After the Monitor tells him that he is fated to die in the Crisis, Oliver sets out on a multiverse-spanning mission to prevent the Anti-Monitor from wiping out all of existence in the upcoming crisis, and to save his family on Earth-1.
Tropes specific to Arrow Season 8 are as follows:
- Arc Welding: The future arc starts out with Mia, William, Connor and Zoe working as Neo-Team Arrow in 2040, and outside of the impact of Oliver's death and the Crisis, doesn't have a direct link with the story proper like the flashforwards did in the previous season - until the end of the third episode, when Mia, William and Connor are suddenly time-displaced to 2019. Zoe unfortunately doesn't make it that far.
- Arc Words: "Death" and "hero" come up a lot in this season. Par for the course.
- Back for the Dead:
- Athena reappears after not having been seen since mid-Season 6, only to get a chunk of ceiling dropped on her in an ancient League of Assassins deathtrap.
- In an alternate reality "Groundhog Day" Loop, Quentin survived the events of Season 6, but the entire point of the loop is for Quentin to die repeatedly so Laurel and Oliver can make peace with his death, as well as for Oliver to make peace with his own.
- Back for the Finale:
- Adrian, Moira, Athena, and Yao Fei all make appearances here after skipping at least one season.
- Edward Fyers appears in "Purgatory". He was last seen in "Sacrifice" all the way back in the very first season.
- In a meta level, Marc Guggenheim stepped up as showrunner again after leaving out Season 7.
- Back from the Dead:
- Alternate universe counterparts of Tommy, Moira, Adrian and Malcolm show up in the season premiere, and while these versions of the characters were never technically dead, for all intents and purposes these characters are brought back from the dead in a narrative sense - though there are some notable differences between themselves and their prime universe counterparts. Becomes a case of Back for the Dead when Earth-2 gets erased from existence at the end of the episode.
- The final episode of the season has Emiko, Moira, Quentin, and Tommy all brought back from the dead, thanks to alterations Oliver did while restarting the multiverse.
- Big Bad: The Anti-Monitor is in this seat until the Crisis, with probably the highest stakes of any Arrowverse season thus far. Zoom tried to erase every parallel universe sans Earth-1 in The Flash Season 2, but the Anti-Monitor is implied to have the goal of erasing absolutely everything in existence, leaving literally nothing left. He destroys Earth-2 at the end of the season premiere, and more Earths die continually during the lead up to the Crisis.
- Book Ends:
- The first and last seasons both begin with Oliver sprinting through the forest on Lian Yu. This time, however, it's Earth-2 Lian Yu.
- Oliver's arc in the first season was about becoming someone/something else in order to save his city, though this changes over time as he spends more time crusading in Starling/Star City. For this season, Oliver again specifically refers to his mission as having to become someone/something else the same way he did in the first season. And that is also referenced in the series finale's altered Opening Narration, with him claiming that despite him being a Spectre, there is still a part of him that will always be the Green Arrow.
- "Purgatory", the last episode before Crisis, is set on Lian Yu. Oliver also gets to face a resurrected Edward Fyers, the very first person he directly killed.
- Cain and Abel: Connor and JJ in the future arc. Seems to be a recurring theme with the Diggle brothers.
- Call-Back: The final season features call-backs aplenty to the previous seasons, usually corresponding to the current episode of the season. Each episode also features the title card for its corresponding season as well.
- Season 1 - "Starling City" features Oliver retracing his steps from the first season on Earth-2 with key events playing out similarly with a few notable differences, like Tommy working to avenge Thea's death as the Dark Archer rather than Malcolm avenging Rebecca's, using dwarfstar particles rather than an earthquake machine and the episode playing out over two days instead of eight months.
- Season 2 - The Deathstroke gang, led by JJ Diggle, acts as the main antagonist for the future arc and then, after William, Mia and Connor are time-displaced to 2019, the newly forming Deathstrokes led by Grant Wilson play the antagonists for the fourth episode. Dig and Lyla also spend the third episode rescuing Bronze Tiger's family from Gholem Qadir's son, who wants revenge for Turner killing his father in Season 2.
