Arrow has been one of the most popular shows since its inception. At its core, it has a very solid premise and a potent mixture of grit and frantic energy. Season 1 gets closest to displaying Arrow’s full potential. Brutal flashbacks, a focused narrative, and some brilliant character work made this season an impressive feat.
Season 2 lived up to the expectations and maintained the level of quality, up until the very last episode. The Season 2 finale was the first episode in the show that had some disappointing elements, such as its rushed pace and predictable plot points.
The show’s quality became incredibly uneven from Season 3 onwards. For every riveting moment, there was a lazy one waiting around the corner. The tone was tamer, the cast became more bloated, and the character arcs became derivative and muddled.
Let’s get into some of the unnecessary or disappointing episodes of Arrow.
The 10 Arrow Episodes You Can Skip.
10Season 7 Episode 14: “Brothers and Sisters”
Despite the exciting ideas Season 7 had, the season faltered in its portrayal of Ricardo Diaz: Season 6’s main villain. In Season 6, Ricardo was a dangerous and clever man, whose plan was very unique for the show.
He refreshingly didn’t have a vendetta against Oliver, but only wanted him out of the way so that he could take over Star City with ease. Unfortunately, Season 7 dumbs down his character for the worst.
His motivation has been reduced to killing Oliver and thus everyone he loves, and the uniqueness of the character is thrown out of the window. It instantly makes his character incredibly generic. The cherry on top of all this is his final appearance in the show, “Brothers and Sisters.”
His important story feels devalued due to his final conflict of the show with Felicity. His eventual death is fitting but is rushed, and after a few more episodes, feels like a complete afterthought.
9Season 1: Episode 18, “Salvation”
Of all the episodic criminal gambits employed by the first season of Arrow, the one with an abandoned subway car traversing underground Starling City is the worst. It’s Law & Order-style, ripped-from-the-headlines socio-political zeitgeist injected with comic-book ludicrousness, and it doesn’t pair well.
8Season 3 Episode 5, “The Secret Origin of Felicity Smoak”
The thing that makes Felicity Smoak so great is that she brings a lot to the Arrow team without projecting her cloaked-in-mystery backstory. This is why an episode devoted to creating more of an origin story for her falls flat.
There’s hardly any reason for her mother to show up and complicate things other than an obsession with the character’s origins. Not even John Diggle’s revived romance with his ex-wife as a recurring plot is as burdensome as this one hour. Felicity is great and has a much-needed comedic presence on the show.
Giving her a troubled and hurried backstory is not.
7Season 4 Episode 8: “Legends of Yesterday”
In Season 3 of Arrow, the show saw its first-ever crossover special. In the 2-episode event, Arrow and the Flash teamed up for the first time on Live action TV. The episodes were funny, and creative and utilized the coming together of the two characters very well.
So, when the next crossover was announced a year later, with two new DC superheroes, and a much larger threat, fans were very excited.
Unfortunately, Season 4’s crossover proved to be the worst one in the show’s history. Hawkman and Hawkgirl were as dull as dry bread, the villain was a corny joke, and Oliver’s personal story involving his son was hopelessly mishandled.
The lack of direction for Felicity’s character on part of the writers was evident from her transformation into a melodramatic villain. She breaks up with Oliver over him not telling her about his son when he only found out about him that same day.
The episode proved to be a huge step down from what came before.
6Season 5 Episode 20: “Underneath”
It was only a matter of time before the fifth season delivered a big Oliver and Felicity-centered episode. That is exactly what happened in the twentieth episode, where the two of them get trapped in the bunker thanks to Adrian. The plot itself wasn’t the big problem as it was more about where Underneath was placed in the season.
When you get to your final three episodes of the season, it’s important to focus on the central plot itself rather than address something that could have been dealt with many episodes ago.
5Season 3 Episode 14: “The Return”
Deathstroke (Slade Wilson) was one of the best aspects of the first two seasons. Manu Bennet plays this lost and helpful man with visceral charisma. When he was announced to return in the underwhelming Season 3, fans were hopeful.
The showrunners must have something against the fans of this show because this episode is amazingly disappointing. Slade has around 5 minutes of screen time, in which he repeats the same threats as last season. He then gets beaten up by Thea in a 20-second fight scene.
Manu gets barely anything to chew on here, it’s bottom-of-the-barrel service at its worst. This episode could’ve been so much more. It speaks its superfluous nature when you could entirely remove it from the show, and absolutely nothing would change.
4Season 3 Episode 23: “My Name is Oliver Queen”
Season 3 was the true beginning of Arrow’s downfall. It was slow-paced, suffered a dull villain, and featured some dreadful character arcs. Oliver’s story is miserable and drawn out and ends ridiculously in this underwhelming finale.
The majority of Season 3 focused on building up a second fight between Oliver and big bad: Ras Al Ghul. When it finally happened, it was dreadful. Oliver and Ras wore the same outfit, so it was almost impossible to tell them apart during the action.
The lack of clarity, along with the poor choreography and short length lent to a confrontation that was laughable compared to its predecessor.
The rest of the episode felt too low stakes for a finale; the conflict was over as soon as it began. This episode demonstrates the show’s weakest writing traits and was an unfortunate sign of things to come. Skipping it surely won’t do you any harm.
3Season 4 Episode 23: “Schism”
You thought I wasn’t including this episode as one of the worst Arrow episodes ever? Not a chance. Neal McDonough managed to do a good job despite the shitty dialogues he had. But the boring action and zero-character development make this one of the episodes you can skip.
We probably see many fake punches throughout the episode, and possibly many visible crew equipment and cast that shouldn’t be there. Oliver’s fight with Damien is reduced to trading punches, and the whole thing feels worse than a kickboxing match.
In the end, John leaves the Team because of his brother and recent events that happened, and Thea leaves because she threatened a little girl at the start of the episode. The episode was surely a disappointing ride for the fans.
2Season 4 Episode 16: “Broken Hearts”
Oh, look. It’s another entry from season four. This was the 16th episode, meaning fans got this and “Beacon of Hope” in back-to-back weeks.
“Broken Hearts” marked the return of a villain that almost nobody enjoyed seeing, Cupid. Her affection for Oliver led to the team throwing a fake wedding between Oliver and Felicity to draw her out.
The problem was that this came right after Ollicity broke up. Talk about awkwardness. Oliver professed his love for Felicity during the scene but it felt a little manipulative and he never truly addressed her concerns. With a lame bad guy and a love story that didn’t work, this episode never clicked.
1Season 6 Episode 1: “Fallout”
In the season 5 finale, Oliver was safely on a boat, whilst everyone else was stuck on the exploding island, leaving any answers of who survived open-ended. The possibility of a positive change for the show was looming.
Unfortunately, the next episode does a minimal amount with this golden opportunity. Every single character lives, except Oliver’s baby mama. This cowardly decision left the show in its bloated, overwritten state, and completely devalued Season 5’s brilliant ending.
Fallout is easily the most disappointing episode of the show because it let its biggest moment to impress slip through its fingers. It epitomizes why its writing is so frustrating: one step forward often means two steps back.
It was an upsetting let-down and easily takes this top spot.
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.
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