Opening Remarks
I think the Arrow season 7 premiere blew a lot of our minds with the big flash-forward reveal. Sure, nothing particularly interesting has happened in that storyline since then, but it's still a compelling idea, at least. Hopefully, the second half of this season will see things finally heat up for William, et al.
At the risk of getting my hopes up, I am kinda excited by the recent leak that Connor Hawke is finally gonna be making his reappearance. It's crazy to think that he was only ever in one single episode of Legends of Tomorrow, almost 3 years ago now. That one episode seems to have really stuck in the fandom's collective memory.
And why shouldn't it have? "Star City 2046" had some really cool ideas: John Diggle, Jr. as Connor Hawke, Palmer Tech renamed Smoak Technologies, a dystopian Star City ruled by Slade's son Grant Wilson, and a one-armed Oliver Queen ala The Dark Knight Returns. At the time, that all seemed like a far-fetched "what if?" scenario, but since then, "Star City 2046"s harbingers have gradually come true: Flashpoint transformed baby Sara Diggle into John, Jr., Felicity has founded Helix Dynamics, and we learned about Slade's second son Grant.
So just how connected are the futures of the Arrow flash-forwards and "Star City 2046"? There certainly seems to be a strong resemblance. On the other hand, we can say for sure that the particular timeline of "Star City 2046" has already been erased: old Oliver tells Sara that, in his history, she and Ray never return from their mission against Vandal Savage, so clearly things can't be exactly the same.
And is it worth wondering which timeline the flash-forwards take place in? What about the looming Crisis on Infinite Earths? Surely that will be changing the future. I think (for now) it's a pretty safe assumption that--whatever happens to get us there--the flash-forward timeline is the "real" timeline. The "right" timeline. The one that we should care about. It would be pretty bizarre for them to show us this story for a year only to erase it from existence next year.
Before we get into it, one more thing: dates! Obviously, "Star City 2046" takes place in the year 2046, but what about the flash-forwards? There haven't been any real clues on the show, but Beth Schwartz says it's approximately 20 years in the future. So for the rest of this article I'll say 2038, but I really mean 2038-ish. Which puts the flash-forwards about 8 years anterior to "Star City 2046."
The Mystery So Far...
For the sake of reference, I'm gonna take a minute here just to recap what has actually happened in the flash-forward storyline so far. Mostly, it's all been like some kind of mad scavenger hunt:
- An electronic device in the hozen Felicity gave William started beeping and displaying coordinates.
- William followed the coordinates to Lian Yu and found Roy Harper.
- Roy followed the coordinates more precisely to what he called a "fifth grave" on the island.
- The grave contained a crate with Oliver's bow in it.
- The bow contained a slip of paper with the Mark of Four, which compelled Roy to return to Star City.
- Once in Star City, the hozen's coordinates changed to the Smoak Technologies building.
- In the building, William found a hidden Rubik's cube.
- The cube contained a map of Star City with secret routes into the Glades marked. Also marked was the location of Felicity's hideout.
- In the hideout, William found plans to blow up Star City along with the name of a contact: "Blackstar."
- Blackstar told William that Felicity bought bomb component from her.
And that's it! Very little has actually happened. The bottom-line is that Felicity for some reason wanted William to find Roy and then find the bomb plans. Nothing else is concrete. And the writers managed to stretch that out over 5 episodes.
A General Timeline of Events
How did things get so bad in Star City? Our two glimpses of the future offer different explanations, but they may just be alternate perspectives on very similar events. Let's examine.
In the flash-forwards and according to Dinah, "Star City fell when the Glades rose. They built a wall. They closed their borders... The SCPD is basically hired guns. They protect the Glades from what's outside their wall." That jives with a piece of graffiti seen at A7x04 6:12, which says "THE GLADES FORGOT US!"
