'Arrow' Season 8 Episode 4 promo teases how Oliver's meeting with his kids will decide the future of Star City
'Arrow' Season 8 Episode 3 ended with a very confusing meeting between Team Arrow's past and present and now the two teams are going to have to work together to face the threat of a new Deathstroke. On the bright side, this gives Oliver Queen / Green Arrow (Stephen Amell) a chance to see his kids William Clayton (Ben Lewis) and Mia Smoak (Katherine McNamara) all grown up but there's a pretty good chance that this meeting might ultimately lead to tragedy.
Star City in the year 2040 is a pretty dismal place. It's not an unlivable apocalypse but it's still a pretty dystopian future and a promotional video for Episode 4 'Present Tense' teases that this could be the moment that leads to Star City's fall and causes Mia and William's future to happen.
There are two Deathstrokes who appear in the trailer and the synopsis for the episode says that Oliver and his team are going to go up against a new Deathstroke while the future team faces off against John "JJ" Diggle Jr (Charlie Barnett), the leader of the Deathstroke Gang in 2040. In the video, Mia suggests that the Deathstrokes may have followed them into the past, though we don't yet know how or why the two teams were brought together there's no telling what exactly is at play here.
"This might be how it starts," William says in horror. "This is the beginning of the future."
Luckily for Star City, Oliver and his kids together may just be able to prevent the future from coming about and either way, we should be getting some very emotional scenes between them and also between John Diggle (David Ramsey) and his adopted son Connor Hawke (Joseph David-Jones), who has also been transported to the past. However, for all we know, it is this meeting that causes Diggle to be a harsh parent to JJ, trying to stop him from becoming Deathstroke in the future and ultimately causing JJ's descent into villainy.
Once 'Arrow' ends after Season 8, Mia will be the starring in her own spin-off series 'Green Arrow and the Canaries' and this episode may serve as a backdoor pilot for that show. One way or the other, this will be the episode that decides the future of 'Arrow' and Star City.
'Arrow' Season 8 Episode 4 'Present Tense' will air on The CW on November 5.