Arrow Bosses Reveal What's Next After That Shocking Hookup and Ra's al Ghul's Unexpected Offer

Executive producers Marc Guggenheim and Andrew Kreisberg know you have a lot of questions...

By Sydney Bucksbaum Feb 26, 2015 2:00 AMTags
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Holy shocking hookup, Arrow!

Warning: Major spoilers below! Avert your eyes if you have yet to watch tonight's episode, "Nanda Parbat."

So...that happened. After a whole season of a slow burn buildup of tension and chemistry between Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) and her new boss Ray Palmer (Brandon Routh)—after Oliver (Stephen Amell) kept pushing her away—the blonde IT girl gave into her feelings and slept with the scientist/aspiring superhero. No matter who you 'ship on this show—we're a proud card-carrying member of the Olicity ship ourselves!—you have to admit that their kiss and subsequent hookup was H-O-T!

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So why did the slow burn turn into a forest fire so quickly?

"It was all Andrew [Kreisberg]'s idea!" Marc Guggenheim joked to E! News and a small group of reporters after screening the episode early. "See what I did there?"

After some playful glares were exchanged between the two Arrow showrunners, Kreisberg explained why Felicity and Ray fell into bed so quickly.

"Part of the fun of watching couples on television is keeping them apart and watching how other people come in and out of their lives," Kreisberg said. "There are a lot of people who believe Oliver and Laurel [Katie Cassidy] should be together, there are people who believe Oliver and Felicity should be together, and we're not sure how it's all going to end up. We just do what's right at the time and at the time, for right now, Oliver has decided, 'I can't do this.'"

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You can't blame a girl for taking a hint!

"Felicity's not just going to sit around waiting for him," Kreisberg said. "She's the most healthy out of all of them. He's the one shutting himself down emotionally when he has this amazing person who is basically offering him hope and guidance and friendship and love. He doesn't feel he deserves it or what's best for her whether she agrees with him or not. Then you've got Ray, who in a lot of ways is a real analog to Oliver. He's had a tragedy and he's trying to do right by it. But he's opening his heart to her. And he's Brandon Routh! How can you blame her?"

You really, really can't. (Did you see Routh in that towel?!) But their hookup didn't just get Ray's blood pumping, it also got his brain working in ways it couldn't before, since he had an epiphany while laying next to the still-sleeping Felicity, leading to him fixing the problem with his A.T.O.M. suit and take flight for the first time. 

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And now that Ray has suited up, his goal to save the city might get in the way of Team Arrow's goal...even though it's the same goal.

"It's not just the Felicity/Ray/Oliver love triangle that's in play, but it's also the fact that there's a new superhero in town and he's going to go about things in a very different way than the Arrow does," Guggenheim said. "And he's not a part of Team Arrow. Right now, he's just a very smart guy in a very powerful suit. Oliver is definitely going to have an opinion and the first instance of that will be [episode] 17."

But enough about that hookup...our jaws are still on the floor after Ra's al Ghul (Matt Nable) revealed the real reason why he captured and didn't kill Oliver when he first showed up in Nanda Parbat to rescue Malcolm (John Barrowman)...he wants Oliver to be the next leader of the League of Assassins! Whaaaat?! Mind = blown.

Guggenheim revealed that the next episode will pick up "10 seconds before the end of this episode."

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"You want to keep that conversation going," Kreisberg elaborated. "Obviously, Oliver is completely taken aback. It was important to have a different villain this year, someone who is going to be doing something completely different. This year, Ra's is presented as this giant malevolent force but then comes up and basically offers the keys to the kingdom to our hero."

So what does Oliver think of this offer?

"What Oliver's reaction is to Ra's' offer, what Nyssa's [Katrina Law] reaction to it is, what everyone's reaction to it is makes up the bulk of the next run of episodes," Kreisberg said. "What his answer is and what that prompts all the other characters to do. Nyssa is the heir to the demon, so you can imagine how she feels when she finds out what she would consider to be her birthright is being handed to Oliver. "

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