It's been a long time since I've been this impressed with an episode of Arrow. Putting aside the 100th episode, which was a departure from the regular string of episodes, 'Missing' may be my favorite episode since season 3's 'The Return', which is ironically the last time Slade Wilson made an appearance.
Continuing with the tradition of every season of Arrow and pretty much all CW shows, the penultimate episode was part 1 of 2, which makes it even more impressive that this episode succeeded as well as it did. It was another night where Adrian Chase did next to nothing physically and didn't even suit up as Prometheus, but managed to mastermind Ollie into being in his most desperate spot yet. Forcing him to recruit Nyssa, Malcom, and Slade to take on Chase & company one last time on the island where it all began.
I'm glad to see that this season is finally taking the main conflict out of Star City and to somewhere that feels much more personal and fitting for the battle against Chase. We've been promised a monster season finale, and 'Missing' set up every angle of that finale to be something special. Just imagining all of the characters from the many seasons of Arrow all coming together for one epic showdown on Lian Yu. We could potentially (and probably will) get a showdown between Nyssa & Talia and maybe a scene with Slade & Chase? I mean come on, this is Arrow at its best.
What I really enjoyed about tonight, and some fans may not feel this way, is that this is clearly an Oliver centric episode. Yes, I know the show has always been about Oliver Queen, but with so many added characters and heroes over the years, I was happy to see tonight's episode broke the story down to Oliver and Chase. It's that dynamic that has made this season so special thus far. I'm so thrilled and relieved that the show has given us another villain who makes sense to go up against Oliver in more ways than one.
One has to wonder how the finale will go down. It's clear that Oliver won't kill Chase, but will someone else fall instead? Will Slade be released in exchange for helping Oliver take down Chase? Will Oliver lose William? How many times will Slade say 'kid'? All will be revealed next week as the show comes full circle in its 10-year story arc. Words cannot describe my excitement.
+SLADE
+Chase continues to impress without doing much at all
+Reveals & surprises
+Taking it out of Star City and back to the island
10/10