Arrow General Discussion Thread - Part 4

[Cory]

Originally Posted by Paradox1

A hoodie worked for the uni bomber

then wtf are you talking about.

its clear a mask is needed. his identity has been obvious to multiple people. its a logical step.

[Cory]

Originally Posted by Paradox1

A hoodie worked for the uni bomber

Really?

[Lencho01]

http://tvline.com/2012/12/05/arrow-s...-slade-wilson/

December 5, 2012 07:01 AM PST Arrow's Stephen Amell on the 'Most Nefarious' Malcolm Merlyn, Meeting the Real Deathstroke
Matt Webb Mitovich

This week on The CW’s Arrow (Wednesday, 8/7c), Oliver will have his hands full with his badass new lady friend, Helena/The Huntress — but make no mistake, his biggest headaches are yet to come.

RELATED | Preview: Arrow Takes On… the Grinch?

Stephen Amell, who plays the freshman hit’s titular vigilante and his not-so-mild-mannered alter ego, likens this week’s “really cool” outing to a movie, saying, “It’s like nothing that we’ve had so far on the show visually.” And on the action front, Oliver and Helena “get right into it,” now that they’re privy to each other’s secret identities.

“She and I had started smooching, and we pick up not right where we left off but a short time after,” Amell laughs. “I’m trying to show her a different way [of exacting justice], but she is resisting. And she vacillates throughout the entire episode between trying my way and just being too hellbent on revenge.”

RELATED | Arrow Recruits Once Upon a Time‘s David Anders

Last week’s Arrow also featured another “unmasking “of sorts, revealing that the Well-Dressed Man who’s been taking meetings with Oliver’s mother Moira is Malcolm Merlyn – aka the father of Oliver’s best bud Tommy.

“It makes sense now, right?” Amell asks. “I don’t think anyone guessed it, but the second you see them together, it’s like, ‘Of course!’”

The question now becomes: Will Malcolm (played by John Barrowman) evolve into the infamous Merlyn of DC Comics lore, and thus be positioned as Arrow’s archenemy? Or is that his son’s fate?

“We start off in the pilot with Tommy being … a little bit suspicious [of Oliver], and we haven’t seen that [since],” Amell notes. “And one of the things I like about this episode is… if he were eventually going down a darker path, this is a nice way to sort of push a character in one direction.”

As for the well-dressed Malcolm himself, “He’s certainly the most nefarious character we’ve met so far,” Amell assures. “We don’t know a ton about him, just that whatever that symbol means in [Robert Queen's] book, and however that list was constructed, he’s not necessarily behind it but he’s the closest to the center we’ve gotten.

“He’s obviously the biggest threat that Oliver has,” Amell continues, “which is ironic, because they’ve never come together. So far.”

RELATED | Ask Ausiello: Scoop on Arrow‘s Vertigo Played by Fringe‘s Seth Gabel

Also on the horizon for Oliver is a flashback (at least…) to his first meeting on the island with Slade Wilson aka the man who would become the masked assassin Deathstroke. Filling the ominous role is Manu Bennett (aka Crixus of Starz’s Spartacus series).

“It’s nice to know who’s playing Deathstroke — but it’s not necessarily what you think,” teases Amell, who quickly spotted the dummy name used in the script — “Isaac Holloway” — then confirmed the truth with EP Marc Guggenheim. “I texted Marc and go, ‘Um… It’s Slade Wilson, isn’t it?’ And he’s like, ‘Oh yeah,’” the actor shares with comic-book fan enthusiasm. “They told me about this idea that they had sometime around Episode 3, so I’m glad we’re sticking to those plans.”

Having auditioned to replace the late Andy Whitfield as Spartacus opposite Bennett in 2010, Amell promises that Oliver’s first encounters with Slade Wilson will be “intense.” (Whether or not the CW series sticks with this backstory, per DC canon, Slade was a genetically engineered “supersoldier” for the United States army.)

“He’s meeting me on the island when I’m far less capable, so us ‘mixing it up’ might be a nice way to put it,” Amell previews. “More like ‘beating down’!”

