The final scene in the Arrow series finale was a huge reference to a major moment in season 1. The finale made clear allusions to the memorable first meeting between Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) and Felicity Smoak (Emily Bett Rickards), but Arrow took an extra step to reference the original scene that fans may have missed.
In the Arrow season 7 flashforwards, the Monitor (LaMonica Garrett) takes an older Felicity through a portal to an undisclosed place so that she could see Oliver again. The Arrow series finale reveals what happened and where the Monitor took Felicity. Just as Arrow had been promising since season 7, Oliver did indeed die in Crisis on Infinite Earths. In the future, Felicity apparently let the Monitor kill her so that she could reunite with Oliver. Oliver and Felicity’s conversation in the afterlife marked the final scene of Arrow.
Their reunion served as a reference to the first and third seasons. The setting for the scene was Moira’s office, the place where Oliver saw Felicity for the first time. It was originally thought that this was Arrow season 1 episode 3, but a flashback in Arrow season 3 revealed that Oliver, who secretly returned to Starling City during his five-year absence, caught a glimpse of Felicity in Moira’s office. The scene pays homage to a season 1 moment as well, by putting Oliver and Felicity in the exact same clothes they wore in their first scene together.
This little detail was a hard to catch, yet a neat way to reference of one of the most important moments in the lives of both characters. It seemed perfectly fitting that Arrow would wrap up with a season 1 Easter egg, especially considering that nearly all of season 8 has been paying homage to past seasons and episodes. Every episode leading up to the Crisis has brought back at least one character from a previous season. Also, each episode was intentionally framed in a way that allowed it to mirror an earlier storyline.
The Arrow series finale on its own honored the last seven seasons by assembling an impressive assortment of familiar faces at Oliver’s funeral and resurrecting dead characters like Moira (Susanna Thompson), who died in season 2, Tommy (Colin Donnell) who died in season 1, and more. It also brought in more flashbacks from Oliver’s season 1 journey and the beginning of his friendship with Diggle (David Ramsay). So on top of so many guest appearances, callbacks, and Easter eggs, Arrow’s final scene added one more to the list while simultaneously ending Oliver’s story in the Arrowverse for good.
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