So last week we left off with Oliver getting his ass handed to him by Malcolm Merlyn. ‘Sacrifice’ picks up shortly thereafter with Oliver semi-hanging from the rafters as Malcolm circles him in a threatening manner.

Ooooh, look at Oliver getting all bad ass, threatening Merlyn and all that. Of course, as Merlyn pointed out – he may be younger, and he may be stronger, but twice now Oliver has gotten his ass kicked by a man old enough to be his father. Hmmm, that doesn’t not bode well for your superhero career.  Amazingly, he has better luck against a man who is surrounded by an army and surface to air missiles! Granted on the island he has both Shado (who, unsurprisingly, can reprogram the aforementioned surface to air missiles) and Slade Wilson, but still he took out Fyers’ entire army! Okay, okay, he used a missile but still! I feel like I’m trying to give Oliver a lot of credit here and perhaps I’m trying a bit too hard so let’s move on to the real story of this finale.

As we found out in past episodes, Malcolm plans on taking out the Glades with a “seismic event”. Of course no one but the people involved in the undertaking and the Arrow Crew know about it. Obviously, much like Oliver being the vigilante, this is a secret that just can’t stay secret.

Before Oliver and Laurel had a tender moment perfectly squared by the incoming sunlight, I couldn’t help but notice that Moira was packing up Walter’s things. NOOOOO!!!!! Say it isn’t so! I thought they’d work it out in the end but maybe next season? Please make this happen writers, even if she’s in jail. Oooh, Walter could come visit Moira and they could have heartfelt discussions through the glass. That’d be nice.

Oh, before we move on to the whole blowing up part of the city and the aftermath therein, let’s revel in this moment.

Not only has your ex-best friend lied to you about being a vigilante in a hood, stole your girlfriend, and just told you that your father is going to blow up part of your city, then he goes and makes you look like a fool by effortlessly dodging your punch.

That’s gotta hurt. Of course it doesn’t help that Tommy then heads off to talk to his dad, refer to Oliver’s ridiculous jihadist accusations only to then get his ass kicked by his dad who seems really unhinged this episode. Of course if I were planning on causing an earthquake to take down an entire part of a major city, I’d probably be a bit on edge as well.

Oh Malcolm, you troubled soul you. You need some psychological intervention. I’m not a professional but I’d have to imagine that constantly reliving your wife’s death by listening to her die over and over probably isn’t very healthy. Granted this makes for great television viewing but still, yikes.

So Malcolm is devolving and Moira is finally sprouting some cajones and speaking out about Malcolm’s plan. She couldn’t have done that before the timer was set to go off I suppose. Safety of her family and all that. But now she’s ready to take the risk and what better way to assure not only will the police, but the man hell-bent on killing anyone in his way will hear what you have to say? A press conference in your living room of course.

Again Thea and her ridiculousness never fail, because hearing her mother admit to being part of this plan and the reason her father died, the first thing she thinks of? Her felon boyfriend. Girls. Am I right? [Ed. – The fact that Thea assumes Roy is too dumb to leave the Glades along with EVERYONE else is telling. Stupid Thea.]

Dear residents of the Glades – I have a bone to pick with you. I’m not totally sure of the timeline here as it was a little vague, but at most there’s a couple of hours in between the announcement that your neighborhood is going to disappear into the ground and it actually happening. Call me crazy, but my first thought would not have been to bust out the posterboard and sharpies and make signs about the end of the world. Unless you just have these hanging around for a everyday use, this seems like a horrible waste of time. Perhaps if you managed your time more wisely you wouldn’t have to be running around in the streets like a chicken with your heads cut off. Just a thought.

The rest of the episode was cutbacks between the panicked people of the Glades, a pretty kick ass fight scene between Oliver and Malcolm, and Felicity talking Detective Lance through disarming the device. I actually loved Detective Lance in this part because you could tell he was panicked, you could tell he was nervous, but at the same time he was so giddy and pleased with himself when he shut it down. Paul Blackthorne really has done a great job as the crotchety detective trying to piece his life back together after his daughter died and wife left. He’s been a pleasure to watch which is why I got really nervous that he was going to go down with the ship.

I don’t know if the people at Arrow kept it under wraps or if I just missed the news, but I was totally taken by surprise by Tommy dying. When Oliver moved the chunk of concrete I gasped when I saw the rebar through his chest. Kudos to Stephen Amell and Colin Donnell because that last scene was very emotional and very well done.

Overall, this was a fantastic finale. I might go out on a limb and say it was one of the best season finales I’ve seen in quite some time. The cliffhangers were organic, the story line didn’t seem forced which happens a lot with big dramatic scenes. For a network that is often seen as “not as good”, Arrow and The CW knocked it out of the park. I’m going to have to go even further out on the limb and give it a five out of five.

A fantastic season finale to wrap up a great first season of Arrow! It’s been a great ride and I look forward to seeing what season two has in store.