ARROW - Season 7.16

ARROW – Season 7, Ep. 16:  “Star City 2040”

Team Arrow steps to the side tonight, as we head to the future and focus on Mia and William, who go on a dangerous adventure in the Glades in order to find Felicity, and uncover what her long term plan is.  Meanwhile, Dinah, Roy, and Zoe deliver some devastating news.

We see a cabin house out in the woods, where there’s a female grunting.  It’s Felicity giving birth to Mia.  It’s a special moment for Oliver and Felicity.  We see a montage where little Mia is being trained by Nyssa on how to fight.  Felicity watches over.  Nyssa says she’s ready, as they open up a box, and Mia pulls out the bow and quivers, and fires one.

Mia arrives home from school, letting her mom know she’s home, but she gets no response.  She’s looking about the house, and ends up nearly killing Felicity as she sneaks up behind her.  Felicity was on the phone with Smoak Tech, and Mia wonders why she doesn’t go into work.  Mia wants to leave Bloomfield and explore the city.  But Felicity says that the city isn’t safe.  She asks for a movie night, and Mia agrees.  She goes to shoot an arrow to split and apple, and it hits a picture.  The picture fluxuates, and Mia then discovers that it’s the key to open a secret door to a secret room, where she sees Felicity’s set up like Overwatch.  She starts toying with the keyboard, looking up stuff, but it sets off a self destruct sequence.  Felicity comes in and stops it, and says it’s just something she’s working on that’s not work related.  Mia accuses her of being a vigilante, and Felicity says it’s just propaganda.  Mia is upset that her mom lied to her, and says that she’s leaving to go to the city.  Felicity goes to look for Mia, who left a letter, saying that she left to head to Star City to find out the truth, and that she doesn’t want her mom to try and stop her.  We later see her getting a tattoo, wanting to erase any part of her old life.  Then, it heads to the future “present”, where she’s doing a handstand while her brother is watching.  She asks if he’s ready to head into the Glades, and he says to risk their lives.  She says she’s got nothing better to do, as she grabs her quiver.

We see the pair scaling the wall to get into the Glades.  They argue about Felicity, and then they continue their quest into the Glades.

Back at the Lair, Dinah, Roy, and Zoe are trying to locate the bombs, and Dinah says she has an informant at the SCPD.  They go to see him, but he’s not exactly forthcoming with information. Though they DO find out Felicity is alive and her death was faked.  It also turns out that he had his walkie talkie with him the whole time, which sets Roy off.  He pounds on the guy until Dinah pulls him back, saying they have to go.

Mia and William know they need to enter the Galaxy One Building, but feel they’re going to get caught.  William says not to worry, as they enter the building, where he barks orders at Mia, acting like she’s a secretary.  They get to the security scan, and William gets through just fine.  Just as he gets through, the security guard forces her to scan, and the alarms go off.  The guard is about ready to pull her aside, and she gets ready to fight, but Connor shows up, waving a badge, and the guard says he didn’t know she was with him, and Connor, known as Agent Hawke, says that is the whole point.  He scans in and they go through.

As they have gotten in, and talk, Mia is upset that Connor lie to her again.  He says he works for Knightwatch, which William points out is the “good” version of ARGUS.  They lay out a plan to try and get information on where the bombs are.  Connor heads to the sublevels, while William and Mia head up to the office to meet with the CEO.  They try to ascertain information about a company associated with Emerald, but the CEO, Kevin Dale, says that they ended their relationship with them.  While William is distracting Kevin with business talk, Mia is getting Kevin’s DNA from the coffee cup he had.  She then says that they have business to conduct back at the office, and they leave.

Dinah, Zoe, and Roy are back at the Lair, when they run into Rene.  He is disappointed that Dinah didn’t say away from Zoe, and Zoe tells him that she’s upset with him that he gave up his fight to work with terrorists.  Galaxy One is a front for an organization called Eden Crops.  He says that he knows they’re looking for the bombs…and they need to give it up.  Dinah tells him that he’s being played.  He says the bombs are part of a reclamation project for Star City.  But the real plan is to bomb the entire city…and the people with it.  Rene says that isn’t true.  He was under the impression that the people would be evacuated.  Zoe tells him that the father SHE knew…the hero…would’ve NEVER let this happen. 

Mia, William, and Connor are in an elevator trying to get to the sublevel, and Mia connects the dots, and says that Emerald was a company Felicity set up for William, due to the fact that Emerald connects to Emerald City from The Wizard of Oz, which was Felicity’s favorite book.  They get into the level, and have a quick battle, and they find out how to get to the lower level. 

They get to the sublevel, and they find Felicity, trapped inside some electronic cage.  Connor manages to get her out, and her and William reunite.  She says the coordinates were only for the team, and not the kids, but she’s glad to see them nonetheless.  She knows they need to disable the bombs, and they find out that they’re being followed, but it turns out the team finally arrives.  Dinah, Roy, and Zoe are happy to see Felicity alive.  She says she had to infiltrate this company to stop the bombs, but got caught.  They all agree that they need to stop the bombs, and they head out, except Mia and Connor.  Connor gives William the DNA device.  Mia is against going.  Her and Connor have a heart to heart about their relationship, and Connor tells her that while he wasn’t happy at the fact that his parents made the sacrifices, he’s proud of them.

