After the second season’s Slade-infused epicness, I refused to jump on the bandwagon when everyone criticized the third season for being an uneven mess. I had faith that Arrow's writers knew what they were doing, and I held out hope that the finale would bring everything together in a magnificent crescendo. Unfortunately, “My Name Is Oliver Queen” is arguably one of the worst episodes the show's ever produced. 

The problem with this finale is that it was devoid of any stakes or tension (that virus was all kinds of lame), with Ra's turning out to be a horrendous villain. The atrocious dialogue, the repetitive monologues, his incessant desire to make Ollie his "heir" - it all became so darn redundant and irritating. Even the climactic showdown between Ollie and Ra's was a disaster. Whenever Arrow faltered in the past, James Bradford's exceptional action set-pieces were always there to pick up the slack. Sadly that was not the case this week. Whose bright idea was it to have the two wear identical costumes? Because I certainly could not tell the difference, and the setting (a random dam) did the battle no favours.



Even the character work on Oliver himself fell flat. His decision to leave his city behind and ride off into the sunset with Felicity was series finale-ish, and far from earned. Actually, his entire character arc this year was ill-conceived and messy. The narrative simply failed to sell me on his motivations and choices, and that blame lies squarely on the writing team.

And then there's Olicity. Some time between the second and third seasons, the writers unwisely decided to make romance one of the show's focal points. Not only did they push Olicity to the forefront in a most inorganic manner, they managed to make Felicity a whiny, unlikeable fool in the process. I particularly loathed Felicity saving Ollie using Ray's suit. It took Mr. Palmer several episodes to learn how to navigate flight efficiently, yet Miss Smoak became an expert and pulled off a death-defying rescue in the span of two minutes - turning the show into a sitcom in the process. Please note that Oliver was needlessly shot by the police after killing Ra's for contrived plot purposes.




And Malcolm? Don't the writers realize that the character serves no purpose at this point? The season finale would have been the perfect opportunity to kill off the baddie (and actually produce some thrills), but instead they proceeded to pull off a clumsy twist in which Oliver passed the mantle of Ra's Al Ghul to the man who killed Sara. Apparently it's part of some "deal" that doesn't sound compelling in the slightest, and it also succeeded in wasting Nyssa's character by having her bow down to the villain instead of staying in Starling with Laurel for some inexplicable reason.







Finally, someone should have broken it to the writing staff that the flashbacks ended in the previous episode, thereby leaving no material for the finale. It's safe to say that the Hong Kong saga of the show was a total flop on every level, and it produced zero surprises over the course of the season. What was the point of Akio's death if it was telegraphed half a season ago? Why was China White the focus, only to be completely relegated to the sidelines? Why should I care about General Shriever taking center stage?



So did this finale get anything right? Well, Thea finally became a superhero and I thought she looked great in the Red Arrow (or Speedy) costume. However, it struck me as lazy writing to have her entrance be an exact replica of her saving Diggle two episodes earlier. Still, I'm pumped to watch her and Laurel defend Starling City next season.