- Season 3 - "Welcome to Hong Kong" references the flashbacks for this season, with the setting being Hong Kong (duh), the Alpha-Omega virus having been recreated by a doctor Oliver was instructed to bring to the Monitor, Tatsu helping Oliver out as a Guest-Star Party Member, and China White playing the antagonist for the episode (even referencing her last dual with Tatsu). "Leap of Faith" alludes to the present-day storyline, with heavy involvement from the Thanatos Guild, Oliver climbing the same mountain on which he dueled Ra's in The Climb, and Thea and Talia playing major roles in the episode.
- Season 4 - In "Present Tense", John references his Cain and Abel plot with Andy Diggle after learning about JJ's descent into evil in the future from Connor.
- Season 5 - "Prochnost" takes place in Russia and draws from the season's flashbacks, with Anatoly assisting Oliver and the two's involvement in the Bratva referenced, and Diggle even noting Russia as a dark time for Oliver, reflecting the Darker and Edgier nature of that season in particular. Oliver and Mia both participate in a fight club, Oliver utilizes dislocating his thumbs to slip restraints again, Mia having to ring a bell as a test, and Oliver being referred to as Kapiushon several times.
- Season 6 - When Anatoly meets William, he references his time on the wrong side of history the last time that the two met, obviously talking about his time working with Cayden James and Ricardo Diaz. "Reset" also features a very much alive Quentin in an alternate reality, and references to him being shot by Diaz are made a few times (though in this reality, he survived his surgery).
- Season 7 - Oliver references the promise that he and Felicity made to each other to keep their children safe, as well as William leaving to live with his grandparents. In "Reset", Quentin also asks Oliver for his permission to make a joke about Oliver's time in Slabside during the two's joint remarks.
- Call-Forward: This season's flashforwards are also referenced more than a few times after Future Team Arrow is time-displaced to the present, such as Mia's involvement in a fight club and Roy's eventual ability to control his bloodlust as well as his self-imposed exile on Lian Yu.
- Came Back Wrong: Sort of. With Earth-2 being the Evil Counterpart universe to Earth-1 in the Arrowverse, Tommy, who is dead on Earth-1 but alive on Earth-2, is the Dark Archer of Earth-2 and plays the antagonist of the season premiere. Oliver is able to talk him down from actually going through with his Undertaking, however.
- Canon Character All Along: Lyla is revealed to be working with the Monitor at the end of "Welcome to Hong Kong", true to the Harbinger handle from the comics.
- Cerebus Syndrome: The show was never the the lighter and softer series in the Arrowverse, nor was it the dense and wacky entry, but it still manages an altogether much darker take for the final season, with Oliver well aware he's going to die soon and the entire fate of the multiverse at stake this time, to boot.
- Chekhov's Boomerang: The hozen that Oliver gives to Thea in the season premiere is mentioned by Thea in "Leap of Faith", which Oliver notes is currently in William's possession.
- The Chessmaster: The Monitor, in his preparation for the Crisis, is pulling most of the strings this season. As of the beginning of Crisis:
- He sends Oliver on a Fetch Quest to retrieve Earth-2 dwarfstar particles and a Chinese scientist in the first two episodes before Oliver goes rogue to find some answers about Mar Novu himself, and upon learning of an ancient League of Assassins prophecy, sets to work creating a weapon capable of killing the Monitor. Lyla later informs Oliver that the antimatter weapon he's trying to create is a part of the Monitor's grand plan for the Crisis, and the weapon, along with the dwarfstar particles, are subsequently used to turn Lyla into Harbinger in time for the Crisis.
- Lyla is working for him, and he has her bring him the aforementioned scientist after Oliver neglects to do so. It's later revealed that during Lyla's time in military service, the Monitor spared her from dying with the rest of her unit because she had a part to play in the Crisis.
- An ancient League of Assassins tome depicts the Monitor being responsible for the creation of the League.
- It's confirmed at the end of "Reset" by Lyla that he was responsible for William, Mia and Connor's time displacement to 2019 in "Leap of Faith", presumably so the three can help in the Crisis and also giving Oliver some time with his kids before his death.
- At the end of "Present Tense", he informs Laurel that he will restore Earth-2 if Laurel betrays Oliver, though this is as a Secret Test of Character to her.
- He puts Oliver and Laurel in a "Groundhog Day" Loop in "Reset" for different reasons - Laurel as a reward for not betraying Oliver the episode prior, and Oliver to allow him to come to the conclusion that his fate is unavoidable so he can make peace with it.
