ARROW “Welcome to Hong Kong” Review: Team Arrow Prepares For the End

Arrow — “Welcome to Hong Kong” Pictured: Stephen Amell as Oliver Queen/Green Arrow — Photo: Sergei Bachlakov/The CW

ARROW “WELCOME TO HONG KONG” REVIEW

By Justin Carter

When your show runs as long as Arrow, there are some plot lines that deservedly win a second pass. 

“Welcome to Hong Kong” feels like one of those returns — a nice way to loop back to the events of season three and give this chapter a cleaner conclusion than its 2015 original.

Once Oliver, Diggle, and Laurel hop back over to Earth-1 and Tatsu swoops in as Katana, it becomes clear that this episode is devoted to giving her and the virus storyline a better sendoff, and it works. There’s still not really a lot to Katana the show is willing to reveal beyond her dead family, but Rila Fukushima is a welcome sight and the dynamic between her and Oliver is rock solid. (As it turns out, she knows about the Monitor, so why not?)

The threat of the returning Alpha/Omega virus at the hands of a Hong Kong doctor Oliver has to toss over to the Monitor also works well enough as a wedge between the two, and ditto Kelly Hu in her probably final appearance as Chien na Wei. 

What’s more interesting is what exists outside of the A-plot, more specifically Laurel dealing with losing her whole literal world and processing all of that. It’s an interesting thing to see this particular show be about people preparing to and already be accepting of the actual end of the world(s), and Katie Cassidy does well with the material given. 

It’s Laurel’s story that ties everything back to Crisis, as we learn in the final moments that Lyla is working with the Monitor. Promo photos have already revealed that Audrey Marie Anderson is suiting up as her heroic counterpart Harbinger for the crossover, and this appears to be our gateway into that. But, before we can untangle what all that means, we head back to Nanda Parbat and the League of Assassins next week. 

Additional Notes

• Meanwhile with Future Team Arrow: not much happens, aside from the Diggle Bros talking and William getting kidnapped. 
• Digging Laurel’s updated costume. 
• I appreciate that at this point, Oliver and Diggle can show up anywhere in the world and just magically have their costumes and equipment waiting for them. 
• This past Monday marked the final episode of Arrow to be filmed, while today (Tuesday, as I’m writing) saw the pilot episode of Green Arrow & the Canaries begin shooting.