There are major spoilers ahead for those not caught up with this season’s Arrow. Proceed with caution.
This season of Arrow has been a rollercoaster. First Ollie was dead, then he wasn’t. Next Ray and Felicity were together, then they weren’t. Then Thea was dead, until she wasn’t. The showrunners have been ramping up the stakes over the last few episodes, and with this week’s shocking ending, the show will never be the same.
Ollie is now the head of the demon, the heir to the throne of the League of Assassins, and his friends are not happy. There are so many questions still left unanswered, and only three episodes left in which to answer them. In an interview over on the DC Comics blog, Marc Guggenheim brings up five things we can expect before the season finale.
We finally had a Lazarus Pit name checked, and Guggenheim alludes that we will be seeing more, and that this weeks episode barely scratches the surface of how it changes a person.
“We certainly recognize the story potential of the Lazarus Pit and the interesting nature of it. We had a hunger for it.”
“You can expect that there will be more consequences,” warns Guggenheim. “We establish very clearly that the Lazarus Pit returns you, but not always in the condition in which you left. There’s a lot of story still left to be told with Thea and her recovery.”
About the will they/won’t they relationship between Ollie and Felicity, of which the most recent episode answered that question, Guggenheim says:
“There was a strong desire to have Oliver and Felicity sleep together before the events of the season finale,” Guggenheim explains. “We wanted to almost take that off the table prior to the season finale. We went back and forth on the right venue. Does it happen in Starling City? Does it happen in Nanda Parbat? They end up sleeping together in Nanda Parbat and I think we all sort of liked the romance of that. I’m personally fond of the fact that it’s Ra’s who gives Felicity the final push.”
Much like earlier in the season when Ollie was thought dead, and Team Arrow had to go on without him, this week’s episode ended with Ollie staying in Nanda Parbat, leaving his friends alone again. But this time Ollie’s not out of the picture, he’s now the badguy.
“Next week’s episode is a villain-of-the-week episode, but it just so happens that the villain is Oliver.”
“In Episode 310, they thought he was dead and in many ways, that was a whole lot easier,” says Guggenheim. “Knowing that he’s out there and alive, but a member of the League of Assassins, that’s a whole lot harder.”
This leaves Laurel, Felicity, and Diggle having to depend on each other, leaning on one another for strength while each deals with this betrayal in their own way. And Guggenheim teased that on top of what they are already dealing with, “something” happens that upends Diggles world that will have repercussions for the rest of the season.
Maseo played an important role in shaping who Oliver has become, as well as working with Ra’s al Ghul to turn Ollie into the new Ra’s, whether he wanted to or not. The rest of this season’s episodes reveal how Maseo came to be in League with Ra’s, and whether or not his soul can be redeemed.
But for many fans, the biggest question is; will we see Roy Harper again? The answer is a resounding yes, at least once more as Roy finally gets his chance to say goodbye to Thea. And it looks like Malcolm Merlyn may be leaving the show, something that’s been building since his return. “By the end of the season, there’s a nice bit of closure between Malcolm and Thea,” promises Guggenheim. “You feel like their story has had a beginning, middle and end.”
Arrow airs Wednesdays at 8pm on the CW.
