Arrow Episode Guide: Season 8, Episode 10 - Fadeout

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




Plot

With the Crisis over, Oliver Queen's friends and family gather in Star City to mourn his passing and celebrate a life well-lived and a new dawn in Star City. As what remains of Team Arrow contemplates how they will go on without the man who brought them together, they are forced to join together once more to save William Clayton after he is abducted by an old enemy of Green Arrow, who is out for revenge.



Influences

Crisis on Infinite Earths and Green Arrow: Quiver. (Oliver Queen in Heaven) 


Goofs

Rene is said to be favored to win the election for Mayor in April 2020, yet in 2040 Mayor Ramirez is running for a third term according to the Green Arrow & The Canaries pilot. It seems unlikely that Star City's mayors serve ten-year terms. (There's no guarantee Rene will win in 2020. Also, it could be a different Mayor Ramirez.)

Lyla Michaels is said to have been promoted to a new job in Metropolis. What's higher than Director of ARGUS? (It's likely a more powerful position in the Department of Defense not directly affiliated with ARGUS.)


Performances

The entire ensemble all have great moments, but the man holding it all together so all the tangents work is David Ramsey as John Diggle.


Artistry

The script is a work of art, with lots of nods to the show's history and many great character moments.

The flashback fight-scene of Oliver fighting John Byrne's men is a fitting capstone for the series' amazing action scenes.


Trivia

The episode title has a double-meaning, with a fadeout being the technical term for the slow shift to darkness before the credits at the end of a movie or television show and a part of a bow.

The title card for the episode features all 7 unique arrow-heads used over the course of the series.

The human trafficker Oliver goes after in the flashbacks of this episode, who later kidnaps William Clayton in the modern day is named John Byrne. This is a tribute to comic writer and artist John Byrne, who is perhaps most famous for his work with Chris Claremont on X-Men and for overseeing the reveamp of Superman following Crisis on Infinite Earths.

When Roy proposes to Thea, he does it on an industrial building with a sign in the back declaring that it is Van Wayne Enterprises. This is a nod to Van Wayne, a cousin of Bruce Wayne and one of the main characters of the short-lived series Powerless, which was set in a comedic version of the DC Comics universe. This would seem to affirm that the same characters (or at least Van Wayne) exist in the post-Crisis Arrowverse.

Roy and Thea make mention of Kord Industries - the oft-referred to business run by Ted Kord (aka The Blue Beetle). Brandon Routh was originally meant to play Ted Kord instead of Ray Palmer in Arrow season 3, but the rights for Blue Beetle were tied up in a live-action show based around the Jaime Reyes incarnation of the character.

The penultimate sequence in which John Diggle is knocked off his feet and finds a glowing green object where he thought a meteor had landed is a nod to a long-teased fan theory regarding John Diggle someday becoming a Green Lantern.


Technobabble

Curtis runs a quad-grid search tasked to a keyhole satellite array to track William.

Felicity implanted a subdermal tracking device in William's arm.

When fighting with escrima, it is important to use your whole body as the power comes from your hips.


Dialogue Triumphs

Oliver: My name is Oliver Queen. After 5 years in hell I returned home with only one goal; to save my city. For 8 years, I've fought alongside brave men and women striving for justice, but then a Crisis came, and I had to become someone else. I had to become something else. I made the ultimate sacrifice, which helped birth an entirely new universe. Now my friends and family will have to go on without me, and although I have become a Spectre, there is a part of me that will always be The Green Arrow.

Rene: It's a hell of a legacy. Not just a city of heroes, a world of heroes.

Wild Dog: So how are things? It's been a while.
Ragman: Yeah. Well, a while is what it took for these rags to work again. Since then, I've been fighting for justice.
Wild Dog: To honor your father?
Ragman: To honor Oliver.
Wild Dog: We've had our differences over the years.
Ragman: Yeah, I assumed.
Wild Dog: Why?
Ragman: Of everyone, you're the most like him.

Mia: If Oliver Queen didn't kill you, than neither will I.

Oliver: Plenty of people in this book that deserve to die, plain and simple, but probably not everyone. Let's consider Mr. John Byrne to be proof of concept.
Diggle: That people can be redeemed?
Oliver: That one day I'll be able to trust you.

Quentin: For a long time I hated Oliver Queen. I blamed him for the death of my youngest daughter, I blamed him for the violence in my city, I interrogated him, I hunted him, persecuted him. I've never been more wrong in my life. Oliver Queen wasn't just a hero. He was a good man. He was an honorable person. The fact that he didn't start out that way makes him, in my book, even more honorable. He stands as a reminder to all of us that anyone can change. So will this.
(The cloth coverings behind Quentin are pulled aside, revealing a bronze statue of Green Arrow.)

