Exclusive

Arrow Takes On the Gun Control Debate With Some Heartbreaking Flashbacks

Exclusive! Get a sneak peek of Wild Dog's backstory.

By Lauren Piester Feb 15, 2017 5:00 PMTags

Arrow has been hinting for a while now that Rene (Rick Gonzalez) has a secret, very un-Wild Dog past, and tonight we're finally going to find out what that past is. And you can probably be sure that since it's coming in the episode centered around a debate over gun control, it's probably not going to be a happy one.

In this exclusive sneak peek of the flashback story in tonight's episode, Rene and his wife come to blows when he wants to carry a gun just to take their daughter, Zoe, to a hockey game. He wants to protect his daughter in a bad neighborhood, but his wife doesn't think that's what the gun was supposed to be for. 

This is just the beginning of Rene's story that unfolds in "Spectre of the Gun," but since, you know, this is Arrow, you can probably guess that something's going pear-shaped at some point. 

photos
All the Greatest Superhero Costumes on TV—Ranked From Super Tragic to Super Epic!
The CW

Tonight's episode tackles the use guns in Star City after an attack on City Hall, and according to executive producers Marc Guggenheim and Wendy Mericle, the writers went into the season wanting to do an episode that dealt with a current issue. 

"I'm old. This means that I grew up on St. Elsewhere and Picket Fences and L.A. Law," Guggenheim told a group of reporters after a screening of the episode. "I grew up in a time where it was commonplace—like literally every week—for a one-hour drama to tackle the issues of the day. Somewhere along the line we got away from that, the whole industry got away from that. And now you have Black-ish and Carmichael Show, but as far as network dramas are concerned, really not tackling current events, current issues."

Guggenheim felt that with nearly five seasons under its belt, the show had earned the right to take on a debate like this. 

"In 23 episodes of television, you can have 22 pieces of candy and one episode of vegetables," he explained. "We sort of felt that gun violence felt like the right topic, a. because of its topicality but also because of the level of gun violence that is on Arrow. We could have done an episode on abortion, but that's not really where the show lives, so gun violence really felt like the right thing to tackle." 

read
Arrow's New Journey Is Not What You're Expecting (and That's a Very Good Thing)
The CW

Just as gun violence made sense given the subject of Arrow, it also made sense to focus the story on Rene. 

"I think it was that he was someone whose background we really wanted to explore, and I think he's a natural proponent—and in my mind, he just is that—he carries a gun, he's a natural spokesman for that point of view," Mericle said. 

"Rene felt like the right recruit at the right time for all the reasons Wendy was saying," Guggenheim added. "He is a character whose whole superheroics revolve around guns." 

As Guggenheim says, tonight's outing is "not a typical Arrow episode," but it does make some interesting strides in the world of the show. Oliver (Stephen Amell) faces a few challenges in a way he never really has before, and in a way that might surprise you. As Guggenheim also says, this episode of vegetables is "the best tasting broccoli you'll ever have."

Arrow airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on the CW.