- Oliver, Laurel, John, Mia, William and Connor are brought to Lian Yu for the events of "Purgatory" on his behalf.
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Continuity Lockout: Oliver dies in the Supergirl part of the Crisis, and subsequently becomes the Spectre over the course of the next two episodes of the Crisis, meaning that he's gone through a significant character change between the seventh and eighth episodes of this season. This is, however, excusable since most of the season acts as a prelude for/part of Crisis just as much as it serves as the Grand Finale for Arrow. - Darker and Edgier: From the darkest and edgiest of the Arrowverse shows, even, driving home the bleak and apocalyptic nature of the upcoming Crisis. While the premiere is altogether a much lighter take on Season 1, with Oliver quickly learning to trust his allies (Diggle, Laurel and Earth-2 Adrian) and talking down Tommy from going through with the Earth-2 Undertaking, Earth-2 gets erased from existence in the closing moments of the episode by the Anti-Monitor, making everyone in that universe Deader than Dead and all of Oliver's efforts to redeem Tommy ultimately pointless. Oliver also spends the entire season saddled with the knowledge that he dies in the Crisis, which considerably darkens his story arc.
- Demoted to Extra: Rene and Dinah play very small roles in almost all episodes they’re in. They had more screen time back when they were just guest stars.
- Dénouement Episode: The "Crisis on Infinite Earths" crossover deals with a multiverse-threatening destruction and serves as the conclusion of Oliver Queen's story, because he dies at the end of it. The last two episodes of the season serve to tie up loose ends caused by the Crisis and are very low-key in comparison.
- Deuteragonist: Mia.
- Downer Beginning: Earth-2 getting erased from existence is a bit of a bleak note to start the season on. Moira and Tommy getting erased right in front of Oliver are particularly noteworthy.
- Driving Question: The exact circumstances of Oliver's death in the Crisis can be seen as this. As it turns out, he actually dies twice during the Crisis; after the dying the first time, he takes Jim Corrigan's mantle as the Spectre, before performing his grand Heroic Sacrifice to restart the multiverse.
- Earn Your Happy Ending:
- Oliver's sacrifice, along with the rebirth of the multiverse, also ensures Star City is finally - for at least two decades - at peace once he's gone.
- "Fadeout" naturally gives happy endings to many. Oliver and Felicity are reunited in the afterlife, while Roy and Thea are engaged. However, by far the biggest surprise of all is that in the Post-Crisis timeline, some of Oliver's deceased loved ones are still alive; Tommy, Moira, Quentin, and even Emiko are present during his funeral.
- Evil All Along: Oliver thinks this about the Monitor for a time after uncovering an ancient League of Assassins prophecy.
- Evil Counterpart:
- The Anti-Monitor to the Monitor.
- Oliver's jaunt on Earth-2 has alternate universe counterparts of Tommy, Rene and Dinah that are evil. It's inverted for Adrian, who is the Hood, and Malcolm, who is never shown to be anything less than an honest businessman on Earth-2.
- Expendable Alternate Universe: Earth-2 bites it at the end of the season premiere, courtesy of the Anti-Monitor. Deconstructed the next episode when Laurel, the Sole Survivor of Earth-2, at first completely refuses to believe that her home and everyone that she knows has been completely erased from existence and the erasure of an entire universe from existence is played realistically.
- Fetch Quest: The season premiere sees Oliver sent to Earth-2 to retrieve dwarfstar particles, and then the Monitor instructs him to retrieve a doctor in Hong Kong during the next episode. Oliver decides to go against the Monitor over the latter, refusing to hand the doctor over until he knows what for, so he instead ventures off to find information about the Monitor. Not that it matters, because Lyla is also working with the Monitor with the exact same mission and brings the doctor right to him anyway.
- Foregone Conclusion: Oliver has explicitly been told by the start of the season that he dies in the Crisis. This doesn't stop Diggle from trying to say Screw Destiny and attempting to convince Oliver to do the same.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: The season premeire has the four members of the Queen-Merlyn family in this ensemble:
- Oliver is melancholic, resigned to his fate in the upcoming crisis if it means protecting his family.
- Diggle plays the eclectic to Oliver here, insisting that he and Oliver are brothers and the two are in this together, despite Oliver's insistence that Diggle distance himself from him in order to have a better shot at surviving the Crisis. However, he has no interactions with anyone else in the Queen-Merlyn family, so he only plays this role directly to Oliver.
