Arrow 508 Review: Invasion

             This was not the 100th episode that I expected, but it was one I totally enjoyed. Arrow, for me has always been about trust, family, love, and choices.  Each of the 4 main characters of all 5 seasons has had to learn lessons on trust, family, love, and the choices they make and how to live with the consequences of those choices.  In some respects Barry and Oliver parallel each other.  Barry is younger and an optimist while Oliver is the older pessimist.   Barry loved his parents and didn't want them die, so he does what he knows he should not do, break time, and save them.  Oliver, in a small way, has a chance to stay with his parents, but he chooses not to.  He knows that it isn't real, and having something real even though he has to live with pain, is better than something is not real.  Barry has learned that too, we hope, but he learned too late.  The 100th episode paid tribute to all that we loved about Arrow.  So much of  it focused back to seasons one and two  Did you catch the use of all the different arrows that Arrow opens up with?  They all went through first four seasons.

Arrow began with Oliver running through a forest, something Oliver has done on every season except season 5, I believe.  He arrives at the Queen mansion and into the arms of Laurel on their  wedding day.  But already, Oliver senses this isn't real.  His father and mother are alive, a.nd his dad is Mayor. There was no accident on the Queen's Gambit.  Oliver and Robert meet the Arrow, and it is Diggle.  Oliver remembers how to get to the Arrow lair, and Alternate Felicity and Diggle don't know who he is.  The acting is priceless on all their parts.  Oliver becomes increasingly aware that none of this is real, and soon Diggle and Sara join him, along with Ray.  In the shared hallucination, Ray is engaged to Felicity, and did you see the look on Felicity's face when Sara called Ray away?  If not, go back and look.  It was cute. No one can do facial expression better than Emily Bett Richards.  In so many ways, she's like Lucille Ball.

           Back in Star City Felicity calls in Barry and Kara to help fight crime, and Cisco to help her vibe and find Oliver and Company.  Rene is skeptical of metas until they rush in to save his butt. That was cute.   I did not know Rory was Jewish, and that's another connection that he has with Felicity that is a positive one.  So who knew the aliens knew Gematria, the Kabbalah method of interpreting scriptures through computing the numeral value of words in the Torah, the Hebrew scriptures.  Felicity then can save the day by bringing in the waverider.  I am clueless on that because I don't watch Legends, the exception will be tonight's episode. )  I like Rene and Rory.  Did you notice that Artemis was missing?

On the spaceship, I thought it was funny that it was Thea who made the ship fly, and when Diggle said, "incoming, " and the other's asked, "how did you know?" That all was just plain fun.

                               Oliver and Thea.  When Oliver tells Thea that none of this reality was real, Thea told Oliver she already knew, but she wanted to stay.  Oliver allowed Thea to make her own choice.  He accepted the choice she made.  He was willing to let her stay.  I found that to be so poignant.  When she finally joined them she realized Oliver had always been her family.  Oliver trusted Thea with her choice, and Thea, realized what her family was, and without Oliver, she wouldn't have family.

Oliver with Moira and Robert:  When Oliver had to tell his parents goodbye, it was so touching. Let me say, please that when Oliver crys, so do we all.  He knew they were not real, but he had a chance to say that he loved them.  Remember when Moira died, Oliver was not too happy with her, but death alters how we view those who left us. Oliver got to tell her he loved her.  Even though it was the real Moira, he got to share those feelings.

Sara and Laurel: Sara finally got to say goodbye to her sister, something she never had the chance to do.  One of the great storylines has been the love and bond of the two sisters.  We got to see that tonight.  Sara to Laurel, "There are some things you just can't fix."  This line is one Oliver knows well, and it is something that Barry Allen is learning, the hard way.

                                The Hologram:   When Oliver, Diggle, Sara, and Ray try to find a way out, the realized the way out must be the one thing that was not in Star City, and that was Smoak Technologies.  So as they go there, and find the portal out, Oliver turns and see the Hologram of all those he loved and lost: his mother, father, Tommy, Laurel, Roy, and Felicity.  Felicity was the first of them.  All of them were dead except Roy and Felicity.  My husband said, "They aren't dead, why are they there?"  I think it was Oliver facing all the people in his life whom he loved dearly and lost.  Felicity was the first one.  Oliver looks at Felicity.  They will find their way back to each other.  Never lose that hope.

Olicity:  I read where some thought there was no Olicity, but frankly, I saw Olicity.  The flashbacks of Felicity in pink, when he saw her for the first time, at their first date when she' all in red and turns to him with expectancy, at the hopsital when he kissed her for the first time, and said, "Don't make me say, I don't love you," and in Nadaparbat when they made love for the first time.  Oliver thought all of those things, and he thought them when he was with Laurel.  Laurel was not his true love, it has always been and always will be Felicity.

Diggle and Felicity:  For me they were put on the back burner.   They have always been the heart of  Arrow and an integral part of the show.  I can see why they went that route.  Arrow is all about Oliver's hero's journey.  So of course the 100th episode would focus on him.  I just would have liked a little more about them.

How will this change Oliver?  Will Oliver's capture by the Dominators change him?  Or will this just be an isolated event and the 510 carries on as if this never happened?  I think will change Oliver. I think it will emphasize the need to be honest and to trust those he says he loves.  Does that mean there won't be Susan or Billy Malone?  No, we will see them together, and it will feel like "yuck" but it will make both Oliver and Felicity know how much they love each other.  That's what I came away feeling from the 100th episode.  Hang in there.

Some fun stuff:  In the fight scene as the Dominators tried to keep the four of them there, I thought it was very interesting to see Sara fight and defeat Damion Darkh, the one who murdered her sister.  Thea fighting Malcom Merlin and defeating him, and then Oliver defeating Deathstroke.  They each fought their nemesis.  The hallucination brought on by the Dominators represented, to me, the perfect world.  In Thea's perfect world, Robert was her Dad, Malcom loved Tommy and was proud of the doctor he had become, and in Chicago (wink, wink) no less.  Perfect worlds are not always perfect and sometimes it is the hard realities of life that make us the people we eventually become.  I think this was beautiful lesson from the 100th episode.

All in all for the 100th episode this was a wonderful tribute to all those people who made the show epic.