Arrow Review: “Sacrifice”

Arrow makes audiences and cities quiver with its earth-shaking season finale. If you’re looking for unabashed comic-book on television, this one serves it up, complete with a megalomaniacal supervillain plot and cheesy speeches.

And yes, important characters die.

Title: “Sacrifice”

Cast and Crew
Director: David Barrett
Writers: Gary Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim, Andrew Kreisberg

Stephen Amell as Oliver Queen/Green Arrow
Katie Cassidy as Dinah “Laurel” Lance
Emily Bett Rickards as Felicty Smoak
Colin Donnell as Tommy Merlyn
David Ramsay as John “Dig” Diggle
John Barrowman as Malcolm Merlyn
Willa Holland as Thea “Speedy” Queen
Paul Blackthorne as Quentin Lance
Susanna Thompson as Moira Queen
Alex Kingston as Dinah Lance
Colton Haynes as Roy Harper
Celina Jade as Shado

Full cast and crew information may be found here.

Premise

In flashback, Ollie makes a fateful decision that will delay his rescue, but which takes down the Evil Operation.

In the present, an assortment of characters rally to prevent the destruction of the Glades from an earthquake machine.

High Point

The season finale served up fast-paced superhero action and put all of its major characters in credible danger this week. Some of them even fail to make it out alive.

Low Point

Of course, it wouldn’t be an Arrow ep without plot holes. No one on the airline notices the missile? Malcolm leaves Ollie to escape? Ollie and Dig strike up a conversation with Malcolm before trying to kill him?

The Scores:

Originality: 3/6

Effects: 5/6 They certainly put budget into this week’s effects, though some of the digital visuals betray their origins.

Story: 4/6

Acting: 5/6 While I’m less enamored of the cast than some people at this site, we have witnessed some actual character development. Most of the cast make important decisions this week that they might not have made when we first met them—and Oliver Queen takes steps towards becoming the superhero he has struggled to become.

Emotional Response: 4/6

Production: 6/6 This looks to be the most expensive episode of the season, with the style and feel of an action movie– or, at least, the style and feel action movies had before their budgets soared to ridiculous.

Overall: 5/6

In total, “Sacrifice” receives 32/42

5 replies on “Arrow Review: “Sacrifice””

  1. I think, in all, it was a solid finale. The plot holes noted above were readily apparent, but they didn’t really nag at me like such things usually do.

    I’m not sure if the death(s) will stick, I’d be surprised if they did, but anything is possible. I was getting a real strong Green Goblin pass-the-torch kind of vibe off Malcom/Tommy for a minute though.

    I’m amazed they went through with letting the device go off, but they did manage to evacuate a good portion of the population first, so it wasn’t as fatal as it could have been otherwise.

    Now to see how it all plays out next year.

    • And they managed to reduce the number of characters who know Ollies secret.

      • At least temporarily. I suspect that cat may be out of the bag early next season again, at least with Roy, and possibly Laurel, Thea, and I’d be surprised of Mom hasn’t figured it out by now. I’m really hoping that he corrects the costume a bit, at least using a mask in conjunction with the hood.

        Both my reaction and my wife’s reaction to the last death were the same: “Hey, that happened to Cordelia, and she lived” Rebar is only fatal if the writers want it to be. So the number of people knowing the secret may still be the same.

  2. Although I loved Tommy and was saddened by his death, I’m glad that they aren’t going to do the typical, my best friend betrayed me, stole my girlfriend and is the bane of my existence routine.

    I likely would have stopped watching at that point.
    All-in-all, I enjoyed the episode immensely and was glad that JB is a most excellent villain who has a brain…. redundantly. :)

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