The sixth season of Arrow saw a lot of ups and downs, and Oliver experienced everything from facing his evil doppelganger from Earth-X to tying the knot with lady love Felicity to winding up in prison after a fight to take back the city. Star Stephen Amell was asked at the recent San Diego Comic-Con what his favorite of all those Season 6 moments actually was, and he couldn't choose just one. Here's what he had to say:
That's a good question. I liked the finale. I liked Oliver's moments with everyone in the finale. And my scene with Emily, where I'm telling her what I'm going to do. That was a highlight for me. And my last scene with Paul was...shit...that was, man oh man, I get sad just thinking about it.
While Stephen Amell may not have been able to narrow Season 6 down to one favorite moment, his favorite moments all take place in the intense season finale. The episode saw Team Arrow more or less come together, after splitting earlier in the season, to face down the forces of Ricardo Diaz, and Oliver was able to recruit the assistance of the federal government due to an unexpected alliance with Agent Watson. Now, it was not confirmed in the first portion of the episode that Oliver had made a deal that would spare his pals but send him to prison. Nevertheless, he got poignant moments with friends that seemed awfully... well, final.
Those final moments with his friends, family, and kinda-sorta-occasional teammates were apparently memorable and enjoyable for Stephen Amell, even if they were kind of foreboding for fans who were expecting something to go wrong after he was having cordial interactions with everybody. When things are too good too many times on Arrow, fans have come to expect something bad.
Something bad did indeed come with the heartbreaking death of Quentin Lance, although filming his last scene with Paul Blackthorne was evidently a joy for Stephen Amell, even if it wasn't fun for viewers to watch. Seeing Quentin and Oliver acknowledge the father/son dynamic they developed over the years (once Quentin stopped hating and hunting him) was a touching way to close the book on their relationship. R.I.P. Quentin.
Then there's Stephen Amell's scene with Emily Bett Rickards in the finale, which was just about as heartbreaking as anything Arrow has ever done. Felicity was blindsided by Oliver's deal with the F.B.I., which resulted in her saying an indefinite farewell to her husband, losing her partner in vigilantism, and suddenly being solely responsible for a young boy she had only met a little over a year ago. All things considered, the finale was an emotionally intense episode that was clearly a joy for Amell to act, even if fans weren't exactly overjoyed by the end.
Only time will tell how Arrow will recover from the Season 6 finale. The trailer (which you can watch here) proves that Oliver is still in prison when Season 7 kicks off, and the former Team Arrow will have to find their own ways to move on. Arrow returns for Season 7 in a new time slot in the fall, as you can see on The CW's fall TV schedule. If you need some TV to pass the time until the Arrow-verse action picks up again, check out our summer TV guide.
