‘Arrow’ winter finale review: [Spoiler] is the Dark Archer

If you were hoping that “Arrow” was going to end its fall season with a bullseye, you’re probably feeling rather thrilled right about now. Wednesday night presented us with an hour that not only managed to tie together some of the mysteries of the fall season (including why Oliver Queen’s mom was working against him in many ways), but it also contained some shockers that set up for a pretty thrilling second half of the year.

Let’s start with the biggest surprise: the Dark Archer is not only here, but it is Tommy’s father in disguise! He has some rather specific plans of his own for Starling City, and it involves allowing thousands of people to die in order to further some of his own goals. The one thing that is standing in his way at the moment? It’s none other than Oliver himself, who is starting to realize that it may have been someone else who crafted the list rather than his late father.

While we were sadly without Helena / The Huntress this week, there was plenty else going on in the romance. We saw Oliver’s sister have a little bit of a random hookup during his Christmas party, and Laurel and Tommy are at least a little bit of a step closer to being together. The wheels are at least turning here, but Laurel’s realization that Oliver is still holding her back could spell trouble down the road.

There was quite a bit that happened in this hour, but it once again served to reaffirm something to us that we never imagined we would be saying before the start of the fall: the best new series on network TV is airing on The CW.

What did you think about this episode as a whole, and do you like how the Dark Archer was introduced? If you want to see whose mother we are going to be meeting on the second half of this season, you can do so over at the link here.

Photo: The CW