6x23 Life Sentence

This season of Arrow was pretty fucking awesome overall. I enjoyed it more than Season 5, almost reaching Season 2 levels of excitement. I loved it!

I only had ONE problem with it, and that is the way the separation of the group was handled. I liked the separation itself, I think it shakes things up and changes the relationship dynamic, which makes it interesting... but I don't like the reasons they came up with to justify such changes. It's ridiculous that Oliver is made out to be this terrible leader and the whole argument with Diggle was terrible, even him doesn't seem to know why he is upset.

Honestly though, that doesn't really affect the season in my mind, especially seeing the payoff on these last episodes, with everybody worried about Oliver getting caught. Oliver's "farewell tour" made it pretty clear that he turned himself in to clear the others - and the public reveal finally came (but unlike Iron Man, Oliver was taken straight to jail). Really curious about how they will deal with this next season, especially seeing as every time a season starts with Oliver not being an active vigilante, it doesn't take long until he suits up again. Going to be trickier this time.

I enjoyed watching the relationship of Earth-2 Laurel and Quentin all season. These actors work so well together, and Katie Cassidy is extremely good in the doppleganger business. Quentin's death sucks, but it didn't really hit me that hard, I guess because I half expected it due to the spoilery news that came up some time ago about Paul Blackthorne leaving the show. Plus, let's face it, things happen in that hospital - I think Sara has grounds to sue.

Last but not least, while Laurel screaming at Diaz and essentially "saving him" sucks... it creates a situation where even though this guy lost his empire and the heroes basically "won", he is not dead or incarcerated and very likely will return with a vengeance. I like this and would love it if he was the big bad again next season, making his arc huge. Diaz was a very cool, intimidating villain despite only being a crime boss - I find this fits Arrow quite well. It does seem weird that he can hold his own against Oliver - I was thinking that maybe there's more to him we don't know (like those mythical assassins he mentioned?) but they made a deal of showing that his thing is boxing. There's certainly more to expand on that character with the writers leaving that door open.