The CW's Arrow season 8, episode 6 recap: Reset

In an episode about acceptance and grief, Arrow meets Edge of Tomorrow and sees the return of a beloved fan-favorite character.

The eighth and final season of Arrow has been an emotional and action-packed rollercoaster ride so far and is probably by far the best season for any of the Arrowverse shows yet, “Reset” directed by none other than David Ramsey is no exception and another worthy installment in the stack. The episode finds Oliver and Laurel trapped in some sort of time loop alternate reality after being tranquilized by Lyla last episode, where Quentin is still alive. “Reset” is essentially about grief and acceptance as Oliver must come to terms with the fact that there is no way he is gonna make it out of this Crisis alive.

The episode starts with Oliver waking up at his apartment, it’s been two days since the events of the last episode and Oliver has no idea what happened during these two days. He then heads off to a fundraiser at Palmer Tech and runs into the mayor of this alternate reality aka Quentin.
The reunion scene of Oliver and Quentin who was last seen on the season six finale was handled spectacularly well by both Paul and Amell. Stephen has been a tour de force this entire season and this scene was no exception as he perfectly conveys both sadness and confusion with mere few words.

But the reunion was soon interrupted as there is a hostage situation at SCPD and they only want to talk to the mayor in order to negotiate. Quentin heads there as Oliver suits up and provides him with backup and all is going well until someone ticks off a hidden bomb which ends up killing both of them and everything then fades to white.

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And then boom, Oliver wakes right back up on his couch just like the start of the episode. The cycle continues as Oliver meets Laurel during the second try and realizes that the reboot takes place every time Quentin dies in the third loop. Unfortunately, even after everything, every time they fail to save Quentin from dying, which is extremely hard for both of them to watch.

We see lots of different scenarios and each one of them differs from the last one, the fight choreography and uniqueness in the cinematography and direction for this episode really shows that Ramsey worked his ass off for this episode.

Laurel eventually gives in as she can’t see Quentin die again and again any more and accepts the inevitable as Katie Cassidy and Paul Blackthorne delivered a heartbreaking goodbye scene. And we don’t see her in the time loop again.

Oliver however just refuses to give up on Quentin even though Lyla tells him to accept the inevitable and to stop fighting back. Oliver was keen on saving him until Quentin himself decides to stop escaping death and to give in instead of giving up.

The entire loop was designed such that Oliver will learn to give in and accept himself’s fate just like Quentin. On the last loop, Oliver says goodbye to Quentin and have an emotionally supercharged conversation with him. Quentin does not know what is going on this time and asks if he will see Oliver again and an emotional Stephen Amell answers by saying “I hope so”.

Thus also accepting his own fate and the fact that he himself can’t avoid death this time.
This episode also serves as a reality check type of episode for us fans who have been just clinging on to the hope that Oliver is somehow gonna make it out alive from this Crisis and be reunited with his family happily. Well, as much as we hate it, he is not and in all likelihood, he is most likely gonna die.

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And while we are not ready for that to happen yet, Oliver seems to have accepted it. At the end of the episode, Lyla tells him that he has one last mission to complete before the Crisis and he wakes up at *drumrolls* Lian Yu, the place where it all began and meets up with Laurel, Diggle and the future kids. This is it people, we got one more episode of Arrow to go before the Crisis, the end of Green Arrow’s crusade is near. Get ready. See you next week for the seventh and last pre-crisis episode of Arrow.

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