Stephen Amell Gives His Best Performance In This Week's Hundredth Episode of Arrow

One hundred episodes ago, a shipwrecked young man, son and heir to a wealthy family, was found alive on an island. He confirmed the death of his father, after the same shipwreck. He learned that his mother had remarried and got to know his step-father a little. He saw how his sister had grown from a child to a willful teenager. He was confronted by his girlfriend and her father, both of whom blame him for the death of their sister/daughter due to her also being on the boat since she and the young man were having an affair. After the young man and his carefree best friend are kidnapped, his mother hires a bodyguard to protect him. Something the young man is not pleased about. He has a mission. A list to take care of.
Over the last four and a half years, in one hundred episodes, much has changed. Thea has gone from drug addicted teenager to a mature and capable adult. Diggle has gone from being someone Oliver resents to his closest friend and ally. Tommy, Moira, and Laurel are all just gone, victims of the criminals Ollie is sworn to defeat. And Ollie has gone from being The Hood to The Green Arrow. He’s no longer slaughtering every name on his father’s list of white collar criminals destroying Starling (now Star) City. He’s no longer a lone wolf. It took a while for him to trust others. To accept Diggle’s help in his mission. To welcome Felicity into the fold. He was reluctant to train Roy and even more reluctant to accept Laurel as a fellow vigilante. Now, he is training four new recruits. Rather than pushing his sister away from being a hero, he has not quite let go of the idea that Thea might want to be Speedy again. He’s a team leader. He only kills when he has to. He’s still a vigilante, but now he is also a hero.
The 100^th episode, while very much a part of the Invasion storyline, also provides a sort of Bizzaro version of It’s a Wonderful Life by showing Ollie what would have happened if he was never shipwrecked. Moira and Robert Queen are alive and loving with each other and their children. Ollie and Thea have both matured from their hard partying youths into mature adults. And Laurel Lance is Ollie’s fiancée. Laurel and Ollie are blissfully in love, just days before their wedding. Without the weight of the city, and sometimes the world on his shoulders, Oliver Queen is happy, well-adjusted, and has everything he ever wanted. But if he chooses the fantasy, it will be Ollie who fails the city, by no longer being its protector. Oliver Queen has a choice to make. And it’s not necessarily the same one he would have made five, or even ten years earlier when he was shipwrecked.
Seeing Katie Cassidy and Susanna Thompson again was lovely. Both women slip back into their old roles comfortably and beautifully, giving great performances. As does Willa Holland, there’s a scene with Thea and Ollie that is really one of the most moving moments in Arrow’s entire history. And that is in no small part due to Holland’s portrayal.

Stephen Amell also gives a stunning performance, easily his best in one hundred episodes (plus occasional appearances on The Flash.) Seeing the Ollie we never got to know as he learns what his life might be instead, and struggle with the choice between those lives, is fascinating and moving. Gone for a few minutes is gruff and brooding Ollie, and instead we get to the depths of his love for his family and Laurel, his fear, and his heart all on display. Sincerely, more of this Oliver in the future please.

Arrow has had an extraordinary five year journey, much like Oliver Queen had after The Queen’s Gambit sank. The show has had highs and lows, gains and losses. But through it all, at the heart is a young man who has suffered tremendously and who channels his pain into saving people and protecting the city he loves. He is not an alien or a metahuman. He fights with skill, not power. While he is still flawed and still makes mistakes, he has learned to surround himself with the people who open his heart, because they make him a better hero. And even though the show has returned to its gritty roots, the way that Ollie and the other characters have grown and matured have helped the show evolve. One hundred episodes down. Whatever happens next, we’ll have to wait and see.