Lian Yu (Arrow)

"Lian Yu"
Arrow episode
Episode no.	Season 5 Episode 23
Directed by	Jesse Warn
Written by	Wendy Mericle & Marc Guggenheim
Featured music	Blake Neely
Production code	T27.13223
Original air date	May 24, 2017 (2017-05-24)
Running time	42 minutes
Guest appearances
Katie Cassidy as Laurel Lance / Black Siren (special guest star) John Barrowman as Malcolm Merlyn (special guest star) Manu Bennett as Slade Wilson / Deathstroke (special guest star) Rick Gonzalez as Rene Ramirez / Wild Dog Juliana Harkavy as Dinah Drake / Black Canary Katrina Law as Nyssa al Ghul Madison McLaughlin as Evelyn Sharp Lexa Doig as Talia al Ghul Anna Hopkins as Samantha Clayton Nick E. Tarabay as Digger Harkness / Captain Boomerang Dolph Lundgren as Konstantin Kovar Susanna Thompson as Moira Queen (special guest star)

"Lian Yu" is the twenty-third and final episode of the fifth season, and 115th episode overall of The CW series Arrow. The episode was written by showrunners Wendy Mericle and Marc Guggenheim and directed by Jesse Warn. It was first broadcast on May 24, 2017, on The CW.

The finale revolves about Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell), who is now in a desperate search for his son William, who has been kidnapped by Adrian Chase (Josh Segarra). Chase has gathered an army including Laurel Lance / Black Siren (Katie Cassidy) and his mercenaries to give the final confrontation against Oliver and returns to the place where everything began: Lian Yu. In order to achieve it, Chase kidnaps Oliver's friends and holds them hostages. With no options, Oliver teams up with Malcolm Merlyn (John Barrowman), Nyssa Al Ghul (Katrina Law) and releases Slade Wilson (Manu Bennett) and Digger Harkness (Nick E. Tarabay) in order to help him fight against Chase. The episode is also the end of the flashbacks storyline which has been happening since the pilot episode.

The episode received universal acclaim from critics, who hailed the finale as the best episode of the series, praising Amell and Segarra's performances, the action scenes, conclusion to the flashbacks, and Bennett's return.

Plot

Flashbacks

Konstantin Kovar finds Oliver Queen's cell empty and sends his men to find him, with orders not to kill him. Oliver arrives at a box to retrieve his items when he is caught by Kovar's men. He manages to kill the men and escape. He is then attacked by Kovar, who pilots a helicopter. Oliver manages to take the helicopter down and prepares to kill Kovar. However, he runs out of bullets and he and Kovar engage in a brutal fight. Just when the boat sent by Anatoly is set to arrive, Oliver kills Kovar and escapes. He takes the items to alter his appearance and enacts a series of events to stage that he has always been stranded on the island. While on the boat going home, Oliver calls his mother Moira, who is at first reluctant to believe it but eventually accepts it. Oliver reports the deaths of his father Robert and Sara Lance, while he and his mom continue their talk, crying over their phones.

Present

In Lian Yu, Oliver releases his former enemy Slade Wilson from his cell and knocks a guard unconscious in order to also release Digger Harkness. Slade states that the Mirakuru is completely wiped out of his body and he no longer hates him. Oliver offers to help him find his son in exchange for him to help him fight Adrian Chase. He is then given his mask in order to prepare for what is coming.

Oliver, Slade and Harkness meet with Malcolm Merlyn and Nyssa Al Ghul in order to secure their plan when suddenly, a missile destroys their plane. The group separates with Oliver going with Slade and Harkness while Nyssa goes with Malcolm. Oliver's party finds Felicity Smoak, Curtis Holt, Thea Queen, and Samantha Clayton locked in cells. They are then ambushed by Talia al Ghul and Evelyn Sharp and Harkness is revealed to be aligned with them, offering Slade the chance to join them. Slade attacks Harkness while Oliver attacks Evelyn. Malcolm and Nyssa arrive and Talia and Harkness escape. They free everyone and lock Evelyn in one of the cells.

On the other part of the island, Laurel Lance / Black Siren takes Quentin Lance and John Diggle to a cell containing Rene Ramirez and Dinah Drake. Oliver goes with Slade and Nyssa to rescue the others while Malcolm leads the others to the plane to escape the island. However, Thea steps on a landmine. Malcolm takes her place just when Harkness and his men arrive. Felicity's party escapes while Malcolm uses the landmine to seemingly kill himself and Harkness. They arrive at the plane's location but find that the island is rigged with C4 with not enough time to deactivate them. Oliver's party arrives at the prison but Slade knocks Oliver out and gives him to Laurel, who imprisons him with the others. However, this is part of a ruse of Oliver and Slade, who free them. Nyssa meanwhile fights against Talia, defeating her.

