Arrow Finale Spoiler: Mystery Death Revealed

With the season of Arrow wrapping today, it’s no surprise that they wanted to pull out all the stops tonight–but long-simmering rumors that a main character would die were only really given credence today (showrunner Andrew Kreisberg was coy about it as recently as Monday when he did an interview with Green Arrow TV).Spoilers ahead, obviously, for those of you who haven’t yet seen the Arrow season finale. And we’ll be sure that the cover image on this story is non-spoilery.Going into the episode, very few characters were deemed “safe.” While most of the cast is likely back for next season, only Stephen Amell and Emily Bett Rickards (who plays Felicity Smoak) have been confirmed as returning regulars as far as we’d read and reported. Other contracts have almost certainly gone unnoticed because they’re not “new” regulars.There was also, interestingly, not a lot of agreement among the viewers as to who was likely to go. Just today, we’ve read Thea Queen, Moira Queen, Detective Quentin Lance and Diggle. And, of course, Malcolm Merlyn, the Dark Archer, who (as the season’s big bad) was the odds-on favorite.Because, just like when people were trying to predict the finale of AMC’s The Walking Dead, the bad guy is basically considered expendable to the fans.As it turns out, of course, the character who met his fate in the season finale was Tommy Merlyn–Malcolm’s son, Ollie’s best friend and, in the comics, his arch-nemesis in the New 52. While his father appeared to have been killed, Ollie later clarified that he had not, in fact, killed him.Tommy was actually considered a fairly vulnerable character all along, since his relationship with Laurel stands in the way of she and Ollie eventually ending up together, and since he has, for the last chunk of the season, known Oliver’s secret, thus making him a potential liability to Team Arrow. How his death will affect the group dynamic next year will be interesting to see.