Arrow Full Season 2 Review/Thoughts

On Wednesday night CW's Arrow concluded it's 2nd season. Wow, the Emerald Archer's show really blew us all away this season. So time for an end of the season review. Top Episodes will contain no spoilers, but Thoughts and Final Review will.

5 Best Episodes:

Broken Dolls

Seeing Red 

The Promise

Three Ghosts

Heir To The Demon

3 Weak Episodes:

Birds Of Prey

Deathstroke

Blast Radius

Spoilers Ahead!

What We Liked About This Season:

• Ollie refusing to kill
• Black Canary
• Formation of the Suicide Squad
• Rise and Fall of Deathstroke
• Unique introduction to meta-humans
• Inclusion of the League of Assassins
• BARRY ALLEN!
• Roy added to Team Arrow
• Every word spoken by Felicity Smoak
• Ollie's Mask
• Return of Malcolm Merlyn
• The Worst Mayoral Race ever
• Officer Lance becoming the Gordon to Ollie's Arrow
• Loss of the Queen Fortune
• Thea Queen's farther arc
• Flashbacks involving Slade's descent into madness 
• Expanding the DC TV universe such as inclusions of Cyrus Gold and Brother Blood
• The Final Showdown Between Ollie and Slade
• Keeping Slade alive

What We Didn't Like About This Season:

• The overall acting from the Lance Sisters
• Laurel's alcoholism
• Weak one episode villains like Shrapnel 
• Not Enough Diggle
• Ollie and Sarah's Will They-Won't They
• Ollie and Felicity's Will They-Won't They
• Second half of the season's Amazo flashbacks were mostly weak
• The Sizzle of Sarah's Black Canary real fizzled by season's end
• The return of Jessica De Gouw's Huntress
• Roy's trip to a homeless shelter and subsequent capture

Best Fights:

Arrow vs. Nyssa in the episode 'Heir to the Demon'

Arrow vs. Deathstroke (Present)/Ollie vs. Slade (Flashback) in the episode 'Unthinkable'

Best Lines of the Season:

Felicity: "I may be a bitch, but I'm a bitch with wifi."

Ollie: "I detest swimming."

Slade: "Remember I made you a promise, kid."

What To Add for Season 3:

Bring Ras Al Ghul to Starling

Expand the Suicide Squad

Crossover with Flash

NIGHTWING!!

Continue to slowly incorporate meta-humans

Overall Review: Season 2 of Arrow brought Ollie further down the path of becoming a true hero. He gave up on killing his enemies and was forced to face an enemy that he mistakenly created from his past. Slade was the foe worthy of a full season arc. He brought meta-humans into the show naturally and created almost more trouble than Ollie could handle. Slade broke Ollie down to his core and showed us what Oliver Queen is really made of.
           The inclusion of Barry Allen and other DC nuggets added even more excitement to Ollie's journey. Such additions like The League of Assassins and Suicide Squad expanded the DC TV universe and make for exciting future villain possibilities. As for Amanda Waller, she can make an interesting antagonist for the flashbacks and present timeline of the show.
          Diggle and Felicity continue to be the best side characters. Felicity is funny and consistently provides Ollie with pump up speeches. As for Dig, I wish we got more of him. Sometimes he was pushed aside for other characters to shine, but when he finally did get the spotlight we got great eps like Suicide Squad. In addition, I love how Paul Blackthrone's Officer Lance has become the Commissioner Gordon of the Arrowverse.
          Laurel and Sarah Lance were the weakest actors on the show. Now that being said, it does not mean that they didn't have their bright spots. Particularly Katie Cassidy's Laurel learned of Ollie's secret and became a more overall useful character for the future of the show. Caity Lotz's Black Canary on the other side of the spectrum could serious ass.
          So for all it's exciting action, excellent villains, and interesting characters stories, the Informers give Season 2 of Arrow a 9 out of 10.