Arrowverse: 15 best Arrow moments of all-time
Arrow — “Lian Yu” — Image AR523b_0534b.jpg — Pictured: Josh Segarra as Adrian Chase — Photo: Dean Buscher /The CW — © 2017 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
6. Prometheus Destroys Lian Yu
Episode: “Lian Yu” (Season 5, Episode 23)
We recently discussed how Prometheus’ masterfully executed plan forced Oliver to turn to his old friend Slade Wilson, but not even that could stop the vendetta-fueled villain from forcing his hand.
Chase not only kidnapped Oliver’s entire team, he also tracked down and kidnapped his son, William (who had been given a new identity), and brought them all to the island where Oliver’s journey towards heroism started: Lian Yu.
When it all came down to the nitty-gritty, Oliver’s new allies teamed with the rescued members of Team Arrow to take on Chase’s hand-picked team of warriors. That’s right, as Diggle, Wild Dog and Deathstroke all battled the League of Assassins, Black Canary battled Black Siren and Nyssa Al Ghul faced off against her own sister, Talia. That left Oliver to square off against, and defeat, Chase.
While that should have brought an end to the saga, Chase wouldn’t reveal William’s whereabouts. In a desperate bid to prove that the Green Arrow wasn’t a hero, he begged Oliver to kill him.
However, when Oliver refused to choose between his team and his son, eventually rescuing the latter, Chase decided to go out with a bang (literally), as he shot himself. The kicker: a dead man switch connected his heartbeat to bombs on Lian Yu. When his heart stopped beating, the island literally went up in smoke.
Stranded on a boat and cradling William in his arms, Oliver could only watch as the island that he spent so much of his life on was destroyed before his eyes – knowing that his friends, William’s mother and even Chase’s team of villains were all on it.
As shocking as it was, there was something incredibly poignant about this scene, as it reflected the five-year flashback narrative (which also came to an end in the same episode), bringing an end to Lian Yu’s importance on the show.
Though the series would eventually explain away the casualties by choosing the most predictable death of them all, for a moment we genuinely thought that the end of Arrow‘s first era brought a lot of the show’s core characters with it. And what an edge-of-seat moment it was!