The Flash Season 9 Gives Oliver Queen a Better Ending Than Arrow

Stephen Amell’s cameo in The Flash season 9 gave Oliver Queen a more fulfilling conclusion to his saga. 

The actor reprised his role as the Green Arrow for eight seasons in Arrow and his comeback in The Flash resolved some of the mysteries that remained after Oliver Queen sacrificed himself in the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover. It also gave him a chance to say goodbye to many of his friends and family that he missed in his final moments.

In The Flash season 9, episode 9, titled It’s My Party and I’ll Die If I Want To, Barry Allen’s birthday party was ruined by the villain Bloodwork, who mind-controlled Kid Flash. 

Bloodwork wanted to use Kid Flash’s new ability to travel across the multiverse with the Speed Force to infect different worlds with his blood cells and rule them. Oliver Queen, who had become The Spectre, joined forces with Barry Allen to stop Bloodwork and save all reality in one final epic team-up.

Oliver Queen also got to fight with John Diggle again, who came to Central City for Barry Allen’s birthday party. John Diggle, or Digg, was Oliver’s first partner in his crusade to protect his city. They became like brothers, but they never had a chance to say goodbye before Oliver died or became The Spectre.

After they beat Bloodwork, the two brothers finally got to catch up in The Flash season 9, episode 9. Digg told Oliver that he had been taking care of Felicity and Oliver’s kids, William and Mia. 

Oliver thanked him but said that he had also been watching over Digg and his family as The Spectre, and promised him that “all of your brightest days are ahead of you.” Their goodbye was sad, but also gave them both a sense of closure that they didn’t get in the Arrow finale.

Oliver Queen’s comeback also cleared up some mysteries that the Arrow finale left out about his role and abilities as The Spectre and whether he kept being the Angel of Vengeance after creating the new Arrowverse. 

The Flash season 9, episode 9 showed that Oliver Queen was still The Spectre, and watching over the multiverse. The episode also revealed how powerful Oliver Queen is as The Spectre, but that he can’t use that power however he wants.

Oliver Queen can change reality as The Spectre, like when he resurrected Barry Allen or healed Bloodwork’s HLH cancer and removed his powers. But Oliver can only act directly when the multiverse is in danger. 

He can, however, subtly influence living heroes to help others, like when he made the new Snow sister Khione feel that she should go back to STAR Labs, where she saved Chester from the Bloodwork zombies made from the rest of Team Flash. Oliver is also not allowed to contact his family.

Stephen Amell’s cameo in The Flash season 9 showed why Oliver Queen only showed up after three years when there was a big crisis. It also showed why Oliver didn’t appear in the last episode of Arrow, except for the flash-forward where he met his wife, Felicity, in the afterlife. 

But the fact that Oliver Queen is a real guardian angel protecting millions of worlds means that Stephen Amell might play Oliver Queen again in future DC Comics projects.

The Spectre’s limitation to act only when the multiverse is in danger could hint at a role in the upcoming The Flash movie, which will deal with multiple DC Comics universes at risk. Grant Gustin has said he won’t be in the movie, but nothing has been said about Stephen Amell being in it as The Spectre. 

The answer may depend on what DC Studios CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran want and if they officially recognize the Arrowverse as part of the new DC Multiverse.

About Arrow

Arrow is an American superhero television series developed by Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim, and Andrew Kreisberg based on the DC Comics character Green Arrow, a costumed crime-fighter created by Mort Weisinger and George Papp, and is set in the Arrowverse with other related television series. The series premiered in the United States on The CW on October 10, 2012, and was primarily filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Arrow follows billionaire playboy Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell), who claimed to have spent five years shipwrecked on Lian Yu, a mysterious island in the North China Sea, before returning home to Starling City (later renamed “Star City”) to fight crime and corruption as a secret vigilante whose weapon of choice is a bow and arrow.