When we first see Future Team Arrow again, it's been six months and things aren't exactly going the way they were hoping it would. Zoe's supposed to be the leader, yet has no control over the team. Conner is so worried about trying to get through to his brother, JJ, that he can't focus on the task at hand. William has great planning skills, but doesn't trust himself enough to take the lead. And Mia, well, she's still struggling immensely with the whole concept of teamwork (sound familiar?).

Just as they have multiple times before, the team goes undercover at a highly influential party for Star City's unification members. William works on distracting the guests while the other three search for their would-be attackers. Of course, Mia ventures slightly out of the party and unknowingly runs into JJ himself, the new Deathstroke. He's dressed as a guard and politely asks her to leave which she obliges to, allowing JJ the opening for a sneak attack.

As the team fumbles to reconnect their comms to Mia after a sudden interference, The Deathstroke Gang storms into the building, guns ablazing. Within an instant, people are running ragged, bullets flying past the guests' heads. I completely agree with William's exclamation of, "No one listens to the tech guy!" because he really is the only one who had any control of the situation until he gets punched in the face and knocked onto the ground, that is. Side note, I really loved how Mia immediately stops in the middle of her fight with JJ and rushes over to William's side after he gets hurt!

The only benefit of the mission is that they manage to obtain a device left from the Deathstrokes. Without even taking a second to breathe, Mia, Conner, and Zoe set back out to the bank JJ's planning on stealing from (which basically contains the money of the aforementioned people at the party earlier). And just like the last op, they fail to stop the Deathstroke Gang.

This particular failure really gets to Conner because all he wants is to convince his brother to come back and try to be the good person he used to be when they were kids before Conner came along. Mia, on the other hand, is furious at losing another mission because she thought it'd be easier to do what their parents did but it turns out, vigilanteing isn't for everyone. Luckily, our resident canary has a few contacts that know where JJ's base is located.

So, Mia, Zoe, and Conner go to confront JJ while William hangs back and works on decrypting the device from earlier. We get a nicely acted scene from Joseph David Jones (Conner) and Charlie Bennett (JJ) over some drinks in the club Zoe's contact directed them to. Despite a very convincing speech about their family from Conner, JJ still refuses to listen, though he does reveal a part of his plan to his brother. He sent a group of Deathstrokes to the Arrowcave to kill William while they had their nice chat. Honestly, Conner's look of pain is very well acted as JJ leaves the bar.

The team rushes back to the Arrowcave, Mia praying most of all that she didn't just lose her brother. Thankfully, William outsmarted the men, activating an electric mechanism in the flooring that temporarily knocked his enemies out. I am one-hundred percent sure of Mia's expression that she wanted to hug William, but didn't because it would damage her reputation as the brooding vigilante she created for herself.

Now, if you thought the team was rocky before this, then you've seen nothing yet. Mia goes full Oliver Queen on the others, taking control of the operation and commanding that they will march down to the Deathstrokes' hideout and take JJ down. William protests that they should use him as bait to lure out their enemies instead because they will at least have the upper hand when it comes to location, but Mia shuts down his plan immediately. I really do admire William's willingness to put himself in danger so easily for the sake of the mission. It honestly reminds me a lot of Felicity, especially at the beginning of the show.

So, the four teammates sneak into the Deathstrokes' base, barely going unnoticed by the patrolling guards. They get to the control room where William quickly plants a bug in one of the computers that will clear all of the data of the Unification's members, only the hack needs a little more time than he first thought. Zoe suggests they all go and buy him some more time, but Mia insists on staying with her brother so, Zoe leaves with Conner.

I laughed so hard when Mia just kept asking, "is it done yet?" while tapping her foot, impatiently as he works. It reminds me of my brother and I when we're doing most of anything with one another.

This is where we get another beautiful scene between the Smoak-Queen children.

Mia admits that she's been acting so anxious because she's worried that William may get hurt. He responds that he appreciates her caring about him, but as heroes, they have to risk their lives to help others and he's okay knowing that sometimes, he may get hurt so, why is this any different? This is when we get one of my all-time favorite Mia lines where she says, "No, because you're my brother! You are the only family I have left," as she stares at her brother through tears.

William smiles back at her, tears in his eyes, too as he responds by saying, "Mia, look I, I appreciate you looking out for me, I do, but operating from a place of fear is not the way to protect each other. We need to trust each other. It's the only way we'll survive."

I love his half of the speech so much too because it mirrors the speech Felicity gave to him when he was a kid about trusting that your family will always come home to you.

Mia smiles at him, finally conceding to helping the others while he finishes work. But not before threatening that if he tells anyone about their conversation then, she will personally kill him (which might sound mean, but it is literally the sweetest thing ever).

Hold onto your tissues, because this next part gets sad (sniff, sniff).

During their confrontation with JJ, Mia gets pinned against the wall. He spats at her about how much blood she can lose before dying as he cuts her throat mildly (not creepy at all, right?) Just like with the original team Arrow though, you can always count on your teammates for help.

Zoe rushes over to them and knocks JJ down, saving Mia, only to get stabbed through the chest by the villain's sharp bladed katana before he makes a quick escape. Zoe falls backwards into Mia's open arms, the light slowly leaving her eyes as Mia sobs over her friend.

In a sudden wave of rage, Conner charges after JJ, revenge fueling his every move as he punches his brother onto the ground.

Meanwhile, Zoe's last words leave her nearly lifeless body asking Mia to tell her dad that she loved him before shutting her eyes for the last time. Mia begs for Zoe to stay with her, shaking her desperately all the while William see's his best friend die through one of the monitor systems, helpless to save her.

Conner now has JJ pinned down and is about to kill him before a wave of blinding white light passes over the three friends.

This scene brought me to tears to watch, special credit going to Katherina McNamara's performance. Honestly, having finished watching the episode several weeks ago at this point, I have very mixed feelings about this particular story choice. On one hand, it showed Mia what can happen when you act on desperation and pain instead of trusting your team. But on the other hand, they kind of set up a perfect opportunity to kill William which would have done the same thing for Mia, only been even more impactful of a choice because the viewer knew the character for longer and generally speaking (just to be clear, Zoe's character is great, too), liked his character more.

I especially thought that they might have been setting up that storyline following the conversation between William and Mia while he was erasing the Unification's personal information that I mentioned earlier. But I'm definitely glad they didn't because he is by far one of the best characters in the show and I would have been absolutely heartbroken to see him leave.

At the end of episode three, we discover that the three kids were teleported to current times, right in front of Team Arrow's (2019) eyes. I knew from the very start that the following storyline was going to be amazing just from Oliver's teary eyes at getting to see his kids (more specifically, his daughter). And I was most certainly not wrong for we start the next episode with William running into his dad's unsuspecting arms and hugging him as Mia stands back, speechless.