Arrow‘s final season continues this week with the series’ second-to-last episode before “Crisis on Infinite Earths” arrives and changes the Arrowverse forever with an exciting episode that sees not only series star David Ramsey stepping behind the camera to direct, but it also sees the return of Paul Blackthorne as Quentin Lance. A fan-favorite character, Lance died at the end of the series’ sixth season having taken a bullet to save his daughter’s doppelganger, Earth-2’s Laurel (Katie Cassidy Rodgers), but in this week’s episode he’s alive and well — the episode is entitled “Reset” after all — and from the sounds of things, the character’s return will be a memorable one.
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In an interview with TV Guide, Ramsey didn’t explain quite how Lance returns, but he teased that things are very unconventional in terms of how it all comes together, but when it comes to Blackthorne’s work as Lance there’s some big emotional hits as the actor steals the scenes.
“I think he steals scenes, man,” Ramsey explained. “I think Paul was brilliant, brilliant, brilliant in this episode. There are things he had to do and create — a character to not only service his own arc but also the larger arc of Oliver’s — and he did it just brilliantly. I thought he was incredible in this episode.”
Ramsey also elaborated a bit on Oliver’s arc in the episode, noting that rather than taking several episodes to see the progression for the character emotionally, it gets packed into the episode.
“It’s really exciting. I think it’s an episode of Arrow that is very unconventional,” Ramsey said. “I think it’s a very interesting plot device of how we help Oliver on his journey to accepting his fate. A lot of times Oliver’s arc begins with one episode and maybe doesn’t end until three episodes, six episodes later, or a full season later. Oliver’s emotional arc takes place in 42 minutes, and he starts in one place and ends up in another place. And we travel that with him literally in a way that, I think, we don’t normally do on this series. So it’s a different type of episode.”
You can check out the synopsis for “Reset” below.
YOU CAN’T FIGHT YOUR FATE – After being double-crossed by Lyla (guest star Audrey Marie Anderson), Oliver (Stephen Amell) finds himself facing a life or death situation that seems very familiar. Laurel (Katie Cassidy) has the opportunity to make amends with the past. David Ramsey directed the episode written by Onalee Hunter Hughes & Maya Houston.
Arrow airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on The CW. “Reset” airs November 26.