Tommy: So you're from another Earth, is that it?
Black Siren: I know it's a lot to take in.
Tommy: Well, I just found out there's a reality where I was dead, so that's the curve I'm grading on these days. The Laurel of, well, this Earth, um... She was my wife.
Black Siren: So it must be strange seeing me.
Tommy: Ha! Yeah. Well, strange enough to blow the curve. (smiling) But there's something nice about it, too.

John Diggle: The Oliver that I met 8 years ago is not the one that we say good-bye to today. Oliver always told me that in order to save his city, he had to become someone else, he had to become something else. I always thought that meant becoming the Green Arrow, but today, I realized that meant becoming a better man. The best man he knew how to be. And he took all of us with him on that journey. He changed everything. Oliver brought heroes into the world, he inspired heroes, he inspired all of us here. I was his brother, and Oliver Queen was mine.

(We see John Diggle strapping his children into their car seats and kissing Lyla. She gets in their SUV and drives off, leaving John at their house with one moving van left to drive.)
John Diggle (Voice-Over): Of course, life will go on. It always does, but how, what twists and turns it will take, I can't say.
(We see Mia Queen, standing before the statue of Green Arrow. She walks through a time portal into her bedroom in 2040.)
John Diggle (Voice-Over): I don't know what the future holds
(We see Digg getting ready to get into his van when he stops to look at a shooting star. A meteor crashes into the ground a dozen feet away from him, throwing him back against the van.)
John Diggle (Voice-Over): Except to say to expect the unexpected.
(We see Rene Ramirez in his campaign headquarters, looking at one of his political posters.)
John Diggle (Voice-Over): Oliver may be gone, but his mission endures.
(We see Dinah Drake getting on her motorcycle and driving out of Star City.)
John Diggle (Voice-Over):That mission lives on, Oliver lives on in the people he inspired. Some will take that mission to the rest of the world. Maybe even beyond that.
(We see Digg pulling himself off the ground and approaching the crater. He finds a box, which he picks up and opens. Something inside it glows with a green light.)
John Diggle (Voice-Over): Because if the past 8 years has shown us anything It's that this universe is far bigger than any of us could have dared imagine. Even if it is a little less bright without him in it.

Felicity: Not to complain. I just thought that the afterlife would look a little less like your old office.
Oliver: It's my mom's office. I wanted to be where I first saw you.
Felicity: Well, that would be in the I. T. Department, seven floors down.
Oliver: You sure?
(Cut to a flashback of Oliver Queen hiding around a corner in that same office years earlier.)
Felicity: (looking at a picture of Oliver Queen) You're cute. It's too bad you're, you know, dead, which is obviously a lot worse for you than it is for me.
(Cut back to the present. Oliver smiles at the woman he loves.)
Oliver: It's a long story. Lucky for us, we have all the time in the world for me to tell it to you.
(The two look out the window of the office together. It is a beautiful sunny day. All is right in the world.)


Continuity

The opening scene shows an alternate take on Moira Queen's death in 220. This time, Oliver is able to free his hands and stop Slade Wilson from killing Moira Queen with a sword.

It is revealed that Oliver's influence on shaping the post-Crisis Arrowverse allowed him to prevent the deaths of various people, including Moira Queen. Moira talks about how she apparently died in an interview for a documentary.

The documentary filmmaker from 712 has yet to finish her film in the post-Crisis reality. She is now turning Emerald Archer into a memorial film about Oliver Queen.

Dinah, Moira, Rene and John Diggle are all interviewed about Oliver for the documentary.

Crime in Star City disappeared virtually overnight post-Crisis. This has left Team Arrow with little to do.

Digg, Dinah, Rene, Roy and Black Siren meet in the Arrow bunker for a memorial wake. They drink Oliver's vodka and toast him.

Rene is apparently running for mayor now, instead of the city council, which he was running for pre-Crisis in 804.

It is revealed that Quentin Lance is alive again in the post-Crisis universe and that his term as Mayor ends in April. He is pushing for Rene to replace him.

Quentin has offered Dinah the job of Chief of Police in Star City

It has been one month since the Crisis ended as this episode opens.

In a flashback scene to eight years earlier, Oliver has just killed a man named Jimmy Tarallo who had 22 henchmen armed with machetes. Diggle tries to convince Oliver to take him into the field, but he refuses.

Oliver's next target is John Byrne: a beer company CEO who is using his shipping trucks to facilitate human trafficking.

In 2040, Mia has a dream of Robert Queen killing himself in front of Oliver Queen on their life raft after the Queen's Gambit sunk.

Sara Lance arrives in Mia's bedroom, having traveled via Time Portal, to take her to Oliver's funeral in 2020.

Digg, Roy, Rene, Dinah and Black Siren give each other The Mark of Four tattoo first seen in 708.

Roy says he imagines the funeral will be awkward with both of Oliver's sisters there. This establishes that Emiko Queen is still alive in the post-Crisis timeline. She originally died in 722.

