Arrow's Star City has to be one of the worst fictional locations to live in. In the past 4 years, the city has been forced to rebuild or recover following a massive disaster all thanks to some villain or secret organization. Arrow showrunner Wendy Mericle says that, this year, the people of Star City will finally get a break and that Season 5 will feature something beyond just a threats to the setting.
I'll just say this: Star City is not in jeopardy. As we've joked before, there's always a terrorist attack on Star City in May. Not this time. Prometheus is a very personal villain, very psychological villain and the ending will be appropriate to that.
Wendy Mericle also tells Rotten Tomatoes that this coming episode of Arrow shows Adrian Chase seemingly breaking Oliver Queen as he continues to hold our hero hostage. There's going to be a lot of torture, and you know adding Talia Al-Ghul to the mix isn't going to make life any easier for Team Arrow's elite now that the chips are down. With Oliver in Prometheus' possession, you have to wonder what he can do to Oliver that can really mess with him at this point without putting the city under siege soon down the line.
If we're talking someone getting killed off for the finale, though: been there, done that. Moira Queen's death by Slade Wilson should have been a bigger deal than it was, and while Laurel's more recent death has been a highly discussed topic, it's taken more of a backseat in the second leg of Season 5. (Thanks to other Canaries and whatnot.) Damian Darhk already kidnapped Oliver's son William, so that's off the table, although we do see Adrian Chase tease Queen with a picture in the latest promo.
The fan in me really wants to see Oliver lose his arm (as the Green Arrow typically has over different comic tellings) at the end of Season 5 and have to cope with that. But then we've already learned how Oliver loses his arm in Legends Of Tomorrow, so that might not work. Then again, The Flash has shown us the future/past can be changed, for better or much worse, so maybe there's still a chance?
We may not know the finale's details, but we do know that things are set to change for Season 6. Stephen Amell and Arrow showrunners have been clear that Season 5 will be the end of Oliver-centric flashbacks and Season 6 may mark the beginning of other changes as well. Sure, killing a major character has been done in the show, but a mass destruction to a bulk of the cast? That would be something that would definitely shake things up and allow for a fresh start, provided that's the direction Arrow is truly heading. As a fan who's watched it all since the beginning, I'm skeptical to get super-excited at the concept of a different ending, but Season 5 has offered some pleasant surprises that give me hope.
Now that we know the Season 5 finale of Arrow isn't your usual Star City destruction story line, I'm really curious to see how they wrap the season up! We will begin to find out this Wednesday as Arrow is all new at 8 p.m. ET on The CW. Cross your fingers that the next five episodes give us something to truly be excited about, and get a jump on what your next show will be with our midseason premiere guide.
