'Arrow' Pay Homage to an Iconic 'Green Arrow' Cover in "The Demon"

Arrow's seventh season has been taking things into uncharted territory, and it just paid homage to a pivotal point in the comics in the process.

Spoilers for tonight's episode of Arrow, "The Demon", below!

The episode saw Oliver Queen's (Stephen Amell) time in Slabside prison take a pretty dark turn, as it was revealed that Talia al Ghul (Lexa Doig) has been pulling the strings behind his trip to "Level Two". The pair ultimately agreed to team up to expose Dr. Parker's abuse of the prisoners in Slabside, although they encountered some roadblocks along the way.

At one point, Parker kidnapped both Oliver and Talia, strapping them to chairs and attempting to wipe their minds. The visuals of that scene, as well as the scene itself, bears a surprising resemblance to Green Arrow Vol. 2 #95, also known as "The Truth Hurts".

The 1995 issue, which came from Chuck Dixon and Jim Aparo, saw Oliver getting kidnapped and tortured by a series of doctors, forcing Connor Hawke and Eddie Fyers to track him down. This issue came just six issues before Oliver Queen famously "died", in Green Arrow #101.

In a weird way, this homage feels oddly symbolic of where Arrow has headed this season, albeit with its own twist. Oliver's onscreen son, William (Jack Moore) has played an interesting role in Season 7 thus far, with flash-forwards showing an older version of William (Ben Lewis) going on his own sort of hero's journey at some point in the Arrowverse's twisted future. While it's unclear exactly what the future holds for William, that parallel to issue #95 is interesting, especially since Connor Hawke took over Oliver's crusade following his comic book passing.

"The only thing that is left for him to do - and he doesn't need to die to do this - is he needs to leave a legacy." Amell said in an interview earlier this year. "Because we have all these other shows that exist. So whether 'Arrow' continued on in the absence of Oliver Queen, or someone else took up the mantle of the Green Arrow... I think leaving a legacy is the last box left to tick for the character."

Arrow airs Mondays at 8/7c on The CW.