In the flashback, Byrne is discovered to be employing Black Armada - a private security firm made up entirely of former Special Forces soldiers. He pays them $1 million monthly.

Diggle encourages Oliver not to kill John Byrne but to bring him in alive.

Mia talks with Dinah in the Arrowcave and reveals that, for her, it's been a few weeks since William was kidnapped in 809. She's had no luck tracking him down so far.

William is abducted from his grandparents' home in Central City.

Felicity, Curtis Holt, Rory Regan, Roy, Thea, Lyla, Digg, Laurel, Sara, Mia, Dinah and Rene pair off to search Star City for William.

Roy proposes to Thea, saying he's realized he can't live without her after his death and resurrection.

Rory Regan is fighting crime as Ragman again, as a way of honoring Oliver. He doesn't specify how long he's been doing it, but apparently his magic costume has repaired itself since he was forced into retirement in 512.

Rory says he isn't surprised that Rene and Oliver fought the most, saying that out of everyone in Team Arrow they are the most alike.

Mia is the one who locates William and John Byrne.

John Byrne spent 8 years in Iron Heights Penitentiary. He was apparently the first person Oliver Queen spared after deciding to stop killing every person on the list of people his father gave him.

John Byrne tries to provoke Mia until killing him. She refuses to do so.

Amateur video footage of captures Mia capturing John Byrne. Dinah repeats what she said earlier about being sure Oliver would be proud of her.

Felicity avoids approaching Mia for fear of saying something awkward. Ironically, Mia avoids her mother for the same reason.

Moira apparently likes Roy Harper much more in the post-Crisis reality.

Thea accepts Roy's marriage proposal.

Black Siren has a breakdown talking to Quentin, saying she doesn't understand why she's still alive and all these other people came back to life but not the Laurel Lance of Earth-1. Quentin says that Oliver didn't "fix" her because she didn't need fixing.

Diggle, Dinah and Rene shut down the Arrow bunker.  Dinah is the one who flips the switch for the power as they leave it for the last time.

Dinah decides not to take the job of Chief of Police. Instead, she's going to find another city that could use a hero like the Black Canary.

Diggle and Lyla are moving to Metropolis after the funeral. Lyla has been promoted to a new position there.

A candlelight vigil is held for Oliver Queen the night before his funeral. Quentin Lance unveils a bronze statue of the Green Arrow, with a plaque that reads "He saved this city." This is the same statue Mia and William met at in 809.

Before the funeral, while visiting Robert Queen's memorial, Thea asks why Oliver couldn't bring Robert Queen back from the dead. Moira speculates that Oliver could only change those events he was involved in directly and only change them so far. For better or worse, Robert Queen had to die for Oliver to become Green Arrow.

Emiko meets with Thea and Moira for the first time.  Moira welcomes Emiko into the family.

Tommy Merlyn is revealed to be alive in the post-Crisis reality. He was also married to Earth-1 Laurel Lance before her death. He talks to Black Siren and says that seeing her is weird but nice.

Nyssa introduces Sara Lance to Talia as her beloved.

Mia and Felicity do meet and hug.

Barry Allen and Kara Danvers attend the funeral in their civilian identities.

Oliver's body was never found. A casket full of mementos was buried in front of the tombstone erected in his honor, next to Robert Queen's memorial behind Queen Manor.

Diggle gives the eulogy at Oliver's funeral.

Dinah leaves Star City on her motorcycle. We see that the main freeway out of Star City has been renamed in Oliver Queen's honor.

Mia returns to 2040 through a time portal.

Before leaving Star City, John Diggle was knocked off his feet by a meteor crashing near him. Once he got near the crater, he found a box containing something that glowed with a green light.

20 years in the future, The Monitor fulfills his bargain and guides Felicity Smoak to the afterlife, as in the final scene of 722.

Felicity meets Oliver Queen in a place that looks just like his mother's office. When she asks why the afterlife looks like that, he says he wanted to see her as she was when he first saw her. When she says that they first met in the IT Department at Queen Consolidated seven floors down in 103. However, Oliver says that isn't the first time he saw her, as he thinks about seeing her while being undercover at Queen Consolidated in the flashbacks of 314.


Location

The Afterlife



Untelevised Adventures

Much of the history of Arrow has apparently been rewritten in the post-Crisis reality. For instance, one wonders how the events of William Clayton's being revealed as Oliver Queen's son played out with Moira still alive or if Laurel Lance developed the same drug problem she did in Season 2 without Tommy Merlyn's death weighing her down.


The Bottom Line

A fitting conclusion that brings everything to a happy ending for most of the supporting players, while still leaving ample room for development of many of these characters elsewhere in the Arrowverse. Some characters are given short shrift than others and some subplots remain untouched, such as Talia and Thea forming a new, heroically inclined League of Assassins. Still, the possibilities left open by Diggle and Lyla moving to Metropolis and the plot with Mia Smoak in the future offer many avenues for exploration. The Queen is dead. Long live The Queen.

