Ra’s al Ghul sets his plan in motion, putting everyone in danger; Oliver must decide if he is strong enough to handle his new role – and what it will mean for his team and his soul.

Arrow‘s third season wraps up with team Arrow taking on Ra’s and his troops as Ra’s attempts to destroy the city. It’s an all out race as the team brings out all of the tricks to save the day.

The action is decent, well paced, and most importantly entertaining, and there’s actually cool twists to it all as well! The episode wraps up in a very interesting way, that leaves things open for the next season. What’s really great is we’ve seen how far Oliver will go to save the city and complete his goals. And deals with the devil were made.

Much like real life with wars and battles, the results only lead to worse things, and this finale seems to set all of that up. Will there be an Arrow though? The season has a bit uneven but the ending was exciting and most importantly fun.

On to season four!

Overall rating: 8

Oliver must complete two final tasks before becoming the next Ra’s al Ghul; Nyssa is threatened; Malcolm makes an offer to the team; Thea visits Roy.

Arrow‘s second last episode of the season is full of tension as will he/won’t he is teased throughout. That will he/won’t he applies for quite a few characters as Ra’s plan for a chemical strike is revealed to team Arrow, and they assemble to stop it. This takes them to Ra’s home, which is rather easy to get in and out of it seems, considering how many times they’ve assaulted it now.

Really the episode revolves around Oliver’s plan which is revealed, and shows how far he’ll go to defeat Ra’s. It’s interesting to see, but feels like plot lines and relationships that we’ve seen before in earlier seasons, a retread in a way.

That’s not a bad thing, as the episode is much darker in tone (the last few have been) than we’ve seen, so there’s a bit of difference to it, but not a ton.

There’s also some stuff about Roy, which makes you wonder if his exit is real, or if it’s more about closure for Thea.

The episode and series is shaking things up a bit more, setting up the tone and direction for season four as well as DC and The CW’s spinoff series. There’s lots of logical questions (like why the Arrow can show up on The Flash, but The Flash isn’t helping with Ra’s), and the double crosses and keeping folks in the dark as far as plans gets a bit old quickly. Plus the cliffhanger is supposed to be shocking, but sadly it’s not.

Still, it’s an interesting series that sets itself apart from other television series based on comics. How it’ll end the season in the next episode? We’ll find out!

Overall rating: 7

Oliver goes through a transformation; Laurel asks Felicity and Diggle to help Nyssa face the League of Assassins.

How far will Arrow go as far as the indoctrination of Oliver into the League of Assassins? This episode shows that’s pretty far. Through a lot of psychological manipulation, Oliver is full Al Sah-Him and is tasked by Ra’s to take out some competition.

Team Arrow again is as usual completely lost without Oliver. They attempt to figure out what to do, and argue amongst themselves. We’ve seen it before. Again and again and again. Every time Oliver is gone, this is pretty much how it goes.

The good in the episode is they’re really selling Oliver turning. How he gets out of it will be a big question, but what really bothered me is we’ve seen this before…. in Batman. There’s a lot here that seems borrowed from Batman’s interactions with Ra’s and the League.

Oliver will of course be saved at some point. But they’re selling the turn really well and seeing Oliver actually “dark” is pretty cool.

Overall rating: 7

Ra’s al Ghul finally makes Oliver an offer he can’t refuse. The team joins Oliver on his journey to Nanda Parbat where a heartbroken Felicity decides to take matters into her own hands.

This episode of Arrow twists and turns as team Arrow attempts to save Thea using something comic fans will know well, Lazarus Pits. But, to save Thea, Oliver has to join the League of Assassins and take over as their new leader. The episode is full of “will he or won’t he” moments and characters attempting to sway him one way or another.

The episode is really solid other than one thing, we’ve seen this before. How many times now has Oliver left Starling City only to come back episodes later. Hell, the season started off with this exact same plot! You know it’s not going to last.

So that’s the question of this episode, where does the series go from here? The ending is pretty cool, I’ll give them that, but anyone that thinks this is a permanent thing hasn’t been paying attention. The series is heading back in an interesting direction as this season begins to wind down. Looks like it’ll be an interesting, darker, ride.

Overall rating: 7.75

Quentin Lance (Paul Blackthorne) continues his mission to take down the Arrow (Stephen Amell) so Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) orders Oliver to keep a low profile. However, when a meta-human named Jake Simmons (Doug Jones), who kills people with blasts of energy and plasma, starts terrorizing Starling City, Oliver is forced to ask Ray (Brandon Routh) for help. The unlikely duo is forced to team up to save the city.

