Oliver and the team struggle to come to terms with Laurel’s death, especially Diggle, who is overwhelmed with guilt for choosing to believe Andy had changed. Meanwhile, Lance refuses to believe his daughter is dead and asks Nyssa to help bring her back.

Arrow deals with the ramifications of Laurel’s death in an interesting way bouncing back and forth between the past and present and using Oliver’s “death” as a way to compare it.

What’s really interesting with the episode is that it does a decent job of checking off a lot of the questions we the viewers might have. Can they resurrect her? Did she really die? What about all of the doctors and nurses who know?

The writers do a decent job of checking off those boxes and answering those questions quite well. All of my questions were answered at least.

I can’t say I agree with the death or think it was a good idea, but they at least wrapped things up pretty well in that department.

After a rather poor last episode, this one is better at least in the quality when it comes to its framing of the story.

Overall rating: 7.4

Oliver and Diggle learn that Merlyn plans to break Darhk out of prison. Meanwhile, Laurel gets a surprising offer and Felicity has a heart-to-heart talk with Curtis.

Arrow is just ok as the episode just builds and builds until the last twenty minutes in a when sort of way, not an if. The episode is about Darhk regaining his power and getting out of prison.

The episode is rather blah overall probably due to the lack of surprise in how things would turn out, especially when it comes to the twists, turns, and betrayals. None of it is shocking and things feel rather choreographed to a point that just kills more of the emotional pull of it all.

The episode really is more about Oliver and Laurel than anything else and that’s clear in the final five moments of the series. It’s a solid moment, and one that does a good job being tied back to Oliver’s time in the past that the season has been flashing back to.

But, while most of the episode has been blah, it’s those last five minutes that pack a punch as a character is fridged to drive the plot forward. Yes, we finally know who is in the grave from earlier in the season. While we got to the moment sooner than I thought, and there’s some emotional heft to it, it’s still using a female character’s death to drive the narrative of other characters.

While I had hoped the mysterious death would have been something more, the series continues to crap on female characters to drive the male characters’ narratives.

Overall rating: 6.1

Brie Larvan breaks out of jail and turns up at a Palmer Tech threatening to kill everyone unless she gets the bio-chip that is implanted in Felicity’s spine.

Arrow has some high points in this episode and lots of low points as well. Again, we see a show that has a lot of potential and doesn’t quite live up to any of it.

The episode basically has some of Team Arrow’s women playing damsels in distress running from Larvan’s bees.

The big thing in this episode is Curtis who takes on a bigger role and I guess is now officially part of Team Arrow after he discovers everyone’s secret. He’s a nice addition and his enthusiasm and excitement is the highlight of the episode.

What’s not so good is again taking a series issue that can and should be explored but not diving much into it. In this case it’s Larvan’s motives as to why she’s attacked Felicity and wants the technology. There could be a great discussion about the medical treatment of inmates, or the population as a whole, or about the cost of medical treatments, or how it takes so long to get medical treatments into the market. Any of these would be perfect to discuss and none are. We basically get a thief who wants to steal a chip. Great opportunity for discussion and not used to its potential.

The episode is really about Curtis and getting him as part of the team. Hopefully we see him more as he’d be a solid replacement for Felicity. I’m sure we’ll see more and an eventually twist to Curtis’ more known comic book persona.

The episode isn’t bad and is fun in many ways. But, when you think about what it does, it’s pretty thin.

Overall rating: 6.8

Following the events of William’s kidnapping, Darhk has become less powerful, but Carrie Cutter, a.k.a. Cupid, has emerged into Star City to cause chaos on the city and the Green Arrow.

Arrow is a bit of a mixed bag as Oliver and Felicity deal with the fallout of Felicity calling off the wedding. It’s all done with Cupid running around to cause chaos for those in love and getting married… you can easily see where this is going, and in many ways it’s very bad.

Instead of having an adult conversation a sham wedding is done to draw out Cupid and Oliver bares his soul to Felicity at the fake wedding instead of having a conversation before. It’s beyond a shitty situation and really crap writing in many ways. It dumps on Felicity in a bad way and puts her in a spot that’s unfair to the character.