The team tries to find out how to disarm the bombs, but it turns out, that it’s a cube that Kevin happens to have on his person, and that there’s a party going on to celebrate the project.  They don’t know how they can infiltrate the party, and Rene says to leave it up to him, now that he has discovered the truth.

It turns out to be a costume party, where they can get signatures on people through their clothing.  William and Felicity are trying to find Kevin, and Mia just happens to brush into him and follow him.  She finds him, and tells him to hand over the cube.  He says he won’t, and thought it would be a Canary that killed him.  He sends his guards, but Mia easily takes them down.  He makes his escape into the crowd.  They follow him, and Mia then gets her bow and manages to shoot the cube out of Kevin’s hand and onto a wall, disabling the bombs. 

The team then sees the press conference Rene gives, saying that vigilantes invaded the party and there’s a warrant out for Arsenal, Black Canary, and The Calculator…dead or alive.  They know Rene had to give that speech to keep up appearances.  Kevin and Rene have a chat, and Kevin thinks that Rene was a leak, but Rene manages to convince him that things are cool.  Then Kevin shows Rene the new device that will get rid of vigilantes forever.  We see a helmet with goggles on it. 

Mia and Felicity have a talk, and Mia had hated vigilantes for so long, but seeing what her Mom was willing to do and sacrifice has made her think differently.  Felicity says she’s proud of Mia, and says that her and her father did what they could to protect her and everyone else.  Mia asks her mom if taking down Galaxy One has anything to do with her father, and we Flashback to present time, where Felicity completes the ARCHER Program, which, as Felicity states earlier, needs to be destroyed because no one should have that much power.  Felicity finishes the ARCHER program, and it comes online.

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Well....we certainly got a lot out of this episode, and the future makes a hell of a lot more sense after tonight.  It also raises some new questions about what's to come for the future of the Arrowverse.

First of all...we get to see just how bad ass Mia got to be. Being trained by Nyssa, who is a member (or former member) of the League of Assassins---it's a top level education on combat.  And without Ollie there, it appears that Felicity went with the next best thing.  We also got to see the focal point of Mia's anger at vigilantes...Felicity herself.  With Felicity being Overwatch behind her daughter's back, it made Mia feel as if she wasn't as important as the city.  Mia only saw one side of the issue.  And her anger was warranted...to a point.  But she also saw that her mother was willing to risk her life, so that she could save the city.  And deep down, I feel Mia didn't want to see her mother die.  So, she did what her father would've done---save the city, save her loved ones.  It was a touching moment at the end to finally see a reconciliation between Mia and Felicity.  It was also good to see that William and Felicity reunite as well, with him not harboring the hate as Mia did.  And, he's a chip off the old Overwatch block.  Him and Felicity working together was great to see.

Overall, it was also good to see Team Arrow back in action.  It didn't take long for everyone to fall back into team mode, with William and Mia as the new additions.  And Rene---FINALLY---got the wake up call that was needed...thanks to Zoe.  It's the one thing that's been the bummer has been Rene's naivete'.  Of all the members of the team I feel that would've been on top of everything...and not "sell out"...it's Rene.  But with his eyes wide open now...the team now has an inside man keeping eyes on what's going on.  And Roy...he seems to have some anger issues.  I wonder if that's why he was on Lian Yu.  And I saw a video where someone suggested that MAYBE Roy took a dip in the Lazarus Pit?  And what of Thea at this point?  What happened to her?  And Nyssa?  She may have trained Mia, but she's gone at this point?  Just some things that are curious as we look at this bleak future.

Felicity's ARCHER program....this is reminiscent with the OMAC Project that Batman created in the comics---with DISASTEROUS results.  A Brother Eye initiative to keep tabs on other metahumans, and act appropriately should one of them go rogue.  I see that Felicity's program will have the same outcome...and that's not good.  

Something else I thought about...this story takes place about 20 years from now.  Vigilantes are outlawed and we don't know which ones went into hiding, and which ones are dead...or missing.  Now...on The Flash, we have Nora's time at 2049...Nine years AFTER the events going on in Star City.  Is what happened during the 20 year span between NOW and 2040 ALSO effect what happened in the rest of the Arrowverse?  What about Central City?  Where are the Legends?  Are metas outlawed still nine years AFTER in Nora's time after the events in Star City?  These are some interesting thoughts as we push forward with both Arrow AND The Flash.

Hopefully, we'll get more answers as the season marches on.  Overall, it was a solid episode that, while it didn't have A LOT of action, it was heavy in plot, which---sometimes---isn't a bad thing.  We learned a little more, building the story towards its climax, where I feel we might get a bit more action.  

That's it for this week, folks!  Please subscribe and pass the good word along.  And don't be afraid to drop a comment.

Until next week....keep your sights on the bullseye.