Arrow Episode Guide: Season 8, Episode 9 - Green Arrow & The Canaries

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.




Plot

It's 2040 and Mia Queen's life couldn't be better. She just graduated from college and her boyfriend J.J. just proposed. Then two of her father's old friends showed up and suddenly Mia remembers being someone else... something else. Now one of her best friends has been kidnapped and the future her father sacrificed himself to save is in peril, leaving Mia no choice but to become the new Green Arrow.



Influences

Birds of Prey (idea of all female vigilante team)



Goofs

While Mia may have had her knowledge of how to fight restored by Laurel's device, it seems highly unlikely she'd be in the same physical condition she was as an underground pit-fighter as a rich debutante.

For a reformed supervillain, Laurel seems to be a pretty deep believer in the idea that people can't change and is adamant that J.J. Diggle has to be a bad guy because he was a bad guy in the original timeline.



Performances

Kat McNamara has a brilliant turn here, truly selling Mia's conflict between the life she rememebrs and the comfortable one her father wanted her to have.



Artistry

The aesthetic of Star City 2040 is solid, looking relatively close to the present day but with enough changes that it seems like a credible "not-too-distant future."



Trivia

The loft apartment above Dinah Drake's piano bar is modeled to resemble an old clock tower. In the classic Birds of Prey comics and the 2002 TV show, Barbara Gordon organized the team from an old clock tower.

The club where Mia holds her graduation part is called The Fish Net. This is a nod to the most famous fashion accessory of the various versions of Black Canary in the comics.



Technobabble

The device Laurel uses to restore Mia's memories was built by Cisco Ramon and replicated the telepathy of the Martian Manhunter.

Mia took classes in design theory and sustainable concepts. These allow her to recognize the plants in the background of the photo of Bianca as biophilic in nature, meant to power the building photosynthetically.



Dialogue Triumphs

Reporter: What would your dad think about your life choices?
Mia: My father saved Star City so that we can enjoy it. And he also never graduated college, so I think he'd be pretty impressed.

Mia: I spent my whole life looking at these pictures of my dad, all of the amazing things he did for the city, what a hero he was, wondering how I could possibly live up to that in anything I chose to do. And...And so I chose to do nothing.



Dialogue Disasters

Laurel: People are who they are, Mia, no matter what timeline, universe, or Earth, and that's not your fault.  (...says the reformed supervillain!)

Bianca: (after being saved, as everything blows up) Who are you bitches?!



Continuity

Laurel attempts to get a woman named Bianca Bertinelli to come with her, shortly before she is abducted by a group of men.

Star City's mayor in 2040 is someone named Ramirez, who is running for his third term. It is suggested that this might be Rene "Wild Dog" Ramirez, who was the mayor of The Glades in the original 2040 timeline.

Star City has a vigilante museum, which just received a $1 million donation from Victor and Maria Bertinelli.

In the new 2040, Oliver and Felicity's daughter Mia goes by Mia Queen rather than Mia Smoak.

In the new timeline, Mia has just graduated from college. In the original 2040 timeline, she ran away from home before graduating high school. She was also raised as part of the upper class.

Mia lives in Queen Manor, which was apparently restored and purchased by Felicity Smoak at some point in the last 20 years.

In the new 2040, John Diggle Jr. goes by JJ and is an art gallery manager rather than a gang leader.

JJ proposes to Mia. She accepts.

Dinah Drake is living in Star City 2040. She owns her own piano bar and lives in the loft above it.

Dinah says that she woke up in Star City 2040 the day after Oliver Queen's funeral. She also discovered there was no record of her ever having existed or there being a Black Canary in the post-Crisis timeline. She later says she felt it was the universe's way of telling her that she wasn't needed, despite her Canary Cry also being restored following the Crisis.

Sara Lance found Dinah living in 2040 and offered to take her back. Dinah decided to stay in the future.

There have been no major crimes in Star City for 20 years.

Bianca Bertinelli is a famous socialite and the adopted daughter of Helena Bertinelli.

According to Laurel, all hell breaks loose in Star City three days after Helena Bertinelli is found dead after being kidnapped.

The ring JJ proposed to Mia with belonged to Felicity and it's the same one Oliver proposed to her with. She says she knew she'd want to wear the family ring.

William Clayton says he's going to be the Man of Honor at Mia's wedding. He is revealed to be running Smoak Tech in the new reality and just broke up with his boyfriend, Keven. (I.E. The villain from the flash-forwards of Arrow season 7)  Apparently Keven didn't want to be tied down to one boyfriend.

Zoe Ramirez crashes Mia's graduation party, but Mia doesn't mind. This confirms that Zoe is alive in the new 2040 reality, but she is not part of the Canary Network since there is no Canary Network and there was no Dinah Drake around to train her as a child.

Connor Hawke crashes Mia's graduation party and Mia does mind, asking if he's out of rehab and if he's going to start a fight or set something on fire. Apparently, in the new reality, Connor is the bad son of the Diggle family, rather than the pre-Crisis future where he was an agent of Nightwatch and Mia's lover.

Bianca's ex-boyfriend, Trevor, is also in attendance at Mia's graduation party.

Mia never met Laurel or Dinah in the new post-Crisis reality.

Laurel restore Mia's memories of the pre-Crisis world with a device built my Cisco Ramon.

Dinah was married when she was 21.

According to Mia, Helena Bertinelli was a great mother to Bianca before Helena disappeared mysteriously. Since then, Helena has lived with her great-aunt and uncle.

Logan Bertinelli is Bianca's cousin who is involved in some shady business.

The vehicle they think is holding Bianca turns out to be carrying drugs or chemicals of some kind. Mia doesn't recognize them, but they look suspiciously like Mirakuru - the miracle serum that turned Slade Wilson into Deathstroke.

The vehicle is blown up by a man in a Deathstroke mask.

Mia hacks the computers in JJ Diggle's office based on Laurel's instance he must be this new Deathstroke. The only secret she finds is hat he was planning a vacation to Fiji for their honeymoon. He later breaks up with her because of her apparent distrust of him.

Trevor is revealed to be the new Deathstroke and he only kidnapped Bianca because she dumped him.

Trevor has a tattoo on one wrist that resembles the emblem on thee Queen family hozen. He makes reference to a boss who is a woman.

Bianaca is saved and informs everyone that a new Green Arrow saved her. She does not, however, mention them being a woman. This leads the press to ask William if he's the new Green Arrow, much to his amusement.

Laurel confesses to Dinah that the real reason she pushed Mia to recover her memories was because Mia was blamed for Star City falling apart within the next year and was called "The Woman Who Failed Star City." in one 2041 article.

Mia and JJ reconcile, but it looks like the wedding is still on hold.

Laurel temporarily moves in with Dinah, but says she plans to get a place of her own.

Dinah announces her intention to set up the Canary Network in the new Star City 2040 and asks Laurel to help.

William is kidnapped by a group who knock Mia out and leave her behind as the two were meeting before the bronze statue of Oliver Queen as Green Arrow in one city park.

The episode ends with someone using the same device that Laurel used on Mia on JJ Diggle, restoring his memories of being leader of the Deathstrokes


Location

Star City - 2040



Untelevised Adventures

We know virtually nothing of what happened to the heroes of Star City post-Crisis, apart from Rene Ramirez (maybe)eventually becoming Mayor of Star City and Dinah being sent forward in time.

There's an implication that Black Siren knew Huntress and worked with her in the revised timeline as she makes reference to Helena having old enemies. Could there have been a Birds of Prey team sometime in the gap between 2020 and 2040?


The Fridge Factor

Between her refusal to accept that JJ Diggle might be a good guy in the new reality and her general lack of competence throughout the episode, it's fair to say that Black Siren/Laurel Lance isn't a very good vigilante.


The Bottom Line

If it weren't for its connection to Arrow, it would be an easily forgettable, wholly generic action series pilot of the same school as VIP and Cleopatra 2525. Inoffensive, but hardly likely to encourage enthusiasm for the spin-off, particularly since Black Siren seems to have regressed into her formerly catty self and Dinah Drake is an after-thought, as usual.

Arrow Episode Guide: Season 8, Episode 7 - Purgatory

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.




Plot

Once again stranded on Lian Yu, Oliver and his allies must face a familiar enemy alongside Oliver's first ally in the battle against evil, as they struggle to build a weapon to aid the Monitor in the coming Crisis.


Influences

The flashbacks of Arrow: Season 1 and the comic-book storyline The Rise of Arsenal.


Goofs

As Roy, Rene and Dinah are flying to Lian Yu, Roy comments that it looks beautiful from above, saying that he's never seen it before. This contradicts the Arrow: Season 2.5 tie-in comic, where Roy and Oliver went to Lian Yu to check on Slade Wilson in his cell in Issue #19. (The canonicity of the comics has always been in question and this could be explained as something  Barry Allen's time-travel changed.)

It never is explained just who resurrected Fyers and his men or how Yao Fei came to know all about what brought them back. The obvious answer is that the Anti-Monitor brought them back in the same manner that the Monitor resurrected Lex Luthor and the Monitor brought Yao Fei back to mentor Oliver again, but the actual forces trying to stop Oliver are not named beyond their being responsible for the odd energy spikes.


Artistry

The scene where Roy has to have his arm cut off is tensely directed and tightly shot.


Trivia

As a result of the events of this episode, Roy Harper loses his right arm. In the pre-New 52 comics, Roy Harper lost his right arm just before the Rise of Arsenal mini-series, in a battle with the supervillain Prometheus. Roy officially lost his arm in Justice League: Cry For Justice, but the aftermath was explored in the Fall of Green Arrow and Rise of Arsenal mini-series.

