By Mike McCarthy
The season that starts and ends with a bang is usually the one that will make you wish the season didn’t end. Just as seasons one and two left us, season three ended just how we wanted it to, making us beg for more. Unlike the previous two seasons, season three ended a little less anti-climactic since it didn’t end with a disaster occurring like the reckoning or a force of Mirakuru infused thugs ripping apart the city. No, season three ended with Ra’s al Ghul being defeated and Oliver and Felicity driving off into the sunset. So it ended in a positive note, except for the fact that Malcolm Merlyn is now the head of the League of Assassins.
This like any season had its highs and its lows. It all started with the end of the first episode of the season with Sara Lance being shot in the chest with three arrows. This is a ballsy way to start the season, killing off a main character in the first episode. We completely understand why they would do this, since to make the Black Canary come to life, you have to kill off the previous Canary. There was some hints that this would happen in the season two finale when Laurel took ownership of Sara’s black leather jacket…kind of a passing of the torch. The consistency between the comics and the show has made it more worth watching then if it completely changes the actual characters in the universe. The different levels of development of each character and the depth of each of them is so amazingly done by the writers and I am sure you will all agree.
Throughout this season, there were all of these different assumptions of who actually killed Sara, going back to Roy having the thought that he actually had thrown the arrows into her. A Mirakuru-induced rage by Roy did happen in season two so I could see how that could make you think that it happened. Obviously that is not how it happened, and Roy was just reliving the fact that he killed a cop before without even knowing it. The manipulation that Malcolm Merlyn pulled on Thea and whatever drugs he used to make her kill Sara was diabolical, and oh so incredible. The trust that Thea had in her birth father to train her, to take care of her, and to make her the weapon that she was and has become was so strong, that it blinded her to a lot of other factors. In the end, it all worked out and now Thea has taken her role as the Red Arrow aka Speedy.
The anonymity that Oliver had tried so hard to protect was thrown right out the window this season. Everyone, and I mean everyone in Starling City knows who the Arrow is. Well in reality, they all think that it was Roy, but the main characters, including Captain Lance know that it is actually Oliver. How this will change season four since now that Roy is “dead” how will they bring Oliver back to Starling as the Arrow. How will the persona change from the Arrow to the Green Arrow? That is something that the writers will definitely have to make happen, change from the serious Arrow to the humorous Green Arrow.
Bringing Ra’s al Ghul fully into this season was a stroke of genius. I haven’t heard of Ra’s outside of the Batman universe, but expanding his reach out to Arrow was a great choice.It really brought to the forefront how Sara was able to kick some serious ass after also being stuck on the island and being rescued by Nyssa and taken under her wing. The fact that Ra’s stuck a sword through Oliver’s chest and he survived without the use of the Lazarus Pit was a little too much of a reach, but this is the comic book world, and we are not gonna read too much into it.
There has been lots of speculation of what is gonna happen with Diggle’s character in season four and we are really stoked to see what happens. There have been hints at Ferris Air in the final few episodes of the season, which is where Hal Jordan aka the Green Lantern had been a pilot before. Also in the last flashback of season three Oliver gets on a freighter ship that is headed to Coast City…which is where Ferris Air is and the Green Lantern originates. There are many hints that the Green Lantern will be coming to Arrow and if John Diggle is really John Stewart another member of the Green Lantern Corps then it will make for some great television, with lots more crossovers.
With Felicity’s love life taking a turn from Oliver during this season towards Ray Palmer, you could tell that the chemistry between them was kind of fizzling out. As soon as we found out the Ray Palmer would become The Atom and how Felicity gets all giddy for heroes/vigilantes then it was going to be a difficult year for Oliver’s love life. In the end though, Felicity saves Oliver from impending doom against Ra’s while in the Atom suit and they drive into the sunset, literally and figuratively. The Atom character was definitely a side not in this season, but we will see him and Sara Lance in the new DC’s Legends of Tomorrow on the CW. How is Sara alive you ask? Well, she is now known as the White Canary and was resurrected in the Lazarus Pit. We are sure this will be explained at the beginning of that series, but either way we will be watching.
So this season has had its ups and downs but overall it has lived up to the previous two seasons, and continues to evolve. So what will happen in season four is unknown, but if you knew then why would you watch it? How will Oliver return to Starling as the Green Arrow, and how will the rest of Team Arrow do at holding down the streets of Starling City? Laurel has come a long way since she first became the Black Canary and with the new toys from S.T.A.R Labs she will kick some serious ass alongside Speedy and Dig. Will Malcolm try and take out Oliver now that he is the head of the League of Assassins, or will Nyssa take out Merlyn to claim her birthright? With all of these DC Universe shows coming to the CW, we can not wait to see how many crossovers occur, but I hope it’s not to the point where it’s just too much. Overall we give the season a 9 out of 10 stars, a little lower than the previous two seasons but still an amazing season. October can not come fast enough for season four.