unable to believe that Oliver is there, that he is real and that they are together again. Felicity kisses him with everything she has, turning all her heart and all her soul, all her love, her longing, her hope and her pain in that kiss, and Oliver returns it with the same desire as her. Responding to every feeling. Letting out everything he has inside. Everything he has saved for 20 years. Both get carried away. 

In that kiss both say, without words, everything they have missed, what they mean to each other, what they love and everything they have needed and suffered for not having each other. They also convey the hope that now nothing and no one can separate them. 

But they need something else. They need to feel that they are real. They need to touch each other. They need something tangible to tell themselves that they are not dreaming, and that everything is real. They are together again. They hold on tight to each other, afraid that if they let go, the other disappears. Not wanting to let go or move away anymore. Not wanting a millimeter of space between them. They get lost on each other.

Too soon for both, they separate and the two immediately feel a strange, incorrect void, because they are not touching. So they touch each other, just the face, the chest … staying connected. Felicity cannot help mentioning the place they are in and Oliver finally confesses that it is the place where they met, fulfilling a debt that the producers maintained with the fans. 

Felicity is confused because, as far as she knows, they met in her IT cubicle but for Oliver it was different. It is a somewhat long story but, as Oliver tells her, they have all the time in the world, all eternity to spend together and he can tell her that one thousand stories. And a thousand more. All she wants, because Oliver doesn’t need to hide anything at all.

And so, holding hands and contemplating through the window the eternity that awaits them together, Arrow ends. 

And … OLICITY IS ENDGAME! THEY ARE IMMORTAL, LITERALLY! This is a wonderful ending for this couple. A wonderful gift for fans of this story and for those of us who believed in a happy ending. They have made it more than clear that Olicity was always THE couple. It is, in the words of the actors and producers, “the most important relationship of the show” and, once Felicity appeared, there was nothing more than Olicity. And this scene is an example of that. With that iconic red pen (which Oliver remembered in detail), the scene recreated by mixing the first two meetings, Oliver’s confession about the first time he saw her … the future full of possibilities.  EVERYTHING HAS BEEN PERFECT FOR OLICITY. 

As to why I say they are immortal, Felicity appears in that rejuvenated dimension and Oliver is the same as when he died. It is as if they do not age and if they do not age … they do not die. The writers did THAT. THANKS, THANKS AND THANKS for betting on this story. Forever. 

Some thoughts before finishing:

• Everyone returns, literally everyone, except Laurel from Earth 1 and above they have shown Merlance as an endgame. These writers can always surprise with their shade …

• Diggle’s speech about Oliver’s sacrifice for his friends and his family hurts a lot … but attention to Felicity’s face of pure pain.

• I love that it is Diggle who says “suit up,” taking the place of Oliver.

• Mia in Felicity’s chair, doing her job, is all I asked of this world.

• The new intro is brilliant, mixing the past with the present. 

• The bottle of vodka is back! That mythical bottle in which Oliver used to celebrate with Diggle his successes … or drown his sorrows. And they toast in Russian, as Oliver did. IN TEARS.

• Diggle in the salmon ladder. I repeat, DIGGLE IN THE SALMON LADDER!

• Finally we see everyone make the Mark of the Four.

• Dyla worrying about reuniting Oliver’s family, as he did with theirs is SUPER CUTE.

• Oliver taught a whole generation of heroes. IN TEARS…AGAIN.

• There is a super cute moment when Mia shows William his bow. The first meeting between brother and sister, and we are again in need of the tissues.

• The bunker lights that came on full of possibilities today, go out forever … Diggle and we are going to miss that place. It’s the end of an era. A place where we have lived with them for 8 years, and now it’s time to say goodbye to it.

• Diggle receives the Green Latern ring, which raises interesting things for the future of the character.

• At last we know what everyone’s destiny is. Apart from those already named, Diggle leaves with his family, Mia returns to her time and Dinah is also looking for new adventures. Good ending for them.

