Arrow EPs Talk Episode 100’s Surprise ‘Cameos,’ Oliver’s New Focus and More
Arrow‘s 100th episode on Wednesday night featured a bevy of departed characters, including two who weren’t on the publicly released guest list for the alt-reality installment, in which Oliver never got on the Queen’s Gambit.
Even though former series regulars Colin Donnell and Colton Haynes weren’t able to reprise their roles, their alter egos Tommy Merlyn and Roy Harper still made an appearance during the milestone hour (to Donnell’s own surprise!), joining in-the-flesh returning cast members Susanna Thompson (as Moira Queen), Jamey Sheridan (Robert Queen), Katie Cassidy (Laurel Lance) and more.
“We tried desperately to get Colin Donnell. We just couldn’t pull it all off,” executive producer Andrew Kreisberg admits, while EP Marc Guggenheim adds that Haynes was also on their wish list. In fact, there were Tommy and Roy scenes scripted into the episode “that we, obviously, just couldn’t do because of Colin and Colton’s availabilities,” Guggenheim explains. “For example, Roy was going to be Thea’s boyfriend — that hadn’t changed — and they met when he stole her purse.”
Despite the setback, the producers found an unconventional way to include the actors in the storyline. In addition to a meta mention from Malcolm about how Tommy couldn’t attend Oliver and Laurel’s wedding because he’s busy being a doctor in the Windy City — Donnell stars on NBC’s Chicago Med — Oliver saw holograms of Tommy, Roy and various other loved ones as he departed the so-called dream world.
“That beat was not in the original break of the episode,” Guggenheim says. “I was writing that scene where Oliver goes back [to his real life], and it just popped into my head that basically all the actors that we can’t get — at the time, I didn’t know who we could get and who we couldn’t — this is a way we can get them.”
But pulling off the nostalgic sequence was no easy task for the show’s visual-effects house. “Zoic handled those shots, and they did an amazing, amazing job, particularly with Colin and Colton, because we couldn’t reshoot them,” Guggenheim shares. “We had to take them from old episodes… and put them into this.”
The producers were able to secure the return of original series star Katie Cassidy, which was key “because she is such an essential figure to the show,” Kreisberg says. “She was the second lead on the show. Even though the show has evolved, Laurel is at the heart of it. She was Oliver’s great love, she’s Sara’s sister, she’s Lance’s daughter. … And on top of that, Katie Cassidy will always be so important to us. We were so happy that she agreed to come back, because she is part of the family, both behind the camera and in front of it.”
After coming out of the seemingly perfect reality created by the Dominators, a refocused Oliver will “double down on his mission and commit to this life with all of its losses and failures and challenges,” Guggenheim previews.
“This was sort of Oliver’s version of Flashpoint, and it’s a little bit Oliver’s version of ‘[For] the Girl Who Has Everything’ from last year’s Supergirl,” Guggenheim describes. “There’s a reason why these stories are iconic or familiar tropes… It’s because when you show the protagonist the path not taken, and you basically put them in the situation where they can choose to stay on that path or go back to their life with all of its ugly aspects and challenges, and they choose the selfless choice of returning to that ugly past, it makes your character stronger.”
Arrow fans, what did you think of the 100th episode? Grade it via the poll below, then hit the comments to back up your pick!
What could have been if the writers knew what to do with Laurel from the start of the actual show. Such wasted potential on her character
I agree, I came into Arrow as a Katie Cassidy fan, i was always waiting for her to be the badass I knew she could be from supernatural and harpers island. I’m still hoping for redemption, she’s signed to a year long deal across multiple shows.
this.
I agree with everything that you wrote. Katie Cassidy was the main reason I started watching Arrow. She was great on both Supernatural and Harpers Island.
They handled her character, and quit frankly her talent, very poorly on Arrow.
little problem: she has zero talent. her acting is some of the worst i’ve ever seen.
I’ve always liked KC since Melrose Place. She wasn’t the reason I started watching the show (I started watching because I love superhero shows) but I don’t think the writers ever knew really what to do with her character. The EBR came along and had a much better, natural chemistry with Stephen Amell and that to me seemed like a better match. I know she’s an across the board series regular now but I do hope she finds a show that’s a good match for her. I honestly think she plays witchy (with a little bit of heart) the best (that was what she was on MP and she was fantastic).
