‘Arrow’: Who Leaked The Photo?

Tonight’s Arrow dealt with a pretty big bombshell – but it might have opened another can of worms along the way.

Spoilers for tonight’s episode of Arrow, ‘Tribute’, below.

The episode picked up after Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) was unmasked as the Green Arrow on the local news. Team Arrow went to varying lengths to try to cover up the photo, with Curtis Holt (Echo Kellum) and Felicity Smoak (Emily Bett Rickards) running diagnostics to see where the photo came from.

As they discovered, the photo had been leaked directly to Channel 52 News. And while the photo ultimately ended up being faked (something that was referenced in one of the episode’s earliest moments), the nature of who faked it and why is still a pretty big mystery.

It’s safe to rule out Anatoly (David Nykl), who basically told Oliver to his face that he wouldn’t have leaked the photo. We also can probably rule out Prometheus (Josh Segarra), the long-dead season five Big Bad who was suggested within the episode.

But that doesn’t mean that other people couldn’t be wanting to unmask Oliver – and we have a couple of theories as to who.

Vigilante

While Prometheus might be gone, another season five villain still lurks in the shadows.

Vigilante has remained a pretty big mystery for Arrow fans, after many assumed that Adrian Chase was really behind the mask. His identity still largely remains a mystery, although the fact that he is reportedly a personal “villain” for one of Team Arrow’s current heroes seems to narrow the field down a bit.

So why would Vigilante be involved with unmasking Oliver, when his own identity is such a secret? Your guess is as good as ours.

Michael Emerson’s Character

Another mysterious villain is set to enter the fold soon, played by Lost‘s Michael Emerson. We might not know his character name, but we know he will definitely be a unique threat to Team Arrow, judging by what executive producer Marc Guggenheim told ComicBook.com earlier this year.

“We are talking about him playing a character who’s got a lot more nuance than the typical creepy-guy role that he is often cast in.” Guggenheim explained to ComicBook.com during San Diego Comic-Con. “We’ve had a lot of creative discussions with him, and I think that’s one of the things that has excited us and excited Michael: that we really want to create a character in consultation and in conjunction with him. It’s not just ‘here’s the script — go!’ It’s a really interesting, two-way back and forth.”

But of course, that level of mystery also makes it difficult to determine exactly why Emerson’s character would want to unmask Oliver. We’ll just have to wait for the “incredibly insightful evening” when he makes his debut.

Ricardo Diaz

While Emerson’s character might still be an enigma, we already know a little bit more about another season six villain – Ricardo Diaz (Kirk Acevedo).

The show’s interpretation of Green Arrow villain Richard Dragon will bring a new level of torment to Team Arrow – but could that involve unmasking Oliver?

“You know, what I really like about our interpretation of Richard is, he’s very grounded,” Guggenheim told ComicBook.com. “He’s not a flamboyant big bad, he doesn’t wear a costume, he really is a crime-lord sort of in the Tobias Church model. For Tobias we only really saw him for about five episodes, so we were excited about th prospect of doing a cool, gritty crime lord, but for a longer period of time. We’ve never really done that on the show before, so it’s different.”

Helix

And finally, the technological nature of Oliver’s unmasking makes us wonder if Helix could be involved.

The hacking group first debuted last season, becoming an ally and eventual adversary of Felicity. The group essentially seemed to vanish without a trace partway through season five, but it wouldn’t be surprising if they had some sort of unfinished business against Team Arrow.

After all, Felicity referenced just how much Oliver’s unmasking would affect the entire team – which could theoretically drive Felicity back into Helix’s hold.

Before You Go

Arrow airs on Thursday nights at 9/8c on The CW.

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