'Arrow' Spoilers: 7 Big Questions About the Show's New Future Timeline

Arrow introduced a new storytelling device in Season 7: flashforwards to 20 years in the future. Presumably guided by Felicity, adult William tracked down future versions of Roy on Lian Yu. The two returned to Star City only to find it “fell when the Glades rose,” according to future Dinah. She also revealed that Felicity is dead and had changed prior to her death, but is there more to the story? That’s just one question we have about the future after Episode 6.

Spoilers for Arrow Season 7 Episode 6 below.

When Did Oliver and Felicity Supposedly Abandon William?

William told Roy that Oliver and Felicity left him in Episode 2, but we still don’t know when that happened.

While Felicity sent William to boarding school in the present for his protection with Diaz on the loose, that can’t be it. He learned tech and coding from Felicity in the future. He also knew where Felicity’s office was in Smoak Tech in Episode 4.

Furthermore, he talked to Roy about when he “first” met him, implying he saw him again, which hasn’t happened yet in the present. Also, his and Zoe’s conversations in the future suggest they became friends at some point, which, again, hasn’t happened yet.

What Happened to Felicity?

Roy and William’s scavenger hunt led them to a map of secrets routes in and out of the Glades, but Dinah told them Felicity couldn’t have been guiding them because she was dead.

She was murdered a couple weeks ago, Dinah explains in episode 6. She’d also changed. She’d refused to join the vigilante resistance, went underground, called herself The Calculator (her father’s codename) and ran in dangerous circles.

They still follow Felicity’s map to her hide-out, where Roy has to shoot arrows into holographic tennis balls, just like Oliver used to when he trained, to disable a security protocol. Then, William pulls up the last file she accessed: structural maps of Star City’s buildings, schematics to build explosives and a plan to level the city.

Roy suggests she had a change of heart, which got her killed. The last person she contacted was “Blackstar.”

But could Felicity really have taken a dark turn like Dinah suggests? We see she’s willing to do whatever it takes in the present for her family, so perhaps her future storyline parallels that.

There has to be more going on than we know (or even Dinah knows). After all, we see signs that Felicity was still Felicity in that hide-out: the security protocol using her husband’s training and the fern on the table, just like the one she bought Oliver in Season 3.

Who Is Blackstar?

There are several characters from the comics this could be (or Arrow could be putting a twist on):

The Supergirl villain, Blackstarr, could manipulate matter and energy.

Black Star fought the Green Arrow and the Seven Soldiers of Victory.

Black Star was Firestorm’s villain who said he was a “living black hole.”

When Did Roy and Dinah Meet?

Roy and Dinah have yet to meet in the present storyline, yet they clearly know each other in the future, well enough to keep secrets from William and Zoe.

Speaking of Zoe, she also knows Roy, but she hasn’t met him in the present either.

What Is the Mark of Four?

In Episode 2, Roy found Oliver’s bow buried on Lian Yu. Inside was a note he read and burned. Then, he told William they had to return to Star City.

In Episode 6, Roy tells Dinah the message was the Mark of Four. “That’s impossible,” she says. “Who could have put it there?” He doesn’t know, but they keep it between them.

What is the Mark of Four? Will it tie into the present-day storyline?

Where Is Oliver?

No one has brought up what happened to Oliver in the future. In “Due Process,” Dinah wonders if they can trust William since none of them have seen him in years. Roy points out he’s Oliver’s son. “That is exactly what worries me,” Dinah says.

Did Oliver also change at some point in the future? Even if he did, why hasn’t William asked about his father, especially after hearing his stepmother was killed?

Was Oliver working with Felicity? If she didn’t just put in that security protocol for Roy and William, he had to be to disable it, right?

What Happened to Diggle, Laurel and Curtis?

We know that Rene “wouldn’t be caught dead” in Star City, according to Zoe in Episode 4.

We haven’t gotten any updates on Diggle, Laurel or Curtis yet. Are they all alive? Are any of them working with the vigilante resistance?

Arrow airs Mondays at 8 p.m. on the CW.