Arrowverse: 15 best Arrow moments of all-time

Arrow — “Salvation” — Image AR118b_0017b — Pictured: Colton Haynes as Roy Harper — Photo: Cate Cameron/The CW — © 2013 The CW Network. All Rights Reserved

5. Oliver Saves Roy From The Savior

Episode: “Salvation” (Season 1, Episode 18)

Oliver’s quest to right his father’s wrongs in Season 1 was brutal. The man returned home from Lian Yu and literally killed people because he believed it was for the greater good. His intentions were noble, but his actions were barbaric.

Yet we didn’t question them, and neither did Oliver, because he was the hero of this piece. But when a new, more violent, threat rose from the darkness of Starling City, forged by the corrupt souls in The Glades, he was forced to reconsider his approach entirely.

Joseph Falk, known as The Savior, made his presence felt by kidnapping slumlords and morally corrupt prosecutors and broadcasting their deaths on a live feed. But what made him even more deadly was that, despite those deaths’ publicity, he was, like The Hood himself, untraceable. And when he kidnapped Thea’s boyfriend, Roy Harper, Oliver was more against-the-clock than he had ever been.

The face-off between The Hood and The Savior is, without a doubt, one of the most powerful moments in Arrowverse history. The two vigilantes, twisted and broken, finally came face-to-face after the Emerald Archer tracked the latter to an abandoned subway car.

Secretly firing a small arrow to assist Roy in his escape, Oliver then engaged in a raw and emotional exchange with Falk as a distraction.

Discussing how the corrupt city created both, The Savior likened himself to The Hood. Oliver, however, begged to differ, but that didn’t stop him from attempting to use their similarities to at least try and relate to him.

Though he was dressed in his green attire, he spoke to him without the use of his voice modulater and tried to appeal to what was left of Joseph’s humanity. Unfortunately, not even this could make the emotional widower back down. As he attempted to shoot Roy, Oliver released the arrow from his bowstring.

In a truly stunning sequence, Joseph reacted to the arrow penetrating his abdomen, Roy was overcome with emotion because he literally dodged death only to see it take The Savior instead. Oliver just watched with unnerving silence as the events unfolded before his eyes.

Blake Neely’s hauntingly beautiful “Search For Salvation” bellowed over the scene, the music complementing the invasively-close shots of all three men’s faces: all different expressions, but all of them broken by Starling City. Goosebumps doesn’t even begin to cover it.