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

7. Inventive Ways Of Incorporating The Rest Of The Cast

As the premiere was primarily a tribute to the first season, it makes sense that Stephen Amell, David Ramsey and Katie Cassidy's characters were at the forefront of the narrative - given that they are the show's longest-running and most important actors. And it also makes sense that the returning faces played a major role as well.

However, that doesn't mean that there wasn't enough to go around for other members of the show's cast, as Season 5 arrivals Juliana Harkavy and Rick Gonzalez were given there own unique roles as villainous Earth-2 versions of their characters Dinah Drake and Rene Ramirez.

Their roles may have been relatively small, but it was a nice way of ensuring that these regulars didn't miss out on one of the show's final episodes just because it was set on a parallel dimension.

Similarly, the picture of Curtis Holt and Nick Anastas, as well as the multiple references to Felicity allowed the creative team to pay tribute to some of the characters who aren't (as of yet) part of the season.