News about the upcoming Arrowverse crossover event, “Crisis on Infinite Earths,” makes its way out daily. There’s so much hype surrounding the adaptation of one of DC’s most important miniseries that it can be easy to forget that Arrow, the show that kickstart the shared TV universe, is calling it quits after a shortened run this coming fall.
During The CW’s presentation at the Television Critics Association press tour this past Sunday, Stephen Amell, who portrays the titular hero of the series, was asked about what his favorite episode of the show was. He was quick to respond as well, naming season 2 standout “Seeing Red,” which saw Oliver’s relationship with his mother, Moira, more deeply explored than ever before.
In the episode, audiences find out in a series of flashbacks that Ollie fathered a child, which Moira covered up. This is juxtaposed with the hero trying to convince his mother not to abandon her bid to become mayor of Starling City and Moira telling him that she knows he’s the Green Arrow.
The end, however, is where things get particularly heartbreaking as that season’s big bad, Deathstroke, captures the Queen family and forces Oliver to choose which one of them should die. It’s a gut-wrenching outing and otherwise touching tale of the intertwining lives of a mother and her son, with Amell calling it “a really beautiful episode.”
And that’s the kind of energy that the showrunners are trying to bring to the final season of Arrow, with uber-producer Marc Guggenheim stating:
It’s a love letter to the show; it really is. I was telling Beth [Schwartz], it felt a lot like the series finale, not the season premiere, in the best possible way, almost to the point where we’re like ‘what are we going to do for the series finale?’ I mean, we know, obviously, but it has that kind of resonance to it, and that’s exciting.
Whether fans are ready for the series to end is something of a moot point. The good thing though is that those in charge are taking it as seriously as possible and are wanting to give the series the send-off it deserves. And Amell, for his part, continues to remain humble and appreciative of his time portraying the Emerald Archer on The CW’s Arrow.