Arrow – Present Tense

By: Courtney Groom

Last week’s episode ended with one of the biggest cliffhangers the show has ever seen. Mia (Katherine McNamara), William (Ben Lewis) and Connor (Joseph David-Jones) were all transported to 2019 by The Monitor (LaMonica Garrett). Landing straight in the heart of the bunker they all come face-to-face with younger Dinah (Juliana Harkavy), Rene (Rick Gonzalaez), John (David Ramsey) and Oliver (Stephen Amell).

We pick up exactly where we left off with Mia and William both shocked that their father is standing right in front of them…alive. William runs up to Oliver and hugs him crying while Mia stands back. Oliver realizes it’s William, his son, who is much older than he remembered. He also realizes who Mia is, no longer the baby she left with Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards). Rene says he has checked and Oliver doesn’t have an adult daughter or any daughter. Oliver then admits that he and Felicity had a daughter, giving birth a few months after they left Star City but kept it on the low to protect her. Connor confronts John saying he is his adopted son, but John says he hasn’t even thought about adoption. Looking around the bunker William realizes that Rene and Dinah don’t have grey hair or wrinkles anymore and that Oliver is alive instead of dead. William asks what year they’re in with confused Oliver admitting it’s 2019. William then realizes they’re in the past as he is from the year 2040.

Original and future Team Arrow switch the news on to help try and see if anything is normal anymore. Starling General Hospital was attacked after a bomb was found inside a CEO with officials saying Deathstroke (Manu Bennett) orchestrated the attack. Oliver said he has A.R.G.U.S. keeping tabs on Slade and he’s currently in Buredunia. Neither him nor his son, Kane Wolfman (Liam Hall), are near Star City.

Curtis (Echo Kellum) shows up at the bunker saying it’s good to be back (after leaving last season and moving away from Star City) to help now Felicity is not around. Mia is still feeling uncomfortable being around Oliver and the past team so she makes up an excuse to go see the city rather than sit in the bunker. Curtis asks why Oliver called in the big guns (himself). Oliver tells him that Earth-2 was destroyed by a wave of energy. He has a piece of fabric that was clipped by it and wants Curtis to try to help him figure out what it is. Oliver tells him that it’s a wave of energy that’s powerful enough to destroy a planet, so it’s probably powerful enough to stop a God.

Connor tells Mia and William what he found at SCPD with John and Dinah when they went to investigate the hospital bomb scare: a message that was found with the victim that said, “Star City’s cancer is the rich.” Mia said it all started when they got there, so maybe JJ (Charlie Barnett) came back, too. That message is JJ’s favorite catchphrase. William says they should tell Oliver and the team, but Mia refuses. She says it’s their mess to clean up.

Mia, William and Connor get to an abandoned apartment. Connor says twenty years from now the place is Galaxy One, but in 2019 it’s where the Deathstrokes started. Mia and Connor look around the loft and find a dead guy on the table. They are then greeted by the Deathstrokes. When Connor asks JJ why he did it, why he killed Zoe (Eliza Faria), the leader reveals himself to be Grant Wilson – son of Slade Wilson. The original Team Arrow all show up after figuring out what Mia, Connor and Willaim were up to letting the Deathstrokes all escape.

At the bunker Oliver tries to get Mia, William and Connor to explain what they were doing at that loft in the first place with no backup. Connor tells them that in the future that building is the Deathstroke home base and the leader is Grant Wilson. Dinah asks why they kept referring to him as JJ if they already knew it was Grant all along. Connor explains that since they came back he thought maybe JJ did as well. They continue by telling them that in the future Grant trains a new leader, someone who eventually takes over the Deathstrokes: JJ. William then tells them that future Star City is a terrible place. It’s run by gangs, the cops are corrupt and the politicians are, too. They were trying to save it, but that meant stopping JJ and that’s what they were doing right before they came to 2019.

William said Zoe was fighting to fix exactly what her dad helped cause and that’s why she was a Canary like Laurel and Dinah. They had a whole network of them in the city. Ever since the wall came down they’ve been fighting the Deathstrokes, trying to make things better. Mia says all that matters now is stopping Grant Wilson before he screws up everyone’s future.

Oliver finds Mia and tells her they have to talk. Mia explains to him she’s going to the hospital bomb site in case Dinah missed something important. She says she’s not going to stand around and waste time. Oliver states he knows what’s driving her right now – the loss of a teammate. Oliver goes on to explain that he has been in her situation before and he can help. However, Mia tells him she’s survived her whole life without him and she doesn’t need him playing Dad now she’s dropped into the past. Oliver says it’s not tactically wise to go out there by herself when she’s letting her decision be driven by her emotions. Mia asserts he doesn’t get a say as he gave up that right when he left her and Felicity. Oliver tries to defend himself by saying it’s because he chose to keep her safe and he chose right. Mia tells him he just wanted to be a hero so he put his mission above his family and leaves the bunker with Laurel (Katie Cassidy Rodgers). William calls over Oliver quickly to show that Grant is alive. We hear Grant say, “Six years ago, my father rained terror down on this city. He was short-sighted, foolish. The city has a cancer, the 1% who control industry. I will excise it. Our siege of Star City begins tonight.” William says this must be how it starts. This is the beginning of the future.

William finds Oliver and tells him that Mia’s back and that Curtis has almost cracked the drive. Oliver notes to William that she was right, he chose to go with the Monitor and abandoned his family. Oliver tells William he thought he hated his guts for sending him away to live with his grandparents when he was younger, but William says he hated Oliver for abandoning him. He wanted Oliver to try harder, push a little more. He’s glad Oliver’s in his life, then and now, and Mia will be as well. Curtis interrupts and tells them he has something. Grant is trying to one-up his father with coordinated bomb attacks. Curtis tells the team that Grant has set up a relay device underneath downtown. Oliver says they’ll set up one team to go after Grant and one team to destroy the relay device, but they also need to keep the public calm. He tells William to stay back to help with Curtis and Mia and Connor to come with them.

Oliver and Mia are in the service tunnels underneath the city with John, Connor and Laurel at the east end. Oliver and Mia are overhearing Grant’s speech to the Deathstrokes. He says that it’s time they take back the city from the cancer which has plagued it.

Meanwhile, we see John, Laurel and Connor are trying to figure out how to disable the bomb. William tells them it’ll have a transfer switch embedded into the mainframe. He says to disconnect the red wire but to not touch the blue one or very bad things will happen (they will go boom).

After fighting through the army of Deathstrokes we see that Mia is about to kill a tied-up Grant when Oliver steps in the way. She tells him to get out of her way and he says no. She can hate him if she wants, but he’s not letting her do this – not letting her makes the same mistakes he did. Mia backs down letting the SCPD deal with him instead.

At the bunker Dinah said she just got off the phone with SCPD. Grant Wilson is being prepped and transferred to Blackgate prison where he will spend the next twenty to life. Oliver says it takes the Deathstrokes off for the foreseeable future and they propose a toast for Zoe and JJ.

The next day Oliver takes Mia to his father’s and Emiko’s grave. Oliver says he didn’t really get to know his real father until after he died and he doesn’t want that to be him and Mia. He asks Mia is she will stick around with him and William and be a family.

Curtis calls Oliver and tells him that whatever that wave of energy is it’s possible to replicate, but there’s a couple catches. He doesn’t have the tools to do it and it’s super illegal because it requires plutonium, the bomb-making kind. However, there’s a military general in Russia that might be able to help.

Outside of SCPD Laurel runs into The Monitor, who tells her she aches for the world she lost and he possesses the power to restore it. The recovery of her universe will require a single task: She must betray Oliver Queen.