Arrow Season 8 Episode 3 Review

It’s all kicking off in Arrow’s newest episode. Ollie ventures to Nanda Parbat to seek answers regarding the Monitor, but instead of findign Nyssa, he finds Thea. Who has declared a crusade against the Thantos Guild-remember them?- and is working over time to try and stop their designs. They soon find Talia and work with her to get the answers they desire. This leads them to finding the tomb of the first Ra’s Al Ghul, a man known as Al Fatiah (spelling?) along the way Talia betrays them before being forced to work with them to stop Athena- the commander of the Thantos Guild- from getting the legendary sword of the first Ra’s.

Eventually, they manage to get the sword and leave Athena dead, though Thea and Talia fight for it, with Thea coming out on top. Though instead of embracing the single daunting task that the legacy dictates, Thea offers a chance for a double alliance with Talia and a new league of superheroes. During all of this, Oliver discovers that the first Ra’s made a deal with the Monitor, in order to keep balance between good and evil, he formed the league, to prevent the Monitor from bringing a crisis. This hints at something that The Flash’s episode this week also hinted at, that being that the Monitor is not all he seems. Personally, I’m still convinced he might be the Anti Monitor.

For Lyla and Diggle we see them try and help get Connor Hawke-yes that Connor Hawke- and his mother out of captivity, where they are being held ransom by known terrorists. There is some tension between them, as Diggle is clearly unwilling to dive right into the risky tactics that are usually required in such missions, understandably so, given what he saw on Earth 2. However, after a discussion they managed to work together and get the problem fixed. Their talk at the end is loaded with secrecy on Lyla’s part due to her not telling him she’s working with the Monitor.

And then we have the shit going on in 2040. Now, some of the scenes in this part of Arrow have been upside down, but this week’s episode righted that wrong. We’ve got proper conversations between the characters, we’ve got them being fleshed out and shown as actual people, but then there’s a little bit where Mia and William and talking and there’s a bit of unnecessary bravado from Mia, suggesting the show writers are trying to make her a ‘strong woman who don’t need no man’ trope. However, the big shock comes right at the end. They’ve corned the Deathstrokes, but Rene’s daughter is dying, when they are transported into the past, where they then meet Oliver and the others.

Clearly something big is happening, and clearly this is the work of the Monitor. What happens next, remains to be seen.