Arrow Boss Shoots Down Thea Theory, Addresses 'Killer' Twist, That Juicy Reveal and Other Burning Qs 

(Wednesdays at 8/7c) are famously loath to reveal too much, so as to keep the superhero drama’s many mysteries and mythologies churning.

But during our in-depth conversation with Marc Guggenheim, the showrunner put to rest at least one theory that’s making rounds, while also teasing this week’s exploration of Ted Grant’s “Wildcat” alter ego (and how it will shed light on Starling City’s pre-Arrow vigilante past), the imminent moment fans have long waited for, Sara’s “return” and a juicy reveal to be unleashed during the two-night crossover with

Promo: Oliver vs. Laurel, Cupid Takes Aim, a Kiss, ‘Wildcat’ and More

TVLINE | Would you say that Season 3’s first five episodes were spent getting certain characters to certain places before diving deep into the Big Bad/Ra’s al Ghul storyline?

Not really…. One of the things we always take into account when we’re planning out the season is the fact that Episode 9 (airing Dec. 10) is typically our midseason finale, so we try to create with those first nine episodes sort of its own little mini-season. Obviously there’s a certain amount of pivoting off of where we left our characters in the finale, there’s bringing various people back into play, there’s mixing up the kind of episodes — Villain of the Week, Mythology, Relationships-Centric…. There’s a whole host of different things that go into it, and it’s different for every season.

TVLINE | Coming out of the last episode, obviously it’s easy for us to speculate, “Oh, Roy has implanted memories,” or he was brainwashed,

or it’s Mirakuru aftereffects…. Regardless of the truth, why was it important to hit this beat?

That’s a good question — I appreciate the way it is phrased, so as to avoid spoilers — but it’s a hard one to answer. The one thing I’ll say is that hopefully in the first two years of the show, we’ve done

many crazy things, things that people have found unexpected, that even the stuff that seems patently crazy on its face you are wondering, “Well, that really might happen, because those guys really are just that nuts!”

TVLINE | It was definitely a most unexpected tag to that episode. I for one was like, “What the….?!”

That’s great to hear. That was definitely part of our game plan. Look, certainly the mystery of “Who killed Sara?” is a mystery where there’s only so many suspects, mainly because were not going to be jerks and introduce some day player character at the last moment. When the ultimate reveal happens, it will be someone who you know. Or maybe the reveal has already happened? Hopefully we’ve opened up a world where anything is possible, and to me that’s the most fun part of working on the show.

No, it wont be the entire season, but at the same time, to tell you

we’re going to turn that card over — if we haven’t already done so — would be bordering on spoiler territory.

TVLINE | And we definitely will be seeing Caity Lotz again, in some form of new scenes?

Yeah — we actually know when we’ll be seeing Caity Lotz again, but it’s a little down the road. We have a really clear plan as to when it’s going to happen.

‘s take on “Wildcat,” because I was not expecting to see any semblance of a costume, but the promo for this week’s episode teases something.

One of the things that we started the year off talking about was the idea of doing Ted Grant and Wildcat, for a couple of reasons. First of all, as comic book fans know, Ted Grant trained the original Black Canary, and the idea of him training Laurel, given what I call

“her comic book trajectory,” was too juicy to pass up. Plus, the character of Wildcat is a very grounded, street-level vigilante, and that fits very nicely into

‘s world. With Ted, we have a bit of a spin; one of the things we found intriguing as the idea of “What if Oliver wasn’t the first vigilante in Starling City?” So we’ll get a chance to, with this week’s episode, do a deep dive into the backstory of Starling City. We’re really excited about this episode, because it’s got a little bit of everything for the fans – and there’s one moment in it that fans have literally been asking for since the pilot, so we’ll get to deliver on that.

TVLINE | I’m admittedly not that familiar with the Cupid character aka “Oliver’s No. 1 fan” being introduced Nov. 19 (and played by Amy Gumenick) — is she some sort of ongoing stalker pest, like Rose from

] Basically, by the end of Episode 7, she’ll have what I’ll describe as “a new status quo” that will suggest to you exactly how and when and under what circumstances we’ll see Cupid again.

in town noticed the surge in archery equipment sales in sporting goods stores?

I think that’s the thing — no one’s really buying stuff in the brick-and-mortar stores, which is a shame, actually.

