Arrow Season 8 Premiere Review: 10 Ups & 3 Downs From 'Starling City'

8. The Returning Faces

Even with all of the heart-warming callbacks to the first season, perhaps the thing that made us all smile the most in the premiere was all of the familiar faces from days-gone-by. Sure, they are also callbacks, but they're big enough to warrant their own separate celebration.

Oliver's trip to Earth-2 provided the writers with a chance to introduce us to alternate versions of some of the show's most beloved characters, and that allowed them to bring back plenty of cast members who are no longer part of it.

With that in mind, we got to see Colin Donnell return as Earth-2's Tommy Merlyn - who also happened to be the Dark Archer - while John Barrowman returned as a seemingly 100% good version of his father, Malcolm. Those two were such a huge part of what Arrow was in its early days and it was wonderful to see them again. And the same goes for Season 5's Josh Segarra, whose Adrian Chase was also good on this earth, taking up the mantle of The Hood.

However, the best return of all was undoubtedly Susanna Thompson, who portrayed Oliver's mother, Moira Queen.

Within her first scene, it was clear how much the show had missed her. Her moments with Oliver throughout the episode provided some much-needed realism and gravity to the story, and it was hard not to tear up whenever the pair embraced.