Warning: The following contains SPOILERS For Arrow, Season 8, Episode 3, “Leap Of Faith”
Arrow season 8, episode 3, “Leap of Faith,” ended with a most unlikely meeting, as Oliver Queen and the Team Arrow of 2040 were all teleported to the Team Arrow bunker of 2019. Much like Arrow season 7, the action of the current season of Arrow has been split between two time periods. Most of the season has focused on Oliver Queen and his quest to help the cosmic being known as the Monitor prepare for a coming crisis that threatens all of reality in the modern era. The rest of the show has been devoted to a series of flash-forwards to the year 2040, showcasing a new Team Arrow trying to save Star City from the gang known as the Deathstrokes and butting heads over the best way to go about doing that.
This conflict remained evident in “Leap Of Faith,” where Mia Smoak (the daughter of Oliver Queen and Felicity Smoak) argued for bold action against the Deathstrokes and a plan that would attack the gang directly in their base of operations. The more experienced and cautious members of the team (Black Canary Zoe Ramirez and Knightwatch Agent Connor Hawke) argued against this, but ultimately relented, fearing that Mia would just run off on her own. The three stormed the Deathstrokes’ base, with team hacker William Clayton along for the ride as well.
Mia challenged the Deathstroke’s leader, John Diggle Jr., and drastically underestimated how skilled he was in a fight. With her throat nicked and a sword at her throat, she was in danger of being beheaded until Zoe hit Diggle from behind. Unfortunately, Zoe turned her back on the downed Diggle to check on Mia and was run through by Diggle’s sword as he made his escape. Hawke pursued Diggle and tackled him, ready to kill his adopted brother for what he had done. As they struggled over a knife, a bright white light enveloped them both, along with Mia Smoak and William Clayton. When the light faded, the three young heroes were standing dumbfounded in the original Team Arrow bunker, alongside an equally confused Oliver Queen.
It is hard to say which was a bigger shock to Wild Dog, Black Canary and Spartan; the sudden arrival of Green Arrow, or the appearance of three strangers in their secret hideout. It is also unclear just who brought the new Team Arrow back in time and why they also pulled Oliver Queen away from his quest.
Curiously, this does not seem to be the work of the Monitor, who showed himself capable of teleporting others across space and time in previous episodes, but he always accomplished this with traditional breaches, like those utilized by Cisco Ramon and his interdimensional extrapolator devices - not flashes of white light. The only certainty in all this confusion is that next week’s Arrow should prove interesting, if only to see how Oliver and Mia react to one another.
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