ARROW Season 2 Episode 23
Episode Title: “Unthinkable”
Story by: Greg Berlanti
Teleplay by: Marc Guggenheim & Andrew Kreisberg
Director: John Behring
Previously on “Arrow”:
It’s easy to forget that “Arrow” Season 1 ended with Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) suffering the loss of his best friend Tommy Merlyn (Colin Donnell) after he failed to stop Malcolm Merlyn (John Barrowman) from devastating the city with an earthquake. Malcolm won last year, and he arguably won again this year when he gets what he wants from Thea Queen (Willa Holland).
To no one’s surprise, Team Arrow came out on top in “Unthinkable.” Letting Oliver go down in defeat in the first season was a neat trick. But he had to win this time out. The only question was what a victory over Slade Wilson (Manu Bennett) would cost him.
From this point on, there are full spoilers ahead for “Unthinkable,” so if you missed last night’s second season finale of “Arrow” then you should probably skip this review or else you won’t be surprised at a very weak attempt at a cliffhanger ending.
For most of this season, the “Arrow” creative team has been using storylines that were very similar to Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. In “Unthinkable,” we’ve reached The Dark Knight Rises stage as Team Arrow gets its own army to take on the Legion of Deathstrokes. Almost every major guest star from season 2 was back for this episode, as Nyssa al Ghul (Katrina Law) and the League of Assassins offered their assistance to Team Arrow in return for Sara (Caity Lotz) returning to the fold.
This was actually a nice way to write Sara out of the show without killing her off. Because Lotz hasn’t yet received the coveted bump to series regular, Sara was expendable. But I’m glad that the door is open to her return and the show broadly hinted that Laurel Lance (Katie Cassidy) will eventually become the Black Canary to honor her sister.
The highlight of the episode was easily the final showdown between Oliver and Slade which was masterfully edited between the present and flashback scenes. More than anything else, that was the scene that gave this finale an epic sense of scope. Oliver had already mentioned that he choose not to cure Slade in the past, but the flashbacks made it clear that curing Slade wouldn’t have changed much. He hated Oliver even without the Mirakuru. At best, the cure would have just trapped Slade on the island.
It was also refreshing that Slade wasn’t killed off, as Oliver cured him the present before clearly defeating him. I’m sure we haven’t seen the last of Slade, but Oliver bringing him back to an Argus prison on the island felt like it was coming full circle for both men. The cliffhanger of the flashbacks finds Oliver in Hong Kong as he meets Amanda Waller (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) for the first time. If that was meant as a shock, it didn’t work on me for two reasons. First, we’ve already seen that Oliver and Amanda had some history together. And back in the first season, it was confirmed that Oliver was a member of the Russian mob, which isn’t something that could have happened on the island.
On a side note, if you’re wondering how Oliver ended up back on the island if he was rescued by Argus here, I believe the answer is right in front of us: the Argus SuperMAX prison. Oliver may have chosen to go back into exile on the island, or he was sent there as a prisoner of the Argus SuperMax before escaping. Either way, Oliver will probably be going back to the island with Argus at some point in the future flashbacks.
This finale made me realize just how much I dislike Addai-Robinson’s performance as Amanda Waller. I simply can’t buy into Amanda’s personality and she seemed bizarrely over-the-top when she taunted John Diggle (David Ramsey) and Lyla Michaels (Audrey Marie Anderson) about their impending baby while pointing guns at them. But with Amanda now entrenched in the flashback sequences, I predict that Addai-Robinson will probably be a series regular next season as well.
I was expecting the return of the Suicide Squad and Deadshot (Michael Rowe), which I appreciated. But it’s weird that Diggle and Deadshot seem so comfortable working together considering that Deadshot murdered Diggle’s brother. I have actually come to enjoy the pairing of Diggle and Deadshot. It’s just a little strange.
If you’re a fan of Oliver and Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) as a couple, it may have been a punch to the gut to see Oliver declare his feelings for her… only for it to be revealed as a ruse to trick Slade. It does feel like the “Arrow” writers were either teasing or trolling the “Olicity” fans. Felicity seemed genuinely surprised by Oliver’s words… as if he hadn’t told her what he was going to say ahead of time. But Felicity gets her hero moment by coming through the cure for Slade.
Isabel Rochev (Summer Glau) had potential as an ongoing threat to Oliver and Team Arrow, but she’s so easily killed off here that it’s disappointingly anti-climactic. Supposedly the angle of Oliver no longer having his fortune or his company is still in effect for season 3, but it seems like he would have an easier path to reclaiming those resources with Isabel dead.
Meanwhile, Roy Harper (Colton Haynes) loses his Mirakuru powers but he gets a promotion to Red Arrow (with a mask of his own) for the final battle with Slade’s army. But in yet another contrived CW twist, Roy’s heroism with the Arrow leads a distrustful Thea to accept Malcolm’s offer to take her in. I’m all for Thea going dark and playing a bigger role, but that was a pretty dubious reason for Thea’s heel turn.
Strangely enough, the episode’s writers apparently decided that the ending wasn’t suitably dramatic enough without Quentin Lance (Paul Blackthorne) suddenly doubling over in pain while spitting blood from injuries he received earlier in the episode. If they’re killing off Detective Lance then that’s a weak way to do it. And if they’re keeping Lance around then it’s an even more dubious creative choice.
That minor misstep wasn’t enough to derail a very sharply done finale. It’s not like “Arrow” just put a few good episodes in a row at the end of the season, This was a remarkably solid show throughout the season. Even when “Arrow” isn’t at the top of its game, it’s still pretty entertaining. But this finale delivered almost everything that could have been expected of it. It’s hard to argue against a show that does that.
