Arrow returns with a bang

We’ve said it before and we will say it again, we love this time of year and Arrow never ceases to amaze with it’s premieres. The newest season premiere of the CW’s hit show Arrow had the highest rating of an episode since the series premiere episode four years ago. All of the major characters returned for the premiere minus Malcolm Merlyn (John Barrowman) who is off running the League of Assassins in Nanda Parbat. We last saw Team Arrow going their separate ways in sorts with Oliver and Felicity driving off into the sunset and Dig, Thea and Laurel left to watch over the city. With the separation of the team and Dig having some serious issues with Oliver after not trusting him with his plan at the end of season three, what can we expect of their friendship and partnership in the new season?

As most of the seasons have started we have Oliver running through the woods, which usually meant that he was on Lian Yu. This year was a little different, okay it was a lot different. He wasn’t running for his life this time, he was jogging in the woods of the suburban town that he and Felicity have settled down in. The two of them have been trying to let go of the past and becoming more domesticated and low key. Can they really be that way, after everything they have been through over the past 3 years together? Going from all-in vigilantes and saving what is now Star City from three different types of terrorism to being Mr and Suzy homemaker? Highly doubtful, and we all knew that to start. As much as Oliver and Felicity fight the urge to go back to their old lives of defending the city against danger, they are heading back and it didn’t take more than the second commercial break to get them back to Star City.

Back in Star City Canary, Speedy and Diggle (who doesn’t have a codename, yet) are taking care of business as usual. One big change that had to come to keep the family safe was Dig now has a mask of sorts…more like a helmet and some automated weapon holsters. A new group of villains have emerged known as The Ghosts and are taking over the city, no big surprise here. The team knows that they need Oliver’s help to rid the city of this group, well all except for Dig who doesn’t believe he can put his life in Oliver’s hands again. Now we all know that Dig and Oliver with best friends forever once again but how long will it take, and WHAT will it take to get them there is the ultimate question. I guess Oliver kidnapping Dig’s wife for the greater good of Star City didn’t sit well with Dig, but they will eventually work it out.

With Oliver and Felicity returning to Star City and helping the team, it really turns out that only half of “Olicity” was really completely out of the group. Felicity has been helping the team track The Ghosts for quite a while, much to Oliver’s dismay. How upset he really is, is to be seen but I am sure in the long run he will be fine with it and in the end thank her for doing it.

Damien Dahrk (Neal McDonough) has made his illustrious appearance after his stand in was killed in the season finale last year by the League of Assassins. He has some serious mystical powers, powerful enough to suck the lifeforce from someone’s body and stop arrows that are shot at him in the air and leave them hanging there. What else he can do with these powers remains to be seen but pretty sure it will be enough to bring the team back together fully and probably bring in some outside help aka The Flash and we shall see who else.

Part of what Felicity had been doing behind Oliver’s back was having a new suit made for him. A much lighter version of what he had before that looks like will make it easier for him to move around. it is close copy of DC’s New 52 suit which makes sense since he is now The Green Arrow and not just The Arrow. We will see more and more changes to be more like the comic, which is a good thing because you see too many shows and movies go away from the inspired material and change things for the worse.

The season is off to a bang, not surprising in the least but it has to reiterated. With Oliver and Felicity returning to Team Arrow and Damien Dahrk making his first stand as the villain of the season, it can only get better. A few little spoilers, ok BIG spoilers are in this paragraph, so keep that in mind. Damien Dahrk killed all of the city’s leadership except for Captain Lance, who he meets with at the end of the episode. How long will this partnership stay alive and will Lance tell Dahrk who The Green Arrow really is? Lance and Laurel are in a good place and giving up her ex-boyfriend and now partner to a supervillain may strain that relationship just a little bit.

The flashbacks didn’t have a lot to do with this episode but what we did see was nothing short of craziness. We have not seen the previous love interest of Oliver Queen (Elysia Rotaru…make sure to check out her interview with us) but we did see Oliver in Coast City chasing down drug pushers. Oliver meets up with Amanda Waller, big surprise but ends up on a military transport. Where was he going you ask? Well he has to parachute back to his favorite place on earth. Yup, you guessed it, back to Lian Yu. We don’t know why yet, but we do know he’s back to ‘Purgatory’ and he wasn’t too happy about it.

The really big spoiler is before the episode ends it cuts to six months later with Oliver standing over a grave and Barry Allen aka The Flash showing up apologizing for not making it to the funeral. It never shows who the grave is and we can only speculate but it will bring back the killing side of Oliver. We have three speculations and they are PURE speculation: 1. The aftermath of the Lazarus Pit turns Thea crazy and she is killed by Dahrk and neither Oliver or Malcolm could save her. This scenario is the most likely to cause Oliver to go back to killing.. Love for a sibling would cause anyone to go a little crazy 2. Felicity is killed by Damien Dahrk. With Barry showing up to pay respects it shows friendship and love for the same person they were both close with. He would show compassion for any of the three scenarios but it could point towards Felicity. This scenario would cause some huge outrage for a lot of viewers but it’s good for television and for character growth. 3. Captain Lance is killed for not help Dahrk kill the Green Arrow. This one is a little less likely to cause Oliver to go back to killing, it would be more likely if it was Laurel looking for vengeance. Why isn’t Laurel one of the choices you ask? If you have read any Green Arrow comic then you know that Black Canary and Green Arrow marry, so unless the writers completely change the scope of the DC universe then Laurel can’t die…not yet. There are a lot of unknowns, which are to be expected when it comes to a new season but what we do know is that this season is going to be pretty epic if the past three have anything to say about it.