Arrow Season 7 Episode 1 Review: 'Inmate 4587'

The sixth season for Arrow was a bit of a roller coaster in quality coming off the stellar fifth season.

After a solid start, the series meandered into internal team conflicts during the middle of the season that brought everything down.

The writers managed to bounce back at the tail end of the season though, giving us one of the best final stretches from across the Arrowverse as the season ended with Oliver revealing he is the Green Arrow and being sent to prison.

The premiere picks up with Oliver in prison, who is trying to hang his head low and not start trouble, so that he can get out as soon as he can.

He is consistently having dreams about Ricardo Diaz, who got away at the end of last season, finding and killing his family.

However, he believes them to be safe due to Felicity and William being put into witness protection through ARGUS.

Oliver comes across some old enemies in the prison, including Bronze Tiger, Derek Sampson, and Brick.

Brick is the leader of the trio in prison and tries to get Oliver to join their gang, which he refuses.

Another inmate tries to buddy up with Oliver, but Oliver keeps telling him to stay away for his own safety, which leads to Brick and company beating him up.

While Oliver is in prison, we see briefly that Earth-2 Laurel Lance has continued to pretend to be the real Laurel and is now the DA, making a statement that vigilantes will be hunted and prosecuted. Dinah is now the captain of SCPD, who is actively going after any vigilantes as well since Diggle, Rene, Diggle, and her only got immunity if they never suit up again.

Curtis is not seen much in this episode, as he is now working at ARGUS in a tech role alongside Diggle. Rene has gone back to the streets of the Glades and has a gym for self defense.

All of a sudden, a new Green Arrow shows up in town that nobody knows who it is, which instantly brings conflict between Rene and Dinah.

Rene says this new Green Arrow brings hope to the people again, while Dinah is out to catch him.

Felicity and William are living a quiet life in witness protection until Diaz happens to find them and breaks in. Felicity gets lucky by throwing a pot of hot coffee on him and distracts him enough for William to escape.

He soon gets the upper hand on her before a transition, leaving us wondering what happens.

In that time, Oliver had gotten in a fight in prison where there was a messenger from Diaz to tell him that Felicity and William are dead.

Soon after, Oliver gets a visitor, who turns out to be an alive Felicity. ARGUS arrived just in time it turns out and Diaz escaped.

This whole incident causes Oliver to reassess his demeanor in prison, as he now goes into the prison yard and beats the crap out of multiple guys, especially the messenger for Diaz.

This was incredibly brutal and just what I wanted to see from the prison storyline. Oliver has proven in the past to not hold back and with violence and that's what he finally does here.

The episode ends without us learning who the new Green Arrow is, though we see them crossing a name off a list similar to Oliver in season one. The end also brings a huge reveal that was teased throughout the episode.

We randomly see a new guy on a boat going to Lian Yu, where he eventually is trapped by Roy.

However, the big reveal at the end is that the guy is actually an adult William and Roy is now older, with this taking place 20 years later as confirmed after the episode by the showrunner.

This was a crazy reveal that definitely is up there with the best in the Arrowverse.

Arrow builds off its very strong finish to last season with one of the best season openers in the entire Arrowverse.

The final surprise was something we did not see coming and really has us excited for what more is to come this season.

Wanna read more on this? Check these out: Arrow Season 7 Episode 4 Review: 'Level Two' (more); Arrow Season 7 Episode 3 Review: 'Crossing Lines' (more); Arrow Season 7 Episode 2 Review: 'The Longbow Hunters' (more); Superman And Lois Lane Confirmed To Appear In Big Arrowverse Crossover Episodes (more).

And here are some more related articles: Arrow Star Stephen Amell Wrestling A Singles Match At 'All In' Event (more); Arrow Season 7 Premiere Title And Director Revealed (more); Synopses Revealed For Upcoming Seasons Of Arrow And DC's Legends of Tomorrow (more).

A few more: Arrow Season 6 Episode 20 Review: Shifting Allegiances (more); Black Lightning Star Addresses Possibility Of Crossing Over Into Arrowverse (more).