[Lencho01]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/1...n_2243972.html

Laura Prudom
'Arrow': Stephen Amell And David Ramsey Preview 'Vendetta,' 'Year's End' And The Return Of Deathstroke

Posted: 12/05/2012 10:51 am EST Updated: 12/05/2012 12:58 pm EST


Last week's "Arrow" (Wednesdays at 8 p.m. EST on The CW) Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) met Helena Bertinelli (a.k.a. comics antiheroine Huntress, played by Jessica De Gouw), another troubled vigilante with an uncompromising method of delivering justice. Though her ideologies may differ from Oliver's, he found that he had a lot in common with Helena, and the final moments of "Muse of Fire" saw our hero getting up-close and personal with his new lady-friend.

But their story doesn't end there. As Amell previewed in Part 1 of HuffPost TV's exclusive set visit interview, "all the plans that the Huntress has in [Episode] 7, tie directly into [Episode] 8."

Naturally then, this week's episode (Wed., Dec. 5) will bring simmering tensions to a boil and place Oliver at odds not just with Helena's mobster father (Jeffrey Nordling), but with his own crime-fighting partner Diggle (David Ramsey).

In addition to our on-set interview with Amell, HuffPost TV caught up with Ramsey earlier this week to find out what he could tease about tonight's episode and next week's Christmas-themed installment, which also serves as "Arrow's" midseason finale. Below, find Part 2 of our conversation with Amell, and the first part of our interview with Ramsey -- and start preparing yourself for "Year's End" in advance.

Stephen Amell

In Episode 6, Thea [Willa Holland] certainly didn't handle Tommy's [Colin Donnell] "rejection" well. It seems as though she's going down a darker path and challenging Oliver more directly.

Amell: Our dynamic is coming to a head sooner, with Oliver and Thea, because she hasn’t trusted me since the end of the pilot and it hasn’t really gotten better. I mean, she made an effort enough; she asked me, she said, "I don’t care if you do it with me but you have to do it with somebody -- you’re going to have to tell me what happened. Tell them what happened. Tell someone what happened." And she’s at her wits’ end with me and this situation with being rejected by Tommy and feeling threatened by Laurel [Katie Cassidy], it’s not making it any easier. She and I are going to have to have a head-to-head pretty soon.

Not to get too literal with DC Comics' various iterations of Speedy, but I know that choice of nickname was deliberate for Thea, and comics fans are aware that Green Arrow's first "Speedy," Roy Harper, struggled with drug addiction. With the impending introduction of "Arrow's" version of Count Vertigo [Seth Gabel] and all that entails, I'm guessing that Thea might be heading down a similar road?

Amell: Vertigo is a drug [and Seth Gabel is the dealer] and from a deductive logic standpoint, that would be a pretty good path to go down ... You know, just because her relationship gets better with Oliver, it doesn’t mean that she gets better overall ... it has an opportunity to get better with Oliver because it gets worse with someone else.

What can you say about the midseason finale, "Year's End," which has a Christmas theme?

Amell: There is some big stuff. The whole idea of doing this superhero and doing a superhero without super powers is that he is vulnerable and he is fallible and he can be hurt. And as much fun as it is to take down Adam Hunt and take down Jason Brodeur, if Oliver is just dominating the bad guy of the week, if there is a bad guy of the week, that’s not dynamic. That’s repetitive. If we were really going to do this show, we’d have to run him up against somebody that was his equal or that was better than him and that was always my hope for the show. After I read Episode 9, I have never been happier after reading a script.

Does that involve Deathstroke [Manu Bennett] in any way?

Amell: I actually do believe that Deathstroke is in Episode 9, possibly. That’s the other thing too, is that we’re about to take a little bit of a break from the island, I believe. I mean, we left it in a very interesting spot with him finding [his father's] book; but when we go back to the island, there’s no more sitting around in the cave. The cave, I’m sure, will stick around, but we’re going outside and in much the same way that you ramp toward the midseason finale, I believe that we are ramping toward the moment on the island right now. Because the scenes have become more intense, the stakes are a little bit higher ... I thought that we saw it just for a second at the end of Episode 6, but we are starting to see this first little inkling, this twinkle of transformation in Oliver -- or at least a separation of the person that he was before, relative to the person that he is when he comes back.

I will say this. I will tease one thing about Episode 9: I really think that we’ve moved forward with the series, that we’ve continued to raise the stakes and 9, right at the beginning, does a great job of illustrating just how much higher the stakes have gotten since the pilot. There is a quick scene where something that was a big deal in the pilot is just dispatched and that, to me ... it’s not hitting the viewer over the head with saying, "This is how far we’ve come," but me reading it, I went, "Oh, wow," because this was a meaty part of the pilot and now it’s just an afterthought in Episode 9.

