“Your wife and son’s deaths are in the future and you want us to change that. So what, are you only willing to risk the timeline if it’s your own family?”
- Sara
I have to admit I was equal parts excited and terrified by this week’s episode premise. I knew going into it that Oliver would be in it and he might be sporting only one arm (thankfully it appears from promotional shots he’s got a robot arm so that little bit of terror went away). But I do think it is interesting to see what could be ahead for the Green Arrow if our ragtag team doesn’t succeed (and if you follow Arrow at all, Ollie isn’t exactly the happiest person right now). But that’s enough about my hang-ups on this episode. Let’s dive in to our team and their latest time-travelling hiccup.
As we often see, the team is split up pretty early in the episode and each have their own little arcs to deal with. The least dramatic of them deals with Ray, Jax and Kendra (with Stein a little involved too). Kendra remembers being a welder in the 1940s and so she’s helping fix up the engines and various other mechanical issues on the Wave Rider so the team can actually get out of Star City 2046. Things are complicated by the fact that Jax is crushing pretty hard on our hawk goddess. He’s specially bummed when he overhears Kendra and Ray sort of flirting. Stein initially thinks he’s managed to ward Ray off but then Ray tries to ask Kendra out. She turns him down and Jax overhears. But it’s also very clear that he’s got no shot at her either. It was a nice little diversion from the real havoc and mayhem going on outside the ship.
Out on the streets, we meet a young Green Arrow who is not actually William (mostly because he’s Black and I totally missed that at the end of the last episode). He forces the gang to retreat back to the ship before heading out again in search of a gizmo Palmer Tech (now Smoak Tech) was developing. They need it to fix Gideon. Having an operational ship’s computer is pretty important for time travel. Mick and Snart are going to join Rip on this mission but Sara insists on going. She’s appalled at what her city has become (overrun by criminals) and she needs to find out what’s going on and where her family and friends are. Mick and Snart end up breaking off from the rest of the team to join a gang of criminals. Mick is pretty excited by all of this. He’s got people to do what he tells them and he can be all amoral and drunk and no one cares. Well Snart seems to care a lot actually. He really does have a code and I like that about him. Mick is just the muscle and I honestly wouldn’t be too upset if he got left behind or killed on one of these missions.
Before long, Sara and Rip reconnect with Green Arrow and they also meet the leader of the city, Deathstroke. Well the next generation anyway. Slade apparently had a son (which makes me wonder how he got off the island to procreate. Then again, I do remember him having a daughter so maybe there’s something there? Anyway, he’s been hunting Green Arrow and he puts a kill order out for them. Snart isn’t very happy that their team is in the crosshairs but Mick doesn’t care. After a little posturing, they agree to rescue their friends and then have a chat about who is really in charge on their little duo. Sara and Rip, meanwhile, get a crash course in what’s happened. Her family is dead, and so is Oliver. The current Green Arrow knows where to find the tech they need. Of course it seems like it’s housed in Ollie’s old (current) lair. And just as they bust in, super old, one-armed Ollie comes out of the shadows doing his best “get off my lawn” impression.
He’s let Wilson get the best of him and crushed his spirit pretty damn hard. Everything went to hell when Ray and Sara didn’t return to 2016 to help save the city. Yeah that one hurt Sara quite a bit. Despite Rip constantly telling her this is only a potential future, she’s hard pressed to leave it behind. And when Connor (who is actually John Diggle Jr.) gets grabbed when they head to a warehouse to (finally) get the tech, she insists on rescuing him. She can’t let him die. And she begs Oliver to help her because she can’t face them alone. Rip gives her one hour and then the team is leaving but Stein talks him into going as backup. Not surprisingly, they save the day and Oliver and Connor are going to fight to take the city back. At least this way Sara can feel a little okay leaving the timeline. I did think it was very poignant and interesting that Rip has spent all this time telling them about the dangers of changing the timeline (both past and present) and yet that’s exactly what he wants to do. Sara rightly points out that he seems to be more than willing to risk things for his own family’s safety. He admits at the end of the episode that she was right. I think he’s used to working alone and he doesn’t know how to lead well. He’s still learning, just like the rest of the team is still learning how to work together.
Something tells me that even though they’ve left 2046 in better hands, the team isn’t going to be whole. There is a big divide between Snart and Mick that is only going to continue to grow. Especially since now Mick feels listless. If the previews are any indication, he may be turning on the team sooner rather than later. Overall, I thought this was a very good episode and a nice use of the characters we know from the original two shows. Seeing old Oliver was fun and I’m glad that Sara was able to galvanize him back into action. It means there is always hope.
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