Overall, I think this is Arrow’s strongest season since S2 though I’m still not a huge fan of the new team. I would much prefer just Diggle and some Thea as Team Arrow but maybe we’ll eventually get back to that.
This. Her comeback just makes me glad that she is already dead.
Ok but the Laurel in this episode was defined by her relationships. Her identity either as a lawyer or black canary was completely stripped off. The only nudge was the canary necklace and it was there to trigger Sara into remembering her own identity.
This! It’s always supposed to have been Laurel, not some stupid OC!
Loved the in nod to Tommy being a doctor on Chicago!
I literally lol’d
Finally. An episode with no flashbacks.
technically there were many flashbacks ;)
Well, no Oliver before Green Arrow flashbacks.
This is my favorite comment today :)
I didn’t much care for Bro-Cisco at the beginning of the episode but I’m a little surprised how well this fit into the cross over. It made me smile when the one who took down “Slade” was Sara.
Oliver took down Slade. Sara took down Damien with an assist from Thea. Slade has always been Oliver’s to take down. Sara needed to kill Damien to avenge Laurel’s death.
Sara took down Slade, when she first joined Ollie and Dig….
But Oliver put the final arrow in his eye so technically it was Oliver.
You’re both right. Technically there were two Slade hallucinations in this episode. The first one was taken down and killed by Sara and then he came back again and was defeated by Oliver.
I really love the way they’re handling Sara now in the Berlanti-verse. In the comics Black Canary is the superior fighter to Oliver and in this universe Sara (the first Black Canary) is starting to show that she’s at least just as good of a fighter as Oliver. She fought him to a stalemate on Flash and I hope that they eventually show that she’s a superior fighter to Oliver.
I liked it. I liked seeing Oliver get some closure with his parents and Laurel. I loved how things he’d said to Felicity kept bleeding into the dialogue with Laurel. And the flashbacks to Olicity were great. This episode actually gave me a lot of hope for Olicity in the future. Smoak Tech needs to be a thing in the real world. Loved the OTA moment and thought it was poignant that Oliver only knew something was wrong when he was with Felicity and Diggle. Testament to their connection. Very strong and sometimes moving episode.
You do know they just came out saying Olicity was their biggest mistake and that they will never do it again
No they didn’t. Did you actually read the interview? MG said they rushed Olicity last season, not that they were a mistake or that they’d never happen. LOL.
I did read it they said it was their biggest mistake and that they are working to fix the fans they lost because of it
Wow this isn’t even selective reading, you’re just delusional.
What part of this statement from MG even says the word ‘mistake’?
“I get a lot of s–t online, for reasons, but the way it played out for us was very organic. Like any showrunners, we react to the dailies and we started seeing these two actors have chemistry. So, no, I wouldn’t do anything different.”
Sorry, Michaelaterndrup, but I would have to agree with Liz and LIttlemissbasic. You did not read the article. Like, AT ALL.
And now I’m leaving, b/c I’ve fed the troll, which is something I swore I’d never do…
Exactly! Olicity is not over by a long shot. Ignore the troll, they obviously can’t comprehend a simple interview.
I don’t even feel they rushed it. it was like 3 season in the making – that’s rushed? I could have gone without the drama and the breakup, but getting them together wasn’t the problem for me. but past is past, can’t change it anyway.
“I’d say probably my biggest regret is I wish we had allowed the Oliver-Felicity storyline in season 4 to unfold at a more natural pace. We had set these tentpoles at the beginning of the season, and we were a bit too rigorous on how we hit them. That was a case where the planning overtook the storytelling. We didn’t do things as naturally and as elegantly as we should have.”
This quote implies that that handled it poorly instead of taking the time to develop both characters and their relationship properly, a comment I whole-heartedly agree with. However, it seemed clear to me that they will get back together at some point down the line, but the relationship will happen much more organically the next time they revisit it. They have already taken steps to correct that this season.
