History Recap / ArrowS3E23MyNameIsOliverQueen

Oliver and the rest of Team Arrow fight to prevent Ra's from releasing the Alpha-Omega in Starling City and he has his final showdown with Ra's Al-Ghul.

* TheBadGuyWins: Not Ra's Al-Ghul, but Malcolm Merlyn. He becomes the new Ra's al Ghul.

* BatmanGrabsAGun: [[Recap/ArrowS2E7StateVQueen Once again]], Oliver breaks his ThouShaltNotKill rule and outright kills Ra's Al Ghul. However, this is somewhat lessened by the fact that in fact Ra's in a way ''wanted'' to die, since he believed a stronger person like Oliver [[KlingonPromotion should succeed as Ra's Al Ghul]]. Of course, Oliver has no intention to follow through with this, though [[LetThemDieHappy he makes Ra's believe otherwise as he dies]].

** Felicity swoops to Oliver's rescue in the ATOM suit.
* BodyDouble: Damian Darrk uses one.
* ButNowIMustGo:
** Tatsu doesn't go to Starling with Team Arrow, she returns to her life of solitude instead.
** Barry goes back to Central after freeing Team Arrow from the dungeons.
** Malcolm leaves Starling to become the new Ra's Al-Ghul.

** Most of Team Arrow forgives Oliver for his deceit at the end. The lone holdout is Diggle who is still upset for what Ollie did to Lyla, and is unsure if he can ever trust him again.

* RealityEnsues: Barry Allen/The Flash easily demonstrates that as feared as the League of Assassins has traditionally been, and as threatening they might be to mundanes (even highly trained ones), and however skilled a bunch of guys with regular swords, knives and bows might be, in a world where metahuman powers and superscience are becoming a thing they are ''toast'' when someone with sufficiently powerful skills or abilities shows up unannounced.

* SeriesFauxnale: Sort of. While the show has already been renewed for Season 4, WordOfGod says that this episode was intended to serve virtually as a finale to the first three seasons. Certainly there is a kind of definitive ending to Oliver's story in that he finally declares his crusade over, retires the identity of the Arrow, and goes RidingIntoTheSunset with Felicity. However, there is also a fair amount of {{Foreshadowing}} of the next season, especially with the allusions to Damian Darhk and HIVE, which betrays the fact that the show isn't over.

* StoryBreakerPower: If Barry did stay and help out with the League of Assassins the episode would be over in about 15 minutes.
* TakeAThirdOption : When Oliver requires The Atom's assistance, Ray points out that he can either rescue Oliver or finish the cure for the virus; Felicity then proceeds to take the suit and saves Oliver herself (presumably with Ray's help through the mind interface).
* TheUnfettered: [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructed]]- Oliver deciding to be this causes his relationship with Diggle to fracture.

* YouCantGoHomeAgain: After Oliver tortures General Shrieve he chooses to board a Wallace Shipping vessel instead of returning to Starling City, because he doesn't want to subject his family to that kind of darkness.

* TheUnfettered: [[Deconstruction Deconstructed]]- Oliver deciding to be this causes his relationship with Diggle to fracture.

* TheUnfettered: DeconstructedTrope- Oliver deciding to be this causes his relationship with Diggle to fracture.

* Unfettered: DeconstructedTrope- Oliver deciding to be this causes his relationship with Diggle to fracture.

* PlotArmor: Played with. When Quentin [[Recap/ArrowS2E5LeagueOfAssassins guns a League member back in Season 2, the member was killed]]. When Oliver was shot by a sniper rifle, he survives it and later reveals that the League outfit are top-notch bulletproof. However, this may be justified since Oliver is a VIP in the League.

* DangerouslyGenreSavvy: Using his own men as living vessels instead of just making them destroy vials containing the virus was incredibly clever of Ra's, since injuring them would backfire this way.
* DealWithTheDevil: Oliver got Malcolm to help him in exchange for making him the next Ra's al Ghul. Time will tell if this will backfire on Oliver.
-->'''Oliver:''' I will never forgive you for what you did to Sara, to my sister. ''Ever''.\\
'''Malcolm:''' Does that mean we're enemies once more?\\
'''Oliver:''' That depends on what you do with your end of the bargain.

