Arrow: Did the Post-Crisis Timeline Bring Back The Monitor?

The final episode of Arrow officially aired on Tuesday night, and it’s safe to say that it shook up what we thought we knew about the post-“Crisis on Infinite Earths” universe. The episode had quite a lot on its plate, between honoring the life and death of Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) and showcasing a bit of what the future of the Arrowverse has in store. Even down to the episode’s final moments, Arrow answered some questions that fans might not have known they had — including the fate of one cosmic character. Spoilers for Arrow‘s series finale, “Fadeout”, below! Only look if you want to know!

After many of Oliver’s family and friends returned to have his funeral, the episode took us to Star City 2040, where an older Felicity Smoak (Emily Bett Rickards) was standing in a dark forest. In a moment not unlike Arrow‘s Season 7 finale, Felicity met with The Monitor (LaMonica Garrett), and asked for him to reunite her with Oliver. As we had expected with the original Season 7 scene, The Monitor granted her wish, and Felicity re-emerged in a version of Moira Queen’s (Susanna Thompson) office. While there, she was reunited with a younger Oliver, and they remarked about their new second chance at a life together.

Granted, the final scene largely answers the question of where exactly Felicity went in the Season 7 finale. But there have certainly been a lot of changes to continuity since then – namely, Star City being completely different and crime-free in a post-“Crisis” 2040. This means that the older Felicity we saw in the series finale is completely different from the one in the Season 7 finale, as she never was forced out of hiding to help her adult children defeat Archer.

Given the fact that The Monitor was killed during the middle of “Crisis”, this raises the question of whether or not he was one of the many people reincarnated by the creation of the post-“Crisis” world. As Moira points out earlier in the episode, the people Oliver brought back to life seemed to have been the deaths that “didn’t change him”. Seeing as Oliver was technically already turned into The Spectre before The Monitor died, that demise would probably fit comfortably into the second category, which would create a reason for him to be among the resurrected.

That also raises the question of if (or how) The Monitor could continue to be a fixture in the post-“Crisis” Arrowverse, even though the crossover event has now come and gone. But that’s a question that one of the show’s many spinoffs has to choose to answer.

What do you think of The Monitor’s quasi-return in Arrow’s series finale? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!