Arrow Season 8 Episode 10 “Fadeout”
Director: James Bamford
Starring: Stephen Amell, David Ramsey, Rick Gonzalez, Juliana Harkavy, Katherine McNamara, Katie Cassidy, Emily Bett Rickards, Susanna Thompson, Colton Hayes, Echo Kellum, Willa Holland, Paul Blackthorne, Caity Lotz
Rating: TV-14
Runtime: 43 minutes
Major Spoilers Follow:
It’s a testament to the passion of everyone involved with Arrow that the show continued to challenge itself even with its very last episode. Not only does the series finale take place after Oliver Queen has already died, but many of the characters have already had the chance to do significant onscreen mourning, either at the end of Crisis on Infinite Earths or in “Green Arrow and the Canaries”. Because of this, the finale is much more subdued than it would be if it contained Oliver’s death itself or the immediate aftermath and this raises concerns for its ability to serve as an emotionally satisfying end to the series. Thankfully, those concerns are unfounded as “Fadeout” manages to continue to draw plenty of rich, believable emotions from Oliver’s friends and family as they lay him to rest and prepare to move on with their lives. It’s not the best episode of the series but it is in the upper echelon and is about as perfect an ending for the show as one can imagine given everything that’s come before.
The finale kicked off by returning to that fateful night in “Seeing Red” (still probably the show’s single best episode) when Slade Wilson killed Moira Queen. However, things take an unexpected turn when Oliver breaks free of his bonds and disables Slade, saving his mother. It turns out this is how events transpired on an alternate Earth and that Earth’s Moira is recounting the story. Apparently when helping create the new universe Oliver was able to bring doppelgangers of many of his lost loved ones to Earth-Prime, and an alternate Earth Tommy and Earth-1 Quentin Lance also appear in “Fadeout”. Some may question the choice to effectively undo so many of the show’s significant deaths but when one really thinks about it of course Oliver would try to put his family, or at least versions of them, back together if given the opportunity as he was when he was the Spectre. And having these actors return for the final episode just feels right. Susanna Thompson’s performance in the opening moments is key in setting the tone for the episode. Thompson excellently captures the mixed emotions Moira is feeling in such a strange situation. She’s found herself in a different world, hers was destroyed along with all her loved ones, and even in this new world her son is dead. That said, she now gets to spend her life with the remaining doppelgangers of her family such as Thea and her grandchildren, who for all we know might not have even existed on her world. That mix of tragedy and triumph is featured throughout the episode and it’s a fitting tone to use for the final goodbye to Oliver Queen.
Moira is telling her story to Marcia Pedowitz (Jessica Heafey) the documentary filmmaker character introduced in last season’s “Emerald Archer”. Pedowitz is finishing her film about the heroes of Star City but following the events of Crisis has shifted the thematic focus of the film from studying the debate about vigilantism to being a full-blown tribute to Oliver and she continues to gather additional interviews with his loved ones who talk about Oliver’s death and legacy. We catch up with John Diggle as he’s finishing one such interview and he’s pretty choked up. Rene arrives to check on him and the two talk about the state of the new world. Rene mentions how since Oliver’s sacrifice, crime in Star City has dropped to almost zero. We already knew about this because of “Green Arrow and the Canaries” but it’s good to hear it mentioned again since this episode more directly revolves around celebrating Oliver’s legacy. David Ramsey does a lot of the heavy lifting in the episode and he perfectly captures Dig’s conflicting emotions as he tries to figure out how to move forward without his brother while also being strong for the rest of Oliver’s friends and family.