Good to see Moira and Laurel back to class up the joint so to speak. I was worried about olicity being the dominating factor but they seem to have learned their lessons from Season 3B-4 to shut that down.
If they do this correct, then oliver realizes with the aliens, metahumans, multi-verse that he must rededicate himself to keep fighting.
non of these things are really a part of Arrow and Oliver was always dedicated to his fight (except when he rode into the sunset with Felicity). and there is no way they’re dropping Olicity (which was never a dominating factor). they have no reason to, they’re a fine couple, no matter what the haters say.
Just one (1) user name per IP address, thank you so much!
That can be tricky if there’s more than one person in a house. VPNs can also cause a problem.
This is not my first rodeo.
I do wonder what the crossover audience thought of this ep. I can imagine it was fairly confusing for pure Flash, Supergirl, and LoT fans.
I’ll give you my take on it, I’m purely Flash and LoT, but it’s not without trying Arrow more than a couple times and still “iffy” on Supergirl.
I usually love crossover week. Even with my very limited knowledge of Arrow, I enjoyed the Arrow centric episode so much that it would give me the push to try it again on netflix, but then I wouldn’t be able to get into it for the life of me.
This year is different. I don’t know why, but this entire crossover week *yes even Flash* has just been ehh. Maybe because Supergirl wasn’t a true start up for the whole week. Nothing happened there crossover-wise except Barry and Cisco went to go get her because everything was happening on OUR earth.
I don’t know, hopefully LoT will save it for me but we’ll see.
Again, this is just me.
I just watch Supergirl and The Flash. Supergirl (the show) was not really a part of the crossover except the final 30 seconds which were repeated in the beginning of The Flash. The Flash set everything up and I really enjoyed that. Arrow was kind of pointless as far as the crossover story goes. Nothing was advanced storywise except the abducted characters got free. The abduction drama appears to have been strictly to bring back Arrow characters and have them interact in a long fantasy sequence. It did not have anything to do with defeating the Dominators. I expected to have the characters that weren’t abducted be more involved in the rescue, but except the ship from LoT swooping in at the very end, they pretty much got themselves out it. Basically only 5-10 minutes of Arrow was of any interest to me.
Can we talk about how Willa killed it in that scene with Oliver?
Yes! I was so there for that scene. Willa was amazing.
I always thought that Willa Holland is a terrific actress, and with this moment, she again proved me right. How she can convey so much emotion only with her eyes (notice that the rest of the face was trying to keep the emotions in check, but failed more and more over time, but her eyes had everything), was always something I admired in her acting.
I’ve given it up until tonight, but I officially do not like the addition of the new recruits, especially Rene. Is it wrong that I hope they don’t stick around on Team Arrow all that much longer?
Poll!
[polldaddy poll=9578410]
I tried to vote, but it wouldn’t allow my choice: none of the above!
This!
So much this!
Wow i a this on another site. Its amazing how so many people (me included) like Ragman (hes just likable and doesn’t need to try to hard)
They really need to tone down Wild dog the attitude is just blah at this point
I agree! Rory fits and doesn’t feel forced where as I don’t think any of the others do. Curtis only feels organic when he is in tech mode with Felicity, Evelyn could disappear and you wouldn’t notice ;), and just like you said Wild Dog’s “attitude is just blah at this point”. I know they are trying to make a strong bond between him and Dig but that feels forced to me too.
The actual powers and what not of “Ragman” are fairly lame, but the actor and his character are actually really, really refreshing.
.
My vote went for Ragman and Artemis. I like the actress, her character and I like the wrinkle of her presumably being a double agent.
And Artemis was a double agent on young justice so that’s a nice touch there
here’s the issue with the recruits. I didn’t even notice that they weren’t present on the Flash, and it’s not until the end of the tonight’s episode that I noticed the lack of Evelyn. At this point they still don’t really have any presence.
I have to go with none of the above. I only like Evelyn, but she’s working with Prometheus, so she’s out. the other three bring nothing to the table in my opinion. I liked the orignial team Oliver, Diggle (not Spartan), Felicity plus maybe Sara.