David Ramsey

Diggle expressed more than a few reservations about Helena in last week's episode. I'm guessing he's not going to react too well when he discovers how deeply Oliver's involved with her?

Ramsey: Your instinct is correct. We made no secret of how Diggle sees justice being distributed in Starling City in general, as opposed to how Oliver sees it. They both agree on the larger point that Starling City is dying, but it’s worth redeeming, and there are people that deserve justice aren’t always getting it, and the people that deserve to pay don’t always pay. They both agree on the larger story ... We see they already have conflict, and they will continue to have conflict. Helena fits right into the philosophical challenges that these two men have in terms of who deserves justice and who doesn’t. Helena is another lightening rod between these two gentlemen. Diggle will have a problem with her presence in Oliver’s life, and he will make that known.

Stephen did tell me on set that Diggle was due for an "I told you so" moment, although not in a vindictive way. Will that have something to do with Oliver's new relationship?

Ramsey: I think so. The thing that’s great about these guys [is that] Oliver suffers from post-traumatic stress syndrome and I don’t really think anyone knows that except for Diggle. Oliver is smart enough to know he does, but he’s on a mission, and that, many times, clouds his judgment. But I think Diggle’s the only one that really sees that and really knows that Oliver needs help to see things from every angle. I think as a soldier, Diggle sees that. He sees the advantage of seeing things from every angle, as many angles as you can, and that makes your kill smarter. When you do decide to kill and execute that capital punishment, you are in a moral position to do it, and I think Diggle gets there through close evaluation of every situation.

Oliver gets there by seeing a name on a list and distributing justice, and so, they don’t meet eye-to-eye on that, but then on the larger issues, I think they agree. Anyway, I think in terms of Helena, Diggle has his own idea about who Helena is and how she should be dealt with. Oliver, because of where he is in his life, what he’s suffering from -- and we saw in the last episode how kindred of spirits they are -- I think Diggle sees that as clouding his judgment.

Does Diggle have any scenes with Helena specifically this week?

Ramsey: Yes, you will see them engage. They will have some words. [Laughs.]

A little further down the line, we know that Diggle is going to start keeping a closer eye on Oliver's mother, Moira [Susanna Thompson]. What can you tease about that arc?

Ramsey: Well, he’s going to have to. I think that Diggle, again, is looking at everything, everybody. He’s checking them all out, as a good soldier should. As a person who’s looking at every single angle, as anyone would if they’re a soldier on a recon mission on a battlefield. The Queen family, by the way, is part of that one percent. If there’s anybody to really keep eyes on, it’s the Queen family. Diggle’s eyebrows are raised in terms of the Queen family, and just a little hint, they will get even higher as the season goes on. You will see some major developments with the Queen family.

Next week's episode is the midseason finale. What can you reveal about it?

Ramsey: It is going to be jaw-dropping ... It’s going to be like, "I can’t believe they just did that." It’s going to be huge. I can’t give too much away, but some episodes are setting up for bigger episodes like this past episode we saw it was really more of a setup for what’s happening in the [Oliver/Helena] relationship, and then, you have other episodes like [3 and 4] when Oliver had that big reveal. This episode coming up with Christmas is bigger than both of those. It’s huge. It’s really, really big.

"Arrow" airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. EST on The CW.

Do you think Oliver and Helena will last? What are your predictions for the midseason finale? Weigh in below!

[KingMadness]

I can't wait to see what the surprise is.

[S. Grundy]

Originally Posted by Liam_H

I hope whoever finds out his identity later on notices right away a la Green Lantern movie. That facial hair is too distinct.

You would think that detective Lance would have noticed his voice, considering he doesn't change it at all.

[The Squirrel]

Originally Posted by Lencho01

http://tvline.com/2012/12/05/arrow-s...-slade-wilson/

Last week’s Arrow also featured another “unmasking “of sorts, revealing that the Well-Dressed Man who’s been taking meetings with Oliver’s mother Moira is Malcolm Merlyn – aka the father of Oliver’s best bud Tommy.

“It makes sense now, right?” Amell asks. “I don’t think anyone guessed it, but the second you see them together, it’s like, ‘Of course!’”

WRONG!

[Nathan]

I like how he says 'Of course!" For me it was like 'Are you kidding me?'

[mr. peasant]

Originally Posted by Nathan

I like how he says 'Of course!" For me it was like 'Are you kidding me?'

