ARROW - SEASON 8.1

REVIEW:  ARROW - SEASON 8, EP. 1:  "Starling City"


Well, gang...here it is--as bittersweet as it may be---the FINAL season of our Emerald Archer.  The show that kicked off our little universe is in the final 10 episodes, and we will finally find out the fate of Oliver Queen.  This is the last go around we get with Ollie, his family and friends, and finish his story.  

We begin the final chapter of Ollie's quest back where it began:  Lian Yu.  Where we see a familiar scenario - Ollie on the island, using an arrow to light a fire to signal out to a boat and return home.  We see him greet Moira Queen, as she is happy he has returned home.  However...things are...different.  Among the shocking changes for Ollie is the fact that Tommy Merlyn is alive and well.  Walter sold is stock in Queen Consolidated and took off for greener pastures.  And Moira...well...she married Malcolm Merlyn.  But that's not the WORST of it...turns out that Thea had died of a drug overdose while Ollie was away.  These new changes are unsettling to him.

Ollie enters the R&D department in full GA garb, and is attacked by another Green Arrow...who turns out to be working with Laurel.  We're finally clear of the fact that Ollie has landed on Laurel Lance's Earth...Earth 2, and her partner is Green Arrow...Adrian Chase.  Ollie is looking for a dwarfstar particle that will help him in his mission.  Laurel and her Green Arrow will help him locate it.

We jump ahead to the future where the New Team Arrow is looking to take down the Deathstrokes, and preventing another disaster using the ARCHER Program, as well as protecting the man looking to be the next mayor of Star City..a man named Vasquez.  The mission doesn't go well, as Connor's brother, JJ, fools Mia during the mission, as she decided to go solo, and Connor got distracted enough that JJ made off with whatever he was looking for.  The mission is a failure, and they're pointing fingers at each other.

Ollie questions Malcolm about a rash of break-ins and thefts at Queen Consolidated, thinking he's behind it, but Malcolm isn't.  Looking for the dwarfstar particles, Ollie checks out the IT department, asking for Felicity Smoak, but the gal he asks says Felicity wouldn't be "slumming it here, when she's running Smoak Industries".  So, it turns out the head of the IT department is Curtis---who isn't around at this time.  While Ollie is snooping around, he's attacked by the Dark Archer.  They do battle, and while the Dark Archer and him scuffle, Ollie unmasks him as Tommy!  Before he can ask Tommy anything, Laurel and Adrian show up, but it's just enough of a distraction for Tommy to make a getaway.

Dinah is questioning Malcolm the next day, and really laying into him about what he knows in regards to the break in and the Dark Archer.  Rene comes in and tells her to ease up.  Tommy and Ollie watch...Tommy observing how Malcolm interacts with Rene and Dinah, and Ollie watching ALL of them.

Moira, seeing that Ollie might be in danger after these attacks, gets Ollie a bodyguard---Diggle!  And, as it turns out much like in Season 1, when Ollie tries to ditch Diggle to continue his mission, he locks the doors.  This is Dig from Earth-1, who borrowed a breacher from Cisco to locate Ollie.  Ollie tries to tell Dig he can't let him in on this mission, for his own safety, but Dig isn't having it.  So, Ollie agrees to have him tag along.  During this time, he has informed Dig of the upcoming CRISIS that is coming.

We also took more time to jump ahead in time, to see that Team Arrow of the future has to start getting their heads right if they're to take down the Deathstrokes.  Mia didn't like handling everything Connor's way, but William chats with her, and says that IF they are to live up to their family legacy, they gotta work as a team...so let Connor take point.  Mia relents.

Ollie and Dig are on the hunt for Tommy, and Ollie pulls a fast one on Dig, knocking him out in order to save him.  He finds Tommy, and is about to take him down...but Rene clocks him, and knocks him out.  Turns out, Dinah's working for Tommy, as well as Rene.  We see Ollie strung up and being tortured by Tommy.  Tommy tries to figure out WHY Ollie came back.  During this back and forth, Ollie figures out that Tommy wanted the particles in order to create a bomb to level the Glades---The Undertaking.  Tommy bails, leaving Ollie strung up.  However, Dig recovers after Ollie manages to make his escape.  They meet up with Laurel and Adrian, and hunt down Tommy to stop the Undertaking.