Oliver's party is then ambushed by Chase, Laurel and their men, who begin a battle. After a fierce battle, Oliver wins and nearly kills Chase but stops short to prove his point. Demanding William's location, Oliver is told he is dead but he easily sees through the lie. He is then called by Felicity, who says that the explosives are tied to Chase; if Chase dies, the C4 will detonate the island. Chase escapes and Oliver goes after him while Diggle leads the others to the plane. Oliver catches Chase in a boat and attacks him to know William's location. Meanwhile, the others discover that Chase sabotaged the plane so Oliver tells them to go to an ARGUS boat on the eastern shore.

Chase then reveals William and explains that if Oliver does not kill him, he will kill William and if Oliver kills Chase, the explosives will detonate and kill everyone in the island. This is part of the plan to show Oliver that everyone around him dies. Oliver instead shoots Chase in the leg and rescues William, who now knows Oliver is his father and the Green Arrow. Chase then begins a monologue of how William and Oliver will remain alone and then kills himself with a gun. Chase's death causes the explosives to detonate and Lian Yu bursts into flames while Oliver and William watch in horror.

Production

In March 2017, Stephen Amell revealed that the 23rd and final episode for the fifth season would be directed by Jesse Warn and written by Wendy Mericle & Marc Guggenheim but no title was revealed. On April 2017, Marc Guggenheim announced the title to be "Lian Yu".

Reception

Ratings

The episode was watched by 1.72 million viewers with a 0.6/3 share among adults aged 18 to 49. This was a 19% increase in viewership from the previous episode, which was seen by 1.44 million viewers and a 0.5/2 in the 18-49 demographics. This means that 0.6 percent of all households with televisions watched the episode, while 3 percent of all households watching television at that time watched it.

Critical response

"Lian Yu" received an universal acclaim from critics, with many ranking it as the best episode of the show. Jesse Schedeen of IGN gave the episode a "masterpiece" 10 out of 10 and wrote in his verdict, "Arrow truly cemented its comeback with tonight's season finale. 'Lian Yu' is a high point not just for Season 5, but for the series as a whole. It succeeded in bringing Ollie's story full circle, making strong use of some very welcome guest stars and giving the Prometheus conflict the dramatic finish it deserved. The wait for the new season just got much, much more agonizing."

The A.V. Club's Alasdair Wilkins gave the episode an "A" grade and wrote, "Taken in isolation, 'Lian Yu' is a strong but probably not superlative episode. Other episodes have had bigger action beats, better observed character moments, stronger points to make about who Oliver is and what his existence as the Green Arrow means. But this episode climbs into the uppermost echelon of Arrow episodes because it taps directly into everything that has come before it. That sense of culmination makes tonight's episode something special, bringing what is effectively a decade's worth of story to an end... only to blow everything up. What happens from here is uncertain, and this finale sure appears to challenge Arrow's sixth season to carve out something new for the show. But as a final affirmation, even celebration of Arrow's journey up to this point — an imperfect journey that has mostly been fun, and often good or better, at least when Oliver wasn't doing whatever he was up to in Hong Kong for that one year — 'Lian Yu' is just about perfect. This episode is all that Arrow is... or perhaps, from now on, what it was."

Andy Behbakht of TV Overmind gave the episode a perfect 5 star rating out of 5 and wrote "Let's take a moment to applaud the brilliance of both Stephen Amell and Josh Segarra, who brought out the very best acting from each other this season on Arrow. Any scene between Oliver and Adrian Chase this season was absolutely electric, and it had to do with these two performers sharing the screen together. I'll miss Segarra's presence on the show in Season 6, but his performance ensures that Prometheus will go down as one of the all-time best Arrow villains."

Sara Netzley of EW gave the episode an "A" grade and stated: "Well, here endeth season 5, which was a bit of a roller coaster. The Russia flashbacks were a marked improvement over the season 4 flashbacks and Josh Segarra played a great villain, but the new team members were a bit of a mixed bag. Rene struggled to get beyond 'grating,' while Rory showed great promise before vanishing. And while Dinah's a welcome addition, let us never speak of reporter Susan again. Looking ahead, I'm hoping for a big bad who can top Adrian Chase, more Dinah, a swift resolution to Rene's custody battle, the return of Rory, Thea back full time, and a happy, drama-free Olicity in season 6." Lindsay Macdonald of TV Guide wrote positive about the episode, stating "It's true that season finales usually come with a bodycount, but killing off the entire cast besides Oliver and his son? That seems farfetched, even for The CW."