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 7, Episode 22 - You Have Saved This City

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



Plot

The battle between Team Arrow and the Ninth Circle comes to a head, as old friends return to Star City to help with the coming fight. Meanwhile, over two decades later, the next generation of Star City's heroes must save their city - and the world - from a corporation intent on empowering a new police state.


Influences

The Green Arrow comics of Benjamin Percy (battle with Ninth Circle) and Judd Winick (destroying a wall that separates the rich and poor parts of Star City.)


Goofs

The Ninth Circle leadership expels Emiko from their ranks and kills her because of her vendetta against the Queen family exposing the group to the public. Yet they are perfectly willing to keep that vendetta going once Emiko is dead, because... reasons?

For that matter, even if the Ninth Circle were going after Oliver and Felicity for being thorns in their side, why not go after the whole of Team Arrow? All of whom have public identities now!


Performances

Emily Bett Rickards gives it her all one last time and steals the show in both the modern day and future segments. Somehow, Stephen Amell seems all the stronger playing against her and he's hardly a slouch. Their final moments together are Emmy-worthy.


Artistry

The fight scenes are fantastic, even for this show.

The episode's ending is absolutely perfect - both as a send-off for Felicity Smoak and as the series in general, as it seems that all of Season 8 will be devoted to Crisis on Infinite Earths.


Trivia

The female Ninth Circle member who seemingly takes over after Emiko is kicked out of the group is identified as Beatrice. In The Divine Comedy, Beatrice was the name of the poet Dante's ideal woman, who acted as his guide to the nine spheres of Heaven, just as Virgil had been his guide to the circles of Hell.

While the original Green Arrow comics introducing the Ninth Circle didn't include a member named Beatrice among the Ninth Circle's ranks, the name fits their convention of their leaders taking the names of important figures from The Divine Comedy.


Technobabble

Emiko somehow finds a way to block Felicity from tracking the Cygnus X-1 bacteria by its chemical signature.

Someone using a signal-bounced untraceable number calls in a fake bomb scare to a local shopping mall, to force people out into the open where they can be attacked by a Ninth Circle drone.

The Ninth Circle use a scrambler to make it impossible to track the detonation signal for their Cygnus X-1 bombs.

Curtis builds a number of optimized cryogenic chambers to that can be used to freeze the Cygnus X-1 bacteria.

Felicity determines all the Cygnus X-1 bombs and droves are hooked up to the same detonator. This means they only have to neutralize one target rather than over a dozen.

In Star City 2040, Penal Code Statute 10101971 governs vigilante justice.

Smoak Tech invented a line of flexible restraints, easier to store than traditional handcuffs.

The Archer program is revealed not to have a server room - its server is built into the wall that separates The Glades and Star City.

Felicity built a backdoor into the original Archer system so that anyone who had both her DNA and that of Oliver Queen would be invisible to the system. This is why Mia was able to fight the Zeta soldiers so effectively - Archer could literally not predict her next move, like all the other vigilantes.

When the wall between The Glades and Star City was built, explosives were planted in each control tower in case it ever had to be destroyed. The signal can only be activated from inside the tower.


Dialogue Triumphs

William: What are they gonna do with us?
Rene: You mean before they torture us to find out what you stole off Keven Dale's computer or after?
William: I'm gonna stop asking questions now.

Felicity: (sadly) This is not the life that Oliver and I wanted for them. They're supposed to be living happy, normal lives right now. That was the only thing that Oliver asked me to do. It was the only thing that I promised him I would do. And I failed. Some mother I turned out to be.

Oliver: You have every right to be angry. I was angry, too, because you let our father die. And that led to a ripple effect in my life of loss. I lost Tommy, my mother, Laurel, Quentin. And I wanted to kill you for all of it!

(The two struggle as Emiko tries to stab Oliver. He flips her and takes away her knife, holding it on her.)

Oliver: I know his death affected you, too. 

(Oliver releases the pin and stands up, allowing Emiko to stand.)

Oliver: Instead of finding the hero that I really believe is inside of you, you went down a dark path. And it killed your mother.

Emiko: Dante killed my mother!

Oliver: No, he didn't, Emiko. Your allegiance to the Ninth Circle killed your mother. Your hatred of our father killed your mother. His worst impulses drove you away, and it led to every terrible moment in both of our lives. I think that together, we can be better.

(Oliver holds the knife out to Emiko.)

Oliver: So if you're gonna kill me, do it.

(Emiko hesitates, as Virgil enters the room with a squad of Ninth Circle soldiers)

Virgil: Well, if you're not gonna kill him, we'll gladly oblige.

