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Thea & Moira Queen

Top 3 Reasons Not to Resurrect Moira Queen on Arrow

StarCityBFFs StarCityBFFs Secrets and lies, Oliver said to his mother the evening of her mayoral candidacy speech. It's not to protect your family. It's because that is what you do.

Oliver & Moira Queen
Oliver & Moira Queen

Every word was true.

But so was what Moira told him episodes earlier, "From the moment your children are born, you worry what the world might do to them, but you never stop to think what you might do to them. That we could be our worst enemy."

I've always had a love-hate relationship with Moira Queen. On one hand, a brave, fiercely protective mother. On the other, a morally ambiguous "good soldier."

Moira Queen's life is a cautionary tale about what happens when you operate in the gray area and fall in with evil people who are willing to go a lot further than you. And discover too late that you're in too deep.

Moira Queen & Malcolm Merlyn
Moira Queen & Malcolm Merlyn

And realize that, even if you do manage to get out, the damage you've done is horrifyingly permanent.

Oliver still doesn't know all the secrets Moira kept from him. He'll probably learn more in season 4.

(To clarify, we love Susanna Thompson, and so does the entire Arrow cast. In her death scene, those tears were real, and apparently there was a lot more real crying afterwards.)

In the interest of fairness, I compiled the pluses and minuses of Moira Queen's life:

8 Bad Things Moira Did

1. Conspired for 5 years with Malcolm Merlyn on the Undertaking, a plan to destroy the Glades and everyone in it, resulting in the deaths of 503 innocent people, including her son's best friend

Malcolm Merlyn & Moira Queen
Malcolm Merlyn & Moira Queen

2. Knew the Queen's Gambit had been sabotaged, which caused her husband Robert's death and sentenced Oliver to 5 years in hell, and set up to be killed the man who had betrayed Robert to Malcolm

3. Had her newly-returned son Oliver kidnapped and tortured to find out what he knew

4. Indirectly sealed Sara Lance's fate, yet accused Detective Lance of having a vendetta against the Queen family, and claimed no responsibility

5. Paid Oliver's baby mama $2 million to tell Oliver she had miscarriage

6. Chose not to tell either of her children that Malcolm was Thea's biological father

7. Conspired with Malcolm to have her second husband Walter Steele kidnapped when he discovered the Queen's Gambit salvage

8. Vaguely threatened Felicity, and who knows what else she would've done had she realized Felicity had been investigating her at Walter's request

Moira Queen & Felicity Smoak
Moira Queen & Felicity Smoak

8 Good Things Moira Did

1. Told her children she loved them (sincerely), and despite everything they felt that love, and still miss her

Moira & Thea Queen
Moira & Thea Queen

2. Married Walter, a good man and family friend, who Thea and Oliver learned to trust and continued to count on

Walter Steele & Moira, Thea, Oliver Queen
Walter Steele & Moira, Thea, Oliver Queen

3. Even though it was perhaps too little, too late, gave a press conference to evacuate the Glades before the earthquake machines detonated

Moira Queen
Moira Queen

4. Accepted responsibility for her role in the Undertaking and was prepared for a guilty verdict of life in prison (although she was found innocent at trial because Malcolm bribed the jurors)

5. Against her lawyer's wishes, fearing it would bias the jury, insisted Roy and Thea get back together, which kept Thea from unraveling further

Moira & Thea Queen, Roy Harper
Moira & Thea Queen, Roy Harper

6. Encouraged Oliver to ask Walter for help to keep Queen Consolidated in the family, and warned him about Isabel Rochev

7. Was proud of her son for becoming the Arrow

Oliver Queen & Moira Queen
Oliver Queen & Moira Queen

8. Most important of all: when facing certain death at the hands of Slade Wilson in season 2, sacrificed her life for her children

After Oliver went somewhere to be alone rather than attend Moira's funeral, he said his mother was dead because of him. But the truth is he never would have met Slade Wilson in the first place had the Queen's Gambit not been sabotaged, leaving him shipwrecked on Lian Yu.

For some reason, Oliver had the incredible power to forgive his mother. One of his last thoughts before falling off the mountain in the mid-season 3 finale "The Climb" was of her.

Oliver told Thea she was the best of their family, that she had the purest heart. She didn't know what it felt like to take a life. Oliver knew that feeling.

So did Moira.

Given this analysis, here are the top 3 reasons not to resurrect Moira on Arrow:

Malcolm is still in play, and more powerful than ever

As the new Ra's Al-Ghul, he has a longer reach and more resources for wrongdoing than he ever did in Moira's lifetime. He's proven he can intimidate, manipulate, and blackmail her into doing terrible things, up to and including murder.

Malcolm Merlyn
Malcolm Merlyn

He can play the Thea card even more now that she's Speedy. Doubtful he'd stop there.

These two have too much history. Knowing Moira's weakness is her children, Malcolm would find new and sadistic ways to exploit that.

Malcolm Merlyn & Moira Queen
Malcolm Merlyn & Moira Queen

We honestly don't know who Moira Queen really is

From the moment we met her in the pilot, she was leading a double life. Maybe even a triple life, depending how you look at it.

Finding out at the end of the episode that she was behind Oliver's kidnapping was more shocking to me than seeing Oliver's scars and wondering what on earth had happened to him on that island. Moira saw those, too, but still subjected him - her own son - to trauma and violence for her own benefit.

Oliver Queen
Oliver Queen

That's ice-cold.

We know from past events what Moira is capable of. Given her penchant for lies, I doubt that list is exhaustive.

Nothing can risk Oliver and Felicity's hard-won happiness

First look at Arrow Season 4!
First look at Arrow Season 4!

As much as I'd relish the scene when Oliver introduces his girlfriend and true love (Mom, remember Felicity?), after everything they endured in season 3, NO.

Just NO.

Felicity had the best intuition of anyone: she didn't trust Moira, and instinctively knew she could trust Oliver to side with her against his mother. Felicity, Oliver, and Team Arrow will have enough problems in Star City without Moira coming back from the dead.

We already know Mama Smoak is coming back, and we like her better anyway.

We'd love to see Susanna Thompson again, though. One day, give us a "Best of Moira" dream sequence. She went out on the highest of high notes, saving both her children's lives.

Let's leave it at that.

Moira Queen
Moira Queen

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