Arrow: Easter Eggs and DC Comics References In "Nanda Parbat"

Tonight was an action-packed episode of Arrow...which is part of why it took us a while to get the Easter egg post up today. There weren't a lot of clearly visible references, and we wanted to re-watch again to make sure we got what we could.

So...big ones at the start and finish and not much in the middle.

Here's what we saw. What did we miss? Tell us below.

Lazarus Pit

We got our first look at the interior of the Lazarus Pit tonight, as the episode opened on Ra's sitting in it. 

Protective Daddy

Ra's sure does like to control who his daughters date. In the comics, he's long attempted to make Talia the bride of Batman.

Creature Commando

We mentioned this last week -- but only after a reader pointed out that we had missed it. So it seems worth mentioning again, in case you read the column early. That general who is debriefing Oliver is Matthew Shrieve, best known as the lieutenant in charge of the Creature Commandos unit.

Shrieve is played by Marc Singer, who also appeared in The Beastmaster, will be a recurring character who will play a major role in the flashbacks.

In the comics, Shrieve is an American soldier involved with Project M and the leader of the Creature Commandos, an elite combat unit composed of soldiers with monster-like features. He himself, though, has no powers and appears to be an ordinary human. In the New 52 reboot, the Creature Commandos are agents of S.H.A.D.E., an organization that has sometimes found itself in competition with A.R.G.U.S. for dominance in the metahuman-espionage community.

Since the reboot, we haven't seen Shrieve, with his role as field commander being filled by Frankenstein.

In the alternate universe created during the Flashpoint crisis, Shrieve's granddaughter Miranda, a monster hunter, was introduced and appeared in the Frankenstein and the Creature Commandos miniseries.

Butch and Sundance

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, the bromance referenced by Diggle in that scene, features an incredibly famous moment that deals with the kind of fall Oliver took at the end of the midseason premiere...

Replacement

Ra's wants Oliver to follow in his footsteps and replace him as the head of the League of Assassins. That's not entirely uncommon; for years, that (along with marrying Talia and having perfect assassin babies) was the plan he had for Batman. Other potential replacements have come and gone along the way, including Bane.

Meditation

ThisPerson said ... (original post)

Likely unintentional, but in Batman: Arkham City, your first encounter with the League is a female assassin being held captive in Penguin's museum. 

She's sitting in the exact same meditation position as Nyssa does while she's behind bars. Fun coincidence.