'Arrow' References The Bat-Signal in "Divided"

Just because everything in Star City is kind of horrible right now (Team Arrow at odds, Oliver seemingly about to be indicted, and a team of supervillains making headway against...everything) does not mean the Arrow writers can't have a little fun.

In tonight's episode, "Divided," Oliver meets up with Jerry Bertinelli, the last of the Bertinelli family's crime syndicate (yeah, we know, it's been a while). After luring Green Arrow to him by taking out some security cameras, Jerry joked that he was a difficult man to reach.

The mobster asked Green Arrow whether he had ever considered figuring out a more practical way for people to seek him out -- like a hotline or, maybe, a giant spotlight in the sky.

That, of course, is a reference to the Bat-signal, a light shone in the sky to attract Batman to the Gotham City Police Department.

In an October episode of Arrow, Oliver Queen name-dropped Bruce Wayne and Gotham City.

The Easter egg, which Amell said he got the head of Warner Bros. to personally approve at a party, was tweeted out from the official Arrow social media account this afternoon.

In the season 6 premiere of Arrow, Oliver was outed as the Green Arrow on the news. In a press conference held at the top of next week's episode, Oliver suggests that it might be Photoshop, and that anybody could have been put in that costume, suggesting Wayne.

It is not likely that Oliver knows Bruce has his own...nighttime proclivities, given that there has never been any indication that the pair know each other, or that Batman is a known entity in the CW's Arrowverse.

The premiere was not the first reference to Bruce Wayne in the Arrowverse; in the series premiere of The Flash, a newspaper from the future indicates that Wayne's company and Queen's will merge in 2024.

Supergirl has directly referenced Gotham City before, as well -- and DC's Legends of Tomorrow has had Gotham come up in the random cycle of city names that appear in high-speed when the Waverider is about to arrive at its destination. Both Supergirl and Legends have made other allusions to Batman, but never used the actual name.

"I feel like we have our hands full with the crossover we're shooting right now," Supergirl EP Ali Adler said last season when pressed on Batman references. "I think people will be satisfied with how much crossover they're getting this season." Adler added, "We have this beautiful history with DC, and I like that we get to borrow from this amazing, wonderful canon that we have."

Arrow airs on Thursday nights at 9 p.m. ET/PT on The CW, following new episodes of Supernatural.