When a mysterious new Deathstroke appears in Star City, Oliver and Team Arrow insist on taking down this villain themselves. Meanwhile, reeling from the loss of one of their own, the future Team Arrow figures out a new way to try and stop JJ.
Tropes
- Alternate Timeline: The arrival of future Team Arrow changes the timeline almost immediately (Dinah and Rene become aware of Mia's existence decades before they did in the flashforwards), with further changes coming when Grant blows up his future headquarters and is apparently locked up long before his gang can take power.
- Arbitrary Skepticism: Mia (albeit very briefly) states that it is impossible that they are in the past.
- Badass Boast:
- When Oliver is asked about how to stop a God, he responds that he is working on it.
- Mia is not afraid to face her father when he gets in her way, asking him whether he wants to see how well Nyssa trained her.
- Bait-and-Switch:
- The Deathstroke terrorizing the city? It's not actually JJ brought to the past, it's Grant Wilson.
- Discussed by Connor as a favored tactic of the Deathstrokes.
- Birds of a Feather: Curtis and William bond very quickly.
- Blatant Lies: Future Team Arrow tries to do this initially at Mia’s behest, but then they spill the truth as seen below with Internal Reveal.
- Booby Trap: Future Team Arrow runs into them when they go to the Deathstroke's headquarters. Oliver saves them with a freezing arrow.
- The Bus Came Back:
- Curtis returns to help Oliver devise a means of fighting the Monitor.
- Grant Wilson appears in the Arrowverse for the first time since he was introduced on Legends of Tomorrow.
- Butterfly of Doom: A positive inversion of this is discussed as Team Arrow hopes that since the timeline has already changed slightly in the episode, it may have already changed future events.
- Card Board Prison: Mia wants to kill Grant because he always got out of prison every time he got arrested.
- The Corrupter: Turns out Grant was the one to inspire JJ.
- Continuity Nod: Even after dealing with metahumans, magic, aliens, alternate Earths, and reality warping, meeting their adult children from the future is still hard for Diggle to accept, Rene notes that at least Diggle isn't throwing up anymore.
- Deal with the Devil: The Monitor apparently offers to restore Earth-2 if Laurel carries out some task for him that involves betraying Oliver. The episode ends before revealing whether or not she accepts.
- Eat the Rich: Grant gains support for the Deathstrokes by proclaiming the rich to be a cancer that needs to be excised.
- Everyone Has Standards: Despite William's brief fear to the contrary, Mia rules out the possibility that she'd kill a five-year-old JJ to avert his actions in the future.
- Expy: Connor reveals the Grant was the one who turned JJ to the dark side. The future son of The Lancer turning evil by being corrupted by an Evil Mentor while also being obsessed with Villainous Legacy is a backstory J.J. shares with Ben Solo.
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Fashion-Victim Villain: Laurel remarks how ridiculous the Monitor's attire is. - Foil:
- Mia and Grant Wilson are both younger children of major figures in Star City, both have issues with their fathers, and both want to make a difference in the city by following in their fathers' footsteps. Mia is trying to improve Star City as a heroic archer, while Grant is using Deathstroke's image to inspire fear.
- Oliver's struggles with meeting his adult daughter from the future who's a reckless Leeroy Jenkins whom he resembles pre-Character Development. This
closely mirrors Barry and Nora's storyline in The Flash (2014) season 5. Of course Oliver and Mia being The Cowl opposed to Barry and Nora being The Cape makes each play out a little differently.
- Forgiven, but Not Forgotten: Oliver mentions he still has A.R.G.U.S. keeping tabs on Slade, despite his Heel–Face Turn.
- Future Me Scares Me: Renee is jarred to learn he becomes the very sort of corrupt politician he hates.
- Generation Xerox: More than a few snarky remarks are made about how much like Oliver Mia turned out to be. Also, Curtis remarks how similar William is to his adopted mom Felicity. William also remarks he's been told he inherited his father's broodiness.
