Spoiler Warning
Yesterday I wrote about the high hopes I had for Olliver and Star City in 2046. My gut reaction to this episode moments after having watched it, it did not dissapoint.
The episode begins exactly where the last one left off, with the team exiting the damaged Waverider to get their barings, and Ray quickly noticing that his old building is now ‘Smoak Technologies.’ Shortly afte realizng they are in Star City in the year 2046, they have their initial run in with this time’s Green Arrow. Needless to say it does not go well. Green Arrow attacks, forcing them to retreat. I did find myself questioning something that I have wondered nearly every episode at some point or another: Why does Ray continue to go places without his suit, and why are Martin and Jax, the two halves of Firestorm, not always physically close to each other (if they aren’t already merged) when in the field? It just seems like those things should be no-brainers.
Realizing that the Waverider’s navagation system is damaged, Ray tells Rip of a prototype that could help, that Smoak Technologies probably has, assuming they continued the work of Palmer Tech. Rip takes Leonard, Mick, and Sara to retrieve the tech. Inititally he didn’t want Sara to see too much of her future but relented when she questioned if the Time Masters were better at combat training than the League of Assassins.
Back in the field they stumble across Green Arrow again, but this time he’s being attacked by a pair of rivial gangs. Sara goes to help him with Rip following. While gone, one of the gangs comes after Leonard and Mick, and after setting their leader on fire, Mick quickly takes over. He is basically a kid in a candy story in this desloate future full of riots and looting. At the gang’s hideout, Leonard wants to leave to find the others, but Mick can’t figure out why. He claims to have everything he ever wanted: “A gang that does everything I say. A fur coat. A chalice…. It’s like Christmas everyday.” I thought that was a great summation of Mick’s character. Sure, we have seen him capable of more depth than that (most notably last episode), but at his core he is a simple man with simple, albeit not overly wholsome, goals.
Meanwhile, Sara was able to assist Green Arrow, leading to the two of them having a discussion and beginning to trust each other. They are interuppted by Deathstroke and his men. As many fans suspected, Deathstroke isn’t Slade Wilson, but rather one of his son, Grant and his army took over Star City 15 years earlier in what’s known as ‘The Uprising.’ After escaping, they tell Green Arrow what their mission is, and he informs them that most of Felicity’s tech was actually in Oliver Queen’s old lair. This is the same lair seen in current episodes of ‘Arrow’ but everything appears to be in a broken down state. Most of the equipment appears to be covered in sheets and blankets, most likely not turned on for years. Noticiably, there is a rather new looking prosthetic arm that looks like it has been used more recently. The arm definitely stuck out among the rest of the area. Then, in walks Oliver Queen. Yes, you can tell that it’s really Stephen Amell in make up, but they did a really good job I thought on the effect.
There is clearly a lot of resentment from the future Green Arrow towards Oliver, and we can start to realize why when Oliver calls him John. It turns out, he is not Oliver’s son at all, but actually is John Diggle, Jr. However, he doesn’t feel he deserves that name after failing to save his father’s life, and is now going by Conner Hawke. Yes, it’s a departure from the Conner in the comics but I thought that it was a nice, and fitting, twist. Oliver also confirms that, in his timeline, Sara and Ray never make it back from thier mission to hunt down Vandal Savage. He tells them of a warehouse where most of Felicity’s stuff is currently at, and sends them on their way. The warehouse is located at Adams and O’Neil (a nice homage to some great creators to work on the ‘Green Arrow’ comics, Neal Adams and Dennis O’Neil.
Back with Mick and Leonard, Deathstroke breaks in and insist on the gang aiding his men in finding Green Arrow and the others. After Deathstroke leaves, Mick and Leonard disagree about how to proceed. I found it interesting that Mick referred to Sara and Rip as his friends. Up until now he has just thought of the others as members of his crew. Leonard talked Mick into going along with him, and they were able to find Sara and the others shortly after they are ambushed by Deathstroke’s men. When that battle was over, Conner was missing and Leonard knocked Mick unconcsious to force him back to the Waverider.
On the ship Leonard put Mick in a cell until they could hash out their differences. It’s clear that their partnership is at best severly damaged, and at worse dissolved. I’m curious to see how their relationshiop plays out over the rest of the season.
Sara talked Rip into staying in this time longer so she can help Conner, but Rip stubbernly refuses to help for fear of changing the timeline. Earlier Rip had warned Sara not to get to invested in this time, because “This world isn’t real.” I found that an odd statement from somone who is traveling through time attempting to change a different future. Apparently, she isn’t supposed to think hat her city in 2046 is real, but Rips time of 2166 is. Sara called him out on that before leaving the ship and going to Oliver for help. After convincing him to aid Conner, they go to where Deathstroke is planning his execution. It’s at this time that I was the most glad that the producers were able to get Amell to reprise the role rather, than if they had gone with a different actor. Using Amell ensured that Oliver would be different, but still very reconizable. This was most noticable in the way he carried himself while fighting. We were treated to a next generation Green Arrow vs Deathstroke battle, though it was a brief one before Oliver stepped in, followed shortly by the rest of the Legends. Stein had convinced Rip that they needed to help Sara. Eventually Rip will figure out he needs to stop splitting the team up. After the fighting was done, Oliver makes it known he plans to work with Conner now to take back the city.
Random Thoughts
- The one-armed, future Oliver was a nice homage to Oliver in ‘The Dark Knight Returns’ (Wiki).
- The subplot with Ray and Jax each trying to gain Kendra’s affections was humerous, but I would have preferred that time be spent on the main plot.
- I enjoyed hearing the Arrow theme a couple times throughout the episode.
- I find myself wondering how this show will age using such specific times of 2016, 2046, etc.
- It’s pretty obvious we won’t see this version of 2046 again, but I wouldn’t be upset if we did.
