Arrow season 8, episode 1 review: Starling City

“You’re not the same man as when you left. And I sense that that’s for the better.” Spoilers for Arrow season 8, episode 1 follow.

At the end of season 7, Oliver left with The Monitor to prepare for a crisis. So, with no Team Arrow, he must help this all-powerful being before he dies.

In the future though, Team Arrow goes up against the Deathstroke gang and their unknown leader.

Back to Starling City

Oh man, it’s so weird to be back in Starling City. To be back in the season 1 setting after all these years. It feels so warm and welcoming as it begins almost identical as to what we know. As it progresses though, we see how different this world. And then once that uneasiness begins to seep in, we get the full whammy, this isn’t simply another timeline, this is a different earth. Earth-2 to be exact.

This is excellent build-up within the first ten minutes of the show that throws you through a gamut of emotions. You’re expecting things to be the same, and then they aren’t, and then they get even more different. You go through happiness, sadness, fear, and shock all in ten minutes. This doesn’t hold up for the rest of the episode, but there’s no way it could.

Then there’s the Dark Archer in the episode. Yet again, you feel safe in assuming who the Dark Archer actually given the show is in the eighth season and then it pulls the rug out from under you again with Tommy. Admittedly, once he pops up to save Malcolm, it’s pretty obvious, but there’s still a punch to the gut with the reveal. Colin Donnell is always welcome on the show ever since Tommy was killed in the first season and to see him back, even in this version, is wonderful.

Then there’s also the fact that Black Canary and Adrian Chase are the two heroes on this earth. Adrian’s actually a good person in this universe and Laurel is now the hero that she wanted to become last season. Plus, Pretty Bird is used in this episode for the first time in the series, which is amazing beyond all belief. Pure fan service, but still amazing.

The true mission

With the Crisis looming, what exactly is Green Arrow going to do when it comes? Well that’s what this season seems to be about. With it established that this earth is simply a waypoint for one thing that The Monitor needs, it seems that we have the formula for this season established. Each episode will explore a different earth in the lead-up to Crisis on Infinite Earths. There will be a different McGuffin that The Monitor needs on each earth, thus that will be Oliver’s mission in each episode.

It seems like another wrinkle is being thrown into the mix though as Diggle suddenly appears. Not another universe’s Diggle, but the one we know and love. Oliver believes that he’s going to die, but that doesn’t dissuade Diggle from going along with him.

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They’ve been together from the beginning, so it only makes sense that he would be the one to join Oliver in the end. Diggle is the heart and soul of the show, so to not have him in the final season would be a travesty, so its good that he is.

And wow, the ending of this episode as well. We got a glimpse of the anti-matter destruction through Barry’s vision in this week’s episode of The Flash, but we actually see an earth being destroyed in this episode. This drastically ups the stakes and now we know that the Crisis is already happening instead of being far off.

Star City 2040

The flash-forwards take a backseat in this episode, much like they did last season. This doesn’t really hold them back though. Obviously, there could’ve been more development on the plot if there had been more time devoted to them, but it would’ve taken away the necessary set-up that this episode provides.

What the episode does well though is set-up the Deathstroke gang in the future and Connor’s relation to their leader, John Diggle Jr. It’s simply and not really expounded upon yet, but this episode shows how outmatched that Future Team Arrow is against them. That’s what this episode needed to do for that story and it does so.

The final season of Arrow starts off strong by letting us settle in with something familiar, yet different enough to prepare us for Crisis on Infinite Earths.