The Bruce Springsteen Songs of Arrow -- Including Season 5's Penultimate Episode

DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN

The first of the Arrow episodes to be named after a Bruce Springsteen song was arguably the most obvious (at least for a while): "Darkness on the Edge of Town."

The title track of Springsteen's fourth studio album, "Darkness of the Edge of Town" remains one of The Boss's most enduring songs, with the Darkness album as a whole pretty well-represented in live shows and outtakes albums since its release in 1978.

THE PROMISE

This one's kind of a cheat in that it's not the penultimate episode of season two, but the fifteenth episode.

Still, it's worth mentioning because by this point the pattern of the second-to-last episode being a Springsteen song hadn't yet been firmly established, and since "The Promise" is the name of a fan-favorite Springsteen song, it seemed possible at the time that this was going to be the Springsteen song for the season.

STREETS OF FIRE

Another song off of Darkness on the Edge of Town, "Streets of Fire" was the episode where Arrow executive producer Marc Guggenheim confirmed, yes, these are Bruce Springsteen titles (at least for the penultimate episodes; he hasn't, to our knowledge, ever confirmed that "The Promise" was intentional).

It's also the one that most easily could have been not a Bruce Springsteen title, as the Springsteen song eventually inspired a movie -- also titled "Streets of Fire," although an issue of the magazine Film Comment noted that the song doesn't appear anywhere in the film, apparently becuase it was "a downer."

...Oy.

Anyway, that movie starred Spider-Man and Justice League actor Willem Dafoe, so you get bonus Marvel and DC connections along with your Springsteen connection!

THIS IS YOUR SWORD

Speaking of superhero movie connections, this track comes from High Hopes, and album on which Springsteen teamed with Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello.

Besides having actually written a comic book himself (Orchid, from Dark Horse Comics), Morello played on the first two Iron Man scores for Jon Favreau, and even appeared briefly in the first movie.

Between its relatively recent (then, very recent) release date and the fact that the song was not beloved by Springsteen fans, this is probably the least well-known of the songs that had appeared up to this point, with the season 4 song coming up next definitely being more recognizable as well.

Season five? Well...!

LOST IN THE FLOOD

...before we reveal the new episode title, let's look at season four's song, "Lost in the Flood."

Not necessarily one of Springsteen's best-known songs, it's still a favorite to his hardcore fans, and a staple of live shows.

From his debut album, "Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J.," the song sings about the kind of down-on-their-luck protagonists that would populate most of Springsteen's work, particularly in his early and more Bob Dylan-influenced days, when so many of his characters were criminals, carnival folk, and the borderline-homeless.

MISSING

Revealed early to ComicBook.com, the title of the twenty-second episode of Arrow's fifth season, which should begin shooting in the next couple of days, will be "Missing."

The episode takes its title from a song prominently featured in Sean Penn's film The Crossing Guard, which starred Jack Nicholson. Penn's previous film, The Indian Runner, was an adaptation of the Springsteen song "Highway Patrolman."

No word yet on who or what is "Missing" in the episode, although it may be Oliver/Green Arrow, particularly since the writers opted for "Missing," rather than "You're Missing," a more popular Springsteen song (which came off the 9/11-themed The Rising album, and was named one of Rolling Stone's hundred best Springsteen songs).