Arrow is no stranger to the cliffhanger, and the first two and a half seasons have proven that the show is not afraid to push the boundaries of viewer comfort. We've come to understand that the universe does not want Oliver to be happy and to expect that the worst will probably come to pass. Yet we were somehow still taken aback at the final few minutes of "The Climb." Rather than serving up another near death or last minute rescue, the midseason finale just went right ahead and pretty unambiguously killed the main character. Ra's al Ghul ran him through with a sword. Blood dribbled from his lips. His life flashed before his eyes. An elegiac melody played. Ra's delivered a prayer for his passage and then kicked him off of the top of a mountain. Basically? Oliver Queen is super dead. And it was great. His death sequence was handled masterfully by everybody from Stephen Amell as Oliver to Blake Neely on the soundtrack to the editors who cut together the montage of memories. In a sharp contrast to the sloppiness of Sara's, even the viewers who alternated between swearing and sobbing were more shocked than offended at Oliver's. He needs to be dead. Totally dead. 100% dead. No switcheroos. Any one of his graver injuries would have been enough to kill him even if he weren't isolated in sub-zero temperaures in the middle of nowhere. He can't be injured or mostly dead or dead...ish. The show must stick with the fact that Oliver genuinely died in his duel with Ra's al Ghul or risk adding a grossly sensational aftertaste to one of the series' best episodes.
Fiction buff and writer. If it's on Netflix, it's probably in my queue. I've bought DVDs for the special features and usually claim that the book is better than the movie or show (and can provide examples). I've never met a TV show that I won't marathon. Follow on Twitter @lah9891 .