This episode ended with a scene involving Nash Wells from The Flash, setting up Crisis on Infinite Earths. This scene is described in detail in the entry for F608.


Technobabble

The past few days have seen several odd energy spikes on Lian Yu. Somehow, this has restored the island's vegetation, which had all been killed after Adrian Chase firebombed the island in 523. The device which Dr. Wong designed should enable them to harness those energy spikes for some undefined purpose.

Mia knows the formula for calculating the volume of a sphere by memory: 4/3 pi times radius squared. She does not, however, know the Pauli exclusion principle of quantum physics.

William says the coding and design sequences for Dr. Wong's device are more complicated than anything he's ever seen, including 2040 technology.

There is a double helix genetic sequence in the code for Dr. Wong's device. William thought it was an error at first, but he now believes a person with a certain genetic sequence needs to trigger the device. After Oliver tries and fails to activate it, they seize upon having Lyla Michaels try it.


Dialogue Triumphs

Oliver: (voice-over) The name of the island they found me on is Lian Yu. It's Mandarin for "purgatory". Now I understand why. The memories, the pain... I've never escaped them. They're always with me; a reminder of what I had to endure with only one thought, one goal... Survive. To save the multiverse, I must become something else. To do that, I have to return to where my journey began. Purgatory.

Oliver: There's no easy way to say this. Mar Novu has seen my fate. I don't survive Crisis.
William: What do you mean?
Oliver: I mean that he told me what would happen to me the day that he walked in and asked for my help.
Mia: And when exactly were you planning on telling us?!
Oliver: I've been fighting my fate because of the two of you, and I can't fight it, I can't change it.
Mia: So you're just giving up?!
Oliver: I am attempting to save the multiverse, and I'm trying to keep the two of you safe. We're gonna build the weapon, we're gonna finish this mission, and that's the way that it has to be.
Mia: (cooly) Well, then I guess we better get to it.

Lyla: I'm sorry our first meeting had to be this. I envisioned getting to know my future son over a meal, not en route to a plane crash.
Connor: This... this feels about right for our family. Most of our milestones got interrupted by some sort of international emergency or another.
Lyla: Yeah. I guess your dad and I weren't really there for you and J. J.
Connor: You were there when it counted. Besides, I was beyond proud to be the son of the two superspies that co-founded Knightwatch.
John: You never mentioned that.
Connor: I.. think maybe I wasn't supposed to. Time travel rules and all.

Oliver: Yao Fei? Are you real?
Yao Fei: As real as the men you hunt.
Oliver: Why'd you try to shoot me?
Yao Fei: Like the first time. To keep you from danger.
Oliver: No one can keep me from danger. Okay? Not even you.
Yao Fei: Because you are fated to die? There are forces at play that want you to not succeed.
Oliver: Fyers and his men know about the weapon, and they want to use it for themselves? 
(Yao Fei just nods.)
Oliver: All right. Well, who else has, um, returned?
Yao Fei: Only those who were with you from the beginning, but you must not let the evil that tempted you at the start distract you at the end.
Oliver: He's coming after more than my mission, Yao Fei, you understand? I'm not gonna let that happen.
Yao Fei: Last time you tried to do alone did not end well.
Oliver: I'm not that person anymore.
Yao Fei: I will hope.

Digg:  How you feeling?
Roy: I... I've been better.
Digg: I'm so sorry, Roy. I should have found another way to get you out.
Roy: This wasn't your fault.
Digg: Yeah. Well, that's where you're wrong. I mean, you wouldn't even be in this situation if I hadn't come to find you in Hub City. (sighs) Roy I can't protect the people I care about.
Roy: You know I worked with you and Oliver for a really long time. And if I've learned anything, it's that this team has each other's backs no matter the cost. Things just didn't exactly go as planned.
Digg: That's an understatement.
Roy: No, but I would rather be here. I would rather be here with you and with the team than back in Hub City, living a life all alone. Heroes make sacrifices, John, and for better or for worse, this just had to be mine.

Digg: You know, Oliver, I once told you a long time ago that a soldier never lets a brother go into battle alone. I think that's why it was so hard for me to accept the idea that you weren't gonna make it out of this. I felt like I'd be failing you.
Oliver: You could never fail me, John.
Digg: I'm gonna stick by your side for as long as I can, but I know you have to do this alone.
Oliver: Every mission has an end.
Digg: I wish this one didn't.
Oliver: I couldn't have done any of this, any of it without you. You've always been my rock.
Digg: Don't mean the best man you've ever known?
Oliver: I also mean that.
(The two hug.)

(Oliver is looking over the graves of those he left behind on Lian Yu. Mia emerges behind him.)
Mia: Um, William said I might find you here.
Oliver: Figured you'd be the first one on the boat. You okay?
Mia: My whole life I heard nothing but stories about you, you know, this legendary Green Arrow and his team. I should have been proud of you, because you were a hero, and All I could see is that that is the reason that you weren't with me, and it's it's kind of hard to let that go.
Oliver: I never meant to cause you any pain. Your mom and me just wanted to protect you.
Mia: I know. I, uh I understand that now.
Oliver: For a very long time, I have hated this place. Just I'd think about all the people that it took from me. It would just It would just make me so angry.
Mia: But you're not now?
Oliver: I'm still a little bit angry. This island taught me to survive. It turned me into someone else, somebody better than the person I was before. So despite my feelings... There are no stories about the Green Arrow to tell if I don't make my way to Lian Yu. And I'm also not standing at this moment, looking at my daughter.
Mia: Thank you for letting me be a part of your story. Even if it was only for a little while.
Oliver: (smiling) Mia, something tells me you're gonna create your own stories.
(The two hug.) 

(As Oliver and Mia head toward the beach, the skies suddenly turn read and thunder fills the air. Lyla Michaels appears before them, wearing odd armor.)
Oliver: Lyla?
Harbinger: Not anymore. I'm now a Harbinger of things to come.
Mia: And that's-?
Harbinger: Yes. The Crisis has begun.


Continuity

William refers to his first trip to Lian Yu, as seen in the flash-fowards of 701.

William, Connor and Mia were brought to Lian Yu by ARGUS agents storming the Bunker, under Lyla's orders.

Lyla reveals that Dr. Wong from 802 has been experimenting with the dwarf star particles Oliver retrieved in 801 and has devised schematics for something they need William to build.

Dinah, Roy and Rene are flying in from Star City with the plutonium John and Roy retrieved in 805.

Oliver tells William and Mia about how the Monitor said he is fated to die during the Crisis.

Lyla explains that she first saw the Monitor years earlier when she survived an IED explosion that took out the rest of her unit in Afghanistan. The Monitor revealed that he had saved her for a purpose and that she would have to help him years later to find heroes strong enough to fight the coming Crisis.

Dinah knows how to fly a plane.

Roy has apparently never been to Lian Yu before.

Some kind of missile shoots down Dinah's plane.

Something is jamming the radio signals, preventing Team Arrow from communicating across Lian Yu.

William is able to pinpoint where the cockpit of the plane wound up as well as where the plutomniu, canister went.

Diggle, Connor and Lyla go to find the rest of the team, as Oliver and Black Siren go to get the plutonium. 

Connor lets it slip that Lyla and Diggle go on to found Knightwatch in the future.

They find Dinah helping a limping, wounded Rene to walk away from the crash site. They say they have no idea where Roy is.

Lyla helps Rene back to their base camp, while Connor, Dinah and Diggle go to search for Roy.

Oliver and Black Siren find the plutonium, but are attacked by Eddie Fyers and Billy Wintergreen and their men.  They are able to fight them off, but Fyers and Wintergreen get away.

Fyers says that he was given a new lease on life but does not elaborate how he is alive.

Oliver sends Black Siren back to camp with the plutonium while he goes chasing after Fyers alone.

Oliver runs into Yao Fei, who is also somehow alive again.

Dinah, Diggle and Connor find Roy trapped near a puddle of fuel that is near sparking plane wiring. His arm is pinned by a piece of the plane's landing gear and he says he can't feel it.

Connor has a medical kit in his pack that could allow him to safely amputate Roy's arm. Diggle, however, refuses to give up on trying to lever the landing gear off his arm.

Dinah leaves to investigate someone crashing through the brush nearby. It turns out to be Black Siren.

Dinah and Black Siren move to distract Fyers men as Connor cuts off Roy's arm.

Oliver and Yao Fei find Fyer's camp, but get caught in a pair of steel wire net traps.

Mia goes after Oliver on her own when she learns he went off on his own.

William tells Mia about how Felicity let him watch their dad in action through a video monitor in 611 and how that showed him how Oliver could cheat death better than anyone.

Digg apologizes to Roy for not being able to save his arm but Roy says he's happy to be here with his friends doing something to save the universe than living an ordinary life along in Hub City.

Lyla activates the device, which causes all the previously dead people on Lian Yu to vanish. She then says she has to go and vanishes through a breach.

Lyla arranged for an ARGUS boat to come pick everyone up before she vanished.

Oliver says his goodbyes to Dinah and Rene and Roy.

Roy says John has arranged for him to get to see a fancy ARGUS doctor about his missing arm.

William tries to give the Queen family Hozen back to Roy Harper. Roy says it should stay in the family.

Oliver says his goodbyes to Digg, but makes two requests: make sure their kinds get back to 2040 safely and tell Felicity that she needs to make sure William and Mia grow up together. Diggle agrees.

Oliver goes to visit the graves of those he left on Lian Yu before going. Mia finds him there and they make their peace.

Mia and Oliver are confronted by Lyla, as the skies turn red and lightning fills the air.


Location

Lian Yu.


