Starling City's yearly apocalypse gets into full swing.

The League of Assassins is on their way to Starling City to bring about mass death. As Captain Lance later says, “It must be May.” Which pretty much sums up how repetitive these terrorist attacks are getting. But anyway, on the plane, Ra’s tells Oliver that he’s very close to getting the promotion he was promised, which comes with some truly hideous fashion accessories.

Meanwhile, in Nanda Parbat, it turns out that Team Arrow didn’t die. I was stunned! I thought maybe one or two people would survive, but everyone? Wow, show, you really defied my expectations there.

Malcolm and Oliver’s scheming included the whole “Death by Alpha Virus” contingency and so Malcolm used the power of Improbable Science to inoculate everyone. Man, it’s a lucky thing Ra’s didn’t ask Oliver to lop off all their heads instead. Sort of hard to fake a beheading.

Barry Allen shows up and brings with him all the cuteness, perkiness and general fun that this show has long since abandoned. Sadly, he only steps in for a cameo because, well, there’s a Wellobard back in Central City he needs to smack around.

The plane full of assassins runs into a problem. The assassin flight attendant comes on the intercom and announces, “Ladies and gentlemen, we have encountered a minor explosion in most of our engines so expect some turbulence as this plane plummets to earth like a meteor. Thank you for flying Assassin Air. We know you have many choice for flying to your covert murdering missions and we appreciate you choosing to fly with us.”

Ra’s is sure that his naughty child is to blame. I bet Nyssa got blamed for all the shenanigans that went on in Nanda Parbat while she was growing up; short-sheeted beds, firecrackers in the chamber pots, maimed students, that sort of thing.

But no, it was Oliver Queen. He reveals his treachery and faces off with Ra’s in a duel to the death while the plane rockets towards a very fiery explosion. Nyssa helps out by killing literally everyone else. I guess she’s over the whole, “I won’t betray the League” thing.

Ra’s grabs a parachute and says, “I offered you ultimate power, my daughter’s unwilling hand in marriage and enough bling to make a drag queen blush and this is how you repay me? You are so fired.”

Then he leaps into the void to carry on with the mission to wipe out Starling City. As stated, it is May after all.

Team Arrow returns to Palmer Tech where Malcolm gives them all their marching orders like the badass he once was. They give him a look like, “mass murderer says what?” But he has no patience left for their entirely justified mistrust of him.

Fortunately, Oliver shows up just then and tells them all to slow their roll. They need to pull together and save the city. Diggle responds appropriately by decking him, something I’ve been wanting to see for a while now.

Ray realizes they need to talk so he and the others slip out because Oliver has some ‘splaining to do. And with Ra’s on the loose with a massively deadly bioweapon with the intent of killing millions of people, the thing that wears Felicity’s face snarks about Nyssa, saying. “So are you two on your honeymoon?”

I never thought I’d see the day when I wanted Felicity to die. She’s turned into a whiny, pathetic, jealous and incredibly immature parody of herself.

Apparently, Oliver’s plan was to crash the plane with him, Nyssa and Ra’s in it. How he planned to make sure the plane didn’t crash into a suburb isn’t clear. And naturally, that’s not Felicity’s concern. She’s more freaked out that Oliver planned to sacrifice himself, thus depriving her of the chance to heal him through the power of true love.

Somewhere, she has a diary with Oliver’s name in it a thousand times, surrounded by hearts and rainbows and unicorn stickers.

Anyway, Diggle still thinks Oliver is a douche but because Diggle has remembered he’s a good guy, he agrees to help stop the imminent depopulation of the city. But it’s clear he is not a happy camper at all. At least, though, he’s focused on the terrorist attack and not, say, on Oliver’s sham marriage.

Captain Lance has fallen off the wagon, which would matter more if he hadn’t sacrificed all of my good will over the last few episodes. Laurel tells him that even if he is determined to become the most hate-able character on the show (a goal he will fail at, as Felicity has a lock on that now) he needs to put on his big boy pants on and do his damn job.

Congratulations show. You have made Laurel more or less the only character worth rooting for.

Through yet more Improbable Science, they find where the bioattacks are taking place. But stopping them is not as easy as smashing all the evil people over the head with potted plants and taking away their Plot Devices of Mass Destruction. No, if they bleed, they set off the virus.

Ra’s challenges Oliver to another duel. That was a mistake. You see, Felicity has filled him with the Power of Love, against which no silly ancient, veteran killer can stand. Ra’s doesn’t know where Oliver has gotten this new mojo, but he’s pretty sure it doesn’t matter.

Until Oliver totally murders him to death. Ha! In your face! Or something.

After the city is saved, the Starling City Justice Society gathers where Oliver lets them know that he’s really proud of them all, even his sis who stole Roy’s spot on the show. And since they’ve got the whole masked hero thing covered, he hangs it up.

Afterwards, he gives Malcolm the Ghul bling, thus making him the new Ra’s in a way that is both anticlimactic and totally against all the established canon. I was hoping that Malcolm’s scheme was to ultimately take the position as Ra’s, but to have it just be a deal he made like he was trading stocks? Lame.

For some reason, the whole League accepts this BS transfer of power. Nyssa is livid and informs Malcolm he’s going to pay for killing Sara. And he tells her to kneel and she laughs in his face and storms out. Oh, wait, she doesn’t. That would have been too in character.

The last bit has Oliver and Felicity driving into the sunset, just the way the Olicity shippers wanted. Sure, it’s totally out of character and makes really no sense at all, but I guess no one really cares about that.

And that’s the way Arrow ended! Well, no, it’s not. But that is the way my Arrow recaps ended. I wanted to thank everyone who has chimed in with their thoughts and reactions and support for the last three years. Hard to believe it’s been that long! But anyway, thank you all. It’s been a fun (and sometimes frustrating) ride and you all have made it better.