Arrow‘s seventh season finale aired last night and, as expected, it teed up what’s to come in the show’s eighth and final season this fall. When the announcement about the series’ cancellation came, Arrowverse fans guessed this meant that Stephen Amell’s Green Arrow would die in the upcoming crossover to end all crossovers “Crisis on Infinite Earths.” And yesterday’s episode, titled “You Have Saved This City,” seemingly confirms that this is the case.
Following the defeat of Oliver Queen’s half-sister Emiko and the Ninth Circle, Ollie and Felicity went off the grid to raise their daughter Mia in peace. Tragically, fate had other plans for the Emerald Archer and he was visited by the Monitor (LaMonica Garrett), the cosmic being introduced in 2018’s “Elseworlds” event. Mar Novu said he’d come to collect on the bargain they’d made last year, when Ollie made a deal off-screen to save the lives of the Flash and Supergirl.
As fans had theorized, the Monitor revealed that Oliver had to die, but first he needed the Green Arrow’s help in saving the universe, with the hero being whisked off to assist in stopping the Crisis. Just to confirm his dark destiny, though, a flash-forward to 2040 saw an older Felicity taking Mia and William to their father’s grave, which listed his date of death as 2019. Yup, it seems we’re heading for the death of Green Arrow this November/December.
This should give a completely different flavor to the final season of Arrow, which is set to only run for 10 episodes to lead neatly into the “Crisis on Infinite Earths” multi-part miniseries. It’s unclear even where Oliver is now after he left with the Monitor, but we apparently know where he’ll end up. Unless history can be changed, of course, and the show is deliberately leading us down the wrong path. Or am I just being too optimistic?