This season has suffered from the overwhelming elements of The CW. Up to this point I haven’t been overly impressed by what has happened but “The Climb” steps it up and returns us to the jaw-dropping, good times that this show has been delivering for a solid two years. But now it seems that it’s time for Starling City to go without its Emerald hero for awhile after the events of this shocking mid-season finale!

Arrow The Climb 03The Good

-Felicity finds a new superhero. Actually Ray Palmer exposes his plans to be a superhero, tells Felicity a sob story about how he couldn’t save his fiance when Slade’s soldiers attacked Starling.  We get to see what the full ATOM suit looks like and we find out that OMAC was the first step at creating it. The best, and funniest, part of this situation is when he asks her to help him fight crime.

-We find out who killed Sara. It ends up being Thea, who is apparently under the control of Merlyn thanks to some mind control substance. She killed Sara and now Oliver has to take the blame to save his sister. Whatever, the show is always better when John Barrowman shows up.

-I like Matt Nable’s Ra’s so far. No problems with anything that the banter on the interwebs has been saying. I look forward to seeing how his character evolves this season.

-Maseo seemly works for Ra’s and the League now. After China White apparently murdered Tatsu, he went to the dark side. I wonder how this will play out in the second half of the season. I think that it’s Tatsu who rescues Oliver from his fate….

-Oliver is dead?! Defeated by Ra’s in a trail by combat. This is the most shocking and WTF moment of all the fall finales. Will we get to see the Lazarus Pit? Most likely! Cuz I don’t know how else Oliver will survive this ordeal?!

Arrow The Climb 01The Bad

-What will happen to “badass” Thea now that we know she has been under the control of Merlyn thanks to some mind control substance? She seemly handled herself pretty well against the Arrow, great job on the intimidation tactics there Ollie!

-Oliver is dead! The question now is how long will he be gone. There has been a lot of talk about what happens when the show returns in January, and it looks like the Black Canary “trilogy” makes a lot more sense now. As does the more “center” role that Roy will be taking on.

Are you ready for this?!Arrow The Climb 02

Will the Arrow “Survive”? Find out on January 21st!