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Recap / Arrow S 7 E 22 You Have Saved This City

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The final showdown between Oliver and Emiko begins. But will Oliver really be able to save and redeem his half-sister?


  • 11th-Hour Ranger: Ben Turner is out on parole and shows up to help Team Arrow.
  • Back for the Finale: Laurel who hasn't been seen since "Lost Canary", Curtis who hasn't been seen since "Star City Slayer", Bronze Tiger who was last seen in "Training Day" and finally the Monitor who only appeared in "Elseworlds".
  • Bait-and-Switch: It seems like Emiko's Frame-Up and terrorist attacks are what turns Star City against the team and leads to the Bad Future, but thanks to Bingsley's survival, the episode ends with the team back in the city's good graces.
  • Book Ends: This season opened and ended with a sequence set to a song by Ruelle.
  • Brother–Sister Team: Before she is killed by Beatrice, Emiko and Oliver briefly fight side-by-side against the Ninth Circle.
  • But Now I Must Go: After saving the city, Team Arrow disbands, supposedly for good:
    • Curtis goes back to D.C., planning to propose to Nick.
    • Laurel goes back to Earth 2.
    • Roy leaves for an unknown destination (though it can be assumed it's Lian Yu as seen in the flashfowards), planning to atone for the two innocent guards he killed.
    • Felicity and Oliver leave Star City in order to raise their daughter.
    • In the future timeline, Felicity leaves William and Mia to depart with the Monitor for parts unknown.
  • Call-Back:
    • John compares Emiko's crusade to those of Slade and Adrian Chase.
    • Dante warned Emiko that her obsession with Oliver was causing dissent amongst the Ninth Circle; he was right.
    • Felicity compares her and Oliver's new home to Ivy Town.
  • Death Equals Redemption: Emiko realizes how wrong her vendetta was just before her death.
  • Died in Your Arms Tonight: Emiko dies in Oliver's arms.
  • Disc-One Final Boss: Emiko dies roughly halfway through and her lieutenant Beatrice as the new leader of the Ninth Circle is the true antagonist Oliver must fight.
  • Doomed by Canon: Oliver Queen is officially confirmed to die in "Crisis on Infinite Earths".
  • Even Evil Has Standards: The Ninth Circle has had enough of Emiko's petty, self-destructive revenge scheme.
  • Happy Ending Override: Oliver and Felicity's domestic bliss is ended by the Monitor, who comes to collect Oliver for preparation for the Crisis.
  • Heel–Face Turn: Ben Turner is officially one of the good guys as of this episode, fighting alongside Team Arrow to save the city.
  • Hero with Bad Publicity:
    • Thanks to Emiko's machinations, the SCPD is after Team Arrow, even Dinah. Subverted in that the average citizenry isn't nearly so blind. The SCPD changes their tune when Sergeant Bingsley recovers though and reveals the setup.
    • In the Flash Forward: Dinah, Roy and Felicity decide to take the blame for Galaxy One's crimes.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Oliver willingly leaves his family to join the Monitor, knowing that the inevitable result will be his death, to help save the multiverse.
  • I Shall Taunt You: Emiko choses to launch her drones from Palmer Tech - aka formerly Queen Consolidated just to twist the knife even further.
  • Karma Houdini:
    • Beatrice, Virgil and a sizeable portion of the Ninth Circle get away.
    • Keven Dale isn't shown facing consequences either.
  • Last Episode, New Character: It's the season finale, and we are introduced to Beatrice, a high-ranking member of the Ninth Circle who successfully overthrows Emiko to become its new leader.
  • Like Parent, Like Child: Both Mia and Oliver jump out of buildings just before they explode during the episode.
  • Made of Iron: Not long after narrowly surviving Emiko's attack on the police station, Bingsley is back on his feet and leading the police in helping Team Arrow fight the Ninth Circle.
  • Manly Tears: Oliver is seen crying several times throughout the episode, first when Emiko dies, then when the team disperses and later when he is forced to leave with the Monitor.
  • The Mole: Heroic example, as Connor disguises himself as one of Galaxy One's soldiers to save his friends.
  • Never Found the Body: See Together in Death below.
  • Noodle Incident: When asked how he ended up on Lian Yu, Roy just alludes that it's a "long story".
