Arrow Ends Season 5 On A Deadly Cliffhanger
Warning: Spoilers follow for 'Lian Yu,' the season 5 finale of Arrow.Tonight's episode of Arrow [...]
Warning: Spoilers follow for "Lian Yu," the season 5 finale of Arrow.
Tonight's episode of Arrow ended just as showrunner Wendy Mericle has been promising in interviews for weeks: it was explosive, and now fans will have to wait months to learn which of their favorite characters are dead or alive.
As many fans had expected, that word -- "explosive," which turned up in numerous interviews the showrunner did in the weeks leading up to "Lian Yu" -- was literal: about halfway through the episode, Felicity discovered that there were hundreds of explosives littering the surface of Lian Yu, and she didn't know how to deactivate them.
Eventually, she did figure out what would set them off: the death of Adrian Chase, also known as Prometheus. Oliver, of course, had committed himself to bringing in Chase without killing the villain, in part because it's what he knew Chase wanted, and expected, from him.
Chase set up one final, deadly choice for Oliver: kill him to save Oliver's son, William -- an action that would presumably doom all of Team Arrow, stranded back on Lian Yu -- or allow his friends to live, and let Chase murder his son, then and there.
Oliver found a third way, shooting Chase in the leg and stealing William away from the villain -- but Chase shot himself in the head, setting off a massive chain reaction of explosions that seemingly leveled the surface of Lian Yu.
By that point, Team Arrow had discovered that the airplane they were planning to use to make their escape had been sabotaged, and their only alternative route off Lian Yu was an ARGUS boat on the other side of the island. They didn't believe they could make it in time.
Besides Team Arrow, Chase's team -- including Talia al Ghul, Black Siren, and Artemis -- were also trapped on the island at the time of the blasts. Malclolm Merlyn and Captain Boomerang had already seemingly met their fate when a land mine Merlyn had been standing on exploded. It's easy enough to assume that Merlyn might have survived that, but recent comments by series star John Barrowman indicate that there is no plan for his character to appear in season 6.
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