What Happened at the End of 'Arrow' and Will There Be a Spin-Off Series?

The CW found a golden pony in its Arrow TV adaptation. Although Oliver Queen is a lot like Bruce Wayne but with a bow and arrow and more prone to wisecracks, that didn't stop fans from flocking to the show and embracing the green-hooded justice seeker with open arms. After eight seasons, the show opened up "multiverse" DC hero shows like The Flash, Supergirl, Batwoman, Legends of Tomorrow, and Black Lightning.

Now, the series is over, and some longtime fans are asking for the ending to be explained.

If you haven't seen the series finale and don't want to see any spoilers, then you should probably stop reading right now.

So here's what happened in "Fadeout," the closing episode of the CW's take on Oliver. The hero has indeed died, sacrificing himself to ensure that the world will be safe to go on. So what happened to all of his allies?

There were three separate storylines going on at the same time. In Storyline 1, the Star City's heroes are reconciling themselves with the fact that they're living in a new world after the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths. Storyline 2 follows a league of top-tier heroes on the lookout for Oliver's son, William Clayton, after learning that he's been kidnapped from his grandparents' place in Central City.

The third storyline has everything to do with the people that Oliver left behind after he passed. The show follows them dealing with his death and mourning the hero who gave everything for those around him.

A lot of the plot points circle around the differences between the pre and post Crisis Arrowverse events. For example, the documentary Pedowitz created about the tension between vigilantes and police has changed to a memoriam of sorts for Oliver instead.

Crime has been all but eradicated in Star City, and the police are able to handle most cases with ease. There are no "big players" that need to be taken care of with extracurricular means.

So what are a bunch of masked heroes to do then? Drink, of course. Arsenal, Black Siren, and Black Canary, all toasted to newfound peace and ruminated on what their futures held for them.

The five heroes and allies of Oliver Queen all got matching tattoos based on a design from the hooded hero himself: The Mark of Four. The symbol gets its name from the four pillars of heroism: courage, loyalty, selflessness, and compassion. It's the mark that kept Oliver's head straight whenever he felt himself going astray. 

A huge reveal in the series finale is that several characters who were thought to have died were actually alive in the post-crisis Arrowverse, like his mom, his best friend Tommy Merlyn, his mentor Quentin, and half-sister Emiko. When Oliver became The Spectre, he was able to reverse a lot of grisly deaths as he was reconstituting the Arrowverse world.

Another surprise is that the long-standing fan theory that John Diggle would be getting that glowing green ring actually happened. While we don't see him put the ring on, we catch glimpses of him gazing into a glowing meteorite. It's safe to say that John Diggle's future as the Green Lantern is pretty much solidified.

The pilot episode of Green Arrow and the Canaries shed more light into Arrow's finale, but the show hinted that Queen's daughter would be taking up the GA helm.

So what's next for Star City's heroes now that crime has been pretty much obliterated? Well, there's a greater cosmic threat to worry about, which was hinted at with Supergirl's earth-38 merger with Earth Prime.

What we can also look out for are more superhero mash-ups and crossovers. What did you think of Arrow's finale?