Arrow S07E21 - "Living Proof" Review

A really good episode culminating in the showdown between Oliver Queen and his half sister, Emiko Queen.

Spoilers ahead for Arrow S07E21...

This episode continued from where the previous one stopped where Oliver and his team are trapped in the remains/rubble of a building rigged to explode by Emiko who is driven by hatred of the Queen family as she was abandoned by her father (Robert Queen).

Major focus of this episode at least in the present day is Oliver's approach to Emiko. Is she still his half sister or a villain? This is explored as an hallucination that Oliver has about his best friend, Tommy Merlyn who was fun to watch. He gave us a reference to how he died in the first season which is similar to Oliver's current situation (trapped under rubble). He also joked about both of them having half sisters and that he was dead before his sister could try to kill him unlike Oliver.. Lol

First, he helps Oliver out of the rubble and jokes about his broken bow which Oliver fixes with a metallic rod, displaying his resourcefulness as an archer. Then, he advices Oliver to break his family's cycle of violence by not looking at Emiko as a bad person to take down. He reminds him that she is this way because of what their father did to her and that if Oliver goes all "taking down the bad girl" on her, he'll be doing what his father did. Oliver, as "Oliver" (all stubborn and broody) that he is, refuses and concludes in his hallucination that Emiko chose to become who she is now and that he has to stop her even if that means killing her.

Now, he reunites with his team who have had their own fair share of drama with an argument about Roy going to prison or not as they've lost their reputation to the police force and the city at large by covering up and lying about a murder Roy committed (a side effect of the Lazarus pit). Roy decides to risk his life for them as they did for him by entering into benzene gas to put off a back up generator that will cause more explosions.

Still on the hallucination, Oliver and his team are confronted by Emiko again and this time, he kills her. Just as he does that, the rest of his team are also killed in the same manner (an arrow to the stomach) 😑
Tommy eventually convinces Oliver to lean on the best parts of himself and help his sister turn a "new leaf" and also stop looking at her as a villain who's not willing to change. Oliver takes his advice and refuses to kill Emiko even when she asked him to, although at this time, she had framed him for a violence stunt at the police department as the green arrow. She also escapes with the bio weapon she intends to use on the city.

On to Felicity, now we know why she's leaving after season 7. She wants to give her unborn child a new life, a life completely different from that of her new family (all the vigilantism, hacking, crime fighting and almost dying situations).. She also shows another genius moment by evading the police who believe team arrow is behind the upcoming attack on the city. How does she do that? Well, through a sorta sound wave emitter she hid in the ceiling. There's also a funny reference to the justice league when Alena sees Emiko all dressed up in her archer suit coming to the bunker ("Arrowcave") to steal some arrows she wants to use to frame Oliver.

The flash forwards (set 20 years into the future from now) also revealed some more suspecting information to us.. Alena (Felicity's friend and partner) stole Archer (an intelligent DNA tracking system) built by Felicity and sold it to the flash forwards villain, Kevin Dale (a man intent on wiping off vigilantism from Star City)
Kevin has advanced the capabilities of the Archer program, using it to create his own kind of "sentinels" for the vigilantes which is similar to X-Men: Days of Future Past and The Gifted TV series where sentinels are created to destroy mutants. William Clayton (Oliver and Felicity's son) gets himself into trouble by going against Felicity's instruction to steal some info from Kevin Dale's office. He claims that Felicity is pushing him away and she doesn't want to be a part of his life. This risky act also blows the cover of Rene Ramirez, mayor of Star City (known as wild dog to us in the present) acting as a double agent to the vigilantes and Kevin Dale.

We have a really good season finale to look up to by next week Tuesday from the events of the present day and the future.. 💯
So, is Oliver going to help his sister turn a "new leaf" or "take her down"..?
In time, we'll see how it all ends.

You can check the trailer for the season finale here