- Tommy is choleric, motivated by his desire for vengeance to take down the Glades after Thea dies.
- Moira is sanguine, the most empathetic to Oliver after his "twelve years on Lian Yu" (actually five years on Lian Yu and seven years crusading back in Starling/Star City, just on another universe.)
- Malcolm is phlegmatic, being a level-headed, successful businessman and nothing more in this reality.
- Oliver is melancholic, resigned to his fate in the upcoming crisis if it means protecting his family.
- Gainax Ending:
- "Starling City" ties up the episode's events neatly after the final battle and then sees Oliver and Diggle prepare to make their way back to Earth-1, until Laurel appears to tell them that the city's under attack just before the walls around the police precinct turning red and dissolving, with the antimatter wave chewing through the alternate universe around Oliver, Diggle and Laurel as they see Rene, Dinah, Moira and Tommy get erased from existence, breaching out of the universe just in time before they get erased too.
- In "Leap of Faith", Oliver finishes up his sidequest with Thea and Talia and says good-bye to his sister for what is probably the last time, and his story for the episode ends on a fulfilling note. Until it cuts back to the flashforwards, where Mia and Neo-Team Arrow storm the Deathstrokes' lair with predictable results - JJ kills Zoe, leading Connor to outright try to kill JJ, which he would have successfully done if he, Mia and William weren't suddenly time-displaced to 2019 with no warning whatsoever, coming face-to-face with their parents. Particularly notable for Mia, since she never had the chance to meet Oliver.
- Generation Xerox: Mia, William and Conor in Neo-Team Arrow fit neatly into their parents' roles on the Original Team Arrow, and Zoe takes off after her Aunt Dinah in particular as a Canary.
- Genre Savvy: Once Oliver realizes the difference in circumstance leading to the Earth-2 Undertaking in "Starling City", he manages to deduce Tommy's exact motivations as the Dark Archer (avenging Thea's overdose and death in the Glades) and where Tommy plans to utilize his weapon (the location in the Glades where Thea died) based on his experiences on Earth-1.
- The Gods Must Be Lazy: Dig wonders aloud in "Welcome to Hong Kong" why the Monitor is dispatching Oliver on a Fetch Quest when he was shown to be able to displace objects and people throughout spacetime and the multiverse in the Elseworlds crossover.
- Grand Finale: The entire season builds up to the Crisis, which is where Oliver makes his fated last stand before, according to the Monitor, dying to save the multiverse. The season promises to be an epic sendoff to seven years of Arrow, and has plenty of call-backs and payoff from Oliver's crusade as the Hood, the Arrow, and the Green Arrow to save his city - and now, the multiverse itself. The season premiere even starts back on Lian Yu, reminding us where Oliver came from and how far he's really come as a hero.
- "Groundhog Day" Loop: The plot of "Reset" is based on one in an alternate reality where Quentin survived being shot by Diaz. Oliver and Laurel both experience the loop, with Quentin's death being the reset point. Laurel gets out of the loop once she has finally had the chance to really say goodbye to Quentin, though Oliver takes a bit longer to make his own peace with Quentin's death as well as his own in the coming Crisis in order to escape the loop.
- Guest-Star Party Member: A few notable people (or at least alternate versions of them) from Oliver's past help him out for one instance in the season before departing shortly after for various reasons. So far we've seen Adrian, Tatsu, Thea, Talia, Roy, Anatoly, and Quentin help Oliver out on his multiverse-saving quest, and then Neo-Team Arrow gets time-jumped to the future at the end of "Leap of Faith", where they play this role to Present Team Arrow (sans Felicity) from a chronological standpoint.
- Happy Ending Override:
- Oliver is able to talk Tommy down from going through with his version of the Undertaking in "Starling City", and the episode ends on a positive note with Oliver getting some borrowed time with his mother and Tommy. He has a Friendship Moment with Laurel and Earth-2 Adrian as well before he plans to leave - only this is all rendered moot when Earth-2 gets erased from existence, along with everyone in it sans Laurel, courtesy of the Anti-Monitor.
