Arrow: Easter Eggs and DC Comics References in Time of Death

As ever, it's time to look back at tonight's episode of Arrow and see what the inside jokes, Easter eggs and DC Comics references were that were dropped along the way. And, as ever, if you noticed one that we didn't, feel free to let us know. Even before we hit "publish," Parker Johnson on Twitter shared a handful, including one (Blue Devil) that we hadn't noticed. It's been a while since we checked in on Arrow, so for the sake of argument, we'll slip all the Easter eggs into this story, as opposed to our usual practice of highlighting only the ones that haven't been seen--or haven't been seen in so long, they're likely to have been forgotten. By that metric, it's a heck of a lot of them--from the episode's villain, a familiar name to DC Comics readers--to the ailment from which he suffers. You can see our rundown below.

William Tockman, The Clock King Robert Knepper plays Tockman here--a man whose life is being lived on a very short clock. His sister, too, is sick--but she'll be alive long after he's gone, and so he's spending his remaining weeks or months or years planning elaborate heists in order to take home enough money to make her financially secure in his absence. In the comics, he had a bit more of a clock "schtick," which varied depending on which version of the character you were looking at. This version actually feels almost like a hybrid of Tockman's character with that of The Calculator, who recently was reinvented as kind of an anti-Oracle--the super-hacker-for-hire to the supervillain set. If Tockman goes that route, he could make a great recurring villain, and one who doesn't have to go out in the field and put himself in danger regularly.

Kord Industries The company owned by Ted Kord, better known as the Blue Beetle for the better part of 50 years. It's been referenced before in the show, and it's a frequent target of these burglaries: it's the same place the centrifuge was stolen from back in "The Scientist," which seems way longer ago than it really was. Whether we'll ever see Ted Kord in action or not is up to the TV gods to decide; at one point, Syfy optioned a Booster Gold series, and it's difficult to imagine that Ted Kord's rights weren't included in that, since the pair have been inseparable since about 1990.  That show seems to be dead in the water at this point, though, especially with its would-be showrunner Andrew Kreisberg handling both Arrow and The Flash at present.

Blue Devil There's an ad on the side of the bus Oliver has to save for...something. It's hard to tell. The logo looks a bit like the Blue Bonnet butter font to us, and it passed so quick it's impossible to get a decent screen grab until the episode goes live on Amazon and iTunes. What we have--above--is barely readable, so you'll have to take our (and Parker's) word for it that it said "Blue Devil." Could it be a movie? In the comics, Daniel Cassidy was a special effects guru and stuntman before he became Blue Devil. Interestingly, the character first appeared in the pages of The Fury of Firestorm, the same series that gave birth to Felicity Smoak.

Iron Heights At one point, one of Tockman's thugs tell him that they don't want to spend time at Iron Heights just so he can commit the perfect crime. That's the same prison where Oliver's mother spent some time earlier this year--a familiar DC Comics setting where supervillains are routinely sent (and, as they tend to do in the show, routinely break out of, too). Iron Heights was at one point rumored to be the name of the prison in the never-produced Green Arrow movie Supermax. Tempus fugit This one's not a DC Comics reference, exactly, except in the sense that, like Mr. Freeze in Batman & Robin, this is a supervillain not afraid of a corny catchphrase. Here's Wikipedia to explain just what "Tempus fugit" means: Tempus fugit is a Latin expression meaning "time flees", more commonly translated as "time flies". It is frequently used as an inscription on clocks. The expression was first recorded in the poem Georgics written by Roman poet Virgil: Sed fugit interea, fugit irreparabile tempus, singula dum capti circumvectamur amore, which means, "But meanwhile it flees: time flees irretrievably, while we wander around, prisoners of our love of detail."

The disease that's killing William Tockman is the same one that took the life of Nora Fries, the wife of Victor--better known as Mr. Freeze, the Batman villain. Oblivion Bar As pointed out in the comments below and by one of our readers on Facebook, Sara Lance's college job as a bartender at the Oblivion Bar is a pretty cool nod, as well. Per the DC Wiki: "The Oblivion Bar is a drinking establishment located in a pocket dimension. It has many portals scattered around the United States (and presumably outside it) that are only visible to those skilled at magic. It serves as the home base of the Shadowpact." How'd I miss that one? I loved Willingham's Shadowpact...!