Post — Aaron Ngo

Major Spoilers are included in this episode review.

The “big” reveal at the end of this episode was really predictable. Let’s start there. If you haven’t seen the newest episode, you probably still already know what I’m talking about. Black Star is revealed to be Mia Smoak, daughter of Felicity and Oliver. The blond hair gave her away in her debut episode in the fighting cages. Her attitude is kind of like Felicity’s babbling if corrupted by Oliver’s aggression.

The re-introduction of Connor Hawke, from “Star City 2046”, was also a nice touch to the episode. He was featured in the first season of Legends, as the Green Arrow. Roy Harper’s fight scene against him was well-choreographed, ensuring his fighting style was super consistent with what we’ve seen back during seasons 1 through 3.

Most of the audience seemed to have guessed the character’s true identity, and that’s partially why the “big” reveal didn’t work out. I was already so close to learning about the truth… getting to the end was annoying and made everything else going on less meaningful.

Stanley returning in this episode as the “Star City Slayer” should’ve been a bigger deal… and his performance was terrifying… oh yeah, the episode tried to do a horror themed episode, and it didn’t really work.

William (Younger) is written out of the series too. He is officially moving in with his grandparents (Samantha’s parents) because he was miserable/endangered for the past two seasons living with Oliver and Felicity. Oliver sounded insane thinking William was safer with him after everything that happened. I’m also really surprised it took William’s grandparents so long to save him from the horrible plots that plagued this show.

Oh, and it explains why William hasn’t been in contact with Oliver or Felicity until the flash forward story begins on Lian Yu.

Curtis also left the series. He was written out, and it was a long time coming. The cast is still overcrowded, but his character was the least developed since season seven began. This departure also explains his absence in the flash forward story… he doesn’t live in Star City anymore. Dinah gets her throat slit in this episode too… damaging her Canary Cry.

Speaking of Dinah Drake, her conversation with Captain Singh from The Flash was incredibly natural and not at all forced. Small moments like this enrich the Arrowverse so much.

Overall, everything was predictable, and I only enjoyed the “surprises” because they officially confirmed what we already knew. The “All Flash Forward Story” is going to be interesting. Can Nora make a cameo since she is from around that time? Can Nora and Mia be friends? Can Arrow jump to the future and tell stories with Mia, William, and Connor? New Team Arrow?

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