Is Manu Bennett that mad over his time on Arrow that he couldn’t even phone in some lines for Deathstroke? Disappointing
The budget for this episode must have already been off the charts. Manu can’t be cheap.
I am not even sure it was Manu under the mask. Could just have been the Stuntman or somebody like that.
it certainly wasn’t. if it was him, they would have shown his face.
As the 100th episode of the series it was great; as the 2nd part of the crossover it was okay. Honestly I don’t think they should have combined the 100th episode with the crossover. I was watching this with my mom (she only watches the flash and legends) as she decided to watch it as part of the crossover and was pretty bored the whole time with the exception of the last 5 minutes. Me being an arrow fan (I like all 4 DC shows) liked the episode alot, it was a love letter to the fans, but like I said above I think it the 100th episode should have been separate.
The preview for Legends looks amazing, though, so I’m pretty excited for tomorrow!
Not a love letter to all fans. Just a sort of what might have been…
*What should have been
My understanding is that this was the story planned for the crossover. The story planned for the 100th is being used next week.
After the excitement of The Flash’s episode, this seemed really slow and pointless. You know they were going to get out of it so anything that happened didn’t really matter. It’s almost as if it was thrown in to stretch out the story for three shows.
I hoping that in tomorrows episode of Legends that there is a scene where Barry meets the Gideon on the Waverider.
If there isn’t I will be disappointed.
Maybe Barry will remember that he has a Gideon!
Haha glad I’m not the only one noticing we never hear from her anymore. I’m guessing the Flash cant get or maybe cant afford Morena Baccarin anymore.
I admit it, I teared up at the holograms. *sniff*
The cross-event recaps have been terrible!! No recaps at all!
That’s because they’re post mortems not recaps…
+125 TVLine Power User points (no cash value)
TruE enough, just enjoy the recaps a lot more since I cant watch it in my country until much later. And I was expecting lots of recaps for the crossover. Just feel like somethings is missing.
I’m not sure how this particular episode will feel in syndication…the alien stuff is very out of place with the rest of the show.
That being said, I loved this episode. The guest stars…oh man. I felt so bad for Thea and Ollie.
I don’t care what the haters say, I miss Laurel.
I also miss seeing Sara on Arrow.
Oliver hugging his parents and crying, I hate you Arrow! 😭
I maintain the fact that this ep should have been its own entity and not part of the crossover. I mean, I know that Sara and Ray had sizeable parts in the ep, and Barry, Kara, and Cisco played parts in the ep, but this wasn’t truly the crossover action promised. As a 100th ep, it was good for the Arrow fans, but as a crossover its basically biding time for the most part. I watched Arrow back in season 1 and 2 and have followed along the story in later seasons without watching so it wasn’t disruptive to me but to fans of the other shows, it must have been super confusing.
Not really because we are comic book fans
not all people watching one of the shows are watching all 4 or read the comic books
Most likely not that confusing. I mean it was advertised as a crossover but people had to know going in that each show was going to address or at least be concerned with issues unique to that show.
I understand the Arrow characters were going to be the focus but they really left the characters from the other shows out. If Joe or Iris from The Flash were part of the abducted group it would have been marginally more interesting to me. Supergirl only watchers had very little to hold their interest. Even the reason for the crossover, the Dominators storyline, was not advanced. The abductions were only to facilitate the creation of the fantasy world the abducted characters were in and had nothing to do with defeating the Dominators. At least in a meaningful way during the episode.
I don’t know how people that don’t watch The Flash felt about that episode of the crossover. To me they kept the Flash-centric stories to a minimum. At least they included the non-Flash characters in the Flashpoint story and how it affected them or they had opinions about it. I’m anticipating LoT to be mostly about defeating the Dominators, at least I hope so.
I think that one problem with the “Arrow” episode in this crossover was the fact that Supergirl is, for the regular, often human villains of “Arrow” (aside from Damien Darkh) just no match. If you feature her too heavily on that show, you risk making Team Arrow look useless and obsolete. That’s why I think a simple “Arrow”-“Supergirl” crossover would not work. If Kara were there, and the villains are of the regular “Arrow” kind, the episode would be over in a minute. Barry, while having the power of speed, otherwise is still otherwise, pretty close to human, so the discrepancy is not that big.
