Arrow Recap: Island, Get Away! — Did Oliver Say His Goodbyes in Fall Finale?

Matt Webb Mitovich

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Arrow‘s final fall finale landed Oliver back on Lian Yu, ostensibly to build a weapon — but perhaps more importantly to get his affairs in order.

Emerging from the tent with Laurel, Oliver learns that Diggle and the 2040 crew were grabbed by ARGUS agents and hauled to Lian Yu as well. After apologizing for the rough ride, Lyla reports that Mar Novu wants them to build a weapon utilizing the dwarf star particles, plutonium, and the designs of Dr. Wong. Lyla affirms that “there is no stopping Crisis,” but this weapon miiiight help them survive it. Lyla’s words set up an awkward conversation for Oliver, who must loop in the kids to his grim fate — that it is his job to save the multiverse (and die in doing so), and “that’s the way it has to be.”

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Dig grabs a private moment with his wife, confronting Lyla about the massive secret she has kept for so long. She explains, “We couldn’t risk interfering with the journeys of the other players” by revealing the truth. She then shares that Mar Novu claims to have rescued her the day that IED killed her entire team in Afghanistan, because she has a “greater purpose” — to find heroes strong enough to survive Crisis.

The small plane carrying Dinah (aka its pilot!), Rene and Roy is mysteriously shot down by a missile. Diggle, Connor and Lyla work the rescue mission, while Oliver and Laurel chase after the plutonium that was being delivered. Connor and his “mom” bond some, as he assures Lyla that she and Diggle were there for their sons “when it counted,” and he fancies himself the proud son of the founders of Knighwatch. Laurel meanwhile is advising Oliver not to leave Lian Yu with more regrets than he already buried there, by boxing out his kids, when Fyers shows up (alive!) and Wintergreen (also alive!) grabs Laurel. A fight ensues, and though Oliver and Laurel take out most if the goons, Fyers slips away. Chasing after Fyers, Oliver runs into Yao Fei (again, alive — due to odd “energy spikes” Lian Yu has been experiencing). Yao Fei suggests that there are forces at play who do not want Oliver to success in using his weapon.

After finding Dinah and an injured Rene, Dig and Connor come across Roy, who has been pinned down by a piece of landing gear that just won’t budge. With Fyers’ men closing in, there is some debate about freeing Roy via amputation, which he selflessly signs off on — and which Connor executes with a swift blade. Oliver and Yao Fei meanwhile get ensnared in a net trap, during which the former admits that as resolved as he is to die, he can’t bring himself to leave the two kids who lived so much of their lives without him. To that, Yao Fei advises Oliver to make the most of the little time they have left — before he casually frees the two of them using a magnifying glass on the rope above.

Back at the tent, Diggle apologizes to Roy, for coming to find him in Hub City in the first place. But one-armed Roy insists that he would he’d rather be with the team than living alone. Besides, heroes make sacrifices — and sometimes that comes in the form of an arm! With everyone back at the camp, it is determined that the weapon they built for Mar Novu might also in fact eliminate the undead Fyers et al, if activated. Team Arrow XL suits up to confront Fyers and his small army, buying William some time to complete the weapon. Yet once it is finished, it wont turn on; it requires a specific DNA key, which they assume is Oliver’s. But it is not. It is Lyla’s. And activate it she does, after which the “ghosts” vanish… and Lyla is cued to step into one of Mar Novu’s portals.

“I have to go….”

Later, while waiting for the boat taking them back home, Oliver asks Diggle for a favor — to make sure that the kids get back home to 2040, and Diggle agrees. Oliver also asks Diggle to track down Felicity and relay the message that he doesn’t want Mia and William separated, but to grow up with each other. Lastly, turning to the topic of their brotherhood, Oliver avows, “I couldn’t have done any of this without” Diggle, his “rock” (and “the best man you’ve ever known,” Dig adds).

Oliver makes one last stop before leaving Lian Yu, at the grave site, where he is approached by Mia. Emotional, she talks of how all her life she heard legendary stories about the Green Arrow and his team, yet all she saw was the reason why she grew up without her dad — and it has been hard to let go of that bitterness. When Mia remarks that Oliver must hate Lian Yu, he counters that were in not for his time on this island, there wouldn’t be Green Arrow stories to tell — and he wouldn’t be standing here looking at his remarkable daughter. “Something tells me you’ll write your own stories…,” he tells Mia, not-so-subtly teeing up the potential Arrow spinoff.

Just then, the sky rumbles and Lyla materializes — as a Harbinger of things to come, now that “the Crisis has begun!”

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