Ever since season 3 ended the cast and crew have promised a happier, more fun Arrow for season 4. For almost all the season 4 premiere Arrow delivered on that promised. Arrow was radically different (and better) in terms of tone. There were more jokes, more smiles and overall sense that life is not terrible all the time. So no one was excepting the bomb that was dropped in the final moments of the premiere, “Green Arrow”: Oliver (and Barry Allen) in front a grave mourning another fallen character. The name of the tombstone was never revealed leaving us all to wonder who is going to die on Arrow?
Here are 6 possible characters who could die in Arrow season 4.
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Felicity Smoak
The implication of who CW’s Arrow wants you to think is in the grave couldn’t be any clearer in the episode. There’s a close-up of the ring that Oliver plans to use to propose to Felicity and it cuts to Oliver at the grave. There’s some very clear, incredibly unsubtle pairs of dots to connect there. Oliver never proposes to Felicity because she dies or he does and their engagement is cut short by her death. These possibility is not only way too obvious it’s also a terrible idea.
Felicity’s death would be tragic, emotive and effective. She’s a fan favorite and her relationship with Oliver has been a long time coming. So yes, Felicity dying would make the audience sad and invested which is good thing. However even if Arrow is a lighter show, it still needs Felicity. Felicity’s character was essential in the early seasons because she was that one unbreakable beam of hope and humor that kept Arrow from being a complete exercise in misery. Felicity was the one able to reach Oliver and bring that lightness out of him.
If Felicity were to die in Season 4 that would mean her only purpose was to make Oliver a happier and better person. Felicity’s character is reduced to a tool to improve Oliver’s character. Tommy was the first major character casualty but Arrow has a serious problem with killing off its female characters to forward Oliver’s storyline. Bringing back Thea and Sara, doesn’t really fix this issue either. They still become/became plot devices in death to move the story forward. Felicity dying would be the most egregious and unnecessary example of this problematic trend.
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Laurel Lance
Killing off Laurel wouldn’t be as big a problem as killing off Felicity but it should be just as unlikely. Sara is coming back this year to star in another spin-off, Legends of Tomorrow. So the original Canary is returning to the Arrowverse. Unless Arrow wants to keep playing this perverse game of “musical costume” forever killing off one Lance sister and to bring the other back, Laurel isn’t going anywhere. Black Canary is every bit as much as iconic character as Green Arrow and she needs to exist. Laurel is Black Canary, end of discussion. In fact, the only way Laurel or Black Canary might die on Arrow is in the final season.
Thea Queen
Let’s just put aside how repetitive it would be to kill Thea in two seasons back to back. There’s a way it could work but doesn’t necessarily mean it is something Arrow should do. This season Arrow really needs to explore the consequences of resurrecting someone with a Lazarus Pit. Before Thea was dunked into the life-giving waters, Malcolm was constantly telling Oliver how dangerous this could be and that Thea might not return “right”. So far besides some enhanced aggressiveness and recklesness, Thea hasn’t been that different of a character.
If Sara is set to get a Lazarus Pit treatment too and according to the season trailer she will, there needs to be a reason why every dead person isn’t resurrected. If all that happens is some slight memory loss in the beginning and little extra crankiness why doesn’t Oliver just bring back all his loved ones?
There is a way CW’s Arrow can make the Lazarus Pit not be just a get out-of-death free card and put a character in that grave. Thea could be living on borrowed time. The Lazarus Pit isn’t a permanent resurrection, there’s a time table. If not that maybe the side effects do make Thea more reckless. She fights the baddie, Damien Darhk, head on and alone and she winds up dead. This would fit with Oliver’s assertion that the death wasn’t his fault but his responsibility. He is the one who made the decision to bring Thea back to life.
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John Diggle
As much as it pains me to say it, I could see a satisfying season arc that ends with Diggle’s death. Right now, Dig is not Oliver’s biggest fan. Dig told Oliver in the premiere that the latter was incapable of love. Of all the tough love talks Diggle has given Oliver that was one of the most damning and hurtful. A possible story thread for the season might be Dig and Ollie repairing their relationship and becoming best friends, partners and brothers again. When the friendship is finally restored, Dig could sacrifice himself to save Oliver’s life.
As sad as it would be to see Diggle go, it could be a really appropriate and beautiful end to his character. This of course means it must be done right and he’s not just killed by Damien as a pawn or something. Again if Diggle sacrificed himself it would fit with Oliver’s words that the mysterious person’s death is not his fault but his responsibility. If Diggle chooses to swap Oliver’s life for his own or saves Ollie at the loss of own his life, it would be up to Oliver to avenge Dig’s death.
Quentin Lance
If I was writing Arrow, Lance is absolutely the person I’d kill off. The reveal that he is working with Damien Darhk is intriguing but Quentin does very little for me as a character. He hits a lot of the same notes in his dialogue. He trusts the Arrow/Oliver, he doesn’t trust the Arrow/Oliver. He hates them both, he hates them separately. We get it and it’s enough. Perhaps his “partnership” with Damien will take him a new interesting direction but the character has sort of run his course.
There’s so much that we don’t know about Quentin this season and why he is working with Damien. I think a likely, maybe the likeliest, possibility is that he thinks the Arrow brought madness to the city so he decided to fight fire with fire. Quentin isn’t lagging behind when it comes the annual destruction of the city he is front of it now. It is a stupid move and in this hypothetical could be a fatal one but it will be a move that he made because of Oliver. Oliver has consistently taking Lance’s disapproval of him hard. If Lance dies because of this disapproval it would cause that singular dramatic tear that falls down his face in the premiere’s final moments.
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Any of the Recurring Characters (New and Old)
Maybe the death isn’t any of the show’s regulars. Maybe it is someone like Nyssa or a Malcolm, though no one would ever cry if Malcolm died. Perhaps it’s even someone new to the show like Mr. Terrific. Maybe Roy will return to the show, the producers have talked about Colton Haynes returning. Though it would obviously be a quite literal short-lived return with Roy dying a much more permanent and real death.
Arrow airs Wednesdays at 8pm on The CW
(Images courtesy of The CW)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
Derek is a Philadelphia based writer and unabashed TV and comic book junkie. The time he doesn’t spend over analyzing all things nerdy he is working on his resume to be the liaison to the Justice League.