Rene and Dig head to the Arrow Cave where they and the rest of the team have a toast for Oliver, and it’s here that the final arcs for most of the other characters are introduced. Emily Bett Rickards makes her anticipated return as Felicity and regardless of how one feels about the character she and Rickards definitely deserved to be there for the end. That said, I am glad the episode didn’t become too Felicity-centric as many in the middle seasons did. Most of Felicity’s scenes here revolve around her anxiety at the prospect of meeting adult Mia (who Sara picked up from the future for the funeral) and Rickards does a great job conveying Felicity’s understandably fragile emotional state. The few scenes she does eventually share with Katherine McNamara are terrific, with the actresses drawing on their work together last year to craft a believable dynamic, despite it being the first time these particular versions of the characters have met. Mia herself is more concerned with her own adequacy as her father’s successor, though. From her perspective, the finale takes place after “Green Arrow and the Canaries” and she’s frustrated after weeks of being unable to find the kidnapped William. We’re also treated to the culmination of what is arguably the show’s best romance when Roy proposes to Thea and after he assures her that their time apart has convinced him that he never wants to be without her again, she accepts. These scenes can’t totally reconcile the messy uses of Roy in the last two seasons but they work thanks to Willa Holland, who as usual is one of the series’ most subtle and affecting performers. And the episode takes advantage of having Paul Blackthorne back to provide one more heartwarming dialogue between him and Katie Cassidy. Laurel-2 heads over to city hall to see Quentin (who in the new reality is still mayor) and we learn why it was her that came back after Crisis, not Laurel-1. Laurel-2 theorizes that Oliver was only able to bring versions of people who were not on Earth-1 when the multiverse was destroyed to Earth-Prime and since Laurel-2 was there, Laurel-1 could not be resurrected. There’s no explanation of why this is (nor why Quentin-1 could come back when Moira and Tommy had to be replaced by doppelgangers) but the scene works because of the impact it has on Laurel-2. She apologizes to Quentin for being the one to come back before he assures her that “sweetheart, there is nothing about you that needed to be fixed.” Cassidy is heartbreaking here and the scene provides a touching end to Laurel-2’s multi-season redemption arc.
“Fadeout” isn’t all quiet dialogues though and we get to see the whole extended Team Arrow work together on one last case when young William (Jack Moore) is kidnapped by John Byrne (Johnny Cuthbert), a criminal Oliver put away during his Hood days (strange way to pay tribute to the influential comic book creator Arrow). Flashbacks to an unseen mission from the Season 1 era reveal Oliver’s first encounter with Byrne. He was a name on the List and Oliver was intent on killing him, but Diggle questioned the effect such regular use of murder would have on Oliver. Their exchange also gives us a key line when Diggle asks just how many names are on the List, to which Oliver replies the mission is never over. At this point I got a little concerned at what kind of statement the episode would ultimately make about Oliver’s crusade. Byrne’s character seemed like a half-baked Prometheus copy and I worried that the episode would again depict Oliver as responsible for the creation of his own enemy. Fortunately, that didn’t wind up being the case. Byrne’s case wasn’t an example of Oliver going too far as he sometimes did back then. In fact, he did precisely the opposite. Byrne was a ruthless human trafficker but Oliver chose to let him live and send him to prison. He did so mostly as a sign of respect to Diggle, offering proof that their partnership could work because he was willing to heed Dig’s advice on occasion, but it’s pretty clear a part of Oliver also wanted to spare himself another death on his conscience at that particular moment, even though he would go on to take more lives after that point. It was a strong way of highlighting that Oliver always had a hero inside, even at his darkest points. Some might find the flashbacks an odd way of using Amell in the last episode but I appreciated the choice. He’d already pushed Oliver to his emotional limits throughout the rest of the season and Crisis so it’s nice to get one last display of him in more stoic vigilante-mode. A lot of the show’s strongest material was in scenes like this, when Oliver’s handling of a mission highlighted his growth and humanity so it feels like an appropriate use of (most) of Amell’s final minutes in the role.
The Byrne storyline isn’t only included for thematic purposes, however, with the flashbacks treating us to one last glorious action sequence when Oliver takes on dozens of Byrne’s men solo to get to him. It’s a massive, lengthy sequence and definitely a little self-indulgent but series MVP director and stunt coordinator James Bamford and his crew definitely deserved the last chance to show off their immense skills, which they take full advantage of. Bamford, Amell, and company truly went above and beyond with this sequence and the result is stunning. The scene is mostly made up of several long tracking shots that follow Oliver as he fights his way through one more non-descript industrial facility and while the choice to minimize the number of cuts means some shaky-cam is necessary the effect actually adds to the intensity of the scene and the camera remains focused enough that the exquisite choreography can be seen in all its glory. The crowded, tight spaces created by the set highlight the technical mastery on display here and the speed and ferocity with which Oliver dispatches one thug after another is chill-inducing. The ambition and quality of its action scenes was one of the biggest draws to Arrow back when it first started and the stunt teams (and Amell, who deserves a ton of credit for doing a lot of his own stunts and fighting and for the physicality he brought to the role) never stopped making viewers’ jaws drop over the years. This last spotlight sequence was a perfect end to their consistently excellent work over the last eight years. Take a bow, guys.