The Bottom Line

A bit lackluster in terms of action, but absolutely essential in giving all the regular players a chance to take a final bow and Oliver to make peace with everyone he hadn't had a chance to talk to yet. Also pivotal to Crisis since it sets up Lyla's transformation into Harbinger.

Apart from that nothing really notable happens, which makes it all the stranger they chose NOW of all times to adapt The Fall of Arsenal into the Arrowverse. Maybe they're setting up Colton Haynes to appear as Cyborg Roy in Green Arrow and The Canaries? Either way, it's am unpleasant addition to the canon,

Arrow Episode Guide: Season 8, Episode 6 - Reset

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.




Plot

Betrayed by Lyla Michaels, Oliver and Black Siren find themselves in a familiar life-and-death situation with Quentin Lance, which gives the Laurel Lance of Earth 2 a chance to repent as Oliver tries to make peace with the inevitable.


Influences

Groundhog Day (specifically called out by Quentin and Oliver, theme of a person repeating a day until they learn a lesson.) Edge of Tomorrow (a soldier is continually sent through a cycle with memories of how he died while accomplishing a mission) and Arrow Season 6 and 7.


Performances

Paul Blackthorne is a delight and it's great to see him back for one final turn as Quentin.


Trivia

This episode was directed by David Ramsey, who plays John Diggle.

Each time Oliver wakes up, he hears a basketball game on the radio where one of the teams playing is the Star City Comets. In the DC Universe, the Comets are a professional basketball franchise, which was mentioned once in Black Lighting: Year One. The team was apparently once the Metropolis Comets, but moved to Star City after the franchise declared bankruptcy and switched cities.

Quentin's first words to Oliver, asking him if he's seen a ghost, may be a shout out to Green Arrow: Quiver, where the first words Oliver Queen says involving telling the civilian he just saved that he looks like he saw a ghost, in the scene which reveals that Oliver Queen is alive and well after having died in the previous Green Arrow series. 


Technobabble

The detonator for the bomb under the police station operates on an detonator oscillating frequency. This means that the right frequency being projected at it should disrupt it.

ARGUS is able to analyze the bomb and trace the chemical signature back to a certain building, which they determine is the mercenary's hideout.


Dialogue Triumphs

Oliver: We've had this exact conversation already.
Quentin: What are you talking about?
Oliver: (sighs, hesitant as he finally speaks) Fully aware of how this is going to sound. Quentin, I'm trapped in some sort of... time loop, where the same events just keep repeating themselves.
Quentin: Like Groundhog Day. 
Oliver: Sure, except this one ends a lot of people dead, including the two of us.
(There's a long pause as Quentin considers this.) 
Quentin: Okay. How can I help?
Oliver: You actually believe me?!
Quentin: Oliver, I've seen one daughter die and come back to life twice. I've seen another come from some other Earth. I've seen a guy in red run so fast he can reverse time. This is not exactly outside the norm, is it? Also, I'm done learning my lesson about doubting you because that always bites me in the ass. (chuckles)

(Dinah and Black Siren look at the bomb.)
Dinah: I have an idea.
(Dinah activates the Canary Cry device on her bracelet. It triggers a sonic attack which fries the bomb.)
Black Siren: (smiling) We did it.
(She gives Dinah the side-eye, apparently feeling her glaring at her.) 
Black Siren: (sighs) Okay. Fine. YOU did it.

Quentin: So you're telling me we're in some kind of a alternate reality based on the plot of a Bill Murray movie?
Black Siren: Well, I was gonna go with a Tom Cruise flick. But basically...

(Black Siren and Quentin have fallen back to a staircase. Quentin is wounded and bleeding out.)
Quentin: Oh, I'm sorry, baby girl. Looks like we lost this round.
Black Siren: No. No! I am not letting you die again.
Quentin: It's too late...
Black Siren: No!
Quentin: It... it's it's time to say good-bye.
Black Siren: I'm not giving up on you, Quentin. Quentin! I am not giving up on you. You never gave up on me. You believed in me when nobody else did.
Quentin: Well, that's what dads do. They believe.
Black Siren: I want you to know that you are the reason that I'm trying to be a hero. It's because of you.
Quentin: Sweetheart you are a hero. (firmly) You are.
Black Siren: (sobbing) Thank you. Thank you. I never had the chance to tell you how much you mean to me.
Quentin: Well...I think you just did.

(Quentin and Oliver are barricade in a stairwell. Quentin has been shot in the side, but it's just a flesh wound... for now.)
Oliver: We are gonna find a way out of this. There has to be a way to fix it, and we are gonna find it, Quentin. It doesn't matter how many times. We're gonna find it!
Quentin: (laughs) Yeah? Sure. What's it gonna be, 60 times, 100 times?
Oliver: It's gonna be however many times it takes!
Quentin: You know, getting hunted like this in a space like this is kind of like what I was doing to you all those years ago. Remember? (grunting as he forces himself to his feet) Sort of makes sense I'd go out like this now, don't you think?
Oliver: Would you please just save your strength-
Quentin: For what? Oliver, you take care of these guys, there'll be more behind them, there will be more behind them. There is no saving me from this! Okay? You ever think that's the point? Maybe you're not supposed to.
Oliver: I'm not giving up. And you're not giving up either.
Quentin: Oh, no, no, no. I'm not giving up. Maybe I'm giving in. You see, I've been outrunning death for a while now. The siege... the island... But when Diaz shot me, that felt different... like I was finally at the end. And I made my peace with that. And maybe it's time you did, too.
(Red sniper dots start shining through the windows)
Quentin: It looks like fate's knocking.
Oliver: (barely able to speak, finally growling the words out.) Just... just... You just get ready to move.
(Quentin closes his eyes and takes off his bullet proof vest, before moving towards the door with the snipers. Oliver looks at him, sad, but doesn't try to stop him.)
Quentin: I'll see you on the other side, Oliver.
(Quentin goes through the door to face certain death.)
Oliver: (quietly) Quentin.
(Everything goes white as the reset triggers again.)


Continuity

Oliver wakes up on a couch in his apartment in a suit while hearing a radio broadcast of the Star City Comets playing.

Mia, Connor and William return to the apartment from getting take-out at Big Belly Burger.

Connor says that Big Belly Burger in the past tastes better than in their time. Mia says it tastes the same. William says the taste of the food changed following a merger with Gwespin Foods sometime between 2019 and 2040.

Oliver attends a fundraiser the city council is holding for the SCPD/Vigilante Partnership, which is apparently intended to take their program global.

In this reality, Quentin Lance survived being shot by Ricardo Diaz and went on to become Mayor of Star City after Oliver Queen was arrested for being the Green Arrow. Apparently, the events of Season 7 played out exactly the same, with Oliver being freed from prison and Oliver and the SCPD spearheading a new program where vigilantes acted as deputized lawmen.

According to John Diggle, Oliver, Diggle and Black Siren were tranquilized two nights ago and Lyla was a double-agent spying on the Monitor. Oliver has no memory of any of this.

The fundraiser is being held in the Palmer Tech offices, which were apparently never blown up in this reality.

A group of mercenaries take a dozen officers hostage at the SCPD and their leader demands to speak to Mayor Lance.

In the first time through the cycle, the leader of the terrorists says the only way out is for Oliver to stop it before trigger a dead man's switch that triggers a bomb.

In the second time through the cycle, Oliver tries to tell both John Diggle and Quentin Lance about the time loop. Only Quentin believes him. He runs into Black Siren as he goes to disarm the bomb under the police station. She says that she's in the same time loop and this is also her second time around, but she woke up in the Team Arrow Bunker. They accidentally trigger a fail-safe on the bomb and agree to meet together at the fundraiser on the next trip.

In the third time through the cycle, Black Siren meets Oliver at the fundraiser. This time, they tip off everyone and Dinah and Black Siren are able to short out the bomb together. Unfortunately, a sniper kills Quentin once the bomb is defused and the mercenaries are arrested.

The fourth time, Black Siren tries to hide Quentin in the bunker as Oliver tries to figure out who hired the mercenaries in the first place. Oliver is able to get John Diggle to help him this time with analyzing the bomb. This leads them to the mercenaries hide-out, where they trigger a booby trap that blows up, injuring Oliver, Black Siren and Quentin. This time, Lyla shows up, tells Oliver he is missing the point and can't fight this before shooting Quentin and starting the cycle again.

The fifth time, Oliver tells Black Siren that he thinks this is a test but she thinks it's a punishment for defying the Monitor. Lyla is not at the fundraiser this time. They go back to the mercenary hideout with Quentin but don't trigger the booby trap. Oliver is able to hack the computers to track the mercenaries to the Anderson White - CEO of a company named Global Solutions, who has been accused but not convicted of money laundering and racketeering. Quentin is caught in the crossfire as the security team attacks them. As he is dying, Black Siren gets the chance to say goodbye to Quentin and tell him she is trying to become a hero because of him. He tells her she is a hero before the reset hits again.

The sixth time, Oliver goes to the Bunker and can't find Laurel. Lyla is there and tells Oliver that Laurel got what she needed out of this, so she isn't coming back. She tells Oliver once again that the only way to win is to accept the inevitable. Despite this Oliver goes to Quentin and takes him with him to confront Anderson White directly. Oliver gets on his computer and discovers that White is a middle man who organizes hits for other people as a side gig from his CEO job. They are caught by White's security and cornered. This time, Quentin tells Oliver that he probably was meant to die and that it's okay for Oliver to let go of him.

The seventh time, Oliver tells his kids and Connor how proud he is of them and how he's glad he got the chance to get to know them. He goes to the fundraiser and asks Quentin, in private, when he realized that Oliver wasn't the bad guy he thought he was. Quentin says his daughters vouching for Oliver helped. Oliver thanks Quentin for everything and excuses himself before Rene comes in with the news about the hostage situation.

