OMG, Ominous, October: New Arrow Season 4 Promos
Stephen Amell said at DragonCon that the endless analysis and rampant speculation about the Arrow season 4 trailer was "90-95% wrong. (There's) something they don't know."
We believe him.
However, that isn't going to stop us from giving our opinions about what we see. And like.
As if we needed any more confirmation that season 4 is going to blow the Arrow fandom's collective mind, here come the new promos.
First we get this one:
While the Oliver/Diggle bromance is on the rocks, the Oliver/Felicity romance is burning down the house, and I'm not talking about Oliver's newfound soufflée expertise.
Kissing in the kitchen, kissing on the balcony, holding hands in the Arrow lair, not to mention that naked in bed together scene that's inspiring a thousand gifs a minute.
Olicity fangirls - and fanboys, as was evident by all the Olicity questions at DragonCon - can't get over this couple.
Then we get THIS extended promo:
No wonder Oliver's expression when he sees Thea and Laurel in his living room is, "You guys SUCK."
In that moment, Oliver's soufflées, and his and Felicity's plans for their new hero-free life together, fell flat.
I'm liking this Thea-Laurel partnership. Because of the big age difference between Oliver and Thea, when Laurel was Oliver's girlfriend, Thea was the kid sister. Laurel still seemed to think of her that way in seasons 1 and 2.
Thea was the teenage tattle-tail who got falling-down drunk with fake ID, shoplifted at clothing stores and laughed about being brought home in a police car, and outed Laurel and Tommy's romance to Oliver (although he already knew, but she didn't know that).
Now she and Laurel are superhero peers. Thea's grown up and Laurel's moved on. That's character development.
Team Arrow's girl duo is riding a motorcycle, chasing criminals and throwing explosives? Several thousand guys reading this are thinking: that's kinda hot.
So, Thea is not only an equal member of Team Arrow now, but also Diggle knows Oliver can't ever say no to his sister, even if he can to Laurel. Diggle has to stay home to hold down the fort, but he's still steaming mad at Oliver and would rather take whatever the Star City bad guys are dishing out than admit he needs Oliver's help.
Remember Diggle's line in season 3, episode 7 "Draw Back Your Bow," that Oliver would rather go 10 rounds with the League of Assassins than admit he needed Felicity?
Takes one to know one.
But later in both promos, we see Oliver taking a bullet for Diggle. That should go a ways in repairing this brotherhood that is essential to Team Arrow. Star City can't - and won't - be saved without these two working together flawlessly, without doubt or hesitation.
They'll get there, but they better do it fast.
Damian Darhk is turning out to be exactly the villain we ordered for season 4: a stone-cold killer with apparent magical powers. Stopping the Green Arrow's arrow mid-flight: that makes quite an impression.
When Nyssa met Malcolm as a child, she called him "The Magician," but those were parlor tricks. Is it possible that Damian Darhk, the Ra's Al-Ghul runner-up, has those powers for real? We know Damian and his loyal followers escaped Nanda Parbat with some water from the Lazarus Pit. Might that give him greater powers than just eternal life?
Stephen Amell mentioned that one of the themes that season 4 will explore is mysticism. That's Constantine's wheelhouse and we knew there was some correlation with Sara's resurrection from the Lazarus Pit.
But what if it's something more?
Regardless, this Damian dude is going to be an Arrow villain like we've never seen before. Just the way he delivers that Villain 101 line gives me the chills: "I want to know everything about this Green Arrow: where he lives and who he loves..."
In the extended promo, Captain Lance spots the symbol he knows means anarchy. Damian Darhk said that he values order and discipline. To restore order, is he going to convince Star City law enforcement to make a deal with the devil?
Captain Lance may have to decide whether to go with the devil he knows, Oliver Queen.
But before you start thinking this is a slam dunk, Damian, you might want to head on over to Lian Yu and chat with Slade Wilson, who's been passing the time in ARGUS purgatory by yelling, "I keep my promises, kid!" He'll tell you how successful he was at corrupting the people Oliver Queen loves, and that was before Oliver and Felicity were a team within a team.
Everybody remembers that iconic "There was no choice to make" scene in season 2, episode 7 "State vs. Queen," when Oliver spectacularly shot three arrows at once into Count Vertigo and blew him out the plate glass window from several stories up.
That's a little taste of what happens, Mr. Darhk, to people who risk Felicity's life.
Diggle commented once on Oliver's level of restraint, compared to copycat vigilantes. Restraint is probably not a word we'll hear very often in season 4. Oliver has a lot more to lose now.
In a dark, ominous scene from the past, we have Amanda Waller encouraging Oliver to embrace his dark side, as if she hadn't already done enough damage to his psyche by training him in the fine art of torture.
Apparently, he successfully ditched her in Hong Kong and she's been looking for him ever since he boarded that freighter bound for Coast City. Can't let all that employee development go to waste.
It's exactly what Marc Guggenheim told us to expect: season 4 flashbacks that represent the low point in Oliver's life. The darkest of the dark, when he had less than nothing left to lose.
"The only way I know how to fight darkness is to be darkness," Oliver says to Felicity. He knows how easy it is to slip away. She gives him one of those famous inspirational speeches of hers, maybe even rivaling "Don't fight to die, fight to live" in the season 3 finale.
We'll hear her exact words in October, but her message hasn't changed: you've become someone else, something else. The Green Arrow is who and what can overcome the darkness.
At least somebody - Felicity "Feels like old times!" Smoak - is reasonably happy to be back in town.
Happy to be firing machine guns with her eyes closed. Happy to be moving into the corner office as CEO of Queen Consolidated. Happy to be unveiling her and Cisco's joint Green Arrow costume creation, which is so amazing that Oliver is speechless. (A journalist who visited the Arrow set confirmed Cisco's involvement.)
Happy to be watching Oliver on that salmon ladder again is more like it.