So, I think, since every episode of the crossover should still, on some level, work as a unique “Arrow” episode (and ep 100, no less), they did a good job here.
Sorry, the last sentence came out wrong, it makes no sense. Let’s try again:
So, I think, since every episode of the crossover should still, on some level, work as a unique episode of each show (and, in “Arrow”‘s case, episode 100, no less), they did a good job here.
I’ve only ever watched one episode of Arrow (last year’s x-over with The Flash which I liked) and one of LoT (the premiere which I didn’t like). This year’s x-over episode of Arrow was pointless to me, as someone that does not watch the show. Last year I didn’t feel that way. The reason I watched this year was to see the continuation of the Dominators story which was not advanced. LoT on the other hand was very entertaining even though I don’t have any real understanding of the characters’ relationships other than what was developed on The Flash before LoT was a series. I think the real problem with the Arrow episode was it’s in the middle of the story. The Flash was the actual start of the story and did a good job of setting it up and gaining my interest. LoT was the conclusion and was action packed and a satisfying finish to the story. Arrow was just there. I’ll take your word that it worked as a unique Arrow episode, but as part of a larger story it was very disappointing.
I agree in most parts. The episode, in context with the crossover, was nothing special. The producers obviously juggled with the fact that this was episode 100, so they had to deliver something special for the core audience, and they obviously valued that fact higher than making it work as a part of the crossover storyline. And yes, the crossover suffered from it. But as a person who watches all four shows regularly, I liked the episode for what she, for the most part, was: The 100th episode of “Arrow”.
does anyone else think holo-roy looks weird
Yup, I didn’t even recognize him.
The episode was ok. But really, all you can find for Laurel to do is lose Oliver again and tell him how he must fight on? We get it. They aren’t getting together. We are moving on, maybe by not watching the shell of a former show, but we are moving on, so you should, too. Bring back Laurel as Black Siren becoming Black Canary and screaming and kicking butt while telling Felicity and Oliver they deserve each other. Oh well, a guy can dream… But seriously, please use the character of Laurel just once the way she should have always been used. That is how you should really treat family.
Loved seeing Katie Cassidy back. Especially the part where Oliver figured out it wasn’t real but still wanted to elope with Laurel. As far as Olicity, the way the writers pushed that fractured the fan base. So I think they would be smart to leave it alone.
not a chance. I’m 99% sure Olicity will get back together before the end of the season. and I’m fine with that, they’re cute together. I also don’t think it “fractured” the fans. there is a vocal minority hating on Felicity/Olicity, but I wouldn’t call them fans in the first place. you don’t have to ship them, but it’s no biggie either way. Laurel is dead and gone and that’s good. actress sucked.
Why are people that don’t like Olicity not fans in you’re mind?
I liked Felicity in the first two seasons as a comic relief and techy, later she got just annoying and could suddenly do anything and Oli depended on her for just about everything but fighting. In the first seasons Oli could do nearly everything by himself and hadn’t to rely on her.
Okay, more to my point: The fanbase is split on the Olicity stuff for one because it was way to rushed and because Felicity got pushed to fast to far.
Also they did annihilate Laurels character in the first season, when she was still in love with Oli after he slept and presumably killed Sara ( later we found out she was alive and so on), that was just a stupid decision. It also got worse, with the addict story line and here to fast development to Black Canary. That was a move to quioent the Black Canary and comic fans.
So my point actually is catering to either fanbase is wrong, just let the story develop naturally.
rushed? pushed? after three season of build-up? that’s just factually inccorect. like Felicity or Olicity or not, I would argue it has been a naturally and slowly progressing story.
Felicity was supposed to be a one episode character, but because EBR is such a great actress and she had great chemistry with Stephen, they brought her back (a decision made before Felicity’s first episode ever aired, no fan reaction involved at all). they tried Laurel/Katie Cassidy, it didn’t work at all. that’s not “catering to fanbase”, it’s recognizing what works and what doesn’t, who’s good and who not.
as I said, you don’t have to like it, but haters aren’t fans. if you keep complaing so much about a show, but keep watching, you’re just stupid, pathetic and hateful.
