Hey youtubers it’s Charlie, for my first Arrow winter break video I wanted to get into
some of the stuff we know about the back half of the season.
We already know the general arc of The Black Canary.
Some people are calling the next three episodes the Canary Trilogy.
And Oliver has this really big Flashback storyline.
Which will feature Amanda Waller a lot more prominently.
And yes, even though the DC movies and the tv shows are officially separate universes.
I do think the Suicide Squad movie happening so soon is going to have some influence on
the way the show can use those characters.
I’ll explain what I mean.
Let’s do Oliver first, because I know that’s what everyone is going crazy about.
He is very clearly at the point of death, so just as a way to side step his recovery
be it through use of Lazarus Pit or more traditional means.
Stephen Amell can’t just totally check out of the show for 4 or 5 episodes.
That’s where the flashbacks come in.
He’s been posting a crazy number of pictures to Social Media that feature him with the
classic Flashback wig on.
But there was also this one of him with Robbie Amell.
I don’t think Firestorm is going to go back in time or anything.
I just think that Robbie Amell was visiting the set.
Not to shoot any Firestorm scenes.
Arrow and The Flash share a production budget and they also film on adjacent studio lots.
So the actors can walk over if and say hi to each other if they have enough time.
As of Episode 9 all we know about Hong Kong is that Maseo’s wife, Katana and their son
have been kidnapped by China White.
And she has a bioweapon.
So the real goal of the flashbacks for the rest of the season are fixing those two problems.
Because of the way Maseo was acting in present day.
It seemed like his wife and son died and he wanted to leave his old life behind.
That’s why I think he said Maseo no longer exists when Oliver first recognized him.
That doesn’t guarantee they die in the flashbacks, but if they’re doing a version of Katana’s
origin story from the comics, then they have to.
It’s just in Arrow’s version of events.
Maseo seems like he’s taken on the Katana persona.
These are the titles of the next four episodes and all the info we have on them.
But something really important to remember is that Stephen Amell said in the back half
of the season, just like season 2, every four episodes or so is it’s own self contained
storyline.
So there will be at least two or three big arcs.
10 is
called Left Behind, 11 is called Midnight City, 12 is Uprising, 13 is Canaries and 14
is The Return.
I’m mostly going to focus on what the producers have said about the Flashback storylines and
the Black Canary and where I think those things are headed.
The titles of the episodes usually reflect things happening in present day and in the
flashbacks.
Left Behind is mostly a reference to Team Arrow.
All the people Oliver leaves behind.
There’s this big christian novel series about what happens to the survivors after
most of the world’s population gets raptured.
So if we do see Hong Kong scenes in this episode I think they will be minimal.
But they do have to follow up on the big WTF with China White taking Maseo’s family and
the bioweapon.
So they’ll tee up Amanda Waller’s plan for cleaning up that mess.
But really I think the focus will be on the surviving members of Team Arrow and how they
learn to continue Oliver’s mission when he’s not around.
I’m really interested to see if Nyssa tells them Oliver is dead.
She’s their only point of contact with the League of Assassins.
So if they find out what happened right away.
It’s either from Nyssa or Merlyn.
I think Oliver not being around will create a bit of a vacuum and crime will get a little
worse.
And that will kick Laurel into putting on the Black Canary costume.
Like the way crime rates in Gotham double when Batman isn’t around for an extended
period of time.
She will get the costume during the episode.
But because it’s a huge deal I think they’ll save it for like a big third act reveal.
Another Batman Begins type thing.
Batman goes out without the cowl and no one is afraid of him.
Laurel comes back at the end of the episode.
Puts the costume on and starts trying to scare the shit out of people.
Then the next two or three episodes after that is her Batman Year One story.
She gets her ass handed too her until she gets her shit together to the point where
she can actually catch criminals without breaking every bone in her body.
Stephen Amell was really clear that Laurel wouldn’t just put the costume on and automatically
be Black Canary.
It’s going to be just like Roy.
It took him an entire season to figure it out and Nyssa still beat the shit out of him
without breaking a sweat.
So even Roy still has a long way to go.
I’m really interested to see if Laurel compels Wildcat to come back into action to help them
out.
It seems like it would be unfair for them to tease that in the Boxing Glove episode
and not give us our Justice Society moment.
Midnight City Episode 11 could be a reference to Doctor Mid Nite.
The writer who wrote this episode is the one who also brought Doctor Mid Nite back in the
Green Arrow comics.
He was a member of the Justice Society.
I know I keep saying Justice Society on Arrow.
And I really think we’ll get there by the end of the season.
Not in the traditional sense like they call themselves Justice Society.
We’ll just get enough of those characters on the show working together that it seems
like Justice Society.
Episode 12 Uprising could be the start of Diggle and Lyla taking control of Argus.
Sin is returning too.
In know everyone wanted her to come back.
It seems like she’ll have been living in the Glades this whole time.
I hope they explain why she lost touch with Roy.
The actors said that they would being effectively taking control of Argus from amanda waller
this season.
They didn’t say why, only that Waller would have other priorities.
It could be a side effect of the Suicide Squad movie, but they might also use it as an opportunity
for Amanda Waller to found a new team like the Outsiders or some other team up they’ll
prep for season 4.
It’s also worth noting that Vinny Jones will be in both Episode 11 and 12 as Brick
from the comics.
His name, Danny Brickwell also appeared on Oliver’s List from Season 1.
Episode 13 Canaries is a big flashback episode.
It will tell the story of how Sara joined the League of Assassins.
Maseo said that he joined at the same time as Sara, so he’ll probably be in those episodes
too.
Caity Lotz is coming back.
She’ll be alive because everything is happening in the past.
Episode 14 is the Slade Episode.
Manu Bennett came back but we don’t know if it’s in present day or in a flashback.
And Marc Guggenhein was very specific that the title “The Return” doesn’t refer
to Oliver’s return or Slade’s Return.
So take from that what you will.
Someone or something else is returning.
In that episode Marc Singer of Beastmaster fame will be playing Matthew Shrieve from
the comics.
But he is confirmed as a flashback character.
In the comics he’s the head of the Creature Commandos.
A US military team of supernatural creatures.
Shrieve is the only human on the team.
It’s supposed to be a big arc.
So we could see a flashback metahuman team.
In the new 52 comics they’re a SHADE team.
But it’s still the same deal, superhuman military task force led by Frankenstein.
I’m not expecting to see frankenstein on the tv show though.
But look out for easter eggs.
Episode 15 is called Nanda Parbat.
I’m hoping we get to see Oliver in Nanda Parbat in present day.
But we could see team arrow member road trip out there to try and bring him back.
Those are all the episodes we know about right now.
That still leaves 7.
So there’s so much more that’s going to happen.
Yes I do think Ray Palmer will fight with Team Arrow, yes I do think Oliver will be
back in Starling in present day before the last couple
of episodes.
Yes Merlyn will team up with Oliver at some point.
And only for a very brief period.
Oliver still hates him.
And as for the DJ in the nightclub.
I don’t think he’s Joe, Deathstroke’s son.
But I do think he’ll end up being a bigger part of
the narrative.