Arrow: John Barrowman Confirms Finale Appearance

The CW had already announced that John Barrowman will return to Arrow as Season One big bad Malcolm Merlyn in tonight's episode, titled "Streets of Fire," but the actor has now confirmed that he will appear in next week's season finale, titled "Unthinkable." In an interview with KSite TV, Barrowman discussed in fairly general terms his character's return tonight and how he'll interact with Thea Queen, the sister of the man who "killed" him and his own daughter (which he didn't know until recently). "I have to be honest with you; I knew about this even during the first season," Barrowman said. "Andrew [Kreisberg] and I sat down at lunch way back in the beginning and discussed things about the future, because I was always told that Malcolm would pop in and out Series 1 and Series 2. I didn't know that he was going to be in the finale, but I knew he was going to pop in and out."

While Barrowman had a lot more to say, he was pretty vague about his actual mission statement in tonight's episode -- but of course Kreisberg told reporters about that a few weeks ago. "All hell is going to break loose in the city and Thea will find herself in a precarious predicament, and she will be saved by her father," Kreisberg said. "And Malcolm is going to offer her what she doesn't have anymore." He added, "That was part of our math with killing Moira — that if we were going to send Thea in that direction, she needed to have nothing pulling her back here. And now she has a brother who lied to her and has done something unforgivable, and no mother. And on the flip side she has Malcolm Merlyn saying, 'I will never lie to you, Thea.'"