- The end of the flashforwards in Season 7 had the wall outside the Glades destroyed with hope to rebuild Star City and the new team of Mia, William, Connor and Zoe to help it do so. However, the flashforwards in the season premiere quickly establish that the city isn't doing great in the socioeconomic consequences of destroying a wall that acts as the main barrier between the upper class from the lower class.
- Green Arrow and the Canaries reveals that, after Oliver's sacrifice, Star City only enjoys twenty years of peace before descending into chaos. This is to set up the setting for the titular planned spin-off, which has Mia, Laurel, and Dinah team up to avert this from ever happening.
- Heroic BSoD: Laurel does not take it well in the second episode when she learns that Earth-2 has been completely erased from existence, and even pulls a gun on a man in denial of the prospect. Lyla gives her a pep talk to get her back on her feet, but she admits at the end of the episode that she isn't sure she'll ever really get over what happened to her home universe.
- Heroic Sacrifice: The whole season revolves around Oliver's impending death in the Crisis, which, even if Oliver's death isn't exactly this, Oliver's choice to progress with the course of events that will lead to his death one way or another makes it this. He actually bites the dust twice during the Crisis, both of them being heroic sacrifices. The second, and the permanent one, has him use his soul to relight the spark of the multiverse, allowing it to be reconstructed.
- History Repeats: Once again, Oliver is on a mission to save his home and insists on lone wolf-ing it at first. The first time, the objective was to save Starling City, but this time, it's the multiverse. Specifically, the first episode of the season is essentially the pilot episode and the first season finale combined, only playing out on Earth-2 so some roles differ slightly. See the episode's recap page for specifics.
- Hope Spot: When Oliver suspects that the Monitor is Evil All Along as of the end of "Leap of Faith", he stops referring to his death as fixed for a time, and for the next two episodes goes through a relatively straightforward Arrow plot of trying to create an antimatter weapon capable of killing the Monitor. However, at the end of "Reset", Lyla informs him that even this was part of the Monitor's plan, and yes, he is going to die in Crisis. In "Purgatory", he's resigned to his fate once again, and has made peace with his death if it means his family has a world to live in.
- It's a Wonderful Plot: Sort of, in the premiere - Earth-2 Oliver dies, presumably sometime shortly after the Queen's Gambit went down, but Earth-1 Oliver gets dropped off on Earth-2 Lian Yu twelve years after the boat went down. As part of his quest to save the multiverse, he follows the same steps as he did on Earth-1 to get back to Starling City and acquire dwarfstar particles, effectively meaning he gets rescued seven years later on Earth-2 than he was on Earth-1. Oliver and Diggle list off pros and cons (respectively) created in this universe by Oliver's absence relative to Earth-1.
- Oliver notes that Moira, Tommy and Laurel are alive on this Earth, and the three seem happy for the most part. Adrian and Malcolm are also better people, with the former being the Earth-2 Hood instead of Prometheus and the latter being an honest businessman instead of the Dark Archer. Dig quickly shuts this down, however by pointing out that...
- Thea is dead on Earth-2, and this is heavily implied to be an explicit result of Oliver's absence. Tommy is also evil on Earth-2, and while Rene and Dinah aren't shown to be outright evil, they aren't exactly good people there either. Notably, Laurel also spent some time running with Zoom on Earth-2, as Season 2 of The Flash has shown, and it was only her time on Earth-1 with Quentin that turned her into the Black Canary, further mitigating any positive effects from Oliver's absence.
- Killed Off for Real:
- The end of Season 7 has the Monitor appear to inform Oliver that he needs to die in the Crisis. Oliver himself is (for the most part) resigned to it throughout this season, despite urges from Diggle and Thea to Screw Destiny. He finally meets this fate in Crisis on Infinite Earths, Part Four.
- "Fadeout" manages to bring back characters thought to be surely dead (and in the cases of Tommy and Moira, for a long time). However, Robert and Earth-1 Laurel are specifically cited to be unable to be brought back as that would alter the timeline for the worse, so they effectively embody this trope.
- Kidnapped Scientist: The second episode has the Monitor instruct Oliver to bring him a Chinese doctor, who then gets kidnapped by the Triad led by Chien-Na Wei. Oliver is able to get the doctor out of the Triad's possession, but then declines to give him to the Monitor until he finds out some answers of his own about the Monitor, namely, what he might be doing with the doctor and the dwarfstar particles from the previous episode. Unfortunately for him, Lyla brings the doctor to the Monitor at the end of the episode anyway.