They find Tommy, and head into battle---with Ollie dispatching of Rene and Dinah with relative ease (I guess their Earth 2 counterparts were marginally trained goons).  He then hunts for Tommy.  They duke it out, but Ollie wins handly.  Ollie tries to reason with him to shut down the bomb...it's not what Thea would want.  it takes some goading, but Ollie convinces Tommy to shut it down.  Later on, we see Laurel, Adrian, Ollie, and Dig say their goodbyes, as Ollie takes the dwarfstar weapon.  Him and Diggle are ready to go, but he stops by the police station to say goodbye to Tommy...and his Mom.  Just as he and Diggle are about to depart to Earth 1, Laurel comes in and says the city is under attack.  We witness the beginning of the CRISIS, as everyone is disintegrated by the antimatter washing over the planet.  Diggle just opened the breach in time, as Ollie grabs Laurel, and they make off for Earth 1.  Earth 2 is no more.

Jumping ahead to the future, the Team Arrow of this era, is back on the attack, looking to stop JJ and the Deathstrokes from obtaining the ARCHER codes, and rescue Vasquez.  Their 2nd mission doesn't go any better than the first, as Mia is beaten down, and JJ makes off with the codes.  Connor apologizes for not acting quickly enough, and Mia said that from here on out---SHE is in charge, and they're going to do things HER way.

This episode threw A LOT of nostalgia and some new twists within the first 10 or so minutes before we figured out exactly what was going on.  Did anyone get tipped off early by the fact that the mask on Lian Yu wasn't that of a Deathstroke maske (as in Season 1), but of a BAT COWL?!  Subtle on the writers for that one.  It was nice to have a Moira Queen appearance...even though it WAS Earth 2.  And Tommy being the Dark Archer instead of Malcolm, and Thea having OD'ed on Vertigo, plus Adrian Chase is running around as Green Arrow...even going so far as to call Laurel "Pretty Bird", which has been Ollie's nickname for Dinah (Laurel) in the comics.  To see Dinah and Rene on the bad guys side was a nice twist, but things almost ran opposite on Earth 2 as they did Earth 1.  And from what I read, the show runner for Arrow got permission from the showrunners on The Flash to destroy Earth 2.  So, the first Earth has fallen in the beginning of CRISIS, and that means that Jesse Quick has no home to go back to.  The Barry Allen & Iris West of that Earth...gone.  So, dopplegangers have fallen, and it's onto the next mission for Ollie...whatever mission the Monitor has planned for him.  

Stephen Amell has said that this last season is going to be a "love letter" to all us fans of the show.  So, we're going to see A LOT of familiar faces, places, and remnants of the past---except Felicity.  We know her fate, and she will not be back.  So, it's pretty cool they're giving us the creative walk down memory lane.

It looks like Future Team Arrow will be used as a backdoor during this season for a new series possibly premiering next fall.  Birds Of Prey, perhaps?  Hard to say...we will have to see how the CRISIS shakes out before we know any more.  What we DO know in the present (ha ha!  I made a funny!), is that THIS group is all over the place, and has NO IDEA what they are doing.  As much as they are all VERY much a lot like their parental counterparts, they have no concept as to how to function as a team.  They need to figure it out FAST before things get worse---especially now with Connor's brother JJ and his Deathstrokes custodians of the ARCHER Program codes.  We'll have to see if Future Laurel and Dinah, along with Rene, can help these kids shape up into a strong fighting unit.  But with Mia in charge, it could happen sooner.  

This was a superb kickoff to what is sure to be a very tear-jerking, but exciting, and fun season.  I'm glad you're along this final ride with me.  And hey...do me a favor:  leave a comment, subscribe to this page, and share the love!

Until next week...keep your sights on the bullseye!