Well that was one hell of a shift in tone with one episode of a show. The episode mostly revolves around the fact Roy has turned himself in as the Arrow, leaving Oliver off the hook, but wracked with guilt. Most of the episode  has Lance attempting to pin the Arrow on Oliver though, and coming up short.

There’s also the Atom stepping in to battle a meta human where we learn some interesting facts about them. The battle is so-so, but the prospect of a team-up series and how much fun that could be revolving around him is apparent.

There’s also some rather interesting twists at the end, one that had me faked out for a bit. The end of the episode leaves another cliffhanger, one that shouldn’t be too surprising and caps off a lot of dodge and weaving.

Overall, an interesting episode, that has a weirdness to it in that there’s tons there, but I felt rather empty in the end. A great piece of the puzzle, but a poor piece on its own.

Overall rating: 7.25

On this episode of Arrow during an attack on the mayor’s office, Ray is critically injured. Felicity is pleasantly surprised when her mother, Donna Smoak, shows up at the hospital to offer her support. With the SCPD out in full force looking for the assailant, Oliver and his team work hard to stay one step ahead of the police to find the man responsible. However, things come to a head when Ra’s al Ghul kidnaps Captain Lance.

Ra’s has been manipulating Oliver by turning the entire city against him in his attempt to get Oliver to take over the League of Assassins. Tonight the police get closer and closer as the Arrow is a wanted man for murder, and it looks like options are narrowing for Oliver.

There’s a nice battle between Arrow and his crew versus Ra’s’ folks, which gives some solid action, but the episode is mostly Oliver and folks on the run, and when a secret is revealed, his choices become few.

In other news Ray is having some health issues, and his relationship with Felicity is put to the test with her feelings revealed.

The episode is really good as it again shakes up the series, though we’ve seen similar plotlines play out in earlier seasons. We were promised that this episode would really shake things up for Arrow going forward, and it looks like that’s the truth. For the last quarter of the episode, I seriously had no idea where things where going…. until the last couple of minutes. Things became much clearer.

As usual the series swerves all over to keep us on our toes, continuing to be an entertaining, though not super deep, comic adaptation. The series does improve as it goes on, and this episode is light years from where it started. For a series that seems to reinvent itself, it looks like it might be doing that yet again.

Overall rating: 7.75

On this episode of Arrow it’s celebration time as Diggle and Lyla get married. However, Deadshot interrupts their honeymoon and tells them the Suicide Squad has been given a new mission – rescue United States Senator Joseph Cray from a hostage situation in the Republic of Kasnia. Amanda Waller breaks down the mission and introduced them to the newest member of the Suicide Squad, Cupid. Meanwhile, Oliver learns about Ray’s new Atom costume and the two have a heated stand-off. Felicity and Ray hit a rough patch.

The series bounces back from a couple of so-so episodes that dive into a bunch of different storylines that are out there. There’s really two stories here that spin out of the marriage of Diggle and Lyla.

First, Diggle and Lyla get sent off on a mission with Deadshot and Cupid to free some hostages as part of the Suicide Squad. Throughout the missions Floyd/Deadshot’s history is revealed up to the point he was sent to kill Diggle’s brother. There’s a slight twist to it all, and the mission is actually pretty entertaining as far as the action.

The second part is the fight between the Atom and Arrow that we knew was coming. Ray is convinced that the Arrow is a killer, no matter what he’s told. The two clash and it’s not that bad. The only issue is, The Atom feels a bit more like Iron Man instead of The Atom.

Overall, the episode is pretty entertaining with some good action, some decent movement in the plot, and some nice twists here and there. Not the best of the season, but an improvement over the last few episodes.

Overall rating: 7.75

On this episode of Arrow a new villain known as Murmor, whose mouth has been sewn shut, begins to terrorize Starling City. Meanwhile, Laurel and Nyssa bond over their issues with their fathers; and Thea is forced to come to terms with her father.

This episode is an interesting one. A lot is focused on the offer made at the end of the last episode where Ra’s offered Oliver the chance to take over. This episode kicks off at that point, elaborating further as to what that means. Oliver has it laid out pretty well, whether he can use the League of Assassins for good, or if he’ll be labelled as a villain (which the end of the episode sets up really well).

But, the above really plays out as Oliver returns, and how everyone reacts to that. Basically, there’s a lot of catharsis and people discussing their various issues. It’s a recap episode in a weird way, but done really well.

The episode is a decent one, it’s a pivot, setting the rest of the season in the direction it’ll be going. It’s an important episode, and seems like it’ll set up an entertaining rest of the season.

Overall, the plot line feels a lot like a cheap Batman knock-off, but it’s cool to dig a bit deeper into the overall DC mythos.

Overall rating: 7.25