There’s a lot going on in tonight’s episode of Arrow, which centers on Nyssa Raatko’s next big move in her war against Malcolm Merlyn, the man who murdered her lover (she got better), her father (he didn’t), and took the title she believed to be rightfully hers.
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In order to take him down, Nyssa will need a little help from her husband…
…Oliver Queen (remember? They got married? Anybody?).
In “Sins of the Father,” Oliver (Stephen Amell) receives an offer from Nyssa that is hard to refuse. Meanwhile, Thea (Willa Holland) continues to battle the blood lust, Malcolm (John Barrowman) steps in to help his daughter, and Laurel (Katie Cassidy) has a heart to heart talk with Nyssa.
Katrina Law, who plays Nyssa Raatko, joined ComicBook.com to discuss the issue and what it means for the future of her character.
It seems like there are a lot of balls in the air, in terms of Nyssa’s plan. Do you think she figured that in order to best somebody as devious as Merlyn, you had to put as much crazy planning into your strategy as he would?
I think so much planning has gone on. While stuck in the dungeons, Nyssa has managed to form an army in secret to follow her that Merlyn is not aware of. There’s been a lot of planning and underground renegade shenanigans going on. The fact that she knew she would have to go to Oliver and hold his sister’s life in the balance, and even to do that, she had to do the impossible and get the lotus — to convince Tatsu that she has to get the lotus. That’s a lot of planning.
Would you think that a number of League members might side with Nyssa, given the shady way Merlyn came to be in possession of Ra’s al Ghul’s ring and title?
I would say yes. Just the fact that you have people who are willing to follow Nyssa, who is not Ra’s and who is staying in Nanda Parbat and had to spar Ra’s and was thrown into the dungeon by him, a portion of the league agrees with her that Merlyn shouldn’t be Ra’s. He wasn’t even a part of the League anymore, just an outsider who came in and took the title by deceit.
Do you feel like this hatred for Merlyn has given Nyssa a new sense of direction?
I think that’s an interesting question. i think when her father was Ra’s, she had a very specific direction. I think she knew from the time she comprehended that she was going to be the next Ra’s. Everything was in preparation for that.
I think the last three years have taken away her sense of identity, because Sara came in and introduced her to a world where there is love and compassion and sympathy. It started to change her pop a little bit and eventually meeting Team Arrow and meeting Laurel, having her father take away the title and all of these different things, have stripped away everything Nyssa has known.
So over the course of the last several months, she’s been fighting to get her life back on track. Becoming Ra’s and reclaiming what’s rightfully hers has been her number one focus. I think it’s given her focus, but I think it’s always been her goal. I think she’s going “Oh, I got sidetracked by Sara and by Team Arrow, but now I’m back on track.”
There’s been a lot of talk about how you didn’t really get to say good-bye to Sara, but now you say that falling in love and getting involved with Team Arrow was a distraction. Do you think Nyssa would even want to reconnect with Sara at this point?
No, I think before Sara was resurrected from the Lazarus Pit, Nyssa found it in her heart to let go of her. Once she was resurrected from the Pit, knowing what the Pit had done to her father over the years, and then seeing the feral animal that Sara was when she jumped out of the Pit, I think Nyssa knows that the person she loved is gone.
Nyssa doesn’t know at this point that Sara has become human again, but she knows that the bloodlust is going to be so strong she’s going to have her own journey that she’s wants to go on.
I think she would love to reconnect with her, but almost more to say goodbye because this isn’t going to be the same person and they can’t pick up where they left off.
What can you tease about tonight’s episode?
You get to see how far Oliver is willing to go in order to save his sister, and you get to see how far Nyssa is willing to go in order to be the next Ra’s al Ghul.
There’s going to be epic battles and twists and turns. There’s a greats scene between me and Laurel. There’s going to be tension between Nyssa and Merlyn, and Nyssa and Oliver.
If Oliver could come up with a way to simply drive Merlyn out of the League and out of your life, do you think Nyssa would take that at this point, or would she feel obliged to kill Malcolm?
I think she knows she needs to completely get rid of him. He’s like a cockroach that just seems to keep coming back over and over and over again. Her father made a huge mistake allowing him to leave the League fo Assassins and live, because of that, look what he’s come back and done.
I think she’s like, “Time for him to go bye-bye.”
How will this war affect your relationship with Team Arrow?
What ends up happening by the end of [tonight], changes Nyssa’s life completely.
