The most jarring thing about this episode was seeing Oliver and Felicity living a quiet, domesticated life in the suburbs. This made everything feel wrong in so many ways. Yes, I knew that eventually they would be pulled back into their own lives, but it still felt very weird to see this side of them in that kind of environment. The best thing about this episode was seeing Neal McDonough as Damien Darhk who will be the main villain this season. He brings his A-Game in everything he does. He's gonna crush it this year. The most shocking revelation in this episode was the twist at the end revealing that Quentin Lance is "working" with Darhk. My guess is that Darhk knows that Laurel is Black Canary and is only working with him to conceal her identity from the world. I love the idea of Oliver returning to the Island for this seasons flashback sequences. Very curious to see what we get here.

Before I jump into Episode 4, I gotta mention that Episode 3 with the rebirth of Sara in the Lazarus Pit was pretty much what I expected it to be. What I did like is that the Pit is now destroyed which is what the show needs because if a character dies on the show, we were always going to have a cheat to save them later. With the Pit destroyed, now the intensity for the characters is ramped up. You f*ck up....you're done! As for Episode 4, this was a very disappointing one. Awful acting, editing and whoever wrote the dialogue should be shot. Horrendously bad which isn't something I would have seen coming from a series that has been spot on for it's run thus far. I give Episode 3 4 Stars but Episode 4 gets 2 Stars. The only thing that was actually good was the reveal of Arrow's new base of operations. The new lair is high tech, sleek and very cool looking and one that is befitting a superhero like Arrow.

Very fun episode for a couple of reason. First off was seeing Sara back in her Black Canary costume, but it was kind odd, yet very cool in that both Laurel and Sara were fighting side by side in two different Costumes. Very curious how and when Sara will become the White Canary. The other cool thing was the return of Ray Palmer and we got to see him in his miniaturize form. I missed the humor he brought to the show. Glad to see that back as well.

I'm posting my Season 5 Finale review in this thread. If you've read my previous post (look above), you will understand why there is no Season 5 thread for Arrow. Okay, with that out of the way, I will just say that overall, I found Season 5 to be better than Season 4. It wasn't hard. But it's still nowhere near as good as Season 1-2. Overall, I found Chase/The Throwing Star Killer to be a far more interesting villain for Oliver to contend with. Certainly a step up from Damian Darhk. With Chase, he has the skills to go toe to toe with Oliver physically and hold his own. But it's the physiological advantage he possess that makes him a far more interesting foe. Trying to break Oliver mentally was just fun to watch. Simply put, this season was a Chess match.

Now for the Season 5 Finale. Not only is this the best episode of this season, I think it's the best episode for the entire series. It's THAT f*cking good. For starters, we get the return of Slade Wilson / Deathstroke who made the first two season as good as it was. Seeing him back in his iconic costume made me giddy. Not to be outdone, we also see the return of Black Siren, Malcolm Merlyn, Nyssa al Ghul, Digger Harkness, and Moira Queen, who served up a very touching moment hearing Oliver was alive after 5 years. There was so much going on the entire episode and even the flashback sequence with Oliver going head on against Ivan Drago....I mean Konstantin Kovar (haha) was just as fun to watch as the current day story line. The ending was fantastic by blowing up the entire Island with all of Oliver's friends left in peril. A great Cliffhanger that all but guarantees every fan comes back to see what their fates are.