Back in the present, the mission to save William brings out even more highly charged emotions from the remaining members of Team Arrow. Audrey Marie Anderson does especially well with a scene in which Lyla (no longer Harbinger) explains to Dig that after Oliver put their family back together she’s desperate to do the same for him. Mia’s character arc receives some light closure when she finds Byrne and William. Byrne, again, is an unrepentant monster, who kidnapped William to get posthumous revenge on Oliver for sending him to prison but despite this Mia also takes him down without using lethal force out of respect for her father’s wishes. It was a smart move to make that Mia’s reason for letting Byrne live rather than having her adopt a strict no-killing policy. Arrow benefitted a lot early on from making Oliver a darker kind of crime fighter and his use of lethal force opened up a lot of storytelling possibilities. It was considerate of the Arrow creators to leave open the possibility of Mia using these darker measures at some point in the future should Green Arrow and the Canaries call it and the fact that they were able to do so while also honoring Oliver and Team Arrow’s move towards a lighter brand of heroism indicates how carefully constructed this finale was. Mia being the one to rescue William also has the added benefit of giving her some more confidence in her abilities and her capability to do so again when she returns to the future.
With the show’s final case over, we move on to our last moments with the Arrow family. Diggle and Lyla tell everyone about their plans to move to Metropolis after Lyla got a promotion. Dinah plans to do the same to fight crime there now that she’s no longer needed in Star City, though we know she’ll actually find herself in the future somehow. And Rene is set to replace Quentin as Mayor. Two services are held for Oliver, one a public memorial at which Quentin speaks before a statue of the Green Arrow is revealed, the other a private funeral. The choice to have two ceremonies is a good way to honor both Green Arrow the superhero and Oliver the person and having Quentin speak at the former is a particularly impactful choice, as it highlights how far the show has come since the Season 1 days when he hunted the Hood, but it’s the funeral that’s predictably the more emotional sequence. Pretty much everyone you’d hope for is there, from Barry and Kara to Anatoly. Oliver’s half-sister Emiko (Sea Shimooka) is revealed to be alive as well and she’s decidedly less villainous in the new reality, even making peace with Thea and Moira and looking forward to a future as a more united family. Both al Ghul sisters are also present, with Katrina Law making her eagerly-awaited return as Nyssa. Law shares a lovely scene with Lexa Doig as Talia in which Nyssa asserts that she’s proud of how her life has turned out and how she’s broken free from their father’s influence. She also shares an appropriately bittersweet reunion with Sara, who thanks her for coming before Nyssa assures her that she wouldn’t be anywhere else and Law still has excellent chemistry with Caity Lotz. Sara’s relationship with Jes Macallan’s Ava Sharpe over on Legends is very well-written and performed but all it took was for Nyssa to refer to Sara as her “beloved” again for me to remember that I’m still a Nyssara shipper at heart.
