Here’s the definition of a fadeout: The tapered piece of wood that fades out into the limb from the riser.

That seems wildly appropriate as a title for this gentle, introspective and character facing finale. Don’t get me wrong, there’s action galore here and in multiple time frames too. But when it comes down to it, that action is turned to serve the characters, and to show the lasting effects Oliver Queen has had on the world.

As Team Arrow, old and new, gather for his funeral two things become apparent: the world is very different and the work has to change. The first is expressed through the episode’s best moments, all of them quiet, all of them packing emotional heft. The offhand reveal that Quintin Lance never died is especially well handled because he’s such a fundamentally decent man. It also explains why an entire episode earlier in the season was dedicated to Oliver letting him go. This man is to all intents and purposes, his father. Seeing him alive says the world about his own fundamental decency and the depth of Oliver’s love for him.

Likewise the offhand, and devastating, moment where Laurel asks her dad why Oliver didn’t change her life so the original Laurel came back. His reply, that Oliver didn’t see anything that needed fixing is so sweet and heartfelt it actually draws you up short. It also reminds you this city, these people, have been through Hell for eight straight years. Now, at last, they can draw a breath.

But not much of one. As I say, we get a case to work in the present day when William is kidnapped and one in the past. Together they show how Oliver and his team have grown and changed, the bonds of trust between them and the creation of something much, much bigger: a legacy. There’s been some talk about if Katherine McNamara is up to taking over as Green Arrow. It’s addressed, overtly, here as Mia struggles to not buckle under the weight of dad’s cowl.

But when the chips are down she makes the best choice and doesn’t hesitate to do so. MacNamara will be fine, better than fine even. The backdoor pilot for a spinoff featuring her and the Canaries proved that and this episode does so even more emphatically.

But Oliver is still dead, or at least, gone and Star City is, we know, functionally crime free for 20 years. The wisdom of that choice, or lack thereof, may yet doom that spinoff but here it provides a welcome chance for the characters to move on. All of them changed, all of them made whole in ways they never expected. All of them heroes and all of them ready for what’s next. Which, in John Diggle’s case, may well be the Green Lantern series that just sold to HBO…

Whether that’s the case, ultimately, doesn’t matter. What does is that this gentle, kind piece of TV is a perfect capstone to a show about a trauma survivor who realized he deserved to be, and could be, so much more.

Verdict: Goodbye, Arrow and goodbye (for now, we suspect), Oliver. None of you failed this city. 9/10

Alasdair Stuart