Arrow seemed to never really recover from Laurel's death. Not to again make such a big deal about her departure because everything about that death has been rehashed over and over, but in the wake of the season finale's airing, the excitement on the show isn't there. Damien Darhk's Genesis plan became more and more convoluted as the end of the season approached, and with the destruction of Tevet Noah in "Lost in the Flood," his magical abilities and menace seemed to lessen by the time that "Schism" approached. That said, Neal McDonough does bring his all to the role, which does make for a compelling villain for Team Arrow to combat all the way to the end.   

 

 

The thing is, the introduction of the use of nuclear weapons doesn't prove to be as effective as the show thought it was. The mechanics of Darhk launching a missile that destroys Havenrock in order to gain more fuel to power his magical abilities wasn't explained all that well from "Monument Point" on, as well as the fact that a nuclear missile detonated on American soil seemed to be dismissed. The closest explanation I could derive is perhaps the distance between Havenrock and Star City is close enough for Darhk to consume all that power from all the people who were killed in the blast. This show has never been that precise when it comes to explaining things happening from outside of its own little world.

 

Darhk's motivations are simple enough, though. Team Arrow allowed for Anarky to kill his wife so he plans to burn the world to the ground as revenge. And Oliver seems resolute in the fact that he just can't defeat Darhk on his own. Throughout the finale (as well as pretty much the whole season), the indications are there to set up the separation of the remaining members of Team Arrow. Diggle hasn't really been the same stand-up hero-type guy since he had to kill his little brother in cold blood. Yes, circumstances dictated that John had no choice but to kill Andy, but that fact still doesn't diminish the reality that he committed murder. Thea spent most of this episode realizing that she was becoming more and more like Malcolm by threatening to murder an innocent child. Darhk's daughter, by the way, appears to not be too damaged by the fact that her mother has been killed and that her father is a supervillain with magical abilities, or that there is a masked superhero who is trying to kill her father.

 

Anyway, the prospect of nuclear annihilation does force everyone in Star City to consider turning against Darhk and his Ghost soldiers. They all seem fine with no longer having shelter against nuclear fallout, which makes the reactions of the citizens of Star City seem rather muted by comparison. Oliver tries his hardest to rally all of them, to get them to stand up and fight against Darhk, though the words in his speech do feel ineffective in light of impending doom and destruction. It nearly gets to that point, as Curtis and Felicity spend a few minutes in the episode diverting one of the 15,000 launched nuclear missiles from hitting Star City. That actually proved to be one of the more suspenseful and tense sequences, as I was worried that the writers would go ahead and nuke Star City, or at least detonate the missile on the edge of the city, but all of Felicity and Curtis' technobabble saves Star City from being burned to the ground at the last minute. The technical prowess demonstrated by Felicity, Curtis, and Felicity's father has constantly been the saving grace for many situations on the show. Somehow, that doesn't really get old, even as it feels somewhat predictable each time it's used.

 

Oliver's rallying cry is at least effective enough to get the people of Star City to stand up and try to save their home from Darhk's plans. The final fight sequence has the requisite excitement that is usually brought by the show's standards. And yet, when Oliver finally defeats Darhk, stabbing him in the gut with an arrow in the same manner that Darhk killed Laurel, everything stops. He brings up the different choices he had to face when battling Slade Wilson or when he tried to stop the Undertaking, and, like John with Andy, Darhk just left him with no other choice but to end the threat. Darhk is too dangerous to be locked up like Slade Wilson was.

 

So the season's central conflict has been resolved. A bit too cleanly, but at least it doesn't dissolve into a mess like sister show The Flash did with its finale. There's a strange beauty in the denouement for the season. Each member of Team Arrow determines that they need some time away. The actors try to sell a semblance of permanence to the whole thing, and it's effective in the beginning, until one realizes that they will all be pulled back to Star City one way or another. The Oliver in the flashbacks has his mission in Russia to look forward to. All that's left is Felicity and Oliver in the present, with Oliver now the mayor of Star City, which feels like the inverse of what ended last season. Everyone has changed in some big ways from who they were at the beginning of this season. They would understandably need some time to process everything before going back to being heroes again. Maybe true change can be a good thing for the show.