The reason it's "of course" is because clearly, Daddy Merlyn is trying to take over the world.

VIDEO-CLick to Watch!:

[protocida]

I don't get the obsession with the mask. The hood is enough.

By the way, when Felicity mentioned someone with NSA-level credentials monitoring Moira's finances, I immediately thought of Roy Harper. He was a Checkmate operative in the comics. He could be a double agent infiltrated in Tempest. I think it'd be a nice way to introduce him.

Also, the trend of having Felicity shoot accidental innuendo to Walter continues. I'm really liking these two and their subplot.

[Shikamaru]

What exactly was the point of bringing Walter back after he left due to being disgusted by Moira only to bring him back and to pretend like his confrontation with Moira never happened and only for him to continue to look into the mystery? Wouldn't it have made more sense from the beginning if he never had that confrontation with Moira and continued to look into the mystery without her knowing until later on? Wouldn't that have made more sense from a story point of view? Them bringing Walter back like this makes me think the whole idea of having him continuing to look into the boat mystery wasn't originally planned and was an afterthought. It seems really weird.

[protocida]

He didn't left because he was "disgusted". Although he was disappointed, he left because he wanted to continue his investigation. He returned because Moira was wounded by Helena, and he realized that he still loved his wife and wanted to stand by her side. He was ready to forgive her, but the discovery of the list motivated him to continue looking into the mystery of Tempest.

This was the plan, from what I've heard, but his "business trip" indeed steemed from the fact Colin Salmon had commited to "Strictly Dancing". He was going to be out for as long as the show ran, but he was quickly eliminated and brought back.

[NolanNeverTells]

[Human Torch]

Another addition would be Tommy calling Ollie Laurel's "White Knight".

[Primal Slayer]

Originally Posted by protocida

I don't get the obsession with the mask. The hood is enough.

Sure if they arent looking at him directly. but if they ever look up at him like the shot they showed us in last nights episode you can clearly see who it is.

[Dark Raven]

Originally Posted by Shikamaru

What exactly was the point of bringing Walter back after he left due to being disgusted by Moira only to bring him back and to pretend like his confrontation with Moira never happened and only for him to continue to look into the mystery? Wouldn't it have made more sense from the beginning if he never had that confrontation with Moira and continued to look into the mystery without her knowing until later on? Wouldn't that have made more sense from a story point of view? Them bringing Walter back like this makes me think the whole idea of having him continuing to look into the boat mystery wasn't originally planned and was an afterthought. It seems really weird.

Originally Posted by protocida

This was the plan, from what I've heard, but his "business trip" indeed steemed from the fact Colin Salmon had commited to "Strictly Dancing". He was going to be out for as long as the show ran, but he was quickly eliminated and brought back.

This is correct. Salmon had committed to Strictly Come Dancing which is currently still running until close to Christmas. I think it's close to the final soon. He was eliminated quite early but wouldn't have known that back then. They needed an explanation for why he was going to be away, but then he came back sooner than he thought so they worked around it.

[DarkSovereignty]

I'm wondering if the dark archer

Spoiler!!! Click to Read!:

will initially be Malcolm Merlyn, he was seen practicing fencing, maybe he's been trained to be a fighter/ archer. eventually he'll get killed by green arrow, and tommy will discover the truth about his father and take up the mantle or something a la green goblin in the spider-man movies. Not entirely original, but it would be a pretty natural progression based on what they've established

[S. Grundy]

I think everybody has come to that conclusion, when it comes to what happens with the Merlyns.

[Midnight Black]

Welcome to the party pal!

lol

[DarkSovereignty]

lol my bad, I kind of forget to check this section sometimes so I hadn't seen if anybody mentioned that.

[DaveMoral]

Anyone else think Oliver is going to end up with those nifty shades from Applied Sciences?

[Jordacar]

^That's just what I was thinking as soon as I saw them! The would certainly be easier to put on and remove than that green facepaint.

Also, I wonder what Chyna White looks like under the Lady Gaga wig. Fingers crossed for a matted buzzcut with a big ol' scar across it.

[HighFivingMF]

Colton Haynes is Roy Harper.

http://forums.superherohype.com/showthread.php?t=450067

[vantheman77]

It's as if Roy Harper has just come out of the Young Justice cartoons. He could be either Speedy, Arsenal, or Red Arrow.

[Nathan]

Am I the only one who thinks it's too early for him? I would have at the very least waited till season 2 to introduce him.