Lyla approaches Oliver and confirms that this was another test to teach Oliver a lesson - to embrace the inevitable and not try to fight it. She says the test was necessary because Oliver has never been the sort of person to do what he's told and he had to be shown.

Lyla says she's been working with the Monitor for a while and hiding that has been the hardest thing she's ever had to do.

Lyla confirms that a great evil is coming and the Monitor has foreseen that the only chance they have of stopping it requires Oliver Queen be alive and ready to give himself for the ultimate cause.

Lyla says that everything Oliver has done so far - even retrieving the energy wave weapon in Russia - was part of the Monitor's plan and that he has one more mission to accomplish.

Lyla also confirms that the Monitor was responsible for bringing Oliver, Connor and Mia back in time and that it was a reward for Oliver's willingness to sacrifice - a chance to get to know the children he'd never see as adults otherwise.

Oliver wakes up in a tent with Black Siren, who is just waking up after having left Quentin behind. Oliver affirms his belief that the Monitor was rewarding them - giving him time with his kids and giving Black Siren the closure she needed with Quentin.

The two exit the tent to find John, Connor, Mia and William... and that they are on Lian Yu.


Location

Star City on an undetermined Earth, where Quentin Lance survived Ricardo Diaz's attempt to kill him and became Mayor of Star City, only to die several months later after Oliver Queen spearheaded an effort to see vigilantes made deputized lawmen.


The Bottom Line

A solid episode and possible contender for one of the best episodes of the series' history. The performances are all powerful and the tone stays serious while allowing for a little dark comedy. The final season continues to roll forward with all cylinders firing.

Arrow Episode Guide: Season 8, Episode 4 - Present Tense

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.




Plot

Faced with a mysterious new Deathstroke, the original Team Arrow and their time-displaced proteges from the future must join forces.


Influences

The Shawshank Redemption (Curtis makes reference to it, as the team crawl through the sewers to stop Grant Wilson's bombs) and the Rebirth Deathstroke comic. (Mention of Buredunia.)


Goofs

The usual rules regarding paradox and changing your own past are handily ignored by Team Arrow 2040. (Presumably whoever brought them back in time is also preventing paradox from affecting them?)


Performances

Ben Lewis and Stephen Amell have great interplay as the older William and Oliver.


Trivia

While trying to determine the identity of the new Deathstroke, it is said that Slade Wilson is currently in Buredunia.  This is a fictional nation on the eastern side of the African continent in the DC Comics universe, which featured in the Deathstroke Rebirth comic series.

The new Deathstroke is eventually revealed to be Grant Wilson - Slade Wilson's eldest son. In a potential future shown on Legends of Tomorrow, Grant Wilson was responsible for exposing Oliver Queen's secret identity to the world and took over the Star City of 2046.

In the original comics, Grant Wilson was the first Ravager - an assassin who tried to follow in Deathstroke's footsteps. When his body was destroyed by the experimental treatments that HIVE developed in an effort to mimic the formula that made Slade Wilson into a super soldier, Wilson swore revenge on the Titans and promised to fulfill his son's contract on the superhero team.

At the end of the episode, Grant Wilson is sent to Blackgate in Gotham City. In the DC Comics Universe, Blackgate Penitentiary is the prison reserved for non-super-powered criminals in Gotham City.


Technobabble

The Deathstrokes send secret messages in an ink that only shows up on wet paper under a black light.

Grant Wilson sets up his bombs on a relay device that can be detonated remotely by a phone.

The relay device is revealed to be an intervalometer, pulsating in a consistently synchronized pattern. It has a transfer switch embedded into the mainframe. Disconnecting the red wire deactivates it.


Dialogue Triumphs

William: Dad, we all have the chance to get to know each other now.
Oliver: If your sister will let me.
William: Mia will come around. You know, she can be a little bit a little bit stubborn and hard to reach sometimes.
Oliver: (dryly) Shocker. Where'd she get that from?
William: (dryly) Mom, I guess.
(The two laugh.)

Mia: You know, I survived my whole life without you. I don't need you to play Dad now.
Oliver: Hey! I'm not playing Dad. I am simply telling you that it is not tactically wise to go out there by yourself...
Mia: Fine. I'll take Laurel.
Oliver: (clearing throat) ...when you are letting your decisions be driven by your emotions. Trust me! I've been there!
Mia: You don't get a say. You gave up that right when you left me and Mom alone in that cabin! How could you just abandon us?!
Oliver: Because I chose to keep you safe, and I chose right.
Mia: You just wanted to be a hero, so you put your mission above your family! Don't worry! You'll learn to live without me pretty easy. Just like I learned to live without you

Oliver: She's right. I chose to go with the Monitor. I abandoned her. I haven't earned a say.
William: Yeah, but that doesn't mean she doesn't want you to have one or or that you shouldn't, and I'm saying that from experience.
Oliver: You have kids in the future?
William: Oh, God, no. I mean, don't get me wrong. Kids are a miracle or whatever, but I was actually referring to when I left you to go live with grandma and grandpa.
Oliver: Yeah. That one's still pretty fresh for me.
William: Right. I mean I... I thought you hated my guts. I hated you for abandoning me.
Oliver: I tried.
William: True, but I wanted you to try harder, push a little more. I think that's all any child wants from their parents.
Oliver: I'm sorry.
William: It's okay. Dad, I am glad that you're in my life. Then and now. And Mia will be, too.


Continuity

It is revealed that John was teleported to Star City, along with Oliver and Team Arrow 2040.

Dinah and Rene learn that Felicity was pregnant and had a daughter named Mia. In the original 2040 timeline, they didn't meet Mia until she was an adult and didn't find out she was Felicity and Oliver's daughter until later.

Connor accidentally lets it slip that John Diggle adopts him, not knowing they had traveled back in time to before that happened.

William tells Oliver that he never saw him again after he left him to live with his grandparents and nobody is sure what happened to Ollie in the future. He just vanished and was presumed dead. He also says that he never saw Felicity again until recently in his time.

William tells Oliver that he became a tech magnate in the future.

William also tells Oliver that he's gay. Oliver says he already knew that.

Archroyal Capital CEO MacMillan Fairfield is the first victim of the new Deathstroke, who sews a bomb into his stomach, timing it to go off inside Starling General Hospital.

Dr. Eliza Schwartz, who frequently treated Team Arrow on the down-low, is killed in the bomb explosion.

Team Arrow determines the new Deathstroke is not Slade Wilson or Kane Wolfman.

Curtis Holt, last seen in 722, comes out of retirement to help fight the new Deathstroke.

Rene is currently running for a City Councilman position in Star City.

Oliver has a sample of cloth clipped by the antimatter wave that destroyed Earth-2. He asks for Curtis to analyze it and find a way to replicate the effect.

Connor accidentally mentions the Canaries to Dinah, describing them as an organization comparable to Knightwatch in his time. High praise indeed, considering he compared ARGUS to a kindergarten glass, relative to the power Knightwatch held in 2040.

According to Connor, "Star City's cancer is the rich" is JJ's favorite catch-phrase.

Team Arrow 2040 find the new Deathstroke in the building that becomes Galaxy One's corporate headquarters in 2040. They are shocked, however, to find the new Deathstroke is not John Diggle Jr., but Grant Wilson - Slade Wilson's older son.

Connor recalls that Grant Wilson founded the Deathstrokes and trained John Diggle Jr., who eventually took over the gang from him.

After Connor reveals to Diggle that his son becomes the leader of the Deathstrokes in the future, William comes clean about the rest of the bad news about the future they tried to keep hidden. Namely, that Zoe Ramirez is dead at John Diggle Jr's hand, that Star City 2040 is a terrible place run by crooked cops and politicians and that Rene Ramirez getting elected to City Council was the start of things going wrong.

The team figures out one big thing has already changed - in the original timeline, Grant Wilson's base was never blown up in 2019. Since that has changed his plans, that may mean the future can be changed and the Deathstrokes can be arrested before they become the cult heroes that inspired John Diggle Jr.

Zoe hates mint chocolate chip ice cream, saying it tastes like toothpaste.

Mia goes to investigate the hopsital bomb site with Black Siren.

Black Siren admits that she doesn't like Oliver and thinks he's a dick.

Black Siren makes reference to the events of 706 and how she talked Felicity out of killing Ricardo Diaz.

Connor and William are able to disarm the bomb.

Mia and Oliver are able to capture Grant Wilson.

Grant Wilson is sent to Blackgate Prison in Gotham City and it is said he'll be there for at least 20 years.

Connor and Diggle make peace.

Rene decides to continue his run for office, but focus on not letting the bad future he heard about happen.

Dinah and Black Siren discuss forming the Canaries a few years early.

Dinah resolves to keep training Zoe.

Curtis tells Oliver he figured out how to replicate the energy wave, but it will require tools he doesn't have, plutonium and be highly illegal. He does, however have a lead on a General who may have the tools they need. He currently lives in Russia.

Black Siren is approached by The Monitor, who says he can restore Earth-2 if she betrays Oliver Queen.


Untelevised Adventures

It is never revealed what Oliver and John were doing when they were teleported to Star City.


The Bottom Line

Better than it has any right to be, given that most of its drama is based around various characters being mad about things that haven't happened yet but which might happen, unless they decide to try and stop it from happening. The effects of this on the timeline are largely ignored and it's still unclear at the end if John Diggle Jr. might be redeemed and Zoe Ramirez might still be alive in the future. Still, there's a lot of good character moments (especially Oliver and William interacting) and the performances help salvage a very strange script.

