Arrow Season 8 Review: 6 Ups & 2 Downs From 'Leap Of Faith'

Ups...

6. The Future's Focus On William And Mia

One of the things that made the flash-forward narrative so engaging last season was the burgeoning sibling love between William Clayton and Mia Smoak, and unfortunately, this season's attempts to focus on the other characters instead have undercut the importance of these flash-forwards.

Not only did Connor's refusal to see the darkness in his brother get annoyingly repetitive (in only two episodes), it was derivative of Diggle's attempts to do the same with his own brother in Season 4 (and why anyone would want to reference that godforsaken season ever again boggles the mind) and it left the other characters feeling lifeless, resulting in Mia's constant moodiness being nowhere near as endearing as it was last season.

Thankfully, 'Leap of Faith' restored order, as it primarily focused on the relationship between Oliver Queen's children, as the badass Green-Arrow-in-training feared losing her brother and finally opened up to him about it. And at last, the flash-forwards had stakes again.