The Laurel story didn’t work because they messed that up more or less from the start. In the first episodes Laurel was Olis love of his live, and her early introduction was okay until they brought the Sara story, afte that it was just a huge cluster f**. In Season two they didn’t give her a real thing to do other than being a bit drunk and annoying.
For not rushing Felicity: Even Guggenheim said it was to fast.
And for being hateful: Where do you get that from? Just because I point out mistake many are seeing.
This^^
I felt that the 50 second scene in Supergirl was more of a crossover than this…. Technically Sara and Ray were part of this show, so they could have reprised their roles for the special milestone. I think this should have been a separate ep from the crossover. As someone who stopped watching Arrow a couple of seasons ago, and only watched because of the crossover ep was ok, but not great as the others.
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Loved the meta profession that Tommy has in the ep. And I forgotten how much I love the Ollie and Thea scenes.
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And wow…. those new recruits are horrible. Especially the one with the mask. I enjoyed the SuperFlash scenes, they always have great rapport.
I haven’t watched a full episode of Arrow since the beginning of last season, but I watched this one because I’m still watching The Flash and Legends so I was invested in the crossover. The whole episode was bittersweet. I was really happy to see Laurel. To me, she really was “the heart” of this show, especially during those first two seasons when it was at its best. Also I was pleasantly surprised that the writers dared to not only acknowledge but actually focus on the fact that Oliver and Laurel loved each other after spending so much time trying to pretend it never happened/meant nothing.
After such a nice episode, I almost considered picking up this show again, but then I remembered Laurel’s still dead and they seem to have poor Felicity playing babysitter to a bunch of random, weird newbies that I couldn’t stand for more than a few minutes. Oh well…
Here’s the thing. They had to erase Oliver cheating on Laurel with Sara to make their relationship, LEADING to a wedding, believable. That says a lot about their mindset on the backstory. I’m betting William doesn’t exist either by extension. They didn’t forget it happened, the retcon was a farewell to the shippers. Take it and run with it.
Well first of all, I’m not a shipper. At all. I just like continuity. I get that the show felt Oliver had better chemistry with Felicity. And I can buy the idea of Laurel and Oliver not working out, but they laid the epic love story of Laurel & Oliver on pretty thick in Season One so it was really jarring for them to 180 it as suddenly as they did. If you want to really talk about retcon, THAT would be an example.
Also they didn’t “erase” anything. It was supposed to be a perfect dream world, not a real one. And it wasn’t just Oliver’s dream of happy ending, it was partly Sara’s too. IF it came out of a shared consciousness, neither of them would have dreamed of a world where they repeated one of the worst mistakes of their lives. As for William, I’ll be honest I totally forgot who that was until I googled him. It doesn’t matter to me one bit that they erased him and I find it hard to believe anyone else would care that badly either.
Laurel is Oliver’s great love. Really?? If that was the case they wouldn’t have killed her off. She was finally getting her own story and they killed her off to push a storyline no one wanted. That I love you before she died still pisses me off. She was developing as a character as they full on backtracked her. And the second lead??? She was barely on…
It is not uncommon for this to happen. Think Gwen Stacy in Spiderman.
she’s not. they made it super clear when Laurel died it’s Felicity. only the other way around. killing her off was the right call. not sure what storyline you mean?
It wasn’t meh to me.
I expected more. It was not bad – just not as good as Supergirl or The Flash.
I disagree. For me this was the best episode of the week.
I agree. I felt like I wasted an hour of my time.
ditto! Except for that great Supergirl Flash takedown of cyborg-girl!
and that awesome fight scene of the good guys vs the bad ones… That shot where Thea shoots the arrow to Sara, and then Sara stabs Dahrk was great!
Totally agree!!! So far, arrow is the weakest among the three. And those rag tag team of vigilante wannabes was pure amateur hour.
Even in the epic crossover Wild Dog is still annoying.
Is it me or if you think about it Mad Dog is giving off a little “Batman”ish vibe with his dislike of metas?