Arrow: Five Predictions For Remainder Of Season 5

“What the heck was that?!”

That’s the reaction that more or less everybody watching Arrow had when, in the closing moments of December’s midseason finale, Katie Cassidy’s Laurel Lance showed up in the Arrowcave.

Following on the heels of a brutal episode — where Prometheus’s origin was revealed, Felicity lost a boyfriend, and Team Arrow discovered that they were being betrayed by Artemis — the appearance of the late Black Canary was a welcome and happy surprise — although it doesn’t seem as though it’s going to stay that way for long, given the menacing spoiler revealed in a teaser trailer for the upcoming midseason premiere.

The finale left a lot of dangling plot threads, and that’s even before you consider that we still don’t really know the roles either Susan Williams or Talia Head/al Ghul will play in the back half of the season.

But as the 2017 premiere draws nearer, it’s up to us to think a little bit, not about what we “hope” to see but what we expect to see in the second half.

So here goes. Let us know in the comments if you think we’re crazy…!

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Arrow airs on Wednesday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW. New episodes return on January 25.

LAUREL WILL DRIVE A LOT OF STORY

While there’s already an indicator that there might be a little…misunderstanding…as to Laurel’s purpose here, it doesn’t seem like the kind of thing that the writers would do just for a boffo cliffhanger in the midseason finale.

More likely, whatever is going on with whatever Laurel Lance that is will have larger ramificiations for the series going forward. 

THE PROMETHEUS MYSTERY IS HEATING UP

We’re going to see some big stuff coming out of the Prometheus mystery, and probably soon.

They’ve got a photo of Prometheus as a kid now. Will we get to see Felicity use software to artificially age that face and see what familiar face it resembles?

It seems like a given that Prometheus will be a big reveal. If not, why all the secrecy so far? It feels more like a beat from The Flash than Arrow, and every time we’ve had one of those big reveals on Flash, it’s been a game-changer not just for the season but for the series as a whole, with a major character seemingly “defecting.”

TALIA WILL APPEAR IN THE PRESENT

Appearing in the present as well as the past, it seems likely Talia will play a big part in Oliver’s life — and that of Prometheus.

There were indications in the midseason finale that there was a mysterious woman Oliver knew, who likely played a role in Prometheus’s development. Comments by producers earlier today revealed that there is a connection there, seemingly confirming the theory that every fan instantly developed, that it was Talia who played a role in his training.

She’s been sold to us as a big part of the flashbacks, but one of the things we’re seeing this season is that the flashback material is already consistently tying into things we’ve seen in the present in various forms. Expect Talia to fall into that mold in one way or another.

After all, she’s not the kind to forgive and forget the whole “killing my dad, and dissolving the League of Assassins” thing.

ARROW VS. VIGILANTE WILL COME TO CITY HALL

It seems inevitable that while District Attorney Adrian Chase is suiting up as Vigilante and unknowingly taking literal shots at Mayor Oliver Queen as Green Arrow, eventually that conflict will boil over into a political fight.

(Yes, we’re sure Chase really is Vigilante; actor Joshua Segarra joked with us about wearing ski goggles at the Arrow 100th episode party.)

Even if the two don’t figure out who one another are pretty soon, it seems likely that the District Attorney’s office will want to pursue a decidedly different approach to prosecuting masked vigilantes than the Mayor’s office.

If not, where’s the fun of making Oliver the mayor at all?

OTA IS ENDGAME

Whatever happens to Wild Dog, Ragman, and the rest, we’re expecting to see Oliver, Felicity, Diggle, and Thea standing strong together at the end of the season.

Why would you break up the team, then kinda-sorta bring them back together, if there wasn’t a longer-term story at work in giving them an ending?

For many viewers, the Oliver/Felicity romance is endgame, but producers and Stephen Amell have made clear that while it would certainly be nice to see those two together, the real “endgame” is the relationship between Team Arrow (particularly Oliver, Felicity, and Dig) and the city they’re protecting.