Season four of Arrow just kicked off and is off to a strong start. That is, compared to the last couple of seasons.
After the high of season one which started in 2012, avid watchers of the show and DC Comics fans constantly raved about the action-packed series and great storyline that writers Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg and Marc Guggenheim brought to life.
However, the last two seasons lacked the same energy that the first season had.
The flashbacks that often popped up between present-day scenes sometimes seemed to drag on for episodes at a time and started to become tiresome. It felt as if it was no longer helping the plot as much as it should have.
Much of the action and plot twists were saved for the last few episodes of the third season and left a lot of questions for viewers to look forward to five months later when season four finally premiered.
Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell), the vigilante known as the Arrow, “died” towards the end of season three, but in reality, another character took his place and unmasked himself as the Arrow so that Queen would be able to continue to fight freely, or choose to not fight at all.
With all the life changing events and deaths of major characters in the last season, Queen decides he wants to live a normal life instead. So he and Felicity Smoak (Emily Bett Rickards) leave Starling City together in hopes of starting new.
A few months later at the start of season four, Thea Queen (Willa Holland), Laurel Lance (Katie Cassidy) and John Diggle (David Ramsey) work as a team as Speedy, with Black Canary with Diggle, who is also donning a new costume as their team leader. Together they continue on the legacy that the Arrow left behind fighting to defend and save their city.
However, things start to go awry when people, also known as Ghosts, start attacking the city and killing all of the city leaders. The team eventually learns that they’re working for a villain who goes by the name Damien Darhk (Neal McDonough).
After unsuccessfully trying to capture the men working for Darhk, both Laurel and Thea track down Oliver, who was about to propose to Felicity, seeking his help for this one mission saying, “we need the Arrow.”
Oliver agrees to come back to help the team, but not as the Arrow, seeing as he should be dead.
This is the type of show that Arrow was known to be from season one: the action, the storyline, the interaction between the characters, it all made for great TV. Finally, with the story back on track, the show is flowing much better in comparison to the last two seasons.
Without giving much away, since four seasons in, the story is very much complicated. It is safe to say that Oliver Queen has now taken on the role as the Green Arrow, the actual name of the DC Comic Book character that many have loved from years before.
As Oliver so eloquently states in a public announcement to Starling City, “…Tonight I am declaring my intention to stand with them, to fight for this city, to be the symbol of hope that The Arrow never was. I am… the Green Arrow.”
Ending with a future scene showing Oliver standing in front of a grave six months later really pulls the audience into staying in tune for the rest of the season. Barry Allen, better known as the Flash, runs to console him apologizing for missing the funeral. It’s at this moment when Oliver vows to take revenge on whoever killed the person he is grieving over.
Arrow promises to have a bright future again, and it looks like Oliver Queen as the Green Arrow will finally be able to do what he’s been trying to do for the last few years.
The Green Arrow and his diligent team of vigilantes and heroes can together save this city.
