Written by: Emilio Ortega Aldrich & Elizabeth Kim
Directed by: Katie Cassidy
Oliver Queen’s quest to save the multiverse takes him back to Nanda Parbat in episode three of the final season of Arrow, but not before running into his sister, Thea ‘Speedy’ Queen, who disappeared in season 6 with Roy and Nyssa Al Ghul, in order to destroy the Lazarus pits of the world.
As with the previous two episodes being a love letter to the corresponding season numbers, episode 3 is a love letter to the third season, as we are given a story filled with Assassins, as we are treated to the return of Lexa Doig as Talia Al Ghul, one of the Daughters of the Demon’s Head, and of course Doig portrays the power of that role well, as she demands attention when she appears in any scene, but she is not the only one with this power on screen, because Kyra Zagorsky returns for her second appearance as Athena, a strong warrior of the Thanatos Guild of assassins, who tries everything to prevent Oliver, Thea and Talia’s quest for an ancient league sword.
Meanwhile, Diggle and Lyla are on another covert mission for A.R.G.U.S again. In season two the couple infiltrated the house of the terrorist known as Gholem Qadir , but in this season they infiltrate the mansion of his son, Farzd Qadir which is a nice little throwback/continuation of a story we didn’t think we’d hear any more of.
In my last review, I failed to talk about the second timeline that we watch unfold every week since Season 7 began, which tells us a story from the future, in the year 2040, as our group of young heroes, following in their parents footsteps, have formed their own team in order to stop the group known as the ‘Deathstroke Gang’. Mia Smoak, William Clayton, Connor Hawke and Zoe Ramirez, have been struggling to work as a team however for some time, as tensions grow high about authority, and leadership skills, mostly between Mia and Connor, but when things start to look good, tragedy befalls them. This future timeline plot is interesting to say the least, but with a team that seems a little all over the place, it’s sometimes hard to become enthralled in their story. However, with this episodes finale, things are about to change and I think these characters will really start to shine through now, so hopefully we can start to see the true form of these characters and bring out the best in their scenes.
This is Katie Cassidy’s Directorial debut, and what a fantastic job she’s done. The shots are clean, precise and the editing of the shots are smooth and well cut to bring out the action of the sequence and really give us a look at what we need to see on screen. As always with the season the action is epic, exciting and downrigh badass, with the cast performing as strong as ever with one another.
Overall this has turned out to be another brilliant episode. This final season is really bringing it’s A-Game to our screens as it creeps closer to the crossover and the inevitable end of an era for fans of Stephen Amell’s performance as the Emerald Archer.