In a season that had some solid possibilities as far as character development when it comes to Felicity, the writers cut that short by quickly having her walk again with only an episode or two to reflect on the situation, an insult in many ways to the character and viewers. Here too we see that sort of process and direction for the character.

It’s been a weird season, and this episode makes it clear it’s not as weird as it is lazy at times, and when it comes to Felicity, the season is beyond insulting. This may be a low point for the season, it’s definitely just a bad episode all around.

Overall rating: 6.1

Oliver calls in his old friend Vixen for help in fighting Darhk, while Thea has a heart-to-heart talk with Malcolm.

Arrow dives in to Ollie’s kid as they go after Darhk to get him back while Malcolm continues to do what Malcolm does. The episode has some good and has some bad as action sequences at times fall rather flat.

But tonight’s big thing is the live action debut of Vixen. The character made her debut in The Flash/Arrow world in an animated webseries, but here she is in the flesh played by the same actress who provided the voice of the animated character Megalyn Echikunwoke.

Echikunwoke is much better than the actress for Hawkgirl, but her acting still is a little dull at points, especially in her final speech with Ollie about his son. She is nice to see on the screen and out of all of the action was the best of the bunch this episode.

The episode also pivots things a lot too. There’s Ollie and Felicity’s relationship where he tells her the truth. We learn who really kidnapped William, which is a bigger picture game that’s a big question mark. And there’s just Ollie figuring out what it is to be a father, which hopefully the series explores more down the road.

The episode has good moments. It has bad moments. But it also has some interesting ramifications going forward that will hopefully be used in the best way. If the ending is any indication, looks like they’ll be using the revelations here for some solid effect.

Overall rating: 7.1

Oliver and the team uncover HIVE’s plan to take out Team Arrow once and for all. With HIVE’s next attack imminent, Lance wonders if Donna is safer without him in her life.

Arrow is a bit mixed tonight with a balance of Team Arrow’s personal life and the superheroing. There’s an engagement party, a Mayoral debate, and then trying to stop HIVE. It’s all mixed in together in a weird episode that bounces all over the place in quality.

The episode comes back to that whole protecting your loved one theme, which gives huge hints as to who will be in the grave down the road.

There’s some action, and a lot of humor. The big thing is things are getting a bit clearer as to the whole Mayoral race and why it’s important, though the big picture as to why the bad guys are doing what they’re doing isn’t super clear. As a whole, things feel like we’ve seen it before.

I think my biggest problem with the episode is it packed in WAY too much. It’d have been stronger just focused on the debate or just focusing on the engagement party. Doing the two, things felt a bit thin and the focus was all over.

This is another bridge episode, not good, not bad, it just is. But, the good moments here are at least really good, so there’s that.

Overall rating: 7.3

Oliver receives an offer from Nyssa that is hard to refuse. Meanwhile, Thea continues to battle the blood lust; Malcolm steps in to help his daughter; and Laurel has a heart-to-heart talk with Nyssa.

Arrow shifts a hell of a lot around focusing heavily on the League of Assassins. The thrust of the episode focuses on Nyssa having a cure for Thea and she’ll only give it up if Malcolm steps aside so Nyssa can take over the League. There’s also some of Felicity getting to know her father.

The father stuff is rather predictable and as a plot unless there’s more to come, it seems like a bit silly thing to put in the show. Yes there were questions as to who her father was, but introducing him in this plotline just wasn’t a good use of the build up and reveal of who he was. Hopefully this isn’t the end of this story and I’m proven wrong down the road with more to come. As it stands though, it’s a big meh.

What’s interesting with the episode is where it goes with the League of Assassins. There’s a huge shift for the organization and Malcolm and you have to wonder the reason for those shifts behind the scenes, if there are any. Though, I will say where it went is not where I thought it was willing to go, it’s a dramatic change.

The episode has some decent action and a lot of the choreography issues I noticed in past episodes seems to be missing in this episode, which is great. Though some more sword fighting would have been great, there’s a bit too few scenes featuring it.