** Barry goes back to Central after freeing Team Arrow from the dungeouns.

* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: When Laurel announces that the city is under attack, Quentin loudly proclaims "it must be May". Arrow season finales are all aired in May and they all have, so far, contained a massive attack on Starling City.

* HeroicSuicide: Oliver was actually planning to kill Ra's without any expectation that'll come out of it alive.

* SixthRanger: Oliver arranged for Barry to rescue his friends.

** [[TakeAThirdOption Which turns out to not be very armor-piercing after all, as he would find a way to do ''both''.]]

* AbsenteeActor: Roy did not appear on this episode.

** [[TakeAThirdOption Which turns out to not be very armor-piercing after all, as he would find a way to do both.]]

* CurbStompBattle: The League of Assains didn't stand a chance against the Fastest Man Alive.

* TheNeedsOfTheMany: Ray responds to Felicity's plea for him to go save Oliver by pointing out that if he stops work on the Alpha-Omega antidote to save Oliver's life, thousands will die because of the delay. And then he asks the ArmorPiercingQuestion to Felicity about what Oliver would think of that decision.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Normally, Felicity [[Recap/ArrowS2E1CityOfHeroes really hates flying]]. But in order to save Oliver, she rushed in on Ray's A.T.O.M. Suit to fly in and [[InstantExpert easily]] save him.

* SlashedThroat: Ra's own men weaponize this, slashing their own throats to expose their blood to open air and thus spread the Alpha-Omega virus.

* TakeAThirdOption : When Oliver requires The Atom's assistance, Ray points out that he can either rescue Oliver or finish the cure for the virus; Felicity then takes the suit and saves Oliver herself (presumably with Ray's help through the mind interface).

* StoryBreakerPower: As pointed out above, the real reason that Barry doesn't stay and help out with the League of Assassins is because otherwise the episode would be over in about 15 minutes.

** Averted with Malcolm. Even though he helped save the day, everything that happened this season was all his fault. Oliver says in no uncertain terms that he'll ''never'' forgive Malcolm for brainwashing Thea to kill Sara.

* InstantExpert: Felicity managed to fly Ray's PoweredArmor with ease in her first try. This contradicts the writers' formula regarding the characters (e.g. Roy in Season 2, Laurel, Thea and even Ray this season) slowly getting to be as they are in the comics.

* ProphecyTwist: The prophecy was that whoever survived Ra's al Ghul's blade would become the next Ra's al Ghul. Ra's overlooked the fact that it never said it had to be ''in a fight'', thus his torture of Merlyn counted.

** Tatsu doesn't go to Starling with Team Arrow, she returns to her life of solitude instead

* TheNeedsOfTheMany: Ray responds to Felicity's plea for him to go save Oliver by pointing out that if he stops work on the Alpha-Omega antidote to save Oliver's life, thousands will die because of the delay. And then he asks the ArmorPiercingQuestion to Felicity about what Oliver would think of that decision.
* ProphecyTwist: The prophecy was that whoever survived Ra's al Ghul's blade would become the next Ra's al Ghul. Ra's overlooked the fact that it never said it had to be ''in a fight'', thus his torture of Merlyn counted.

* SeriesFauxnale: Sort of. While the show has already been renewed for Season 4, WordOfGod says that this episode was intended to serve virtually as a finale to the first three seasons. Certainly there is a kind of definitive ending to Oliver's story in that he finally declares his crusade over, retires the identity of the Arrow, and goes RidingIntoTheSunset with Felicity]]. However, there is also a fair amount of {{Foreshadowing}} of the next season, especially with the allusions to Damian Darhk and HIVE, which betrays the fact that the show isn't over.

** Which turns out to not be very armor-piercing after all, as he would find a way to do both.