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‘Arrow’: EP Talks Prometheus and Oliver’s ‘Killer Psychology’ Development in Season 5

We really shouldn’t be surprised that Oliver managed to save the day once more. (In fact, he’s usually pretty good at that). The one thing that some may be surprised at is the fact that Oliver saved the day as Mayor Queen, and not the Green Arrow.

In this past weeks episode of Arrow, Spectre of the Gun, a shooter targeted City Hall. The shooter had taken matters into his own hands by expressing his anger towards Star City’s governing office for failing to pass a gun safety law shortly before his family was killed in a mass shooting at a local mall. Not only was this episode extremely emotional, but it made you really think about the gun control laws that are in place today.

Oliver found himself needing to use his power as the mayor, (not as the Green Arrow) in order to save his city. To no surprise, Oliver was successful in convincing the shooter to stand down. The great question is…. will the shooter’s actions impact Oliver’s opinion on killing moving forward? We’ve seen Oliver do this dance on and off for the past five seasons; where he is a killer… and where he choses to embrace the ‘light’ inside of him instead.

'Arrow': EP Talks Prometheus and Oliver's 'Killer Psychology' Development in Season 5

 

“One of the things you’ll see in the second half of season 5 is the gray area becomes a lot more gray,” executive producer Marc Guggenheim says. “We’re really delving into the complexities of Oliver being a killer in a way that we’ve never done on the show before.”

EP Marc Guggenheim explained that this season will explore the reasons as to why Oliver has been doing this dance with the devil for the past few years.

“In many ways, Oliver killing is the seminal moral quandary of the show,” Guggenheim says. “One of the things we are doing in the back half of season 5 is really getting underneath that and what that means, not just in terms of morality, but in terms of psychology — specifically Oliver’s psychology. There’s things about Oliver’s killing that you have yet to learn.”

But just because the episode ended with Oliver implementing a more strict, more safe rule of gun control does not mean that necessarily change Team Arrow’s morals and operations will also be changing moving forward.

“Oliver’s decision to kill or not to kill has huge moral implications not just for him, but for the team and the people who work for him,” executive producer Wendy Mericle says. “But for the rest of the season, we’ll definitely be exploring the ramifications of that decision — not necessarily with regards to the gun control laws now that they exist, and what does that mean for the team when they’re out in the field, but definitely in respect to Felicity [Emily Bett Rickards] and to some extent Curtis [Echo Kellum] as well, with what they’re going through. How do they square their own circles morally with the actions that they’ve taken?”

It would appear as though some of our favorite heroes are going through several different types of crucibles right now, and their problems are just about to get harder.
“In the very next episode, Team Arrow is going to come up against the police for a very different kind of reason,” Guggenheim teases.
With Dinah now the newest addition to Team Arrow, and the Star City Police Department this should definitely make things interesting.

“Dinah offers this fresh perspective to the team,” Guggenheim says. “In many ways, she’s kind of acting like our Greek chorus. She comes to the team without the burden of having been trained by Oliver and without the burden of dealing with all of Oliver’s secrets — and in some cases, in previous seasons, lies and mishegoss. So she just has a nice, clean perspective that isn’t so much about where she’s living as it is about what she’s been through and her backstory. But her backstory also is not being someone who was a member of Team Arrow, who comes to the team without the baggage of the past four seasons.”

While issues within the SCPD present an issue for Oliver, the Police Department is now the least of his worries. Susan Williams, Ollie’s newfound ‘girlfriend’ and vindictive reporter is hot on his tail; not only has she uncovered Ollie’s connection to the Bratva (proving that he was not on the island for the entire 5 years) but she now suspects that Oliver may in fact be the Green Arrow.

So what can we expect her to do with this ‘explosive’ information?

“It seems like the general prevailing theories about how we’re going to pay that subplot off are wrong,” Guggenheim says. “Everyone’s expecting something we’re not doing, for better or for worse.”

So let’s do a role call shall we? We’ve got the SCPD ‘issues’, Susan Williams, and let’s not forget Oliver’s greatest problem this season… Prometheus.

Arrow EP and Writers are planning to explore more of the Big Bad Villain’s story in next week’s hour.

“Episode 14 is this fulcrum where a lot of the little seeds that had been planted in the first half of the season start to come to fruition, and you start to realize that, ‘Oh, Prometheus has been setting up a chess board,’” Guggenheim says. “The episode ends with the next key move in Prometheus’ grand plan.”

 'Arrow': EP Talks Prometheus and Oliver's 'Killer Psychology' Development in Season 5

 

Viewers have been dying to know who is really under that mask (like I mentioned in my article ‘The Great Prometheus Theory‘, we talked about how almost the entire Arrow fan base is not convinced he is the illegitimate child of some Season One ‘baddie’), and Marc Guggeheim  notes the reveal will come “later than we typically do,” though declined to be more specific about Prometheus’ identity.

“Anytime we do a reveal on the show, it’s always with the intention of not just surprising the audience, but also of resetting the board and resetting the characters’ perspectives, and the characters having a profound reaction to things,” he continues. “Hopefully, we’ll do that again. … I feel good about what our game plan is.”

And that game plan has been in place since the start of the season — at least as it pertains to knowing Prometheus’ identity.

“Yes, we knew from the beginning,” Guggenheim says. “No, it hasn’t changed. I think I’ve said this in a bunch of different ways over the last five years, but we always go in with a plan. We do tend to call audibles as we get inspired and get new ideas. A year is a long time. But generally speaking, something that major, like the mystery of the identity of the Big Bad, we’re pretty dialed into it from the jump.”

Despite whatever Prometheus has planned for Oliver, or whoever will be the first to discover the true identity of Prometheus, the producers seem relatively positive that, in his new position as mayor, Oliver may actually not fail this city.

“Thea’s [Willa Holland] gonna make a good case to Oliver, of all people, for all the things he’s accomplished as mayor, and you start to see like, ‘Oh wait, in the first 13 episodes, he actually kind of did some stuff.’ And he’s not done yet. Obviously, the season’s not done yet, but we definitely went into the season with the goal of showing that Oliver is actually much better at this job than you might expect.”

 

Arrow will return Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET on The CW.

 

 

 

Source: EW, Comicbook.com

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