Oliver: I've spent a long time thinking about my legacy as the Green Arrow. I always hoped it would be saving the city. But now I know that my greatest legacy is this team. I started this mission alone. I was certain that I would end it alone, but the truth of the matter is that every bit of success that I've had along the way is because of all of you.

Diggle: You know, the spirit of this place will live on long after we're gone. You've inspired so many people, Oliver. They will carry on your legacy.

Oliver: Sounds like a cycle for good.

Diggle: Far better than that. A cycle of heroes. Who will fight to defend this city with every fiber of their being.

Felicity: Anyone ever told you you always know exactly what to say? 

Digg: (stone-faced) I have been told.

(Oliver and Felicity laugh ad Diggle cracks a stoic smile.)

Oliver: So what bargain have I made? What does the multiverse require? 

The Monitor: That you assist me as we seek to prevent the inevitable.

Oliver: But that sounds impossible.

The Monitor: The multiverse is more complex than you could fathom.

Oliver: What are you not telling me? 

The Monitor: I've seen your future, Oliver, inexorable and unavoidable. I have watched you die.

(Oliver just stares at The Monitor.)

Oliver: During this crisis?

The Monitor: (nods) I am truly sorry.

Felicity:No. You are not taking him!

Oliver: Felicity....

Felicity: Oliver...

The Monitor: I am not here to bring harm to you or your daughter. Trust me, the world needs her.

Felicity: You think that I'm just going to let you leave here with my husband's life? 

Oliver: This is bigger than us... Than all of us.

Felicity: Why does it always have to be you?

The Monitor: I cannot prevent his passing, but he can prevent the deaths of countless more, including you and your daughter. But he needs to come with me tonight.

(Oliver exits Mia's room to find Felicity sitting in their dining room.)

Felicity: (softly)This is why we can't have a normal life. This is why our children will never have normal lives.

Oliver: I had to make the deal.

Felicity: (holding back the tears) Oh, there's always gonna be some danger or some threat. The league of Assassins or HIVE or the Ninth Circle or the end of the friggin' universe.

Oliver: I need you to make me a promise.

Felicity: (drying her tears) Yeah, okay.

Oliver: No matter what happens to me... No matter what... You need to do everything in your power... You...You need to keep William and Mia safe.

Felicity: (standing, moving to feel Oliver's face) I will keep them safe. But wherever you go? Whatever happens to you? You'll never leave me. On our wedding day, you told me that I was the best part of you, but the truth is... we are the best parts of each other. And that is so much bigger than the friggin' universe.

Oliver: When I came back to Star City to start my mission, I didn't think that I was... capable or deserving of love.(sobbing)  But you opened up my heart in ways that I never thought were possible. My only regret is not telling you I loved you sooner.

Felicity: (hugging him tighter) No regrets.

Oliver: Would you tell Mia that I love her every day? And I know that she will grow up to be as smart and as beautiful as her mom.

Felicity:  I will find you... again. I promise.

Oliver: I love you.

Felicity: I love you so much.

(The two kiss passionately and hug each other for several seconds. Reluctantly, Oliver lets go of Felicity as she feels his face one more time before he lets go and walks back to the living room.)

(Felicity walks through the woods near Queen Manor. She stops and The Monitor approaches her.)

Felicity: I'm ready.

The Monitor: Where I'm taking you, there is no return.

Felicity: I have waited a very long time to see him. I'm ready.

(Felicity twists her wedding ring as The Monitor opens a breach. The two step forward into it as it seals behind them, with no indication they were ever there.)

Continuity

Sergeant Bingsley passes out and is in the back of am ambulance. As such, he can't confirm that Team Arrow didn't attack the police.

Team Arrow escapes from the SCPD thanks to Oliver's timely use of a smoke arrow.

The whole of Team Arrow have arrest warrants put out for their real names.

Curtis Holt and Black Siren return to help fight The Ninth Circle.

Ben "Bronze Tiger" Turner, last seen in 715, is revealed to have been paroled. He helps calm the crowds during the drone attacks.

Ben Turner agrees to help stop the Ninth Circle.

Lyla picks up John Jr., Zoe and Connor and takes them to an ARGUS safehouse.

Felicity tracks the signal to trigger the Cygnus X-1 release to the top floor of Palmer Technologies - what was Robert Queen's office when the building was still owned by Queen Consolidated.

Virgil tells Emiko that the rest of The Ninth Circle's leadership is concerned that her vendetta is bringing too much heat down upon them. He asks her to detonate the bombs now but she refuses.

Sergeant Bingsley tells Mayor Pollard that Team Arrow is innocent. He and several other cops join the team to swarm Palmer Industries.

 Oliver offers Emiko another chance for them to work beyond their father's life and be better people together. When she refuses to take it, he offers her a dagger and tells her to kill him.

Before Emiko can make a decision, Virgial arrives with a group of Ninth Circle soldiers and a woman named Beatrice, who informs Emiko she has been cast out of the Ninth Circle.

