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Stephen Amell Talks About Oliver's Big Decision On Last Night's Arrow

Arrow seems to be into big cliffhangers at the end of episodes this season. We were already coming off of the exploding island going into the season. Then the premiere ended with Oliver being unmasked. Now last night episode ended with… wait, should I put a spoiler warning here? I probably should. Okay, spoilers after the photo.

Arrow

Last night's episode ended with Oliver (Stephen Amell) handing the mantle of the Green Arrow over to John Diggle (David Ramsey) because he doesn't want to risk leaving William (Jack Moore) and orphan. How long will Diggle be GA? Will Oliver stay out of the vigilante business for long? I have my thoughts which I'll share at the end, but Amell spoke with EW.com about this very topic and shed some light on a few things.

Amell talked about the passing of the mantle as being a game changer, his relationship with William, and whether he still has the urge to get out there:

"That's been the cool thing about this season is that he can't. You say him giving up the mantle is the game changer, but William is the game changer. The father-son dynamic can't possibly can't get any stronger than that. For all of the things that Oliver's dad did wrong, and for all the things that we have since learned about him, Oliver still reveres him and holds him up to such a high standard, so that relationship is so important. I give it to Diggle; I don't give it to him with a heavy heart, I give it to him with a full heart. I give it to him expecting him to be able to handle it. I like the idea that I give it to him because the city needs a Green Arrow, right? The Green Arrow can be more than one person. The Green Arrow is a symbol and his team is a symbol. The fact that we are pushing Star City in the right direction is something that is important to me because I don't want the city to get destroyed every year, because then what's the point of what we're doing? We're a team of vigilantes that are the definition of insanity, because we're just doing things over and over again and hoping for a different result. Obviously I don't know what's going on with Diggle, but I give it up and there's not a lot of angst.

It's been a very strange time for me on the show, because we're talking about going on four episodes now where I'm really out of the mix, and that's been challenging for me, because I prep myself to work all the time, but we had — without getting into details — a story line last year where in the aftermath of Oliver being tortured by Chase — the big torture, making him reveal his animal instincts and that he enjoyed killing at one point — the producers and I had a lot of back and forth after that about how long that should affect him, because in one iteration, he just jumped right back on the horse. I was like, 'Well, if we don't follow the through line of that affecting him, then what was the point? What was the point of it happening if it doesn't have consequences?' So I like that he's given the mantle to Diggle and that's been the show since then. That, to me, is really cool."

But does Amell really see Oliver never suiting up again?

"No. Look, I remember one season of 24 when Jack Bauer had been taken prisoner, Jack was in China. They're like, 'Well, how long of this season is Jack going to be in China for?' and the producers were like, 'He's landing like six minutes after it starts. The show is the show.' Our show's the show, but that doesn't mean that we can't surprise people. If he suits back up again, it doesn't mean that all of a sudden it goes back to the status quo."

He's moved on from being the Green Arrow, but that doesn't mean his problems with the FBI are over:

"At the end of 602, I wanted to play it where I deny this, but then I also politely threaten her. I've had this done to me in business before, where someone says something nice to you, but then you step back for a second and go, 'Wait a second, did that person just threaten me?' I'm not going to say who did it, but they're really excellent at it, so I wanted to bring that same feeling into that scene where I sit down and say, 'Look, you're wrong. What you're doing is, you're barking up the wrong tree, but if you're right, how far do you think a person like that would go to protect the people closest to him?' So we're playing real cat and mouse, but I haven't really dealt with her since. What I like is, she's starting to poke at other people on his team. She's on absolutely everybody."

What I pick up from this and the schedule is that we are looking at Oliver being out of the suit until the November 23rd episode. Next week is Next of Kin when Diggle first takes over. The there is Reversal where Oliver steps in, but not as GA. That is followed by the two-part Deathstroke storyline in Deathstroke Returns and Promises Kept, where Oliver doesn't need to be GA to help Slade Wilson (Manu Bennett). This leads us to the appropriately titled Nov 23rd episode, Thanksgiving. The episode after that is Crisis on Earth-X, and we know Oliver is back in the suit for that. I doubt they'll want to deal with him taking back the mantle as part of the crossover. And it fits with Amell's comment about four episodes out of the mix.

Arrow airs Thursday at 9 p.m. ET on the CW.


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Dan WicklineAbout Dan Wickline

Has quietly been working at Bleeding Cool for over three years. He has written comics for Image, Top Cow, Shadowline, Avatar, IDW, Dynamite, Moonstone, Humanoids and Zenescope. He is the author of the Lucius Fogg series of novels and a published photographer.
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