Oliver rallies his team as Slade's soldiers attack the city. Felicity gets a call from S.T.A.R. Labs with game-changing news and Thea comes face-to-face with her father - Malcolm Merlyn.
Now, that's how you do a penultimate episode. It essentially played as an epic first part of a two-part finale. But it didn't falter for the some reasons of having to set up things in order for them to be complicatedly resolved in the finale. "Streets of Fire" started with things complicated. Slade has unleashed his army on the streets of Starling City. Oliver and his team are rushing for more time. It's eventful but continued to showcase the honest emotional reactions everyone was feeling.Every time the team gets any kind of advantage, it is swiftly taken away from them. S.T.A.R. labs has the cure. But Slade's men get to it first. Sebastian gets it back for them but Amanda Waller's here to completely level the city. It's such a precarious race for Oliver to save this city that he loves so much from multiple sources that just want it's complete destruction. That's a lot of weight to bear on his shoulders. And he can't help but think this is all his fault. He truly is defeated when they lose the cure. He's stopped several villains in the past but he has no clue how to stop Slade this time. Hope is all but lost and then we get a glimmer of it. That's just a precisely told narrative. There's not too much back-and-forth. There's just the right amount. And now, we're going into the finale with an even more precarious pressure cooker because of Amanda's deadline. Arrow is heading to an explosive close to the season where literally anything could happen. And all of it would feel emotionally earned. That's how good and well structured this season of Arrow has been.
Elsewhere, I can see the wheels turning with Laurel and what may happen with her in next week's finale. And I don't even care. It's just so exciting and entertaining to watch. She gets to shoot an arrow and blow something up. She learns that her sister is the Canary and helps her realize just how much of a hero she is. Sara may not feel like it but she has done a ton of good and she returned to Starling City to help. She does have a strong connection to this place.
Lastly, there's Thea who is freaking out first by the masked men attacking the train station and then when her father, Malcolm Merlyn, arrives to stop them. For all she knows, he's dead. The fact that he's alive is just another secret that has been kept from her. And she is very understandably upset and untrustworthy. She may be his daughter but she has no connection or sympathy to him or what he did last season. Him being alive is like throwing salt in the wound. And she does what all of us wanted to do when it was revealed he was still alive. She shoots him! His death was the perfect capping point to the first season. His return did undermine that moment a bit. But thankfully, the show didn't let him overstay his welcome. He came back to say he was alive and then left until he was needed for the season's endgame. Again, very smart planning that pays off immensely here.
Some more thoughts:
- "Streets of Fire" was written by Jake Coburn & Ben Sokolowski and directed by Nick Copus.
- Sara is in a building on fire that explodes a couple of times and she walks out of it completely unharmed.
- I'm genuinely intrigued as to why Slade's army is just blindly following his orders especially since they're unstable on the Mirakuru. That's a side effect that's been on full display with everyone who's had it injected in them. And yet, with the army, there really isn't any kind of instability.
- I also love how Slade's army is basically destroying the entire city but they don't have time to go attack the news station.
- Also, Lance got his detective shield back. And maybe the police will start referring to the vigilante as the Arrow - like everyone else.
- Of course, Sebastian was gonna die. After he betrayed Slade, that was the only direction left to go with that character. Still quite entertaining though.
- Okay, the flashbacks are basically just setting things up for the finale. Oliver gets back on the freighter but is captured by Slade but if he's not back in an hour the torpedo will be launched.
- Felicity FTW!