Beatrice throws the knives that fatally wound Emiko.

With her dying breath, Emiko warns Oliver that the Ninth Circle know that Felicity is pregnant an they will stop at nothing to kill him, her and their child.

Oliver escapes from Palmer Industries just before a fire bomb destroys the upper floors.

Black Siren returns to Earth 2.

Bronze Tiger is offered a place on Team Arrow by Diggle. He turns it down, saying that he wants to focus on being with his son now that he's free of prison. Diggle understands but says ARGUS may approach him about a job anyway.

Curtis announces his intention to propose to his longtime boyfriend, Officer Nick Anastas and go back to his new job in Washington D.C.

Roy says he's going to take some time to be alone and figure out a way to atone for the two guards that he killed before he joins back up with Thea Queen and Nyssa Al Ghul.

Oliver says he and Felicity are going to leave town for a while, leaving Diggle in charge of the team while they are away.

Before everyone parts ways, Oliver says he is going to design a Mark of Four based around The Four Pillars of Heroism he thought up ad that the six of them (Oliver, Felicity, Diggle, Rene, Dinah and Roy) will be able to use it as a signal if they ever need help. This symbol was first mentioned and seen in the flash-forwards of 708 when Dinah revealed she had a tattoo of the symbol to William Clayton.

Diggle helps Felicity and Oliver find a home in a rural community called Bloomfield, which is a sort of retirement community for ex CIA, ARGUS and DIA personnel who need to go into witness protection. The entire city is basically one gigantic safe-house.

Several moinths pass during which Oliver and Felicity enjoy their time together, Mia is born and Oliver and Felicity both enjoy being the parents of a young baby.

The Monitor appears in Oliver and Felicity's living room and confirms the time has come for Oliver to fufill the bargain he made in S409.

Oliver explains that he agreed to give the Monitor "whatever the Multiverse requires" to save it during the coming Crisis, in exchange for the means to save Barry and Kara during the battle with Dr. Destiny. The Monitor reveals that this means that Oliver must come with him and help him to "prevent the inevitable."

The Monitor reveals that he has seen Oliver die and that there is nothing that can be done to avert his fate. He does say, however, that it is possible to make Oliver's death mean something and that he can use it to save the uncountable lives, including those of his wife and daughter.

The Monitor also says that it is important that Mia Smoak's life be saved, but does not explain why.

Oliver is allowed a chance to hold Mia one last time and to kiss Felicity before he leaves with the Monitor.

Mia is somehow able to fight several of the Zeta droids before they focus on her and overpower her.

The rest of the Zetas are finished up by a disguised Connor Hawke.

William and Rene are saved from Galaxy One by Zoe.

Felicity reveals that Mia is able to fight the Zetas because a backdoor in Archer stops her DNA from being analyzed and her movements predicted.

This prompts William to come up with a plan to destroy Archer by using the delay caused by Mia's presence at a gate scanner to upload a virus into the system.

The virus doesn't destroy Archer but triggers a system-wide reboot which shuts it down for four minutes.

Mia volunteers to activate the self-destruct on the wall during that four minute window.

William is able to code a 60 second delay into the self-destruct so Mia can escape in time.

Rene, Dinah, Roy and Felicity agree to take the rap for the destruction of the wall.

Dinah officially makes Zoe the new head of The Canaries.

Roy thank William for getting him off of Lian Yu.

Roy says how he got on Lian Yu in the first place and a long story when William asks him how he got there.

Felicity meets with Mia and William in the woods behind what was Queen Manor at Robert Queen's gravestone.

It is revealed that there are two new gravestones there. One for Emiko Queen, who is buried on Robert's right.  The other is on Robert's left and is for Oliver Queen.

Oliver Queen's tombstone identifies him as The Green Arrow and says he died in 2019.

Felicity says that this is the last time she'll see Mia and William, as she is going on a journey of her own - one that she can take now that she is satisfied that Mia and William can take care of themselves.

The episode ends with Felicity meeting with The Monitor, who asks if she is prepared because she cannot return from where they are going. Felicity replies that she has been waiting a very long time to see him as she twists her wedding ring. The implication is that The Monitor is taking her to see Oliver, but with no indication of where or when.


The Bottom Line

The first two-thirds is a bit of a rushed mess, which has no purpose but to finish up Emiko's storyline and everything involving the Zeta soldiers. The final third, however, contains some of the best moments in Arrow history and a fantastic farewell to the character of Felicity Smoak. For once, the episode is more than the sum of its parts and the perfect finale more than makes up for the weak start.  It will be interesting to see how the show goes on in Season 8 without Emily Bett Rickards but it will be an interesting train-wreck if nothing else.

