Arrow: Present Tense

November 5, 2019 7:22 PM - Season 8, Episode 4

Oliver and the team decide to take on the new Deathstroke that appeared in Star City; the team tries to find a way to stop J.J.

TV Line Recap: The Kids Are Alright — Plus, Will [Spoiler] Betray Oliver?

TV Fanatic recap

EW recap: A clash between the present and future yields tears and hope

posted by oh yeah! (5 comments total)

William/Curtis forever. I don't care about the rest of the show, nothing else matters but their perfect love. The only problem is they both seem like bottoms, but I'm sure they can work that out. They are fabulous together. Terrific, even.

OK, rest of the show was pretty great too. I love that they dispensed with the "we must not alter the future!" crap quickly. If the future sucks, why not alter it?

The setup with Laurel was great. And I guess we're going to revisit Anatoly one last time. He's one of my favorite characters from the stories, sounds good to me.
posted by Nelson at 10:12 PM on November 5, 2019 [3 favorites]

I still think, if I were in the position some of the characters were in, I'd make sure any actions I take now would be done to avoid putting myself in the position where I could cause things to go wrong and cause the future to unfold as described. Yes, I'm talking about Rene. Why oh why is he going through with running for office? It's the stupidest thing he can consider doing (although hello, it's Rene, so maybe that's to be expected.) There are tons of other ways he can help the Glades that won't put him directly in the path of becoming an evil politician.

I'm haven't really been a fan of the flash forward timeline or plot, but I can appreciate seeing the kids being transported back to the past and interacting with younger versions of their parents and honorary aunts and uncles.

I mentioned in a different Arrowverse show post that I've essentially been without TV or Internet access for weeks, so I'm way behind in all of these shows, except for this series. I've only missed last episode, so if this has been addressed already, feel free to let me know, but I'm confused about something. I thought when Oliver cut the deal with the Monitor last season it was to prevent another hero (presumably Barry) from dying. Then why is Barry still scheduled to die/vanish/whatever in the Crisis (if we can believe the newspaper from the future)? This potential broken deal probably should have been evident to me ages ago, but I guess I never really thought about it.
posted by sardonyx at 7:03 PM on November 6, 2019

I actually really liked this. William and Oliver together was just so sweet! The dilemma of the death of Future Zoe. Mia is still well, female Oliver cranky, but...oh well.

Yes, I'm talking about Rene. Why oh why is he going through with running for office? It's the stupidest thing he can consider doing (although hello, it's Rene, so maybe that's to be expected.)

You nailed it yourself: Rene is dumb.

I loved Oliver's eye roll at "Russia."
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:15 PM on November 6, 2019 [2 favorites]

I mentioned in a different Arrowverse show post that I've essentially been without TV or Internet access for weeks, so I'm way behind in all of these shows, except for this series.

I meant to say in that other thread - welcome back, sardonyx, and I hope your loss of internet/tv wasn't because of anything too dire.
posted by oh yeah! at 8:59 PM on November 7, 2019 [1 favorite]

Thanks, oh yeah! It was a major move undertaken for career reasons. I'm still not entirely sure it was a smart thing to do--there's an equally long list of cons as there is pros--but it's done.

I still don't have Internet access, and won't for a couple of weeks (give or take). I do finally have cable but there are different stations with much more limited offerings--I have no idea why there isn't one station that runs all of the Arrowverse line-up--so I'll be behind until my new ISP can do the installation.
posted by sardonyx at 3:44 PM on November 8, 2019