The episode is much better than the previous week, and there’s a pretty big shift I wasn’t expecting, so that’s great to see. What happened in the episode has me more excited than the episode itself if that makes sense. Overall, not bad just due to how much it shakes up the status-quo.

Overall rating: 7.3

The team faces off against a formidable villain nicknamed The Calculator (guest star Tom Amandes). Meanwhile, Nyssa (guest star Katrina Law) makes her move and Roy Harper (guest star Colton Haynes) returns to Star City.

Arrow is an interesting episode with a goofy plot about the threat of a gigalapse type event, or that occurring to the sity itself. There’s also Felicity attempting to deal with running her company. There’s Thea having some issues with her bloodlust. Finally, there’s the return to Roy.

The episode is better than last week, but not by much. The big focus of the episode is really to get Felicity, now with the horrible codename Overwatch, back in to the thick of things. The episode sees the heroes relying heavily on her knowledge and technical abilities pitting her head to head with The Calculator.

There has been a very noticeable issue this season of the action coordination with fight scenes, and generally the action, being heavily choreographed to the point it doesn’t feel natural at all and actually really stiff. This episode is a bit better in Roy’s return with his use of parkour creating a more natural flow to the movement. Juxtapose that when three of them are running from a building and they all stop and pivot at the same time. It’s not a natural scene at all.

The episode isn’t bad, it’s just not great. There’s some decent movement in some of the various plots, it’s what I’d call a bridge episode. It doesn’t stand on its own, but it does its job in moving the bigger plot along.

Overall rating: 6.9

Diggle mus learn to trust his brother Andy when an enemy of their wartime past, an agent of the criminal organization Shadowspire, visits Star City. However, Diggle learns more than he bargained for about their shared time at war.

Arrow focuses on the Diggle brothers in this episode which dives deeper in to their history together and gives some background on each. The episode also focuses on Felicity who is now confined to a wheelchair after being shot in the spine.

Both stories are decent enough, giving us a break from the Dahrk story that has been the focus of the season. The Diggle history is interesting showing each during their tour of duty together, which is ok in the action, but feels a little empty in some ways. Similar to the secret history we’ve seen about Oliver, this doesn’t quite click like that. That may be due it feeling like it came out of nowhere.

Felicity’s story at first feels like a second rate knock off of Oracle/Barbara Gordon in Batman. In many ways it is, and there’s even a joke about giving her the codename of Oracle. It wraps up a bit quickly, and would be much better to have been dealt with for longer in the season. There’s a great opportunity in this aspect of the character, and her dealing with her being in a wheelchair, and figuring out her role is handled WAY too quickly. Growth doesn’t happen that quickly.

The episode also has issues with the death of an important character. It’s another example of minority characters being offed in television shows adapted from comics. A very strange move, but I can only think this was done due to the character soon being in Suicide Squad, you can easily figure out who it is.

An episode with some good. An episode with a lot of bad.

Overall rating: 6.8

Oliver seeks revenge and goes on a brutal manhunt to find Dahrk, after dealing with the devastating consequences of Dahrk’s latest attack.

Arrow returns after a break diving right into things and adding a new bad guy, Anarky, to the mix. But, the episode revolves around two things, a grave that Oliver stands over four months from now, and also Felicity being injured and in the hospital.

The episode revolves around those two things. Oliver is focused on stopping Anarky/Lonnie, but also torn as Anarky/Lonnie could also help take care of Dahrk. That back and forth as to whether they should use a “villain” such as Anarky to stop Dahrk is interesting.

How far folks will go to stop Dahrk is the center of the episode. It drives Oliver’s vowing of revenge. It drives Diggle’s dealing with his brother. It drives how they handle Anarky. That questioning of how far heroes will go is interesting and it’ll be nice if they keep that theme going for the rest of this season.

The episode really bumps up the series for me with a nice twist and a new mechanic in who’s in the gave that drives a nice mystery. It’s a good set up for what’s to come.

Overall rating: 7.7