Arrow 8x04 "Present Tense" Episode Review
Major Spoilers are included in this episode review. Please read with caution.
Stephen Amell delivered his best performance in this episode, “Present Tense”. This episode was a dedication to Arrow’s second season with Deathstroke, Grant Wilson, terrorizing Star City. Also, Team Arrow 2040 (Mia, William, and Connor) show up in present day. Oliver Queen and everyone else are flabbergasted. William’s surprised, Mia’s in disbelief, and Connor gets rejected by John Diggle, who hadn’t adopted Ben Turner’s kid yet.
Everyone was freaking about Oliver and Mia seeing each other for the first time, but the best scenes from the episode come from Oliver and William. I cried very much watching father and son find closure with each other. People are forgetting or trying to forget that Oliver and Young William developed a legit parent-child relationship during seasons six and seven.
However, the argument scene between Mia and Oliver was also very powerful. She really acted like his daughter, going off on him about abandoning her and Felicity in that cabin to play superhero. Also, the excuse to not include Felicity was not the greatest. Yeah okay. Maybe for this episode, but what’s stopping Oliver from calling her in the next episode?
John’s reaction to Connor was out of character. I don’t think he would’ve raised a red flag immediately. It looked like a move season-1 Oliver would’ve made. It was almost as if he recognized Connor as an immediate threat and rejected him. It seemed really off to me.
Overall, the reason to return to Russia (season five dedication) was better than I thought it was going to be.
Laurel and Dinah are also getting closer to founding the Canaries for that planned spin-off. Rene is making his move to become Mayor of the Glades too. The future is now.
Laurel Lance didn’t get to do much this episode, but she had a lot of quips that I enjoyed. Also, I don’t believe she’ll go with The Monitor’s deal to restore Earth-2 in exchange for a betrayal to Oliver Queen. It would go back on her character development if she actually took the deal. I won’t blame her for considering it though. That’s pretty tempting.