History Recap / ArrowS5E8Invasion

* ArrowCatch: [[JustForPun No]], [[AlienAbduction not that one]]. Thea fires an arrow toward Sara so that the latter can snatch it out of the air to use to stab Darhk.

* TrueBlueFemininity: The hallucination of Moira is consistently wearing a blue dress.

* TheUnreveal: A laughably minor one, but we never do get to find out what Oliver's occupation is in the virtual reality, despite references being made to his wanting to be his "own man" and having "grown up". Its clear he isn't running Verdant (Thea is) and he isn't working at Queen Consolidated (which his father is pushing him to take the reins of, rather than sell out to Ray Palmer). He's also clearly not the Mayor (Robert is about to take office).

* BigBrotherInstinct: Sara makes it clear she is very upset with Oliver for missing the rehearsal dinner, and only sending a text message as an explanation.
-->'''Sara:''' You're lucky I'm not a trained assassin or anything.

* ButNotTooBi: Sara in the virtual reality is portrayed as a LipstickLesbian when she says that she prefers women and when she and Laurel are discussing her past relationship with Oliver. Her bisexuality is only hinted at when, after she has flashes of her real life when she greets Ray, making it seem like she is stunned by his good looks, Laurel jokes, "Are you sure you only prefer women?" Generally this has been an ongoing theme with Sara since she came back from the dead and went to ''Legends''.

* CardboardPrison: The Dominators put their prisoners in a LotusEaterMachine from which they can escape by sheer force of will, they don't even bother to put a locked door between them and the rest of the ship or spare a single guard to watch them, and there's no alarm or signal when they escape, as shown by the fact that they wander the ship for several minutes unimpaired. All this on a ship where they leave weapons casually hanging on walls completely unguarded. It's like they want them to escape.

** Adam Hunt is mentioned, and the board in the SCPD with the sketch of "the Hood" makes a return after over a season. Also, in the virtual reality, Quentin Lance is a Captain (as he was in Season 3 and 4) and his initial disapproval of Oliver is alluded to.
** In the virtual reality, Thea still owns and runs the nightclub Verdant, as she did in Season 2 and 3.
** Thea gives Oliver a 'hosen' in the virtual reality, something which actually happened the other way round in the very first episode.

** In the virtual reality, Ray Palmer is dating Felicity, much as he did briefly in Season 3.
** Oliver attacking a paparazzo in 2007, an event first mentioned in the opening moments of the pilot, is referenced in the alternate reality.

-->'''Oliver:''' That man you fell in love with, that's not me. And I never deserved that love, and you always deserved so much better.
* ItsAWonderfulPlot: The premise of the episode. The virtual world shows what Oliver's life could have been like had he never gotten on the ''Queen's Gambit''. This life includes Diggle being the Hood, Ray being engaged to Felicity, Oliver being engaged to Laurel with Sara as the maid of honor, and both of his and Thea's parents still being alive, with their family living a life of wealth and privilege.

* OneTrueLove: This episode all but confirms that Laurel Lance was this for Oliver Queen. In this perfect fantasy, Laurel, not Felicity, is Oliver's ideal lover, and Oliver admits that the one thing he's sure of, the one thing that he knows is true even as this fantasy world falls apart, is that he loves her.

* RecycledPremise: Whilst the general idea of a superhero being faced with a world where their origin story never happened isn't original in 2016, it should be noted that this episode is the ''third time'' in less than a year that the Arrowverse has used this plot, after "[[Recap/Supergirl2015S1E13ForTheGirlWhoHasEverything For the Girl Who Has Everything]]" & "[[Recap/TheFlash2014S3E1Flashpoint Flashpoint]]" put Supergirl & the Flash through the ringer.

** Ray and Sara got a minor one. [[ShipperOnDeck "Laurel" seems to approve]].
** A curious one given that back in the real world Laurel is dead, but this episode seemingly confirms that Oliver is still in love with her, and always will be.

** Cisco says that they have to find Oliver and company, and he's not talking about the cherished Creator/{{Disney}} [[WesternAnimation/OliverAndCompany film]] starring Music/BillyJoel.

* TakeThatAudience: Sara telling Laurel that "some things can't be fixed" as she says goodbye one last time is directed to the fans who keep clamoring for Laurel's permanent return despite the production team's insistence that she's staying dead despite the massive unpopularity of that decision.

* FiveManBand: The captive heroes; Oliver is obviously TheLeader, Sara is TheLancer[[note]]being TheLeader of her own team and clearly possessing the authority after Oliver[[/note]], Diggle is TheBigGuy[[note]]being literally the most muscular guy of the group and has the most action scenes being "The Arrow" on the fake world[[/note]], Ray is TheSmartGuy[[note]]renowned scientist[[/note]], and Thea is TheChick[[note]]the most emotionally attached member of the group[[/note]].

* IncrediblyLamePun: After Cyberwoman gets knocked out, Curtis mentions how ''attached'' she is to the Dominators' tech.

* BeliefMakesYouStupid: Played with at first, but ultimately averted. It starts off with [[HollywoodAtheist Curtis]] respectfully telling [[TokenReligiousTeammate Rory]][[note]][[OneSteveLimit Ragman, not Mick]][[/note]] that he finds the notion of a Divine Plan put in place by an [[{{God}} All Powerful Being]] hard to believe, but later on it's Rory's knowledge of [[Literature/TheBible The Old Testament]] that allows them to find Oliver & Co. due to the fact that the Dominators' coding language matches up with the Ancient Hebrew Numerical Alphabet.

* MsFanservice: The Lance sisters. "Laurel"'s first scene has her only in a ModestyTowel, and her wedding dress ain't that bad either. Sara's bridesmaid dress [[AbsoluteCleavage shows her nice rack]].

* AbsenteeActor:
** Artemis isn't in this episode and isn't even mentioned (WordOfGod says they felt she would have been a distracting presence due to the cliffhanger in Episode 7).
** Slade is obviously played by a stunt man, instead of by his original actor Creator/ManuBennett.
** Creator/ColinDonnell and Creator/ColtonHaynes also don't appear; Tommy and Roy only show up as ghosts and memory respectively before Oliver goes into the portal and are obviously C.G.I.
** Amaya doesn't appear, as only Nate appears on the Waverider when it comes to rescue Oliver and the others.
** Andy Diggle also doesn't appear (he is only mentioned), and neither does Ra's Al Ghul, who was also a prominent ''Arrow'' BigBad.
** Katrina Law is also missing as Nyssa al Ghul, a significant supporting character important to both Oliver and Sara.

* OddNameOut: To date, this is the only episode of ''Arrow'' where the episode's title contains an exclamation point. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]], in that the title is directly taken from the [[Comicbook/{{Invasion}} comic book series it's based on]].