Coast City, Star City: Arrow Season 4 Preview
We've been in hiatus purgatory, scheduled to be rescued in less than 2 months, just in time for the Arrow season 4 premiere. The fandom should be ecstatic, relieved, thankful, and fill-in-the-adjective.
Fact is, we might not make it.
No trailer. No photo shoot with cast interviews. No freakin’ anything. Pretty soon it’s gonna be either Lord of the Flies or Mutiny on the Bounty.
Let’s go with Sherlock Holmes. I think we know more than we think we know.
After the Amazing Race/cardiac ward that was Arrow season 3, the finale was going to be epic. The question was, would it be epically hopeless?
Turns out, the writers could’ve re-named “My Name is Oliver Queen” as “The Calm In Reverse.”
Thea/Speedy has matured from tortured daughter of a super-villain to surprisingly skilled junior member of Team Arrow. Laurel/Black Canary has gone from a train wreck in a blonde wig to a trustworthy asset in the field. Season 3's “Big Bad” Ra's Al-Ghul died on his knees with the same sword in his chest that he used to skewer Oliver before kicking him off the mountain in "The Climb,” which defined heart-stopping mid-season finales.
And Oliver and Felicity, who've been in a holding pattern since the season 3 premiere (although in reality since mid-season 2), quit the archery business and rode off into the proverbial sunset, complete with Porsche and an establishing shot of what Californians immediately recognized as Big Sur.
Oliver and Felicity have been traveling over the summer. That we know. In the hugely successful May/June Twitter project #OlicityTravels, fans tweeted photos, wrote postcards, and created amazing art, documenting their adventures from Los Angeles to Lake Como. (Disclosure: I submitted a couple dozen of my own travel photos from around the world.)
Fans also deduced that they've now settled in Coast City, since Oliver is seen at the end of season 3 flashbacks boarding a cargo ship with that name. So, if Star City, as it will be called starting in season 4 thanks to Ray Palmer (missing and presumed dead CEO of Palmer Technologies), is Seattle, then is Coast City Miami?
Lots of romantic beaches there. Just sayin'.
The season finale did end with a devastating breakup, though: Oliver and Diggle.
Diggle finally hit the wall, with Oliver endangering his family and excluding him from every aspect of the deal with the devil to destroy Ra’s and the League from the inside. He doesn't even know yet that part of that deal made Malcolm the head of the world's most powerful army of killers, a decision we’re positive is never going to come back to haunt Oliver, ever.
Diggle walked onto that elevator and out of Oliver’s life and the fandom died.
This is non-negotiable in season 4: the Diggle/Oliver brotherhood must be mended. Oliver in a stable relationship and after a long sabbatical will hopefully understand better what it will take to earn back Diggle’s trust. Felicity, the other third of Original Team Arrow, will be instrumental in this.
Marc Guggenheim confirmed 2 other items of business for early season 4, in preparation for Legends of Tomorrow: Sara Lance needs to be resurrected as White Canary, which involves the Lazarus Pit and guest star Constantine/Matt Ryan's legendary mysticism. Ray Palmer, former boss and hapless suitor of Felicity Smoak, needs to be found alive after his hardware beta test gone awry blew out the penthouse offices of Palmer Technologies.
(Can we just go back to calling it Queen Consolidated? We all know Felicity will become CEO in season 4 and command Star City industry like a boss.)
Which leads me to a major gripe among Arrow fans: that Arrow has been the launching pad for 2 new shows - The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow - in 3 seasons, with some story lines that really served the new shows at the expense of Arrow.
(A bit like Glee in its declining years inadvertently becoming the Superhero Farm Team - Grant Gustin as The Flash, Melissa Benoist as Supergirl - and responsible for one of The Flash's funniest lines, which actually occurred on Arrow: Barry saying he couldn’t dance. I give you Glee season 4 “Thanksgiving.”
Before he ever went to MIT, Felicity’s boyfriend was a Warbler! See Cooper and The Flash on stage together singing One Direction’s “Live While We’re Young.” At the end of that same scene, see Supergirl, about to go on stage and freaking out.)
I can get very excited about Stephen Amell and Grant Gustin playing their respective characters on all 3 shows, and Emily Bett Rickards and David Ramsey on 2 out of 3, as long as it benefits Arrow, too. The latest good news from CW Marketing is that Legends of Tomorrow will be the last spinoff for now. Exhausted Arrow fans are holding you to that. The first big season 4 Arrow/Flash cross-over will be both episodes 8.
