Arrow executive producers Marc Guggenheim and Wendy Mericle discuss the season premiere and what is to come in upcoming episodes.
Warning: This story contains spoilers from Arrow season 4, episode 1, “Green Arrow.”
The Arrow season 4 premiere picked up several months after Oliver and Felicity drove off into the sunset at the end of season 3. When new criminals hit the streets of Star City, overwhelming both the police and the team of vigilantes, Thea and Laurel visit Oliver and Felicity in suburbia to ask for help. The two agree and discover that Damien Darhk is the man behind The Ghosts. Oh, and he has some sort of mystical powers that allow him to kill people.
Donning a new suit to fight in Star City, Oliver publicly declares himself the Green Arrow, a symbol of hope The Arrow could not be. The close of the episode fast forwarded six months to Barry finding Oliver in front of a fresh grave and apologizing for missing the funeral. We never see the identity of the deceased, but the death has clearly shaken Oliver to the core.
So, about that grave. “Yes, someone is dead,” Guggenheim confirms to The Hollywood Reporter. And despite the existence of the Lazarus Pit, “[t]hey will stay dead,” Mericle adds.
“We want to bring stakes back to the show. We don’t necessarily know who it is right now. We’re still planning out the whole season, but we want it, obviously, to have resonance, and if it doesn’t mean anything to the characters, it won’t to the audience either.”
As for Oliver and Diggle’s broken bromance, Mericle explains, “It is something that we wanted to explore, seeing them at odds, and really honoring what Oliver did at the end of season 3, which was pretty egregious. It’s going to take some time, but they will get back on the same track.”
Related: Arrow season 4 premiere recap: The Green Arrow rises
Of Oliver’s aborted proposal, Guggenheim says, “What it does is dramatize in a very clear way not only where [Oliver and Felicity] are but when Oliver hides the ring, we’re also dramatizing how he’s with Felicity, they’re still together, but things are not the same as they were back in Ivy Town. Their relationship has changed now that they’re back in Star City.”
As for Thea, who showed hints of being affected by the Lazarus Pit in the premiere, Guggenheim promises the show will address why it has taken six months for the effects of the Pit to catch up with her.
Another major surprise in this episode was that Captain Lance is working for Damien Darhk. “[Y]ou’ll see later in the season that he did not know what he was signing up for,” Mericle says. “We’re going to play it really as a crisis for Lance in terms of why he chose to do it and what it means for him.
“He’s always been the moral center of the show and someone who has lorded his morality over Oliver’s and when it all comes to a head, it will be interesting to see how these characters work it out.”
Related: Arrow season 3 refresher: “My name is Oliver Queen…”
One character we didn’t see in the premiere was Malcolm Merlyn, who has taken over as Ra’s al Ghul. Mericle teases, “His arc for the season really revolves around Thea and trying to be a good father while also being a very evil, badass Ra’s al Ghul. … That said, we do want to restore him to season 1 Malcolm who was going around messing up all of Oliver’s plans and anybody else he can cross paths with.”
He’ll also be in conflict with Nyssa al Ghul, who is not happy to have him leading the League of Assassins.
And finally, Mericle says Diggle hiding the connection between Damien Darhk and his brother’s murder is “really tied to his inability to make any headway. It’s his brother’s murder that he’s been trying to solve and the fact that he himself has been unable to get anywhere has made him feel slightly ashamed. And also, he’s run into so many dead ends. He will eventually talk about it but up until this point, there hasn’t been a lot of reason to do so.”
Arrow season 4 airs Wednesdays at 8:00 p.m. ET on The CW.
Source: THR
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