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Team Arrow loses a hero, a psycho killer attacks, and a new Queen sibling(?!) in latest Arrow
The Baddie of the Week story finally circled back to Oliver’s time in prison to resolve a dangling plot thread, but the real shock came in the flash-forward story — and that part of the season just got a whole lot more interesting.
Spoilers ahead for “Star City Slayer,” the latest episode of The CW’s Arrow, which aired Monday, Feb. 11, 2019.
Let’s start with the big news: Felicity is pregnant with Oliver’s baby, and that little girl will grow up to be the mysterious Blackstar, aka Mia Smoak. Future Roy and Future William are working with Future Zoe and Future Dinah (get all that) to try and save Star City from a looming bomb attack presumably orchestrated by Future Felicity. Their mission led them into the path of Blackstar, a mysterious woman who had some intel on Felicitiy. Blackstar captures the team, though you can’t keep those vigilantes down for long. A battle to escape ensues, and William reveals he’s Oliver’s son.
Turns out there’s a good reason Blackstar knows a lot about Felicity — she’s her daughter, which also makes her William’s brother. This is a monster reveal, and back in the present, we get the parallel reveal where Felicity receives a call from her doctor to let her know she’s pregnant, dovetailing that shock nicely. It’s all so surprising that it overshadows the other big future reveal, which is that Diggle’s son Connor Hawke (first seen on Legends of Tomorrow in an alternate timeline, operating as the future Green Arrow in a burned-out Star City) is also working with Blackstar. Considering she’s Felicity’s daughter, that makes sense. Oliver and Diggle always made a good team — so why not the next generation?
It stands to reason these disparate groups could be teaming up together to solve the mystery of Felicity’s bombs, and it also raises the question of whether Future Felicity is actually dead (my money has always been on her being alive). Regardless, the mystery just got a whole lot more interesting, and hopefully Mia’s story can fill in some gaps in regard to what happened to Oliver during these decades, and exactly what caused Star City’s collapse.
Back to the Baddie of the Week storyline: A creepy killer has started prowling Star City, who turns out to be none other than Oliver’s old prison pal Stanley, the mousy murderer who actually manages to pull the wool over Oliver’s eyes for a while. Last time we saw him he was slipping out of Slabside Prison during a moment of chaos, and now he’s finally resurfaced, using a hard-to-detect drug to paralyze his victims before slitting their throats. He manages to slash Dinah’s throat and almost kill her (we’re thinking this could also affect her Canary Cry abilities, too?), while also getting the drop on Oliver and his family.
Oliver keeps him talking long enough to knock him out, but still, it made for an interestingly disturbed antagonist. Turns out Stanley has latched onto Oliver to the point of trying to kill his friends to “protect” him, and is sneaky enough to get close enough to do some damage.
The attack comes at the least opportune time (don’t they always?), as Oliver is grappling with a defiant William who wants to fo and live with his grandparents in Star City. Oliver understandably doesn’t want to give up control, trying to make the case he can give William a normal life … umm, yeah. Not a great track record, bud. Between the kidnapping, attacks, and sending him off to boarding school to hide from a gangster, Oliver would have a tough time making that case. He finally realizes that, and lets William leave with his late mother’s family.
William’s presence has always made for an odd, and sometimes interesting, fit in the dynamic of a superhero drama. Having him move to Star City with family makes for a natural break point (at least more natural than shipping him off to boarding school). He can still be around, but the show can get back to balancing its already big cast and superhero drama.
Assorted musings
After being offered a promotion at ARGUS, Curtis decides to instead take a more philanthropic gig in D.C. It begs the question — is Echo Kellum actually setting up to leave the series? Turns out, yes, Mr. Terrific is out. Kellum told TV Line that Monday’s episode marked his final appearance as a series regular. There’s still a chance he could recur down the line, but Kellum wanted an exit strategy to spend more time with his family.
Keen-eyed DC fans likely noticed something familiar about William's new sister. Her name, Mia, comes from the comics. In comic lore, Mia was a runaway who serves as a sidekick to the Green Arrow.
Up next: Arrow is taking a break until March 4. But, when it returns Team Arrow will learn Diggle and ARGUS have been working with Diaz. It doesn’t seem to go over all that well.
