Oliver in a Groundhog Day scenario … well the Multiverse is screwed his stubbornness will never let him give up and accept his own mortality or that he cannot save everyone.
1. Walking into the Forrest
So I’ve been finally finishing off Binge Mode: Harry Potter after getting distracted by life stuff. That lag has made for a nice connection between the final book in the Harry Potter book series, The Deathly Hallows and this final season of Arrow as both lead characters are set on what seem like impossible, inane, scavenger hunts, in the slim hope of stopping something cataclysmic. While their arcs are not the same both require Harry and Ollie to freely and willingly walk to their own deaths in the hopes that their friends and family may live. That tension within Ollie has been bubbling under the surface since the beginning, and why shouldn’t he strain and fight his supposed fate? As the specter of Lance told him he has seen: his daughter come back from the dead twice, a daughter from another Earth, The Flash, aliens, etc. Some crazy bananas business happens in the Arrowverse. After this episode I’m curious in retrospect how easily you could place the 7 stages on to his arc thus far.
While it was a bit on the nose about the purpose of this episode, to their credit Ollie is stubborn and would need it beat into him. He has made his peace and now he is back to where it all began for one last mission before the Crisis comes.
2. The Best Det-Capt-Lt. Mayor Dad
The return of Paul Blackthorne was a sight for sore eyes, even if I thought his character had run his course by season 4 and should’ve been the one in the grave. They managed to find new angles and insight into his character and the role he played in the show afterwards. Lance is the perfect character to use in this kind of episode. In terms of the casts “adults” who have left you would think the return of Moira and trying to prevent her death would be more punishing, if that were the Monitors plan. But she gave her life willingly to protect her children in the second season, Lance did something similar but had more of a long term connection to both Oliver and Green Arrow.
His presence wasn’t there to teach Oliver that there are something he can’t save or fix, though Ollie would certainly try and run through that wall for eternity. He was someone who hated, justifiably, Oliver and the Hood at first. He didn’t like his methods even if they were on the same side. In the original pilot script, Lance has a much harsher outlook and presentation than what was on screen. As the series went on, he came around eventually at the start of season 3 publicly calling off the vigilante task force and thanking the masked figure. Their relationship is not to dissimilar to Oliver and Mar-novu, they are on the same side but Oliver is hung up on his methods and seemingly inscrutable actions. Faith has never been Ollie’s strong suit and that is what the Monitor is asking from him, faith and a willing submission to fate. Two things formerly detective-captain-lt. mayor Lance taught him over the years and in this episode.
3. A Different Kind of Groundhog Day
This isn’t the first Groundhog Day scenario the Arrowverse has run, the first one was Legends 3×11 “Here I Go Again.” It being an episode of Legends it was more a parody of the scenario than anything, which was hilarious and still emotionally sound. Lance was the only character around who could work in that sort of pop cultural reference and it not feeling forced. This being Arrow the tonality of the series can not allow for a parody or even the black comedy fo the original film, instead everything is capital ‘D’ drama. Though some moments play as comedy due to there always being one more thing in their Sisyphean task to change fate. When this show first started I never expected it to become or spawn what it did, but that is wonderful because it opened up a space that let them do this episode and it all made sense.
Continued belowIn terms of the reflexivity to this season, “Reset” feels in tune emotionally if not structurally with Arrow episode 100 their segment of the “Invasion” crossover. Ollie has a bad habit of getting placed into mind prisons by cosmic beings.
4. In the Directors Chair
David Ramsey directed this episode, it is his second piece of directing the first being Arrow 7×11 “Past Sins.” Much like the last episode I thought it was overall well done, the looped nature of everything gave him room to play with staging just enough without really changing everything – which is just smart use of production resources. The long take sequence of Oliver and Lance fighting their way through the hall way was straight out of the James Bamford play book in the best way. I’m very interested to see if Ramsey sticks around and directs more Arrowverse episodes or branches out onto other shows.
5. Gifts
At first it appeared like this Groundhog Day scenario was a show of force and punishment by the Monitor, how dare Ollie and Laurel challenge this godlike being. There is certainly a traumatic aspect to seeing Lance die over and over again. From a certain point of view, however, it was a gift doing the thing I praised this recent set of episodes have done with bringing New New Team Arrow to the present, episode scribes Onalee Hunter Hughes & Maya Houston take the fantastical element at play to force their characters to work through an emotional knot and grow from it. With the Crisis looming, It begins in like two weeks, and the TV spot talking about how each second another Earth is wiped from existence getting to spend time with his kids or Lance again was a precious gift. The kind I could never expect this show to give its stoic, traumatized, lead when his show first started.