- Late-Arrival Spoiler: Oliver's death in the Crisis for anyone who didn't know yet.
- Later-Installment Weirdness:
- This season only has 10 episodes, less than half of any season prior. If you discount the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover and the Green Arrow and the Canaries backdoor pilot, there's only 8. Not counting the two, every episode has been shown before the Christmas break, leaving only the Grand Finale.
- Green Arrow and the Canaries is the only episode in the entire series where Oliver does not appear. The real-life reason was because Stephen Amell was contracted to appear in only nine episodes, though due to its nature as a backdoor pilot for Mia Smoak, you can instead see it as a Take Up My Sword moment; because Oliver's role has truly been passed to her, she is on her own.
- Leeroy Jenkins: At the beginning of the season, Connor is calling the tactical shots for Neo-Team Arrow as they go up against the Deathstrokes. Mia quickly takes over in this capacity after one of Connor's plans goes awry, justifying it as Connor being compromised since JJ is the leader of the Deathstrokes, but Mia herself quickly gets emotionally compromised when the Deathstrokes go after William in "Welcome to Hong Kong" and insists on an all-out assault of the Deathstrokes' base of operations in the following episode, which gets Zoe killed.
- Legacy Character: William notes in the flash-forwards that the kids of Original Team Arrow (plus Zoe) have become the new Team Arrow and are responsible for once again saving the city. Specifically, Mia and William fill Oliver and Felicity's respective seats as the neo-Green Arrow and Overwatch, with Connor and Zoe as the new Spartan and Black Canary. JJ, Diggle's biological son, also has become the new Deathstroke.
- Locked Out of the Loop: The Monitor refuses to tell Oliver anything about his plans in the early episodes, frustrating Oliver and leading him to get some concrete answers of his own about the Monitor via the League of Assassins. It's later revealed that this was part of his plan all along, however. Oliver also doesn't learn about the Anti-Monitor until after the Crisis begins.
- Messianic Archetype: Oliver, knowing full well that it will result in his death, helps the Monitor with the ultimate objective to defeat the Anti-Monitor. After becoming the Spectre, he sacrifices himself to restart the destroyed multiverse.
- Nothing Is the Same Anymore:
- Oliver starts off the season well aware that he dies at the end of it. It happens in Crisis on Infinite Earths, Part Four.
- Earth-2 gets destroyed in the first episode.
- The formerly fixed Bad Future from the flashforwards introduced last season has been averted by Mia, William and Connor being sent to 2019 in "Leap of Faith" and their subsequent explanation in "Present Tense" of the key factors that made Star City 2040 a less-than-ideal place to live. The Bad Future is completely blown out of the water by the time of "Purgatory," when Roy loses his arm and Lyla becomes Harbinger.
- Once an Episode: All pre-Crisis episodes feature Oliver, while completing a task for the Monitor, reuniting with a person who’d grown close to him during his journey and then saying goodbye. Done with many Call-Backs to previous seasons and ending with a lesson learned for Oliver.
- The Paragon: Despite not being an actual Paragon, Oliver becomes the Spectre in Crisis on Infinite Earths, Part Four, which makes him vital in the reconstruction of the multiverse.
- Platonic Life-Partners: Oliver is adamant at first that Diggle stay out of all Crisis-related matters, but Diggle, true to form, absolutely refuses to let Oliver shoulder the burden by himself until Oliver finally caves in and lets him help.
- Poor Communication Kills: The Monitor refuses to share any information with Oliver in the first two episodes, which leads to him going rogue to get some answers of his own in the third episode, which could've been avoided if the Monitor simply clued Oliver into his plans a bit more. At the end of "Reset", however, it's revealed that this was deliberately engineered by the Monitor so Oliver would create an antimatter weapon as part of Novu's grand plan.
- Poorly Disguised Pilot: "Green Arrow and the Canaries" is the backdoor pilot for a potential spin-off starring Mia, Laurel, and Dinah. The planned series was eventually scrapped by the CW.
