Board Thread:Arrow discussions/@comment-4525203-20190514053430/@comment-25968757-20190515221830

Interesting ending and how they connected the flasforwards towards the current plot.

The ending with Emiko felt a bit forced. She had turned all evil but at the end when confronted by Beatrice she suddenly turned good and helped Oliver. After perhaps a minute she then got murdered by Beatrice, who is someone we had never encountered. Emiko her sudden change of heart was weird and the ending felt forced. The reasoning that Oliver and Felicity just run off and leaving the city also seemed to make little sense after everything they had been up against in previous seasons.

Emiko was weird as she basically was obsessed with vengeance and had cut ties with anyone but in the end she suddenly turned around. In a way it helped Oliver as despite his anger towards her he kept holding on to his newfound hero attitude towards life instead of killing her for what she had done to his father and the others. The ninth circle basically means treason, and this seems mostly Emiko her theme, betraying Robert, her own mom, Oliver, Dante. And eventually she got betrayed by her own organization. Perhaps there is a lesson in it that those who betray eventually get betrayed.

That Oliver gets killed because of the monitor seems a bit out of touch with the regular theme of Arrow. So far it was all about Oliver, his loved ones and the city. And only in the crossovers was he involved in time travel, other dimensions and other themes. Then again it allows him to go out as a hero not just for Star City but for something bigger, so in a way it makes it a nice ending of a great character.