Arrow Episode Guide: Season 8, Episode 3 - Leap of Faith

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.




Plot

Reunited with his sister, Thea, Oliver finds himself in a race against Talia Al Ghul and the Thanatos Guild in the catacombs of the League of Assassins' headquarters. Meanwhile, Diggle and Lyla embark on a special ops mission together, to save Bronze Tiger's family. And in the far future of Star City 2040, the new Team Arrow take the fight to the Deathstrokes.


Influences

Indiana Jones movies (name-dropped, general theme of exploring a booby-trapped tomb, the Phoenix tile puzzle is lifted directly from the "name of God" challenge in The Last Crusade) and the present-day storyline of Arrow Season 3 (focus on League of Assassins drama, Diggle and Lyla spywork)


Goofs

Many of the fights are shot too close. This would make it hard to see the action, if the poor lighting throughout the episode didn't make it impossible to see anything in general.

The Star City future storyline seems to suggest that the membership of the Star City Reunification movement is a big secret. Weren't they all present and trying to recruit new members at an incredibly open gala in the season 8 premiere?

The Thantos Guild die stupidly trying to get past Oliver (fully armed with a bow) and the booby trapped tomb of Al-Faith, by charging him one-at-a-time, while climbing down a rope.

Mia's throat-wound seems to heal up awfully quick when it's time for her to cradle Zoe and look anguished.


Performances

As always, Lexa Doig is a delight as Talia.


Trivia

This episode marks Katie Cassidy's directorial debut.

This episode introduces the Arrowverse version of Sandra Hawke - the girlfriend of Ben Turner and mother of Connor Hawke.

In the original Green Arrow comics, Sandra "Moonday" Hawke was one of Oliver Queen's many short-term girlfriends during his free-loving college days. She became pregnant as a result of one of their dates, but refused to seek support, being determined to prove she could make it on her own as a single mother. Her son, Connor, would go on to meet his father nearly two decades later and eventually take up his mantle, becoming the second Green Arrow.

This episode sees Lyla and John return to Kasnia - a fictional nation first introduced into the DC Comics lexicon by Superman: The Animated Series. It has been repeatedly used on Arrow, The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow whenever they needed a setting in Eastern Europe. On Earth-38, Kasnia was the nation which discovered the Supergirl clone that become known as The Red Daughter.


Technobabble

Felicity hard-wired the power grid of The Bunker through the floor. This can be used to electrocute anyone standing in the main room through a control hidden in a safe room.

Zoe makes use of a device that creates a stunning sonic attack similar to the Canary Cry. Sara Lance originally used this same device as The Canary in Season 2.


Dialogue Triumphs

(Oliver explains his bargain with The Monitor)
Oliver: He asked me to help him, but he's not very good at sharing information with the people he's working with.
Thea: (dryly) Sounds like somebody else I know.
Oliver: I need to be 100% sure that I can trust him. I know it's a long shot, but I was hoping that Nyssa could tell me what, if anything, the League knows about him.
Thea: Okay. What are you not telling me?
Oliver: He's seen the future. He's seen me die. It's soon, Speedy.
(There is a pause as Thea looks at Oliver expectantly.) 
Thea: And?
Oliver: (deadpan) Take as much time as you need to be upset.
Thea: Ollie, come on. You've cheated death more than any of us have by this point.
Oliver: This is fundamentally different than anything that we've ever dealt with before.
Thea: Okay. Well, let's try to figure out what we're dealing with, but like I said, Nyssa's not here.
Oliver: Sara hasn't been able to help either.
Thea: We've kind of killed off every League member, haven't we?

Oliver: So now you're back to your old exploits?
Talia: With the League gone, the region has become quite unstable.
Thea: And you think training a bunch of assassins in a place like this is gonna stabilize it?
Talia: I think it a wiser course of action than declaring a one-woman war on the Thanatos Guild.

Thea: What is going on with you, Ollie? You were never this overprotective when I left Star City.
Oliver: Things have changed. I left my family behind, Speedy. And I miss them. And every day, I wrestle with whether or not I made the right decision because maybe I didn't. And I saw an entire world wiped out of existence. A world that you weren't in, by the way, because I wasn't around to protect you. I'm sorry, Thea, but the only way that I can bear this is if I become 100% certain that my sacrifice, that my death... will protect the people I love. I need my family to be safe.
Thea: You know, I've been thinking a lot about Mom and Dad lately, wondering what they would think about the lives we've chosen. All the mistakes they made, all the lies they told...In their own very, very messed up way, they thought they were protecting us.
Oliver: Well, they weren't. They didn't.
Thea: No, but it did help us become the people we are today. They turned us into heroes. We can't change the future, Ollie. The past teaches us you might as well not bother trying to.
Oliver: (chuckles) When you'd stop being my baby sister?
Thea: I never did. I just grew up a little bit. (sighs) Now can we please get off this mountain?
Oliver: Yeah.

Talia: It is your destiny.
Thea: Yeah, but, see, about that. I don't really believe in the whole fate, destiny thing. We can all make our own choices.
Talia: Meaning?
Thea: Meaning I don't think the world needs another League of Assassins. It could use League of Heroes. It wouldn't be a one-woman job.
Talia: You'd extend me that honor despite my betrayals?
Thea: You made a mistake. We've all made mistakes.
Talia: Not one but two women to wield my father's sword? He would be aghast. (Talia smiles and chuckles wickedly) I accept.

Oliver: I can't believe I'm saying good-bye to you again.
Thea: Well, you're not. Think of it as a "See you later, and please don't die."


Dialogue Disasters


The reactions to Zoe's death are pure hammy Narm.


Continuity

Oliver runs into Thea in the area around Nanda Parbat.

Oliver catches Thea up on recent events, including her new niece.

Thea makes reference to 303 and her time in Corto Maltese, where she used Mia as an alias.

Thea now has a scar on her right cheek - the result of a battle with Athena of the Thanatos Guild.

Nyssa Al Ghul is off dealing with some League business. Thea thinks she is in Thailand.

Thea saw Roy Harper, sometime after the events of 720, and he told her about the fight with The Ninth Circle. He is currently off "dealing with his demons/"

Oliver contacted Sara Lance regarding the League's history and any connection the Monitor might have to it. She didn't know anything.

Lyla has been keeping an eye on Sandra and Connor Hawke since Ben Turner was recruited to ARGUS. He's currently on a deep-cover mission and Sandra missed a check-in for the first time.

Lyla has pictures of Sandra and Connor at an airfield in Kasnia - far from where Ben is now and any mission he's ever run for any organization.

The plane in the photo of Sandra and Connor belongs to Abdul Nardoc - a Kasnia philanthropist who is believed to have terrorism ties.

Lyla needs John to work with her on this mission, because she's still ferreting out all the corruption within ARGUS and can't trust anyone else with this mission.

Oliver refers to the events of 705 and how Talia owes him a debt for helping her escape from prison. He agrees to consider the debt paid if she helps him find the answers he seeks regarding The Monitor among the League's records.

The Karan Shah is the formal name of the League of Assassin's fortress and central base of operations. It has been destroyed, but the catacombs underneath it remain intact.

Talia's father had the League's historical records moved into the catacombs to keep them safe.

One of Abdul Nardoc's associates is Farzad Qadir - the son of Gholem Qadir - the man Ben Turner killed to save Lyla Michaels' life while serving in the Suicide Squad in 216.

The Chronicles of Al-Fatih are the journal of the founder of the League of Assassins and the first man to hold the title Ra's Al Ghul. Legend has it that he was given advanced knowledge by one of the sky gods. Talia thinks this could be The Monitor. When the book is located, it contains a drawing of the Monitor and a note that the end times would come if the League ever abandoned their mission charge from "the sky god" to maintain the balance between good and evil.

Thea can read Arabic.

The Sword of Al-Fatih is a relic of equal power to the Ring of Ra's Al Ghul. Before the Ring of Ra's Al Ghul, whoever wielded the Sword of Al-Fatih was considered leader of the League of Assassins. It is believed to be interred in Al-Faith's secret tomb.

Burning the false Chronicles of Al-Fatih reveals a stone sphere, marked with constellations, which somehow reveal the true location of Al-Fatih's tomb. It turns out to be on top of the mountain where Oliver dueled Talia's father in 309.

Talia poisons Oliver to keep him from getting to the tomb ahead of her. He is found by Thea, who he previously ordered to go back to their camp.

Talia is captured by Athena, who then captures Oliver and Thea and intends to use them to test for traps in the tomb of Al-Fatih.

Talia and Thea enter the tomb while Oliver holds off the Thanatos Guild.

Diggle and Lyla save Sandra and Connor Hawke.

All of the Thanatos Guild die.

Thea beats Talia in a duel for the Sword of Al-Fatih.

Talia passes command of her students over to Thea, but Thea refuses to restart the League of Assassins. She suggests, instead, that she and Talia start a League of Heroes.

Ollie makes reference to the Queen Family Hozen and how Felicity gave it to William.

William was able to protect himself from the Deathstrokes swarming The Bunker, having remembered that Felicity hard-wired the electricity for the complex through the floor. This enabled him to use it to shock them as they entered the main room.

William determines that John Diggle Jr. and the Deathstrokes are killing everyone involved in the Star City Unification movement. 10 have been killed so far.

Mia pushes the team to make a direct assault on the Deathstroke's hideout.

Zoe is killed by John Diggle Jr. while saving Mia.

Mia, William and Connor are sent back in time to 2019 and the original Team Arrow bunker.

Oliver is seemingly teleported to the Team Arrow bunker by the same flash of white light.


