2) Perchance To Dream
Conveniently enough, this week’s outing of Arrow not only served as the middle of the crossover, but it also marked the series’ 100th episode aired. As such, a delicate balance had to be found to not only make it tie into the bigger picture, but also honor what had come before in the previous 99 installments.
This was achieved by placing Oliver Queen, Thea, John Diggle, Ray Palmer, and Sara Lance in a shared hallucination caused by the Dominators. Being somewhat reminiscent of the classic Batman: The Animated Series episode, “Perchance to Dream,” it immersed each member of the Arrow principal cast – as well as the two the Legends who originated on this series – in a fantasy wherein most of them lived seemingly normal lives with Oliver’s parents being still among the living.
[zergpaid]In the midst of all this, fans were treated to the returns of Malcolm Merlyn/The Dark Archer, Deathstroke, and Damien Darhk, each of whom served as the big bads for seasons 1, 2, and 4, respectively. Seeing our heroes fight such formidable villains on a beautiful set was indeed a sight to behold.
Despite the science fiction elements, this more so felt like it would have worked best as a standalone episode of Arrow, as it didn’t have the same crossover feel as the two shows it was sandwiched in between. But, then again, each series participating in the crossover retained its own identity a little too much, ultimately making it feel like three shows that intermingled with each other instead of telling one fluid story that should have seemed like a mini-series or made for TV movie.