Arrow | Season 5 Episode 23 - "Lian Yu"

Spoiler Alert!

Oh my god, I'm still shook with this season finale.

This week, I got to watch the episode live and live tweet and I'm so glad I did, even thought it didn't really end like I wanted to.

A little bit like yesterday, this things didn't go my way and yes, I'm just going to get straight to it and say that Adrian died. You know I've been loving him (and I still do) and I really didn't want him to die but, in the end, he really did. But, before that, a lot of other things happened, which I quite enjoyed so let's break the episode down.

So, it started right where the last episode ended, with Oliver recruiting Slade to help him take down Chase. In that moment, we also learn that Slade no longer hates Oliver due to the Mirakuru completely out of his system.

Then, we see that Oliver also recruited Harkness and we also see both Slade and Harkness, with Oliver, Merlyn and Nyssa talking about weapons and stuff, when a missile hits their plane which destroys basically all their weapons.

With this happening, they decide to just start looking for Chase and all the people that he kidnapped.

They find Felicity, Curtis, Thea and William's Mother and, in that moment, Talia and Evelyn appear and we find out that it was actually a trap.

We also find out that Harkness was alread working for Chase and he tries to get Slade on his side too. Then, while I was watching live, it cut to commercial break and I really thought that Slade was going to turn against Oliver but, luckily, he didn't and he helped take down Evelyn but Talia and Harkness are able to escape. 

Anyway, they get to free Felicity, Curtis, Thea and William's Mother (Samantha) and they lock Evelyn where they were.

With that, they decide to slipt up and, I don't really like when, in series, they split the team, but in this case I think it was good so Oliver tasks Malcolm to take Felicity and the others to Adrian's plane in order to escape Liam Yu. And here starts all of my favourite scenes, beginning with an Olicity kiss!

You know I love Olicity as much, or maybe even more, as I love Adrian Chase so this moment was huge! Mostly because it was Felicity that kissed Oliver and this means Olicity is about to become real again so I can't wait for that!

After that, Malcolm leaves with Felicity and the others, while Slade, Oliver and Nyssa go find everyone else.

This was when something happened and it looked like Slade had turn on Oliver again but... it was just another part of their plan!

They find John, Rene, Dinah and Quentin and Oliver is able to give Dinah the device that Curtis made for her (I don't really remember what it was for) and she's able to 'scream' and free everyone.

Then, Quentin is able to knock out Black Siren to save Dinah while Nyssa defeats Talia, which was another of my favourite parts of the episode. I was really looking forward to this fight between the sisters and it was seriously really cool!

Meanwhile, Thea sets foot on a landmine and they have to come up with something. Malcolm wants to take her place but she's just stubborn, so Malcolm is forced to push her and take her place. He tells the others to leave and that's when Harkness finds Malcolm and we just hear the bomb go off.

I assumed Malcolm did something and that Harkness was the only one to die, but today Jonh Barrowman (who plays Malcolm) posted on instagram that Malcolm really died and that he no longer will be on the show, which is pretty sad. I wasn't expecting that at all!

Felicity and the others find the plane but that's when they find out that the whole island is rigged with C4, which will explode upon Chase's death. Because of that, I really thought that Adrian wasn't going to die, and it really seemed like it because while Adrian and Oliver were fighting, Oliver said that he wasn't going to kill him, but that was also the moment when everything started to go downhill (for Chase).

He eventually gets to escape so Oliver just tells Diggle to go meet Oliver and the others to help them get out of the island, since it would be Malcolm to fly the plan and he's no longer alive. So, Diggle does that and Oliver goes after Chase.

That's when he sees him in a boat (and that's when I understood what Adrian meant when he said, last episode, 'I'll see on the boat'). They have kind of a fight, but Adrian takes William and threatens Oliver, saying that he basically has to choose bettween William and everyone else because, if he kills him, everyone else will die but William will be safe, but if he doesn't kill him, he will kill William.

In that moment, I really thought that Oliver was going to choose everyone else, but that's when he shoots Adrian on the foot and takes William into his arms. And this is when everything happens.

We learn that the plane have been sabotaged by Chase, so they are not able to leave the island and, in that moment, Oliver tells everyone to run to a ship on the eastern shore but... Chase kills himself in that moment.

I just couldn't believe. I was (and still am) really sad. I really thought that he wasn't going to die because Oliver wasn't going to kill him but... He killed himself. And that isn't the only thing. Because he killed himself, all the C4 in the island explode and the episode ends with Oliver and William watching it in horror and we don't know what happened to everyone else!

I didn't take that that serious because we know they won't kill off Felicity, Diggle, Rene and Dinah (at least) because their series regulars and they didn't say anything about leaving the show, so they didn't die but still, it was a pretty shocking ending! So much better than The Flash's!

And, to end the rant, I need to talk about the last of the flashbacks. So, Oliver gets to kill Kovar and his men and reach the boat and time and call Moira saying that he's going home. And yeah, this is the end of the flashbacks.

I don't know how I feel about that. I was never a fan of the flashbacks but they were part of the show so... Let's see how the next season will be without them.

And this is the end of Season 5.

For me, this was one of Arrow's best season, if not the best one! I'm still sad/mad about Adrian's death but I was kind of expecting it, althought I had hope.

Besides that, everything else was perfect and I just can't wait for Season 6!

Let me know all your thoughts about the season finale and I'll see (probably only next week), with a new rant!

Love,

Daniela.