Location

Nanda Parbat
Kasnia


Untelevised Adventures

Roy, Nyssa and Thea apparently destroyed the last of the Lazarus Pits some time between this episode and 616. They have been working since then to stop the Thanatos Guild from reforming the League of Assassins.

Ben Turner officially became an ARGUS agent sometime following the events of 722.


The Fridge Factor

Zoe Ramirez is unceremoniously killed off to give everyone else on Team Arrow 2.0 some angst. (Also, apparently, to not further confuse viewers with the presence of another Black Canary in the upcoming Green Arrow and the Canaries spin-off.)


The Bottom Line

A mixed bag, overall. The bits with Thea and Talia are good, but that owes more to Willa Holland and Lexa Doig nailing these characters out of the park with every appearance after so many years. The stuff with Diggle and Lyla is competently acted, but seems very repetitive. And the future storyline is as lackluster as everything else done with the flash-fowards since Season 7. Ultimately, it succeeds only because of some strong speeches and strong performances, which seem wholly separated from the overall direction and staging of the episode, which are outright horrible at times.

Arrow Episode Guide: Season 8, Episode 2 - Welcome To Hong Kong

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.



Plot

Returned to Earth-1, Oliver finds himself back in Hong Kong with Diggle and Black Siren, who refuses to believe that Earth-2 is gone. As she runs off to try and find another way home, Oliver and Diggle focus on finding an abducted Doctor who is important to The Monitor's plans and cross paths with their old ally, Tatsu. Unfortunately, their old enemy China White is also back in Hong Kong and once again after the Alpha-Omega virus.


Influences

The flashback sequences of Arrow Season 3 and Crisis on Infinite Earths.


Goofs

Despite saying he doesn't really know anything about breach devices and only knowing the technology by reputation, David Chen has software on his computer that enables him to determine that Earth-2 is gone.

China White claims that she was released from custody because the American government feared a scandal if word got out that a federal agency was planting explosive bombs in the necks of convicts and forcing them to runs special ops missions for them. Wouldn't they have just killed all the Suicide Squad agents to cover their tracks rather than release them and hope they keep their mouths shut?

The Monitor chides Oliver for not blindly following orders, yet Oliver passed the Monitor's test in Elseworlds precisely because he challenged the Monitor's moral authority.

On the flip side, what makes Ollie think disobeying the Monitor by sneaking off to learn more about him is going to help matters?


Artistry

The fight scenes between the Triad and Ollie and Diggle are well-handled.



Trivia

This episode is the first to include a new opening introduction for Season 8.



Technobabble

Dr. Robert Wong is a renowned biophysicist and Nobel Prize winner, in the field of complex proteins and antibodies.



Dialogue Triumphs

Oliver: (V/O) My name is Oliver Queen. For 7 years, I have fought with only one goal - to save my city. But now a new threat has emerged - a danger so severe it has forced me to leave my family in order to face it. And it won't be enough for me to just be the Green Arrow. To prevent the crisis that's coming, I am going to have to become someone else, I am going to have to become something else.

(Oliver awakens with a start from a nightmare of all his loved ones dying. He is in a strange bed in a strange room. The Monitor is in one corner.)
The Monitor: I warned you not to interfere.
Oliver: You didn't bring us here?
The Monitor: No. I discovered what had transpired on Earth-2, that you intervened to save Laurel Lance. I redirected you.
Oliver: What the hell happened back there?
The Monitor: A herald of what is to come. An entire world erased from existence.
Oliver: (confiused) Where's my mother? Where's... where's Tommy? Where's... where's Rene, where's Dinah?
The Monitor: They are no more.
Oliver: Did you hurt John and Laurel?
The Monitor: They are alive and nearby, but now you know that if we fail to stop the coming crisis, what you witnessed will occur on infinite Earths across the expanse of time.
Oliver: How did I fail? Your Dwarf Star particles are right there. (gesturing to a bag) 
The Monitor: You disobeyed my instructions to avoid entanglements on a parallel Earth. You confronted Tommy Merlyn. You altered the fate of Laurel Lance.
Oliver: I watched her die once. Okay? I wasn't prepared to do it again.
The Monitor: You are not a man accustomed to following orders. But the survival of the multiverse requires that you obey mine.

Oliver: I ignored the orders of a cosmic being, and as a result, I watched an entire world just disappear, so I'm just trying not to make the same mistake twice.
Diggle: Well, if this cosmic being wanted someone willing to watch the mass murder of innocent people, then he picked the wrong hero. Shouldn't blame yourself, man.
Oliver: (dryly) Well, what about my behavior over the past 7 years has given you the impression that I would?


Continuity

The Monitor says the he redirected Oliver, Diggle and Black Siren to Earth-1 after they entered a breach trying to escape Earth-2 without thinking of the destination.

The Monitor confirms that Earth-2 has been destroyed and blames it directly on Oliver's interfering with the affairs of that Earth instead of staying focused on the mission.

The Monitor instructs Oliver to find a man named Dr. Robert Wong. Again, he refuses to explain why he requires this.

Black Siren refuses to believe Earth-2 is gone. She takes the breach device and leaves to find someone local who can fix it.

The Internet cafe where Oliver tried to contact his family in 301 is revealed to be an ARGUS front. Diggle gets access to the backroom and a high-tech computer connected to the ARGUS intranet by telling the employee that Harbinger sends her regards.

Diggle calls Lyla into Hong Kong to keep an eye on Black Siren.

Dr. Wong has been missing for over a week. He was last seen at Wan Chai University, where he is a professor.

Tatsu Yamashiro (aka Katana) appears for the first time since 412.

Tatsu reveals that she left the Crescent Order after they demanded her death for giving the Lotus Cure to Nyssa Al Ghul. Since then, she has been a vigilante in Hong Kong.

The Cresent Order has knowledge of The Monitor and his true name, Mar Novu.

Tatsu recognizes the pins worn by the men in the last photo of Dr. Wong as the emblem of Hong Kong's secret police.

Black Siren met a hacker named David Chin through Cayden James several years earlier, who claimed to be able to get her back to Earth-2.

It is determined that Dr. Wong wasn't abducted but placed in protective custody, due to his working for the Chinese government to recreate the Alpha-Omega virus.

China White leads the Triad group that tries to kidnap Dr. Wong.  Both Oliver and Diggle thought she was in ARGUS custody. John says that as far as he knew, Lyla thought she was in their custody as well.

Black Siren learns that Earth-2 truly has been destroyed.

China White was last seen in 714, as part of John Diggle's new Suicide Squad.

Olive plans to use the virus as bait to draw China White and Dr. Wong out of hiding. Tatsu points out this was the same plan her husband attempted and it failed.

China White says the American government released her from custody because they feared a scandal if word got out about what ARGUS had been doing to force criminals to work for them.

Black Siren saves Katana from being killed by China White.

Dr. Wong is saved and the virus is secured.

Oliver gives Tatsu some of the same healing herbs she gave him after she saved his life in 310.

Oliver says he is going to Nanda Parbat in search of information on The Monitor.

Lyla is revealed to know the Monitor and to have been in communication with him for some time.

Connor says The Deathstrokes already took everything of value from Alberto Vasquez's private vaults, except for one flash drive that is completely fried.

William starts trying to fix the drive, as Zoe, Mia and Connor prepare to confront John Diggle Jr. by staking out the one black market where he can fence what he stole from Vasquez.

John Jr. agrees to have a friendly talk with Connor. This turns out to be a distraction and his plan was to leave the drive behind so William could fix it, so his people could then get the drive and the information on it.



Location

Hong Kong - Earth-1


The Fridge Factor

Tatsu is made out to be much less competent than she has been in the past as a sword fighter to give Black Siren a chance to save her and play the hero.


The Bottom Line

A lackluster episode that revives one of the weaker portions of Arrow's history and drags out the flash-forwards to ill-effect. There's nothing really bad about it, but there's a lot of characters it would have been better to see again than Tatsu, if only because her appearance in Hong Kong makes me wonder why a Japanese woman has made herself the protector of Hong Kong. Still, it could be worse.

Arrow Episode Guide: Season 8, Episode 1 - Starling City

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.




Plot

While trying to decipher the cryptic instructions given to him by The Monitor, Oliver finds himself back in Starling City on another Earth. Meanwhile, in the future of Star City 2040, Mia and William's team of vigilantes clash with an unexpected new foe.


Influences

Season 1 of Arrow and Crisis on Infinite Earths.


Goofs

Nothing is said about Robert Queen, who became The Hood of Earth-2 instead of Oliver Queen. Did Moira divorce him after his secret identity was exposed?  Was he sent to prison, like Roy Harper when he was fingered as The Hood in Arrow season 3? Was he killed and that revealed who he was? And why does everyone act like Adrian Chase's Hood is the first Hood on Earth 2? (Possibly Barry Allen's time-travel altered the timeline so both Robert and Oliver died on Earth 2 in the altered reality?)

Why does Earth-2 Simon Morrison use Adrian Chase as an alias when he's a good guy?

Where did Tommy Merlyn get trained to fight in Earth-2's reality?

Who was responsible for destroying the Queen's Gambit if Malcolm Merlyn honestly was a good guy on this Earth?

In a previous episode, Black Siren said that she knew Thea Queen quite well on her Earth and she was far less idealistic than the Thea Queen of Earth-1. Given the Earth-2 timeline, Thea would have been 12 when Black Siren moved to Central City to start a new life without her version of Oliver Queen. This makes it unlikely they would have kept in touch, particularly after Black Siren got her powers.

In this episode, Earth-2's Felicity Smoak is said to be running Smoak Technologies and is a huge success. Yet in an earlier episode, Black Siren said that Felicity Smoak of her Earth ran a criminal empire and was known for being ruthless. (The two aren't mutually exclusive, although now I really want to see Emily Bett Rickards as Earth 2's Wilson Fisk.)

