Arrow 7x22 : You Have Saved This City review

Be warned there will be *SPOILERS* involved in this review. With that being said let's get into it. 

The season finale of Arrow's seventh season has come and gone and with it we're given a lot of questions left unanswered as the Arrowverse truly enters through the end of an era. Beginning where last week ended and after Emiko got away SCPD officers show up and accuse Team Arrow of murdering 6 people inside the building below. They all end up escaping but are considering high fugitives. Back at the Bunker and luckily they have help in the form of Laurel and Curtis who show up to aid the team. They also get help from Bronze Tiger of all people who is glad to help after being granted parole. The team learn of a bomb threat in the city, a threat that keeps on shifting location as Emiko has hidden the detonator somewhere. Eventually they learn of the detonator's location and it's at Palmer Tech. The formally Queen Consolidated building. Inside everyone deals with various Ninth Circle members while Oliver goes on to confront Emiko. Emiko who is to the point of being obsessed with Oliver, revenge and trying to truly end him offers him one last chance to surrender. As she goes to set off the detonator it doesn't work as below in the building Roy and the others had disconnected the circuit. Emiko and Oliver talk some more and Oliver mentions how if Emiko had warned their father that everything would have been different. She basically created a ripple effect in his life that saw him suffer through Lian Yu, return as the Green Arrow, suffer loss in both Tommy Merlyn, his mother and much more. Everything could've been incredibly different if she had informed their father of the bomb threat aboard the Queen's Gambit. The siblings battle it out as Emiko slowly begins to come around to the idea of becoming a Queen. Virgil shows up and brings someone from the Ninth Circle with him named Beatrice who says that Emiko is no longer the leader as the Ninth Circle for the first time in it's history has been exposed to the world. Emiko gets badly injured in the battle soon after and as Virgil and Beatrice are nowhere to be seen Oliver stands over Emiko who says she is sorry. She says she would have loved to have been a Queen but didn't and soon after she dies. What can I say about her death? honestly I didn't expect her to die, I wanted her to stick around but gathering that next season is to be the last there will be much more stuff to happen and get through so I don't mind it after some thought. Emiko was a very fragile and broken character that Oliver and co tried to get around but ultimately her own undoing was her actions. She was a really interesting and compelling character that started off brilliantly, then kinda went to the way side before finally coming full circle before he death. She wasn't on the level of Slade or Adrian Chase as terms of big bads but she proved a different change of pace as far as the big bad goes. She will be missed. 

Oh but the episode is far from over after Emiko's death. We still have the future stuff to sort out and as it turns out Mia is the key to stopping Galaxy One's plans. With the help of William, Connor and Zoey she plants a bomb inside one of the main four towers that connects a giant wall around The Glades. She uses her bow and arrow to get up and around the wall. With 60 seconds before explosion she takes out various guards and with mere seconds remaining she manages to escape as the entire wall crumbles around The Glades. For the first time in years Star City isn't surrounded by walls and people are free to come and go now as they please. Rene who is the mayor don't forget says it will take some time to truly build back up Star City. And that is that. I know that was pretty short but it's about as much as I really liked from the future scenes in this episode. They started off as something incredibly interesting at the beginning of the season but as it went on I just lost interest completely. The character of Mia was a badass no doubt and seeing both her and William working together was a nice treat to watch but overall they just held some episodes back in my opinion. Back at the bunker and Oliver and Felicity have an announcement to make. They are leaving Star City for a while. Mainly to raise their daughter together. But before any of this goes down the Team bid one final farewell to each other and the bunker. This is also the scene where Oliver comes up with the Mark of 4 that Dinah had mentioned earlier in the season. It's basically like a brotherhood symbol / calling card that shows that they will all be there for one another in some way for as long as they can be. The last thing we see in the bunker is Oliver standing in the middle of the room as everything shuts down and it fades out to black. 

The episode draws to a close with a truly heartwarming compilation of Felicity and Oliver's life together in peace and harmony as they raise their daughter Mia. We seem them together, sharing parenting duties and just being happy, truly happy for the first time in a long time. But it's the season finale, happiness can't last forever, as surprisingly enough The Monitor shows up and tells Oliver that it is time. Oliver replies saying that he thought he had more time. Not seconds later he drops a bombshell (one that I expected) and that is that Oliver is going to die during the Crisis On Infinite Earth's crossover at the end of this year. Shocked by what she's hearing Felicity chimes in and says that's not possible. The Monitor says the multiverse works in mysterious ways. Oliver has to go with The Monitor and prepare for the inevitable. But before he goes him and Felicity share one more completely heart tugging scene as they declare their true love for one another and how they are the best piece of one another. Guaranteed to make you cry this scene wrapped up their relationship beautifully as Oliver goes to leave Felicity says she that she will find him and see him again. The Monitor and Oliver leave as the preparation begins towards the Crisis Event. Back in the future one more time we see Felicity standing over a grave. Mia and William walk into the scene as Felicity says she is leaving for a while. They all embrace as Felicity does leave. But she calls The Monitor first who says that if she goes ahead with what she's going to do she shall never return. She agrees and the two walk into a breach that I can only make out to be the after life. Felicity is basically dead in this life and is going to the after life to see Oliver again like she promised that she would. I don't know what else it could be truly. But wow..what an ending. Something I truly did not expect as Oliver is going to risk his life to save Kara & Barry during the Crisis Event. People may hate it, people may love it. I love it and it shows that the Oliver character has come full circle. He started off this show as a spoiled entitled brat, made his way back to reality, became Green Arrow and fully embraced his destiny. Along the way he found love, friendship and ever lasting memories. Truly an iconic character and easily this Universe's most overly developed character. As for this episode as a whole it was a tale of two halves. First half was a bit disappointing but man did the second half just blow me away. It was intense, emotional and packed full of future teases. Loved it!

So in summary Arrow Season 7 as a whole was big success in my opinion. It wasn't perfect as there was some filler episodes throughout but that is to be expected given there is 22 episodes as a whole. Oliver's character arc from prison inmate to presumably multiverse hero was done brilliantly. Emiko was a nice change of pace as the big bad like I mentioned and while her dying left a bit of a sour taste she was a fantastic addition overall. The future scenes while not bad were a bit distracting at times but did show off a lot of interesting things that happen. So in retrospective season 7 of Arrow was a major step up over season 6. It was a joy to watch and soon enough we will all be watching it end for good as season 8 will only have 10 episodes which is just the perfect amount as Oliver's untimely demise is going to be emotional to say the least. Thank you Team Arrow. I shall you see in season 8.

★★★★

Season overall :

★★★★