As we approach the end, we return to the beginning. Oliver, along with John, Lyla, Laurel, Mia, William and Connor, returns to the island that started Oliver on his journey all those years ago, Lian Yu. Later the team is joined by three more of our heroes from Team Arrow which includes Roy Harper, Dinah Drake and Rene Ramirez, but their plane journey doesn’t end quite so smoothly as it began, as we see something familiar happen to the plane, which causes a crash landing.

The Monitor continues to give the team tasks that feel close to impossible or just downright upsetting as the inevitable crisis approaches, causing emotions to run high in yet another heart warming episode as Oliver bonds with his kids and his friends more than ever. The beginning of this season was all about the kick ass action sequences, whilst this later half of the shortest season for the show, is all about the emotions and the farewells as Oliver’s fate is close at hand. However that doesn’t mean these episodes are lacking in action, because they are in fact filled with more incredible sequences that keeps the fans on the edge of their seats cheering for the heroes. These action sequences include some awesome slow motion shots that reminded me of the Zack Snyder film 300, as we see our team of heroes face off against a slew of island soldiers, and whilst this is all happening, William is building the weapon which then requires something from Lyla, before she disappears through a portal.

When Oliver was first on the island, we watched as he made friends and enemies out of the other inhabitants that made camp there, and as the story went on, we watched these same friends and enemies die one by one. So what better way to help the audience reminisce those times, than by throwing Oliver back on the island with resurrected enemies and one more friend who was there at the beginning. That’s right, Yao Fei returns as an ally, but when you gain allies, you also gain enemies, and so Edward Fyers also returns, with a rather simple goal in mind, to kill Oliver Queen. Along with Fyers, The Monitor also seems to have revived a decent number of his military soldiers along with Slades old partner Billy Wintergreen, who tortured Oli way back in season one.

Throughout the episode Oliver is constantly in conversations about his relationship with his children, along with his constant stubborness, which he obviously passed down to his daughter Mia, about opening up and spending time with his children instead of acting like him distancing himself is protecting them. Mia herself is struggling with similar issues as she remains angry at her dad whilst trying to impress him whenever the opportunity to arises to do so.

As the episode comes to a close, the characters all become emotional, knowing that time is not on their side anymore, and after each mission is complete, the crisis, along with Olivers supposedly inescapable fate, draw closer and closer. Oli asks Diggle for favours and John tells him that he will always help Oli and be there for him whenever he needs. William, Oliver and Roy all share a moment with the Hōzen that has been passed around since the first season. Finally, Mia and Oliver have an emotional chat that ends with a little foreshadowing, as Mia thanks her dad for letting her be apart of his story, to which Oliver replies with “Mia, something tells me you’re going to be creating your own stories.” This is clearly a reference to the Green Arrow and the Canaries series that will see Mia (Katherine McNamara) in the leading role as the new Green Arrow, which was announced by Marc Guggenheim back in October on Twitter.

In the finale of the episode, Lyla returns in her new costume, which is the first time we have seen this in the series so far. She tells Oliver that she is no longer Lyla and that she is the Harbinger of the crisis that has now arrived. For those that don’t know, the highly anticipated Crisis On Infinite Earths crossover starts on Sunday 8th of December for USA fans and on Monday 16th December for UK fans, starting over on Supergirl for the first episode, followed by Batwoman with Part 2, The Flash with Part 3, with a break in between before Arrow returns in January to bring us Part 4 and finally DC’s Legends of Tomorrow will finish off the event with Part 5. If the trailers and the hype are anything to go by, this event is going to blow us away (hopefully not literally) and will certainly be an event that merges the DC Universe in a way no other shows have done before.