How is Black Siren openly walking around when she was one of the most notorious criminals on Earth-2 five years ago and part of a regime that effectively ruled the world?

Why does Club Verdant - which Oliver started as a front to hide his first Arrowcave on Earth-1 - exist on Earth 2?


Performances

Stephen Amell does some great silent acting throughout the episode, reacting to various bits of bad news, nostalgia and looking at the picture of Felicity and Mia that is apparently the only possession he brought with him.

David Ramsey gets a bit of this too, during the scene where he is once again "The Black Driver."

Colin Donnel does a masterful job of playing a grief-stricken, driven to violence version of Tommy Merlyn.


Artistry

The direction and music do a great job of capturing the feeling of the first season of Arrow.


Trivia

At one point Adrian Chase calls Black Siren "Pretty Bird." This was Oliver Queen's pet name for Dinah Lance in the classic comics.

Reference is made to an incident in Pennytown. This is one of the districts of Star City in the DC Comics Universe.

Adrian Chase says that Bruce Wayne once told him that "if you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." This is a direct quote from Sherlock Holmes in The Sign Of the Four.


Technobabble

Adrian Chase analyzes the metallurgy of the Dark Archer's arrows and Oliver Queen's arrows to prove they aren't the same.

Queen-Merlyn recently upgraded their facilities with 500 miles worth of high-capacity fiber optics married to an underground server farm.

Queen-Merlyn is research the possibility of using dwarf star matter as an alternative energy source.

William uses satellite imaging to determine that the Deathstrokes have assumed control of the old Galaxy One headquarters


Dialogue Triumphs

The Monitor: (opening narration) Among the many misconceptions humanity holds dear is the fallacy that all beings are created equal. In truth, there are those who are greater. They are called heroes. But even among heroes, there are different echelons. The highest belong to those known as the paragons. And they are the only hope of all creation.

Moira: I know the changes must be overwhelming, and you must feel like you're on a different planet or something.
Oliver: You could say that.

(Oliver walks into Queen-Merlyn's IT Department. He sees a blonde woman with a pony-tail from behind and can just make out her chewing on a black pen.)
Oliver: It's supposed to be red.
(The woman spins around in her chair. It is clearly not Felicity Smoak. Just some other blonde woman in glasses.)
Woman: Excuse me?
Oliver: Nothing. Sorry. I'm looking for Felicity Smoak.
Woman: (laugh) Like Felicity Smoak would slum it in IT, instead of running Smoak Tech!
Oliver: Oh. Good for her.

(Oliver and Diggle are in a car. Oliver in the back. Diggle driving.)
Oliver: So what do I call you?
Diggle: Diggle. Digg if you want.
(Oliver smiles at the familiarity. This is just like when they first met. We cut to the front seat and Diggle smiles faintly too as we hear Oliver tugging on the door handle only to find the child safety locks have been engaged, so he can't tuck and roll out of the car as he did when he lost Diggle before. It is apparent now that this Diggle saw the trick coming because he is, in fact, Earth-1 Diggle.)
Diggle: Sorry, Oliver. Fool me once...

Diggle: Oliver, has it occurred to you that whatever happens in this crisis happens because you push the people closest to you away?
Oliver: So you're in a forward area. Somebody throws a grenade right into the middle of your platoon. What do you do?
Diggle: I jump on it. I contain the blast.
Oliver: That's what I'm doing. I can't prevent whatever it is that's going to happen to me, but I will be damned if I'm going to put other people at risk.
Diggle: And I will be damned if I just let you go gently into that good night.

Tommy: So I've been thinking it over. And you really were on Lian Yu. Because if you had been here, you would've been protecting our sister. So the question is... why are you running around in The Hood's hood?
Oliver: Doesn't matter.
Tommy: Yes, it does! The Hood is running around this city, thinking that he's saving it, and nothing can save it. You don't understand the cancer that has taken over this city.
Oliver: (shocked by the realization) Oh, my God! This is the Undertaking. You stole the dwarf star particles because you want to destroy The Glades and get vengeance for Thea.
Tommy: How could you know that? And what happened to you on that island?
Oliver: What happened to you while I was on the island?
Tommy: While you were gone, this city has been rotting. It can't be saved!
Oliver: That's not true, Tommy. I have seen Starling City come back from darker moments than this. It can be redeemed. You can be redeemed.
Tommy: You don't understand what I've seen. You don't know how I found our sister. Every time I close my eyes, I see her body lying there, cold, on a dirty floor. So I swore that I would get vengeance on The Glades for what it did to Thea, and I am not going to let her down. Not again!
Oliver: That's not gonna make you feel better, Tommy.
Tommy: I don't care about feeling better. I just want The Glades to suffer.
Oliver: You're a better man than this.
Tommy: That was a different me. Good-bye, Oliver.


Continuity

The Monitor deposits Oliver on Lian Yu on Earth-2 in the year 2019, though this is not immediately apparent.

Oliver is able to summon a boat using the same signal fire trick he used in the Arrow pilot.

On Earth-2's Lian Yu, the Deathstroke mask with an arrow through the eye is replaced with a Batman or Batwoman mask.

On Earth-2, Moira Queen and Malcolm Merlyn are married in the year 2019 and have merged their companies.

On Earth-2, after Robert Queen was declared dead, Walter Steele hold his shares in Queen Consolidated and went elsewhere. On Earth-1, he took charge of the company and eventually married Moira Queen.

Earth-2's Tommy Merlyn is still alive and living at Queen Manor. He says he has been married and divorced twice in the 12 years since he last saw Oliver.

Earth-2's Thea Queen died of a Vertigo overdose on her 18th birthday. This is a dark take on the events of 111 on Earth-1, where Thea Queen took Vertigo at her 18th birthday party but only crashed her brand new car.

Oliver breaks into Queen Consolidated looking for dwarf star particles. He finds the security team dead, shot by arrows, the particles stolen and is encountered by The Hood of this reality - Adrian Chase.

The fight between Oliver and Adrian is broken up by Black Siren, who asks what Oliver is doing on her Earth. This is the first indication in the episode that we are on Earth-2.

Black Siren has created her own version of The Bunker on Earth-2. It has the same design as the Earth-1 bunker, but with purple lighting instead of green.

Since returning to Earth-2, Black Siren has partnered with Adrian Chase (aka The Hood). They are not lovers, she is quick to note.

Oliver hides the fact that he is from another Earth from Adrian.

The Monitor reminds Oliver that his task is to retrieve the dwarf star particles for reasons he will not explain - not to confront Malcolm Merlyn over his crimes. Oliver defends his actions, saying that he needs to solve the mystery of the stolen particles in order to get them.

Oliver goes looking for Felicity Smoak in the IT Department of Queen Merlyn, learning that on this Earth she is a famous tech magnate.

The Earth-2 version of Curtis Holt is the head of Queen-Merlyn's IT Department.

The Earth-2 version of Rene Ramirez is employed as the Queen/Merlyn bodyguard.

The Earth-2 version of Dinah Drake is a Detective Sergeant in the SCPD.

As on Earth-1, Moira hires John Diggle to act as Oliver's personal bodyguard/babysitter. It is later revealed that this is Earth-1's John Diggle, come to help Oliver.

Felicity told Diggle about The Monitor taking Oliver away. Somehow, Diggle was able to track Oliver to Earth-2 and got there using a dimensional breach device borrowed from Cisco Ramon.

It is Earth-2's Tommy Merlyn who initiates The Undertaking in 2019 rather than Malcolm Merlyn in 2013. His plan involves attacking The Glades using a doomsday device powered by dwarf star particles rather than an earthquake generator. His motivation is avenging the death of Thea Queen, whom he apparently knew was his half-sister in this reality. On Earth-1, Malcolm Merlyn was avenging the death of his wife.

Tommy chains Oliver up in the same location Malcolm Merlyn did in 123.

Earth-2 Rene and Dinah are working for Tommy Merlyn to bring about the Undertaking.They are nowhere near as well-trained as their Earth-1 counterparts and Oliver defeats them easily on his own.

When Adrian Chase asks how Oliver knows so much about what the Dark Archer is planning, Oliver says he's ten steps ahead of him. This is a nod to what Prometheus continually told him during Season 5 of Arrow.

The location where Thea died is 4587 Burke. Apparently the building there is the home to Star City's worst drug dealers.

Tommy quotes something that Thea once told him to Oliver - "The dead don't want anything." Earth-1 Thea said the same thing to Oliver in 102.

Oliver is able to talk Tommy out of activating the device and turning himself in.

Adrian Chase is able to dismantle the Undertaking device and agrees to give Oliver the dwarf star particles.

Chase deduces that Oliver is the Hood from another Earth on his own.

Chase apparently knew Bruce Wayne and quotes a staying Wayne told him, which is cribbed from Sherlock Holmes. This, coupled with the Batman mask on Lian Yu, suggests that Bruce Wayne may have been the Slade Wilson of Earth 2.

Oliver suggests Chase change his name to Green Arrow.

Oliver visits Tommy in the police station after he turns himself in. He also gives his mother a final hug, after lying that he will see her at home.

Black Siren arrives at the SCPD HQ just as walls of antimatter began to destroy everything.

Moira and Tommy are killed by the antimatter.

Oliver, Diggle and Black Siren jump through a breach just as the walls close in on them.

In the future of 2040, William Clayton is now expanding his company into Star City, under his alias. His company is Harris Consolidated.

Crime has risen 300% in The Glades since the wall came down, but is down across the board in Star City in general.