  • Passing the Torch: In the future, Felicty, Rene, Dinah and Roy leave the safety of the city to Mia, Zoe, Connor and William, while they take the blame for blowing up the wall. Zoe in particular takes over as the leader of the Canary Network.
  • Pet the Dog: The Monitor acts a lot more amicable than in his previous appearance.
  • Plot Hole: As mentioned in Bait-and-Switch above, the episode ends with the heroes in the city's good graces after they are cleared of Emiko's Frame-Up. Except... they still got caught lying to cover up Roy's killing of two guards in the previous episode, on video no less. One would think this might have been the big scandal that leads to the Bad Future. But aside from Roy exiling himself, there doesn't seem to be any actual consequence of this plot point.
  • Pungeon Master: Curtis is back cracking puns constantly, with Felicity saying that she somewhat missed it.
  • Put on a Bus: Ahead of the show's final season, this is Emily Bett Rickards's final episode; Felicity leaves Star City to have Mia and then raise her. Eventually, after the flashforwards we've seen all season, Felicity's final fate is revealed below.
  • Reformed Criminal: Laurel and Turner point out that if they can change so can Emiko.
  • The Reveal:
    • The reason Oliver had Felicity give birth and raise Mia in seclusion was to stop the Ninth Circle from killing them.
    • Roy chose his exile on Lian Yu to atone for killing those two security guards.
    • We finally find out why Oliver was absent from Mia's childhood, the Monitor came to collect him for the deal they made in "Elseworlds" and he died during "Crisis on Infinite Earths"
  • Revenge Before Reason: Virgil tells Emiko the rest of the Ninth Circle are beginning to think that her vendetta against Oliver is endangering their existence and they eventually turn on her for it.
  • Season Finale: The seventh and penultimate one.
  • Single Tear: Emiko can be seen shedding one when Oliver tries to talk sense into her.
  • Spared by the Adaptation: The Monitor died during the original version of Crisis on Infinite Earths. It looks like he's going to survive the Arrow version of the Crisis, since he shows up in the flashfowards to take Felcity to reunite with Oliver.
  • Talk to the Fist: Ben Turner punches out an ungrateful citizen accusing Team Arrow of being behind the terrorist attack they just saved them from.
  • The Starscream: Emiko loses control of the Ninth Circle to her lieutenant Beatrice.
  • Time Skip: The episode skips several months into Felicity's delivery and her and Oliver raising baby Mia.
  • Together in Death: In the future, the Monitor collects Felicity to reunite her with Oliver; since it was revealed that Oliver had died by that point, this essentially means that for all intents and purposes Felicity dies here as well.
  • Took a Level in Badass: In the future, Alena is shown beating down a Galaxy One officer.
  • Took a Level in Kindness: Sergeant Bingsley, after being rescued by them, stops the SCPD from further hunting Team Arrow, calling them heroes.
  • Tragic Villain: In the end, all Emiko wanted was to be a Queen, and despite all of her cruelty, her death is a sorrowful affair.
  • True Companions: This episode marks the incident where the team makes the Mark of Four.
  • Vengeance Feels Empty: Oliver insinuates that Emiko letting Robert die had this effect on her.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: After Emiko dies, the Ninth Circle just disappears; they are never mentioned again.
  • Wham Episode: The Monitor comes back and reveals that Oliver Queen does indeed die during Crisis on Infinite Earths.
  • Wham Shot:
    • Both in-universe and out; the Monitor appearing in Oliver and Felicity's home, ready to collect on his deal with Oliver.
    • Oliver's tombstone.
  • The World Is Always Doomed: While Felicity is trying to come to terms with Oliver leaving her to die in the crisis, she points out that there's always going to be some threat to Star City that keeps them from being truly happy, referencing some of Oliver's major enemies. Strangely, she fails to mention even bigger crossover villains like Vandal Savage (who could have destroyed Star City and did destroy Central City in one timeline, and would become a global dictator in the future), Dominators (who wanted to wipe out all meta-humans inn Earth), and Nazis from a Earth-X (who tried to invade Earth-1).

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