TV REVIEWS: FTN Reviews Arrow Season 8 Episode 7: Purgatory

In many ways, “Purgatory” was the last of the “Oliver Queen” episodes of Arrow, because Crisis on Infinite Earths will be where he dies, and Arrow will do two episodes of wrap-up after that. So they needed to go out on a high-note, and that’s exactly what they did here. And all they had to do was send everyone back to Lian Yu and shock us all a couple of more times.

It would’ve been SO EASY for them to play things safe, bring back Fyers, Yao Fey, and just do a basic storyline like they’ve done in recent episodes. But instead, they did that, and more. They radically pushed things forward, in ways that’ll definitely affect the spinoff, and I loved every minute of it.

For example, Roy losing his arm (which he did NOT lose in the future timeline we know) was amazing, and basically assures us that the comic-form of Arsenal is coming (pre New-52 anyway) in some form in the spinoff series potentially.

Also, having Fyers and Yao Fey come back was really cool, even bringing back the “original” Deathstroke via Billy Wintergreen (without the voice thankfully) was a cool tribute to the first season.

But in the end, this wasn’t just about Oliver, or even Mia and William (who had some great scenes together), it was also about Diggle and Lyla. The two haven’t really had a scene together since her “betrayal”, and Diggle was struggling with all of it. From trusting the Monitor, to understanding why Lyla trusted him, the injury to Roy, yeah, it was a lot to deal with, and watching him struggle was very powerful.

Oliver coming to terms truly, definitively, and need I say epically, and saying goodbye to just about everyone was good stuff. Mia also coming to terms with why Oliver did what he did, and hugging him in the end was also beautiful.

It all started on Lian Yu, and “Purgatory” ended it beautifully with a lot of fun moments, callouts, and teases of what’s to come…

…The Crisis Has Begun.