- Honorary Aunt: Zoe calls Dinah "Aunt Dinah".
- Internal Reveal:
- Dinah and Rene learn about the Monitor and about Oliver and Felicity having a daughter.
- Original Team Arrow learn from Future Team Arrow about the decadence of Star City in 2040, JJ being the leader of the Deathstroke gang and Zoe’s recent death.
- William thinks he does this when he tells his father that he's gay, but Oliver knew all along.
- It's All About Me: Mia has shades of this when she blames Oliver for leaving her and Felicity, not taking into consideration that Oliver was doing it to save the entire Multiverse.
- It's All My Fault: Several people blame themselves this episode. Oliver blames himself for not having been there for his family and both Connor and John blame themselves for what happened to JJ.
- Kid from the Future: Mia and William are this to Oliver, and Connor is this to John.
- Moral Myopia: As she did with Felicity last season, Mia rails at Oliver for putting his mission before his family and leaving her and Felicity alone. Her argument might have had more impact if Oliver's mission wasn't to save the entire multiverse.
- New Era Speech: Grant gives one to the Deathstrokes, even saying that he wants to make Star City "great again".
- Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: According to Connor, Grant's Eat the Rich rhetoric is little more than a way to get support for his crusade to conquer the city.
- Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure: Mia isn't familiar with The Shawshank Redemption.
- Rousing Speech: Rene makes one to the people of the Glades, announcing his candidacy.
- Save the Villain: Oliver convinces Mia not to execute Grant Wilson. He doesn't particularly care about Grant; he just wants to prevent his daughter from becoming a cold-blooded killer.
- Screw Destiny: After learning the horrors that lie in the future, Team Arrow settles on this course, trying to build on the good (the Canary Network, Rene's political career) while doing everything they can to avert the bad (JJ's descent into villainy, the city going to rot, Zoe's death).
- Seen It All: Team Arrow is relatively unfazed by the fact that Mia, William, and Connor were all transported from the future. Given how insane the Arrowverse is at this point, this is hardly surprising.
- Self-Deprecation: Oliver actually makes fun of himself, when the rhetorical question is asked where Mia got her stubbornness from.
- Shout-Out:
- Curtis mentions The Shawshank Redemption.
- William engaging in some Black Comedy about killing baby J.J. will remind viewers of Rhodey's similar comment about baby Thanos in Avengers: Endgame.
- Spoiled by the Format: The identity of the new Deathstroke is spoiled by the fact that JJ's actor isn't in the opening credits, but Grant Wilson's is.
- Take That!: Looks like Grant forgot to wear his MSCGA! ballcap to complete his evil outfit.
- This Is Gonna Suck: Oliver's expression on being told he needs to go back to Russia screams this trope.
- Time-Travel Tense Trouble: When Connor admits that he didn't get a chance to kill JJ, Mia remarks that he's "still out there"; William immediately asks if she means the JJ from 21 years in the future, or the child version from the present day.
- The Unreveal: While Oliver naturally suspects the Monitor, the episode ends without revealing who or what brought Mia, William, and Connor into the present.
- Villain with Good Publicity: In the Bad Future, Grant's Eat the Rich rhetoric made him a folk hero to the downtrodden of Star City, allowing him to turn the Deathstrokes into a city-wide threat.
- Villainous Legacy: Slade is long gone from Star City, but his son Grant is using the Deathstroke image to wage his own terror campaign.
- Wham Line: Whom we assume to be The Monitor supposedly reaches out to Laurel, offering to restore Earth-2 as long as she carries out a single task...Laurel: What kind of task?
Novu: You must betray Oliver Queen. - What the Hell, Hero?:
- Mia chews out Oliver for abandoning her and Felicity.
- John is initially very angry with Connor for keeping secrets.
- Why Am I Ticking?: Grant uses a rich CEO named MacMillan Fairfield as a human bomb to blow up a hospital floor.
- Would Not Hurt A Child: Thankfully, Mia is not willing to hurt a toddler JJ to save Zoe in the future.
