Arrow season 8, episode 2, "Welcome To Hong Kong," saw Oliver Queen in familiar territory. Not only was he back in the city where he spent part of his "five years in Hell," but he was also facing one of his oldest enemies, the Triad boss Chien Na Wei. Thankfully one of his oldest allies, Tatsu Yamashiro (aka Katana), was also there to lend him her sword.
The episode's action was once again split between the build-up to Crisis On Infinite Earths in the modern day and flash-forwards to the activities of the new Team Arrow in Star City 2040. In the present, our heroes hunted for a missing doctor whose assistance the Monitor required, as Earth-2's Laurel Lance struggled to find a way home. In the future, Mia Smoak and Connor Hawke sought out a meeting with Connor's brother, John Diggle Jr. - leader of the Deathstroke Gang.
The episode offered a number of surprising revelations regarding just how far the Monitor's machinations have extended in his efforts to save the Arrowverse. It also offered a taste of the destruction that might be inflicted if Oliver Queen fails in his mission to save his Earth. Yet for all "Welcome To Hong Kong" explained, it also raised a number of questions.
7. Did Oliver Really Cause Earth-2's Destruction?
The opening scene of Arrow's "Welcome To Hong Kong" found Oliver Queen in a dingy hotel room, where he awoke from a nightmare of all his loved ones dying to find the Monitor waiting for him. To say the cosmic being was not amused would be an understatement, as he immediately tore into Oliver, lambasting his decision to stop Tommy Merlyn's Undertaking on Earth-2 and taking that world's Laurel Lance with him as he and John Diggle escaped to another world. Oliver was unapologetic, even as the Monitor implied that the destruction Oliver had just witnessed was the result of his ignoring the Monitor's orders not to get involved in the affairs of other Earths.
It might seem unlikely that Oliver playing the hero or saving the life of one woman could result in a butterfly effect that would end in the destruction of that Earth. Yet if there is a malevolent cosmic being like the Anti-Monitor seeking to destroy all reality, it follows that he would have the same omniscience as the Monitor and could sense disturbances to the workings of a single Earth. It seems possible then that Oliver's actions may have gotten the Anti-Monitor's attention and prompted him to unleash an anti-matter wave on Earth-2 in a bid to thwart the Monitor's plans.
6. Why Does The Monitor Need Dr. Robert Wong?
After dressing-down Oliver in this week's Arrow, the Monitor charged him with a new task; track down Dr. Robert Wong. Wong was a renowned biophysicist, who had won a Nobel Prize for his work with complex proteins and antibodies. While helping Oliver search for information on the reclusive scientist, Diggle wondered why the seemingly all-powerful Monitor couldn't gather these things on his own and why exactly he needed dwarf star particles and a famous scientist. Oliver had no explanation, having asked the same question of the Monitor and having been told that it was not his place to question the Monitor.
5. Why Does The Monitor Want Oliver Blindly Following Orders Now?
This sudden expectation that Oliver Queen would be content to do what he was told without asking questions seems to fly in the face of why the Monitor came to consider Oliver a worthy hero. During Elseworlds, Oliver confronted the Monitor over the morality of his tests and destroying all those worlds where the heroes failed to live up to his expectations. In doing this, Oliver became the first person to pass the Monitor's test, realizing that the Monitor was not just testing the heroes' skills but also their unwillingness to compromise their values. Diggle even notes that it doesn't make any sense that the Monitor would expect Oliver Queen to stand idly by and let innocent people die. So why does he?
4. Where Did The Multiverse Map Software Come From?
Desperate for a way back to Earth-2 in Arrow season 8, episode 2, Laurel seeks out David Chin; a Hong Kong hacker who had once told her years earlier that he could help her return to Earth-2. It seemed that Chin had exaggerated his qualifications, however, as he was quick to assert that this wasn't his area of expertise when Laurel broke into his bunker and pushed him to try and fix Diggle's broken breach device. Chin gave it the old college try but it still didn't work, prompting him to check some kind of software on his computer that told him that Earth-2 was no longer there. What kind of software has that kind of power to check the status of other dimensions and how did a relative layman like Chin get a hold of it?
3. Why Didn't John & Lyla Know Chien Na Wei Was Free?
When Oliver sees his old enemy Chien Na Wei in the streets of Hong Kong, he is stunned, as she was still being held in an ARGUS prison facility as far as he knew. Her release is also news to John Diggle, who says he thinks his wife Lyla would also have known (as Director of ARGUS) if the former Triad boss had been released or escaped. When they next confront her, Chien Na Wei explains that she basically bought her freedom from the US Government after threatening to expose ARGUS' Suicide Squad to the world. This does little to explain Lyla's not being aware of White's leaving prison, however.
2. How Long Has Lyla Been Working With The Monitor?
The final scene of the episode ended with Lyla Michaels confronting the Monitor over Earth-2's destruction and how she should have been informed of it. The Monitor is far more patient with Lyla than he was with Oliver Queen in the same episode, telling her that what happened to Earth-2 and Laurel Lance was regrettable but its sacrifice was still necessary. This scene made it apparent that Lyla and the Monitor have been working together for some time, though it wasn't clear how long nor was the extent of their relationship.
1. Will The Rest of Arrow Season 8 Be This Repetitive?
Whereas the first episode of Arrow season 8, "Starling City," acted as a tribute to the first season of Arrow as it retread familiar ground but ultimately told a radically different story, "Welcome To Hong Kong" seemed to recycle several story elements from the flashback storyline of Arrow season 3 without making any effort to do something new. Oliver still had to fight the same villain (Chien Na Wei) using the same scheme (pretend to deliver her a doomsday plague) leading to the same double-cross and the same final battle. One can't help but wonder if the rest of Arrow season 8 will be as lazily and haphazardly executed, as the stroll down memory lane towards the final episode continues.