When it comes time to lay Oliver to rest Diggle steps up to make the necessary speech. The notes the speech hits are mostly expected, with Dig saying how hard it will be to move on without his brother but that he knows he and everyone else must do so to honor Oliver, but it’s all well written and elevated by David Ramsey’s moving performance. The end of the speech is particularly strong, with Dig explaining that “Oliver’s mission lives on in the people he inspired. Some will take that mission to the rest of the world… maybe even beyond that. Because if the past eight years have shown us anything… it’s that this universe is far bigger than any of us could have dared imagine. Even if it is a little less bright without him in it.” As we hear these touching words a montage plays showing several characters getting back to their lives. Mia opens one of the Legends portable time portals and returns to the future. Rene is setting up a campaign office. And most excitingly, as Diggle packs his car to move, a meteor crashes in front of him, and in its crater he finds a box, and when he opens it his face is bathed in green light. It’s not explicitly revealed but it’s obvious to fans that a power ring is in the box and this is the pay off to the series-long teasing of Dig becoming Green Lantern. I’ve always had mixed feelings about the Dig Lantern idea because it further fuses Dig’s character with John Stewart from the comics (a process that was already begun in last season’s “Spartan”) and I think Dig was always a strong enough character on his own to not need this association. But as a comics fan it’s hard to deny the sheer delight the scene gave me.
Besides being a treat for fans the Lantern tease also encapsulates the open-ended approach “Fadeout” takes to the supporting characters, which is one of its strengths. While Diggle has already appeared in one episode of The Flash after Arrow ended it was technically set before these events and no further appearances by him or any of the cast other than those who are already on other shows (namely Lotz, Grant Gustin, and Melissa Benoist) are guaranteed. But it certainly seems like the creators are indicating that the Arrowverse is not done with many of the members of Team Arrow. The Metropolis move makes it seem likely that Dig and or Lyla could appear on Superman and Lois, with that show possibly being able to depict the former’s adoption of the Green Lantern mantle and the leading women of Green Arrow and the Canaries are ready to go should it be picked up. Even if those things don’t wind up happening, however, it seems unlikely that this is the last we’ll see of many of Oliver’s friends and family. Which in turn actually makes his end feel more final, and, therefore, affecting. Simply put, the door is wide open for most of the people in Oliver’s life to appear in the universe Arrow created again, but the door is firmly closed on Oliver’s own story.
The final sequence of the series flashes forward to 2040, reusing the footage from the Season 7 finale of the Monitor taking the older Felicity to see her husband. Felicity, now appearing again as her regular, more youthful self, finds herself in a sunny construction of Queen Consolidated’s CEO office, where Oliver is waiting for her in what is presumably either a version of the paradise dimension featured in the Crisis on Infinite Earths comics or just Heaven. He says he wanted to see her where they first met and when she, confused, says they should then be downstairs in the IT department a brief flashback is played to the episode when, while working for ARGUS during his third year away, Oliver actually returned to what was then Starling City and saw Felicity in his father’s office. In the present he smiles and replies to his wife that it’s a long story but one he’s happy to tell her now that they have all the time in the world. It’s definitely a bit of an odd scene in some ways. Crisis never explicitly revived the Monitor and the timeline changes it made really make it hard to understand how he could have his abilities. It seems like this is an odd little detail we just have to accept as Emily Bett Rickards likely had limited time to film and therefore the production probably had to use the old footage to get Felicity where she needed to go. Furthermore, the choice to refer back to that very specific Season 3 flashback where Oliver first saw Felicity rather than just having the scene take place in the IT room, which is a location much more heavily associated with the characters’ relationship, is weird. And, of course many will still object to the basic fact that Oliver ends up with Felicity. But a reasonable viewer can set these concerns aside because of how satisfying an end this is for Oliver’s character. Personally, Felicity wasn’t my first choice for his ultimate love interest either, but given that they’ve been married on the show for more than two years now and the strong storytelling developments that were made possible by their union (such as them having and meeting Mia) I’ve accepted it. Rickards and Amell also still have a very strong onscreen dynamic and sell this final reunion very well. At the end of the day, Oliver is happy and that’s all that really matters.
That sentiment is similar to how I feel regarding my appraisal of the show as a whole now that it’s over. There were definitely points over the years where I would have preferred the show to make different choices but what’s done is done and overall the story it has told over eight years is very strong and the legacy it leaves behind is incredible. I know I’m not the only person for whom both Arrow itself and all the other DC content it made possible means a great deal and it was very heartwarming to see it receive such a satisfying send-off started in Crisis and finished here. Farewell, Arrow. You did not fail this viewer.
Arrow Series Finale
Arrow's finale is a more or less perfect hour of mourning and tribute to Oliver Queen.
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