"Star City 2046" presents a different history. According to Connor Hawke, Star City's troubles are the result of an "Uprising" by an army led by Grant Wilson. Those events took place 15 years before 2046 (so 2031-ish, 7-ish years before the flash-forwards); Grant is apparently still ruling Star City in 2046.
It seems entirely possible to me that these two versions of events are actually reconcilable. We don't know when the Glades wall was built, but maybe it was in response to Grant's invasion. Alternatively, maybe Grant is in cahoots with the Glades leaders, and he controls the outside for them. Either way, there is some evidence that Grant will be relevant to the flash-forwards: at A7x04 6:12, right above the "GLADES FORGOT US" graffiti is a Deathstroke mask with a red X through it. The same people who hate the Glades hate Deathstroke. Seems important.
Another note: in "Star City 2046," the heroes move freely throughout Star City, including to the Arrowcave beneath Sebastian Blood's old campaign headquarters. I'm pretty sure that building is in the Glades, so that may be an indication that the Glades wall has fallen by 2046 (which may very well be part of the planned plot for the flash-forwards).
The Fates of Team Arrow
This time, let's start with "Star City 2046":
- Oliver tried to raise an army to fight Grant Wilson, but everybody just wanted to evacuate, according to Connor Hawke. At some point, Wilson outed Ollie as the Green Arrow, which led to an attack on the Bunker. At some point after that, Oliver accepted defeat and went into exile.
- According to Connor, his father John Diggle is dead. Connor blames himself.
- Laurel, Quentin, and Felicity are "gone," according to Oliver. When pressed by Sara, he refuses to disambiguate his choice of word. However, a moment later he says that "Felicity left after everything had happened."
All of these statements should be viewed with skepticism. Connor would have been just a teenager at the time of the Uprising, and he might have had a warped view of events. Also, it's easy to imagine Oliver lying to Sara to avoid having to talk about hard truths.
Now, the flash-forwards:
- Nothing concrete about Oliver yet, but he may have had some kind of falling out with Dinah. She asks Roy if William is trustworthy, to which he answers, "He's Oliver's son." Dinah's response is: "That is exactly what worries me." Also, Oliver's identity has already been outed in 2018 in the current timeline.
- No mention of Diggle at all yet, but that will surely change once the gang runs into Connor.
- Laurel and Quentin are already dead in the present-day story, so that has come true, at least.
- Apparently, Felicity cut ties with Dinah at some point and started operating as "the Calculator." According to Dinah, she was murdered a couple weeks before the events of the flash-forwards.
- Roy Harper has chosen to live in self-imposed exile.
- Zoe Ramirez says that her father Rene wouldn't be caught dead in Star City. Apparently, he lives in the Glades and commands some amount of power there.
- According to Blackstar, "the story goes" that it's Dinah's fault that the city has gone to hell.
All of these clues tease some kind of massive schism among Team Arrow. Still, though, nothing really contradicts the "Star City 2046" timeline. Some people (probably led by Oliver) tried and failed to fight Grant Wilson's uprising. Some people (probably led by Rene) chose to live in the Glades and abandon the rest of the city. Where Dinah stands is less clear, but it seems like she has some ugly skeletons in her closet.
Other Tidbits
There really seems to be some kind of Birds of Prey theme going on in the flash-forwards. Obviously, Dinah is the (a?) Black Canary and her protege Zoe seems to be following in that legacy as well. The pin Dinah gave her is the Birds of Prey logo from the comics. Dinah refers to a "Canary Network," which is probably the same thing as the "vigilante resistance" mentioned by Zoe. Also, one last thing about that graffiti at A7x04 6:12. Besides the anti-Glades and anti-Deathstroke graffiti, there is a small symbol of a black bird. A canary, perhaps? Probably.
And here's an insane and crazy thing I just thought of: where did the name "Connor Hawke" come from? "Connor" is a pretty normal name, so that's okay, but "Hawke"? Maybe John, Jr. chose it because a hawk is a bird... of prey. Gasp!