TVLINE | Speaking of the new generation of badasses: People are wondering if it could it be that Thea actually knows Oliver’s secret identity. I invite you to make an argument for why Malcolm would

I’ll tell you, because I don’t think it’s a spoiler: Thea does

know that Oliver is the Arrow. We sort of played that trick with Moira — the idea that ever since the end of Season 1, Moira knew that Oliver was the Arrow — and to have Thea be in possession of that knowledge and not be telling Oliver would be repeating ourselves a bit, which we try hard to avoid doing. That said, the reason Malcolm doesn’t tell Thea Oliver’s secret is because that is Oliver’s secret to tell. The thing about Malcolm is we’ve always tried to write him as “the word’s most principled bad guy.” He has a very distinct code of honor. Even when he destroyed the city at the end of Season 1, he considered it to be for very noble, altruistic purposes. He was “burning the village to save it.” So where Malcolm is concerned, he doesn’t act like your typical villain. He believes that he’s doing the right thing by Thea, and he also believes that Oliver is like a son to him. Being like a son to him, he’s not going to spoiler Oliver’s secret.

TVLINE | What is the Ray Palmer plan? We’ve only been getting drips and drabs, the occasional raised eyebrow….

For us, one of the fun things of Season 3 is, “Who is Ray Palmer? And what’s going on with him? And what

his plan?” There’s certainly history to suggest that whoever’s in charge of Queen Consolidated doesn’t always have the city’s best interests at heart. We got a little tease of it at the end of Episode 3, and we’ll get another tease at the end of Episode 7 (airing Nov. 19). And we’ll probably get our most concrete “mission statement” out of him at the end of Episode 9.

TVLINE | Stephen Amell recently teased an epic shirtless fight scene that

TVLINE | Also, there have been many hints about a great Arrow reveal during the two-night crossover (airing Dec. 2 and 3), but it’s in the

episode. Will the payoff continue the following night, on

No, actually. The great thing about the Arrow reveal in Flash is that it’s basically a reveal just to the audience. We’ll be seeing more things happening with it down the road.

, or for any other show? Email insideline@tvline.com and your question may be answered via Matt’s Inside Line.

I’m fairly certain I know what the Arrow reveal to us in the Flash will be…it likely comes in the form of a ten year old boy or at least the introduction of a woman in her early thirties as like, I don’t know, a DA or some other job that comes in regular contact with the police department and she has a kid at home but she just is introduced as a character in the world of the Flash and we can all grin at home when she says her name is Sandra.

I know that’s a theory, but it’d be tricky to establish/make crystal clear, especially on an episode of THE FLASH. It’d at the very least require a quick cut to that flashback with Moira, but who’s having that flashback? Sandra, upon, what, glimpsing Oliver in Central City? (And does that mean we’re locked into the one-off Sandra casting?)

The reveal could be that Oliver knows the child is alive. It might be as simple as a quick scene with mother and child. For safety reasons of course the child has no knowledge

Sorry I meant Olver watching mother and child or brieflymeeting with mother

What I want to know is, when will Laurel finally tell her father and mother about what happened to Sara?

I’m confused, I was pretty sure Thea knew his brother was the Arrow in S2. When she was kidnapped by Slade, didn’t he tell her everything about Oliver? I thought it was pretty clear.

It’s been awhile so I may be wrong but I’m fairly certain Slade just alluded to Oliver being more than what he’s presenting himself as. He didn’t tell Thea straight out about Oliver being the Arrow but he definitely hinted that there’s some big deep dark secret he’s been keeping from her. I think Oliver covered himself with the whole Malcolm being Thea’s dad bit –he used that secret to protect the Arrow. This is a big reason why Thea left Starling City with Malcolm.

Slade told Thea that Oliver had a secret, and the secret was that Oliver knew that Malcolm was Thea’s father. Thea confronted Oliver about it at the police station after she was safely returned in the scene where she did not even acknowledge her mother at all because she expected her mother to lie to her but not Oliver.

No, what Slade told Thea when he kidnapped her was that Malcom was her father!

If they’re going to bring in the Lazarus Pit, please let it be for Shado, not Sara. (Though what he probably means is Caty will be in a flashback). Laurel’s story – not interested in the least.

That Arrow reveal? Why do I have a strange feeling that it has everything to do with Harrison and what part Ollie plays in Barry’s future….

BTW – if any or some or all of these names are the reveal, comic heads will explode: Guy Gardner, Kyle Rayner, John Stewart and or (come on you know where I’m going) Hal Jordan…. After all, Green Lantern, Green Arrow and Flash are the three amigos of the DC Universe….

They need to keep Ray Palmer around—he’s great!

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