Arrow Episode Guide: Season 7, Episode 21 - Living Proof

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



Plot

Team Arrow is trapped in a collapsing building, as Smoak Technologies is raided by the police, who have a warrant for Felicity's arrest. Can Team Arrow reassemble to save their city from the Ninth Circle's efforts to frame them for their terrorist attack?


Influences

The Green Arrow comics of Benjamin Percy and the animated series The Zeta Project.


Goofs

Again, the drama of this episode in the modern day scenes is anti-climactic thanks to the future scenes revealing that Team Arrow will be fine.


Performances

Colin Donnell's cameo is blatant fan service but it's a fun bit of business that ads a new level to Oliver's struggle for survival.


Artistry

The direction on the sequence of Roy jumping into the benzene cloud is so tensely, tightly directed you honestly forget that Roy can't NOT survive it.


Trivia

Continuing the long Arrow tradition of each season's penultimate episode sharing the name of a Bruce Springsteen song, this episode is titled "Living Proof". Released on the 1992 album Lucky Town, Springsteen wrote the song about his young son and the feelings he felt as a father. This would seem to relate to Oliver's feelings regarding the pregnant Felicity, but the song makes mention of being imprisoned and a man who has lost all faith in himself - an apt description of Oliver in Season 7.

The robot soldiers Galaxy One makes that are powered by the Archer Network are designated Zeta. This seems to be a nod to Zeta - a robot assassin who first appeared in the Batman Beyond animated series, before starring in his own spin-off, The Zeta Project. Zeta developed his own independent morality system and refused to kill, going on the run to avoid being reprogrammed.


Technobabble

When Felicity arrives at Smoak Technologies, she asks Alena for an uplink gain augmenter.

Felicity's security system is programmed to generate a remote-detonated nanoelectric pulse that shorts out electronics. It also plays a stunning noise similar to the Canary Cry collar.

The chemical formula for benzene is C6H6. It is one of the most widely used industrial chemicals in the world and a known carcinogen. Exposure to large amounts can cause permanent nerve damage and a painful death.


Dialogue Triumphs

Tommy: You look shocked. Um, is it the beard? 

Oliver: (weakly) Uh-uh. You look good.

Tommy: (grinning) Yeah, I know.

Oliver: Ohh. I must have a really bad concussion.

Tommy:Yeah, man. A building just collapsed on you. It could be a little PTSD, too. That position that you're in with the rebar? It is remarkably similar to how you found me all those years ago.

Oliver: The night you died.

Tommy: Yeah. And I got to tell you, man, it looks like the same thing is gonna happen to you if you don't get out of here, like, right now.

Tommy: You know, it is insane that we both had secret half sisters.

Oliver: Well, yours didn't try to kill you, did she? 

Tommy: Well, you should give Thea some credit. I died before she had the chance to try.

Tommy: What kind of solution are you planning for her? 

Oliver: The one she deserves. She let our father die.

Tommy: He abandoned her, Oliver.

Oliver: She's been manipulating me, she's been manipulating the team for months, posing as some sort of hero. The woman's a murderer.

Tommy: So now you're gonna be one, too? And here I thought that we were done with all of that.

Oliver: I don't see another choice here, Tommy.

Tommy: It is exactly that kind of attitude that's gonna keep you stuck down here.

Oliver: I need to get out of here.

Tommy: You will. Trust me. What you really need to worry about is what happens when you do.

Oliver: Why?

Tommy: Everything you've done this year working with the cops, fighting for the city without a mask? You've got a shot at something we never had.

Oliver: What's that? 

Tommy: A clean slate. You can't shed your past, but you can keep it from hurting your kids. That's something our parents could never give us, but it is never, ever going to happen, Oliver, if you keep seeing red with Emiko.

Oliver: As long as she's still breathing, my family will never be safe. You know this, Tommy.

Tommy: Then you haven't moved past your family's mistakes, Oliver. You haven't broken the cycle of lies and hate. You're trapped. You're trapped just like you are in this room.

Oliver: But you're not here.You are a... You are a figment of my imagination that has been sent here to test my resolve. Won't work.

(Suddenly, the wall collapses, revealing a tunnel with light.)

Tommy: Looks like you found your way out.

Oliver: To stop Emiko, if I need to be as ruthless to her as she was to my father, so be it.

Tommy: Good luck finding your team, Oliver. You're gonna need them.

Oliver: Good-bye, Tommy.

(Tommy shakes his head sadly.)

Dinah: You must be a pretty big idiot, risking your life like that.

Roy: Well, we're alive, aren't we? 

Dinah: You're lucky to be. 

Roy: I'm surprised you even care if I made it out alive or not.

Dinah: Of course I care. You're our teammate.

Roy:  Maybe I shouldn't be. You lost everything to protect me, and you don't even know me. Those guards that I killed, they're innocent. They had families.

Dinah: What you did back there, it was awful, but we all know it was the bloodlust, Roy. That wasn't you.