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In "Star City 2046," Sara finds Oliver's Oneida Kestrel bow (which he used in seasons 2-5) in Felicity's warehouse. She returns it to him, and he ends up giving it to Connor Hawke.
In the flash-forwards, William and Roy find Oliver's bow on Lian Yu--but it's the new bow he started using in season 6. So that checks out... I guess. This is so ridiculously trivial, I know.
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In "Star City 2046," Oliver tells Sara the security passcode to Felicity's warehouse: 4587. That number was a reference to the main character's ID number on the TV show Wiseguy.
Of course, we now know another meaning for the number 4587--Oliver's prisoner number in the Slab. So now this creates a cool little continuity: Felicity chose her security code from Ollie's old prisoner number!
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I want to mention L3x03 "Zari" real quick. That episode takes place in Seattle, 2042, and depicts the city placed under martial law by ARGUS. The date of 2042 places it right smack between the Arrow flash-forwards and the events of "Star City 2046." I really don't think it's relevant, though. Just figured it ought to be mentioned.
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This isn't really relevant, but the coordinates on the hozen which lead to Smoak Technologies actually point to central Washington state (which makes me happy).
Predictions
Enough facts--time for theories!
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First and foremost, I don't believe for a second that Felicity is a supervillain in the future. She's not plotting to blow up the city. It's all a big red herring. The whole reason Felicity lured William and Roy to Star City is so they could stop that plot. She probably faked her own death, too. Furthermore, Blackstar is totally also a good guy and has a closer relationship to Felicity then she wanted to let on.
Dinah's shadier that she seems. I'm not saying she's evil, but she's probably more complicit in events than she wants to admit. I don't think William and Roy will want to be associating with her anymore by the time this season's over. (Alternatively, Dinah will die, but one way or another she won't be in the flash-forwards next year.)
Prediction: Connor Hawke and Zoe Ramirez are hooking up. The future needs a romance!
Here's a longshot: we'll be meeting a future version of Sin. That's right, Sin. After all, she was pretty much the face of the Glades for the show throughout seasons 2 and 3. Also, she's on theme with all the Birds of Prey stuff. Maybe she's co-leader of the Glades city-state with Rene.
Next season, there will be a new "Team Arrow" consisting of Connor Hawke as Green Arrow, William Clayton as tech-guy, and Roy Harper as sage mentor (and maybe also Zoe Ramirez as Black Canary). If the team's not called Team Arrow, it may be called the Birds of Prey (which would be awesome).
Update on 1/21/2019:
I just had another crazy longshot idea. And I'm really putting all my eggs in this Birds of Prey basket, but here goes: is it possible that Barbara Gordon shows up?! We know from A4x11 that "Oracle" exists (Felicity mentions that the codename Oracle is taken). Felicity taking the name Calculator in the flash-forwards also brings up the Oracle/Calculator rivalry from the comics. Perhaps Oracle could be referenced as an unseen character with ties to Blackstar and/or the Canary Network and/or Felicity.
Underlying this prediction is another prediction that Barbara will be a recurring character on Batwoman. In that case, the Arrow flash-forwards could serve as a cool place to seed that character without having to cast an actress for the time being. Batgirl/Oracle is an awesome fan-favorite character and I would love to see her on Batwoman!
The season will end with the cliffhanger of finally seeing Future Oliver. (Will he be missing an arm?)
Closing Remarks
There you have it! That's the most complete picture of the flash-forward situation that I know how to make. There are probably some little things that I've missed, so let me know in the comments.
I always like making predictions, because then it's fun to come back later and see how I did. In this case, my predictions are rather ambitious, so I'm not really expecting many of them to be right.
And let me say once more, that while I like the concept of the flash-forwards, the execution has been quite lacking so far. But hey--Deathstroke and Connor Hawke could be exactly the kick in the pants the story needs to take off.
Hope you enjoyed!
Phillip
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