Oliver and the gang join the SCPD; more flash forward mysteries in the latest Arrow

Team Arrow was deputized a few weeks ago, but now Star City’s masked heroes are officially being integrated into the Star City Police Department. Not surprisingly, it doesn’t go all that well from the jump.

Spoilers ahead for “Training Day,” the latest episode of The CW’s Arrow, which aired Monday, March 11, 2019.

After having Oliver and his team deputized and officially joining the ranks of the police department, the twist really did leave a lot of questions. Namely: exactly how they’d integrate into a field where bad guys, you know, have rights and stuff? “Training Day” takes a stab at answering that question, and though it fell into some predictable storytelling, it was still a story worth telling, considering the trajectory of the season.

The mayor is still looking to put her thumb on this little experiment, and decides that Team Arrow needs to be sporting SWAT team duds and standard-issue SCPD weapons. So yeah, they sent the Green Arrow out on the streets without an arrow and his armor. The team’s mission to track down the manufacturer of a lethal new poison bullet goes sideways when they follow the rules of engagement by the book. The bad guy gets away, and it’s pretty much an epic fail by all accounts.

Oliver wants the deal to work out to give his crusade legitimacy and legs for the future (though you have to wonder exactly how these legalized vigilantes dovetail with the future-set story where vigilantes have become a dirty word in Star City and the Glades), and of course they work out all the kinks in the third act. Turns out it takes a bit of give and take, so the team suits up and does thing their way, while still following the rules and keeping the SCPD in the loop. We end up where it was always to be expected, with a vigilante task force able to operate with some autonomy while still being under the umbrella of the PD. Sure, it was a bit predictable, but it helped explain out a pretty large question over exactly how this all worked out logistically.

The real action, though, took place in the future. Future William and Mia continued their crusade to track down Future Felicity, and finally acquired a tape player to figure out what message she left. Turns out Felicity orchestrated pretty much everything up to this point, and left the message for Mia and William, assuming they’d be working together by the time they were able to play the recording. She tells them she kept them apart and secret to keep them safe, though we still don’t know exactly why all that went down. Felicity leaves them a message with a set of coordinates to pass on to the team, and she asks them not to come and find her.

Of course, they ignore that request, and figure out the coordinates will take them over the wall separating the city and into The Glades. So the quest for Felicity continues, and at this point, it seems pretty clear that Felicity is still alive.

Assorted musings

Credit: The CW

Photo: The CW press site

You had to wonder once her throat was slit, and yeah, it seems Dinah’s canary cry ability has been damaged by that injury a while back. She suffers a crisis of confidence, but just as the team find a way to work within its new paradigm, so does Dinah. With or without her superpowers, she’s still a superhero.

So it seems Diaz really is dead, after being burned alive in the close of last week’s episode. Bronze Tiger tells Laurel he knows who killed Diaz, and claims it was Oliver’s long-lost sister Emiko (aka the New Green Arrow). We already know she has some shady connections to major baddie Dante. So did she kill Diaz at the request of Dante? Is this a setup? Lots of questions still hanging out there.

Next week: This looks like an interesting one, as we seemingly jump forward to track Mia’s birth and life (maybe)? Now that we know the show is ending next season, they can take some big swings and tell some interesting stories with an end date already on the books. Tracking Mia’s life could be a fun way to fill in those gaps we won’t get to see.