In the stunts section, the show ends on a rather high note thanks to Oliver’s fight in flashbacks and the superposition of that story to Mia’s performance as Green Arrow .  The episode stresses Oliver’s solo fight against a bunch of bad guys. That fight is the true reflection of what Arrow is. A series in which powers and special effects have no place. A raw, tough and real series, where fights are absolutely brutal. This fight has reminded us why Arrow is unique and why it was the one that started it all, creating a damn universe of absolute nothingness. Bravo!

In conclusion, it has been a satisfactory ending. At each step they reminded us of the pilot, where it all began, just as it opened a door to the future, to a new generation.  In addition, the episode has been a total tribute to Oliver, it has been for Oliver, as it should be. Oliver is the character that united them all and the one that changed their lives. Through him, friendships were forged and heroes were born. An entire universe was born. They have done very well in dedicating this last episode to him and only him, giving him the recognition he deserves so much and spinning the rest of the characters and their stories around their orbit.

Was it the perfect ending? Not for me. I would have preferred that Oliver was alive in the same dimension as everyone else, that his closest friends knew and that he could have raised, along with Felicity, his children. But it has been satisfactory.  

Oliver is still alive, he could spend time with his children, meet them and see the wonderful persons they have become. They knew him and loved him as his father.  Both his family and the city and the entire world recognize him as the hero he is and render him the honors he deserves. Felicity was able to raise their children. And now, after all that he has suffered and sacrificed, he can finally live a normal life with Felicity, for all eternity, knowing that their children follow their own lives and that they have become great persons, that they lead his legacy with pride, and that they are the new generation that can inspire others, just as he and Felicity did.

In that sense, this ending is perfect. Oliver always wanted his mission to end and that, when he did, he could live happily and calmly with Felicity and his family. This has been accomplished. He has hung the bow, leaving his legacy to his daughter and now, it’s time to be happy with the love of his life. 

It is a perfect circle that goes from the lonely and dark murderer who did not think he deserved anything more than death to the man in love and happy who only wants a long and quiet life with his wife, knowing that their children are happy,. This ending closes the circle in a wonderful way. It gives Oliver what he always longed for, then dreamed and finally struggled to achieve.

It is true that, in my opinion, the most well-rounded end would have been the most clearly happy one I mentioned before, but nothing is perfect in this life. Arrow is a real series and so it has been in its end, giving the hero of the story everything he deserved and wanted but in an imperfect way that makes us appreciate the beauty of everything.  There is beauty in imperfection. Life is imperfect, reality is … and the show has been true to it.

That is why I say that the ending is satisfactory, it is perfect, but in an imperfect way in which we do not achieve everything we dreamed but, at the same time, it feels right for the character and for the story, which keeps us satisfied … even if we had  wanted something else, even if we had wanted more.  

It is a perfectly bittersweet finish. An fitting end, surprisingly. The way of telling and showing it has been the key to understanding that it has been a worthy end to the story, although I wanted something else.

So I have only to thank, from here, actors, producers, directors, screenwriters, stunt doubles and the whole team and crew in front of and behind the camera that has made this series possible. Thank you for making us laugh, cry, enjoy, suffer and get angry for 8 years. Thank you for making this trip possible. Thank you for making us dream and for teaching us that we are all heroes in our own way. Thanks, thanks and thanks.

By the way, an applause to those of us who always bet on a happy ending and said that Olicity was an endgame from the start, even when most doubted it and even some, the most unpleasant, treated us as fools. A toast to us, fandom, we deserve it!  #OlicityForever.

For my part, I only can thank you for these months by sharing my follies and comments every week. For commenting with me, for reading and for being there.  THANKS. It is such a small word for everything I feel right now but, at the same time, it is the only one that can approach what I feel. MILLIONS OF THANKS. For every word and every time you read me.

Really, thanks. You don’t know what each comment means to me. I have enjoyed as never before, and trying to reach your heart and sharing a point of view makes doing the reviews every week a real pleasure and something I looked forward to.  Thank you for putting up with me during these months. It has been a really wonderful and special experience for me.

I hate the goodbyes. Therefore, I will not say goodbye, just a see you soon because there will be other series, other reviews and we will surely meet again.  See you soon, fam!

Agree? Disagree? Don’t hesitate to discuss everything with us in the comments below! 

Arrow aired Tuesdays on the CW.