- Recycled Plot: By way of Earth-2 being an Alternate History of Earth-1, the plot of "Starling City" follows pretty much a compressed version of the exact same plot as Season 1. The biggest difference is that Tommy is the Dark Archer now, motivated by Thea's death by way of a Vertigo overdose while Oliver was on Lian Yu (actually dead, since it's Earth-1 Oliver that is returned from Lian Yu), instead of Malcolm being motivated by Rebecca's death. Oliver is also able to talk Tommy down by convincing him that leveling the Glades isn't what Thea would have wanted.
- Revisiting the Roots: There are a lot of plot lines inspired by prior seasons and plots (particularly the earlier ones) of the show throughout the season. The season premiere plays this completely straight, literally taking place throughout a compressed alternate history version of the first season where Oliver (actually Earth-1 Oliver) gets rescued from Lian Yu (actually Earth-2 Lian Yu) in 2019 rather than 2012. See the episode recap page for more specific examples.
- Secret Test of Character: It turns out that the whole pre-Crisis season was planned by the Monitor to ensure that Oliver is ready for Crisis.
- Series Fauxnale: Crisis on Infinite Earths is meant to be this for the Arrowverse, but the final season of Arrow fills the role just as well, being the end of Oliver's story after an eight-year journey to save his city and now the multiverse. A Birds of Prey spinoff starring Laurel, Dinah and Mia has also been confirmed, meaning that the Green Arrow saga continues - just not with Oliver in the chair.
- Sibling Yin-Yang: William and Mia continue this dynamic as a Sibling Team in the future arc, with Mia as the hot-headed and emotional novice, and William as the cool, collected, and rational one, who has long since learned to trust the people that he loves to take care of themselves from Oliver's time as his legal guardian and the Green Arrow.
- Spotting the Thread: In the premiere, Earth-2 Tommy notes that Oliver couldn't have been the one in the Hood in Starling City during his supposed twelve years on Lian Yu, because Oliver would never have allowed Thea to die if he was in the city at the time. He also deduces that Oliver was the one in the Hood (or one of them, at least) when Oliver catches a high-velocity cork behind his head during his coming-back-to-life party.
- Status Quo Is God: Averted in a major way for the second season in a row. Oliver knowing that he dies in the impending Crisis and working with the Monitor to prevent the Crisis from erasing everything in existence in a multiverse-spanning quest is a pretty far cry from the days of him returning from five years on an island and balancing his double life as a vigilante and a billionaire playboy.
- Take Up My Sword: In Green Arrow and the Canaries, Mia succeeds her father as the Green Arrow after his death in the Crisis. Technically, it's Passing the Torch, since Oliver gifts Mia the suit before his death, but it's not until after the Crisis that she takes up the mantle.
- Tonight, Someone Dies: Oliver has been told by the Monitor that he will die in the Crisis, so it's not a surprise that he will die come the end of this season. This finally happens in Crisis on Infinite Earths, Part Four.
- Took a Level in Badass:
- As a testament to how far he's come over the last seven years, Oliver more or less wipes the floor with the Earth-2 Dark Archer. Overlaps with Villain Forgot to Level Grind, since Oliver is effectively fighting the Season 1 Big Bad again after seven years and several levels in badass taken throughout the show.
- In Crisis on Infinite Earths, Part Four, Oliver becomes the Spectre and gains supernatural powers, using them to go toe-to-toe with the Anti-Monitor. This ends up being his swan song, as he uses his soul to restart the multiverse after its destruction and dies as a result.
- True Companions: Diggle refuses under any circumstances to let Oliver go off on his multiverse-saving suicide mission by himself, despite the risks. It's made even more fulfilling by how the premiere episode reminds us how the two met as complete strangers in the pilot episode, and Oliver's prideful smile as he sees Diggle for the first time again (only not really, because Earth-1 Diggle followed him to Earth-2).
- Two Guys and a Girl: The core Team Arrow for this season is Oliver, Diggle and Laurel. The core Future Team Arrow also consists of Mia, William and Connor.
- Wham Shot:
- Earth-2 being erased from existence.
- Oliver turning around to see time-displaced adult versions of his children.
- Oliver turning around to see a living Quentin in "Reset".
- Lyla appearing as the skies turn red in "Purgatory".
- You Can't Fight Fate: Oliver is completely resigned to his fate this season, knowing that his death is the only chance to save his family. Others try to convince him otherwise throughout the season, with limited success. Sure enough, he dies for good in Crisis on Infinite Earths, Part Four.