Roy: No. That doesn't change the fact that I put everyone else around me at risk. You should have just let me go to prison.

Dinah: I was wrong. We all make mistakes. I was just pissed because we had just lost everything. That doesn't mean I want you dead.

Roy: Maybe it's best if I am six feet under.

Dinah: Dying is the coward's way out. Every day that you stay alive, you try to redeem yourself for that messed-up thing you did. Because this world is a better place with a hero like you. Now let's go.

Tommy: I know that you think that you have broken your father's cycle, but as long as you are giving in to your worst impulses, you are never going to be free.

Oliver: What am I supposed to do? Just tell me what I'm supposed to do!

Tommy: Lean in to the best parts of yourself Your loyalty, your selflessness, your courage, your compassion, and show that side to Emiko. You are living proof that people can change, and you have got to find a way to see that in her, too.

Oliver: I don't know if I can.

Tommy: That's okay. That's the risk you got to take.

Dinah: (in the distance) He should be in there! 

Roy: (in the distance) Oliver! 

Tommy: Looks like our time's up.

Oliver: You know, Tommy, I miss you every day...

Tommy: I know, but I'm always with you. It's time to wake up now.

(Cut to Oliver, still pinned under the rubble where we first saw him as the episode opened.)

Continuity

Oliver sees Tommy Merlyn, while he is pinned under rubble. The position Oliver is pinned in is exactly the same as how he found Tommy in 123.

The vision of Tommy Merlyn has a beard for no apparent reason.

The Ninth Circle sent the security footage of Roy beating the two security guards to death to Sergeant Bingsley of the SCPD.

The SCPD puts out a warrant for Felicity's arrest after they determine that the Archer program was used to send the signal that triggered the Ninth Circle's biological weapon, while Emiko still had control of the program.

Felicity and Alena evade arrest thanks to Felicity's security system.

As a teenager, Oliver taught himself how to hot-wire a car practicing on Malcolm Merlyn's car. He was grounded for an entire summer because he did it three more times.

Roy offers to turn himself in for the murders of the security guards to save the rest of Team Arrow. This idea is dismissed because with a warrant out for Felicity's arrest, there's no real way to save the rest of the team from guilt by association at this point.

Roy risks his life jumping into a benzene cloud to shut off the emergency generator that risks setting the collapsing building on fire.

Emiko breaks into the Bunker and almost kills Felicity. She relents when Felicity says that she is pregnant and begs Emiko not to kill an innocent child. She still knocks out the power inside the Bunker. 

Felicity worries about giving her child a normal life after how badly she failed to protect William.

Alena suggests that Felicity can take herself off the grid to protect herself and her child and that she can run Smoak Tech for her.

Oliver hallucinates Emiko and the Ninth Circle killing Rene, Roy, John and Dinah. 

When the hallucination of Tommy tells Oliver how to beat Emiko, he names the four virtues that Future Dinah said made up Oliver's Pillars of Heroism in 708 - Courage, Compassion, Selflessness and Loyalty.

Everything that happened with Oliver trying to free himself is revealed to have been a hallucination. He doesn't work himself free of the rubble until the rest of the team find him. 

While in the Bunker, Emiko stole several of Oliver Queen's arrows.

The Ninth Circle attack SCPD Headquarters with Emiko dressed as Green Arrow, using Oliver's arrows.

Team Arrow arrives on the scene to find several officers dead. They find Sergeant Bingsley, who dies just after he says the police thought they were being attacked by Team Arrow. He confirms that the Ninth Circle stole the Cygnus X-1 bomb.

Emiko escapes with the bomb just as the SCPD air support arrives.

Galaxy One starts marketing the robots that killed most of the Canary Network under the name Zeta.

Felicity wants to disable Archer remotely but someone is reworking it as she's trying to hack it.

William comes up with a plan to save the vigilantes by creating Archer blind spots like the one Keven Dale has. He will meet with him under his fake CEO identity and hack Dale's personal computers, getting the code to create the blind spots. Felicity is against the idea, but William decides to do it anyway without permission.

William and Rene Ramirez are intercepted at Galaxy One HQ.

Alena is confirmed to be the one who stole the code for Archer and weaponized it for Galaxy One.

Future Alena has short hair dyed blonde.

Alena agrees to help Felicity destroy Archer... after Felicity freezes her bank accounts and shreds her passport.

The rest of the vigilantes are captured at the final Canary Nest.


The Bottom Line

It says a lot that the most entertaining part of the episode are the ones where Oliver is talking to himself through a hallucination. Unfortunately, there's not much drama to the rest of Team Arrow's being imperiled since we know that everyone is going to survive this thanks to the Flash Forwards. And the Flash Forwards are rather dull since 75% of them are devoted to people watching Felicity type. Still, the pieces are set for one heck of a season finale and at least there's nothing noticeably awful. Like most of Season 7 to date, it could have been so much more.