Mr. Vasquez is a figure of importance in the move to reintegrate The Glades and Star City. He credits the vigilantes with reducing crime in Star City as a whole.

The Deathstroke Gang, which is led by John Diggle Jr., abduct Vasquez. They take him to the old Galaxy One building.

William talks Mia into going along with Connor's plan to rescue Vasquez.

Vasequez gives the Deathstrokes a series of codes.

Mia insists that from now on the team is going to do things her way.


Location

Starling City - Earth 2


Untelevised Adventures

The fate of Robert Queen on Earth 2.

Everything involving how Black Siren got herself established in Starling City and Adrian Chase's background on Earth-2.


The Bottom Line

As a walk down memory lane and a tribute to the first season of Arrow, it is wonderful. As a set-up for the season, it's competently executed apart from some major continuity issues - most likely brought on by the series' need to include Katie Cassidy as Black Siren rather than setting this on an entirely different Earth. That being said, the final sequence in which Earth-2 is destroyed is chillingly effective and set the tone for the future episodes of The Flash depicting the same destruction.  The Crisis is coming and nothing will ever be the same again.

Unfortunately, this does take the piss out of the flash-forward sequences, because we know that timeline is safe, even ignoring the reports that filming has already begun on a Green Arrow and the Canaries spin-off combining the planned Star City 2040 spin-off and Katie Cassidy's proposed Birds of Prey series. Is it too much hope that we can get Ashley Scott in there as well if the universes merge into one?

Arrow Episode Guide: Season 7, Episode 19 - Spartan

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.




Plot

Armed with new information on the killer of Emkio's mother, Oliver hopes to turn his sister away from the Ninth Circle. Unfortunately, a sudden setback will leave Team Arrow at a disadvantage and send Diggle looking for help from an old military contact he has a bad history with. Meanwhile, Felicity is approached with an interesting offer regarding her company, only to have the Ninth Circle steal her latest invention for their own purposes.



Influences

The Green Arrow comics of Benjamin Percy (The Ninth Circle and Emiko Queen) and Chuck Dixon (the Cygnus X-1 weapon)


Performances

Ernie Hudson is a fun presence as General Stewart.


Trivia

Alena makes reference to a Dr. Will Magnus wanting to buy Smoak Technologies. Felicity describes him as the world's greatest expert on robotics. First appearing in Showcase #37 in April 1962, Dr. Will Magnus was the scientist who created the super-powered robots known as the Metal Men.

Diggle's stepfather is revealed to be a Marine General named Roy Stewart. It is worth mentioning that there is a long-running fan theory that John Diggle is the Arrowverse equivalent of John Stewart - a career soldier who became a Green Lantern. This would seem to confirm the idea, as it was suggested that John Diggle, on Earth-90, had become Green Lantern.

Diggle makes mention of his father dying during a secret mission to Vlatava. In the DC Comics Universe, Vlatava is an Eastern European nation with a long history of religious and sectarian turmoil. The entire country, with the exception of its president and Count Vertigo (the last surviving member of its royal family) was killed by The Spectre.

The Ninth Circle is after a biological weapon dubbed Cygnus X-1, which is said to be a bacteria that can eat through anything. This sounds similar to Mutajek 9-9 - a self-replicating biological weapon from the Green Arrow comics which could eat through any form of plastic and destroy a city in minutes. In the Where Angels Fear To Tread storyline, Oliver Queen died trigger an explosion that prevented a Mutajek 9-9 bomb from being detonated over Metropolis.


Technobabble

The item Virgil and his men were sent to purchase was an ARGUS vault drive, triple-level encryption or eyes-only documents

Felicity says the vault drive contains a security failsafe protocol to prevent it from being hacked that isn't the same as the ones used by ARGUS. She recognizes them as belonging to the Defense Intelligence Agency.

The Galaxy One helmet is powered by a module made of an alloy proprietary to Galaxy One. In order to access its workings, Felicity must get one of that exact make of module.

With enough pressure at a steady pace, a shoelace can saw through hard plastic.

Cygnus X-1 was meant to genetically engineer a bacteria that could consume the byproducts of nuclear fission. Instead, it created a bacteria that would eat through nearly anything.


Dialogue Triumphs

Virgil: (eying Alena as she wields a keyboard like a club) Pistol beats keyboard, darling.

(General Stewart enters into the Bunker)
Stewart: So this is where you people work? Impressive.
Oliver: How did your men end up at Smoak Tech, General?
Stewart: Several months ago, the DIA  got wind of a Ninth Circle mole inside ARGUS. Since then, we've made it a point of tracking their activity, including the theft of that drive, which led us to your friend Virgil.
John: Wait. Wait. Wait. I thought you said you didn't know anything?
Stewart: I said I couldn't -tell- you anything.

Alena: What happened to Archer putting Smoak Tech on the map?
Felicity: Well, that was before I realized all the bad that she could do. I wanted to invent something that would help save the city, and instead I made something that can destroy it.
(Felicity freezes up in horrified realization.)
Felicity: Oh, my God. I'm a mad scientist. Oh, my God, no. It's so much worse than that. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. I'm my dad!
Alena: I am your friend who has some real-life experience working with evil geniuses, and you need to trust me on this one - you are not one of them, okay?

John: Oliver told me the truth about Vlatava... about my father. Why did you let me believe a lie? You let me hate you.
Stewart: Every child deserves to believe that his father is a hero. And believing it, you became one. If he could see you today, I know he would be so proud of you.
John: If I'm a hero It was all because of you, Sir.


Continuity

Virgil appears for the first time since 714, leading the group of Ninth Circle soldiers trying to buy a high-security ARGUS vault drive.

When Felicity accidentally fries the drive before they can figure out what the Ninth Circle was after, John Diggle says he has a contact with the Defense Intelligence Agency - the DOD department who encrypted the vault drive.

John's contact is revealed to be General Roy Stewart - John's step-father.

General Stewart denies knowing anything about the Ninth Circle and says he can't tell them anything about what is on the drive since John lost his security clearance after he quit ARGUS.

Felicity is still trying to get Archer rebooted.

Robotics expert Dr. Will Magnus is apparently interested in buying Smoak Technologies because of Archer. Apparently it sounds similar to an AI he's been working on for years.

Smoak Technologies is attacked by the Ninth Circle and Virgil.

Felicity and Alena are saved by General Stewart's men, but the tablet holding Archer is stolen.

General Stewart lied about not knowing about the Ninth Circle and reveals the drive contained a list of DIA Special Agents in the field.

John has never gotten along with his step-father. He later tells Oliver this is due to Stewart being his father's commanding officer on a Vlatava, where he died and the report of the mission making it sound like Stewart left his men to die while escaping himself

John also says that Stewart was a harsh man, who had him and his brother run through the same Spartan-style training drills that he did as a marine in a bid to make them tougher. He said he didn't care if he was liked, so long as they were strong.

Only one of the DIA agents is unaccounted for. When Team Arrow goes after him General Stewart and Diggle are ambushed and abducted by the Ninth Circle.

General Roy Stewart has been, over the course of his career, the thrice-decorated Commander of the 1st Recon Battalion, Commandant of the USMC, the head of DARPA and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

According to Felicity, the botched mission where Diggle's dad died was actually a huge success and part of why General Stewart was asked to head DARPA.

The Ninth Circle wanted General Stewart for his knowledge of a project called Cygnus X-1. It becomes clear they intend to use Archer to find the DIA personnel who have access to it and follow them to steal it.

Oliver gives John the unredacted files describing his father's death. According to them, John's dad was negligent, got two other Marines killed and the only reason anyone survived was because of General Stewart's leadership.

Felicity deletes Archer rather than let it be used by the Ninth Circle.

Oliver tries to tell Emiko about Dante's setting up her mother's assassination, but she doesn't believe him.

The Ninth Circle gets away with the Cygnus X-1.

John makes his peace with General Stewart.

Alena makes a back-up of the root files of Archer. She says they can rebuild but Felicity argues against it. Judging by the way Alena looks at her flash-drive, she disagrees.

Emiko kills Dante, saying she learned the truth about how he arranged for her mom ti die.  He says it was to make her stronger by destroying the final piece of her old life.

Mia gives Felicity the helmet she took from the Galaxy One soldier in 718.

The bombs The Canaries stole are secure and William is making sure they can't be exploded remotely.

Roy and Dinah are setting up a perimeter around the last Canary Nest.

Felicity needs a unique power module to access the helmet. Connor and Mia go to retrieve one.

The Deathstrokes are a gang that control part of the marketplace in Central City. Only certain people can get into their territory.

Connor has a UV tattoo that allows him to go into Deathstroke territory.

John Diggle Jr. is revealed to be the leader of The Deathstrokes. Connor says that he rebelled against their parents teachings.

Before their off-camera encounter, Connor hadn't seen JJ in over a year. They used to be best friends before JJ rebelled against their father.

Mia forgives JJ for lying to her while working in his deep-cover identity.

Mia and JJ have to evade the Deathstrokes that JJ apparently sent after him.

Felicity determines the helmet connects its wearer to Archer, effectively giving them an AI-driven sixth sense. An army of soldiers with tech-enhanced armor could easily destroy the Canaries, according to Felicity.


Untelevised Adventures

Connor Hawke's meeting with JJ takes place off camera.


The Bottom Line

A lackluster and largely forgettable episode, that does nothing to advance the plot until the final two minutes. Even then it doesn't really change much beyond letting us know WHY the soldiers killing The Canaries are so awesome and Dante dying... though it is unclear if Emiko is going to turn on the whole organization or use the Ninth Circle to make the whole world burn. Alas, thinking on next week's episode is more entertaining than this one.