We're also told there will be one Arrow character whose job will be to float back and forth between the 2 shows. (They’ve said it’s not Laurel; personally, I hope it’s Captain Lance.)
Legends of Tomorrow will greatly increase the number of moving elements and characters, not to mention multi-verses. The writers will have to weave these together seamlessly, so fans aren’t entirely sure what to think when Mr. Guggenheim says the biggest challenge will be accommodating the actors' schedules!
Please let all this result in epic coolness and not in a red hot mess.
Fans also commented that, compared to villains of previous seasons, Ra’s Al-Ghul wasn’t really all that scary. BOOM! Problem solved with Neal McDonough cast as season 4 villain Damian Darhk, who just by wearing a suit and sitting in an office chair is already scaring the living daylights out of everyone.
Damian is a sociopath who kills for the hell of it, as opposed to Malcolm Merlyn and Slade Wilson in seasons 1 and 2, who used their histories and inner demons to justify mass murder. Even Ra’s Al-Ghul and the League of Assassins had a twisted code of honor.
Not Damian Darhk. Team Arrow is in for it. Stephen Amell, when asked to give 3 words that describe the season 4 premiere, said, "What's wrong, Speedy?
Team Arrow will need help. Fast. All I can say is, for the sake of Star City, these superhero cross-overs had better work.
Season 4 is Diggle's year. The story of his brother Andy’s death at the hands of HIVE will dominate, and rumor has it what role Oliver may have inadvertently played. (I’ve always wondered: did Oliver and Diggle really meet by accident in season 1?)
We won't even get into the speculation that Damian Darhk might be Felicity's father, or what chaos the baby-faced Anarky (Alexander Calvert) might bring to Star City, or what Baron Reiter, Oliver’s nemesis, played by British actor Jimmy Akingbola, is up to.
It can’t be good.
With the season 4 theme "Family," it’s also the perfect time for Oliver to find out yet another family secret Moira kept from him: that he became a father before he ever left on the Queen’s Gambit.
Moving on to significant others…
Although Roy is the boyfriend gold standard, Thea will fall in love again in season 4 with a political fixer named Alex Davis (Parker Young).
Minus: he works for your brother. Plus: he probably puts up with your Lazarus Pit after-effects.
We cannot get enough of #MamaSmoak, the mother you love who drives you nuts. Fans are ecstatic: Charlotte Ross is on the guest list for season 4, episode 6! We cannot wait to see her reaction to her romantic prophesy come true - never doubt your mom in matters of the heart - and fully expect her to ask when she can expect a grandbaby! (We know from season 3 "The Secret Origin of Felicity Smoak" that her mother loves babies, says Felicity, with a sigh.)
Our next Twitter trend will be to make her a recurring character, especially if she hooks up with Captain Lance! (Not surprisingly, Paul Blackthorne thinks that’s a terrific idea.)
Echo Kellum, cast as Felicity Smoak's BFF Mr. Terrific, has instantly become a fan and cast favorite. When Echo tweeted that he'd been recruited by Uber to become a driver, so his acting career was over, the Arrow fandom went into attack mode - and they have yet to see him on screen!
Felicity needs a tech peer who is NOT also her boyfriend/boss, and Kellum and his fabulous hair are perfectly cast. While there's a lot of anticipation around the season 4 bad guys, Mr. Terrific is the #1 new good guy to watch.
Flashbacks have been key to understanding Oliver's 5 missing years, so after 2 seasons on Lian Yu and 1 in Hong Kong, fans are hoping season 4 means Russia, the Bratva, and Elysia Rotaru (Supernatural), cast as Oliver's mysterious love interest, who we're told poses no threat to Felicity. Rather, it creates a light/dark comparison with his present-day happy love life.
David Ramsey spoiled that in season 4 Lyla will become the head of ARGUS and that Diggle and Lyla will have another child. Who doesn't want to see more of adorable baby Sara with Aunt Felicity at the Diggle family dinner table, and Uncle Oliver in the Green Arrow costume he debuted at Comic Con?
The part when the entire hall went 10,000 watts of crazy? Yeah, that was us.
