‘Arrow’ ‘The Fallen’ Postmortem: What’s Next After Oliver’s Decision?

Stephen Amell in ‘Arrow’ (The CW)

Oliver had to make a big choice in “The Fallen” episode of “Arrow” on Wednesday night.

(Spoiler alert: This article contains major plot details from the episode. Bookmark this link to come back to later if you haven’t watched.)

The League of Assassins suit Oliver has been spotted wearing in promos on The CW, has officially been explained. Oliver Queen is no more. He is now Al Sah-Him and the Heir to the Demon. So what happens next?

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Executive Producer Marc Guggenheim spoke with TV reporters at a recent screening of the episode and dished on how things will change in the final episodes of Season 3, as well as why some of the plot twists happened.

First things first — Oliver may have accepted a new role, but Team Arrow won’t be disbanding.

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“The character journey of 321 is how the hell Team Arrow moves forward without Oliver and it’s a different circumstance in 321, than it was in [Episode] 310. In 310, they thought he was dead and in many ways that was a whole lot easier,” Guggenheim said, referring to last year’s mid-season finale. “Knowing that he’s out there and alive, but you know, a member of the League of Assassins — that’s a whole lot harder and it’s — I have to say, like I think 321 is one of our most emotional episodes.”

The reason it is so emotional is because the newly named Al Sah-Him is going to come into direct contact with Team Arrow.

“[Episode] 321 is a villain of the week episode, it just so happens that the villain of the week is Oliver,” Guggenheim revealed.

In “The Fallen,” after spending most of Season 3 apart, Felicity said three little words to Oliver Queen – “I love you.” It happened in the palatial suite at Nanda Parbat before the pair finally got horizontal, on the eve of the next phase of Oliver’s life.

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“I think we all sort of liked the romance of that,” Guggenheim said of how the show’s writers felt about having the pair finally sleep together in such a strange, but epic setting.

“And I’m personally fond of the fact that it’s Ra’s who gives her the final push, and one of the things that I keep seeing on the Internet is, ‘Well, Felicity’s never told Oliver that she loves him,’ and that was very deliberate,” he added. “We were holding that back this season. In the same way we were holding back them sleeping together, we were also holding back her saying ‘I love you’ to him. We wanted it to be part and parcel of that moment.”

But for the record, Guggenheim said there are no “Arrow” babies on the way. “Felicity is not pregnant,” he said.

Nyssa al Ghul was Heir to the Demon, and now that Oliver has accepted Ra’s offer, putting him in line to be the next Ra’s al Ghul, Nyssa’s reaction is something that will be examined next week.

“That’s a big, big, big topic of [Episode 321]. If you’re a Nyssa fan, [321 is] your episode because we’ll learn a lot of things actually about Nyssa. Not in terms of backstory, but we’ll learn how she reacts to things and how she’s dealing with life post-316 and how Oliver’s joining the League affects her, both emotionally and as a practical matter,” Guggenheim said. “There’s a lot of Nyssa still to come and she looms very large in these final three episodes.”

Thea Queen had a rebirth in the Lazarus Pit that saved her life. She practically exploded from the waters, following her dip in its restorative pools. Although the wild woman that exited the waters went away, Thea had memory issues to start with. And, as Malcolm said, those who go in the pit don’t come out the same. Expect that to be explored, although Guggenheim didn’t say exactly when.

“There’s a lot of stories still to be told with Thea and her recovery,” he said.

The show is called “Arrow,” so there will most definitely look into the future of its titular character, now that he is part of the League.

“Certainly, I would say the last three episodes of the season spend a lot of time addressing the question of, is there hope for Oliver? And certainly, is there hope for Oliver in Felicity’s mind? [321] and [322] have some very, I think, specific things to say about that, and Felicity’s coming to grips with the conclusion of Episode [320],” Guggenheim said.

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“Arrow” continues next Wednesday at 8/7c on The CW.

— Jolie Lash