Last night's midseason premiere of Arrow saw "Team Arrow" learn that Oliver Queen had been killed at the hands of Ra's al Ghul. However, the vigilante is very much still alive, and was brought back from the brink by Katana with the help of old Hong Kong ally Maseo. "These three episodes are a trilogy essentially of what happens in Starling City when the world thinks Oliver Queen is dead," says producer Andrew Kreisberg, "and it allows every character on the show to rise or fall, depending on the circumstances they find themselves in." As for how this will play out moving forwards, he adds: "You can't do an ending like we did in episode nine and resolve it in one episode. Even beyond this sort of trilogy, the repercussions of Oliver's actions are felt throughout the rest of the season. It's that moment that really changes the world of Arrow forever. One of the things that characters discover along the way is there is no going back."
That all sounds rather cryptic, and as Oliver was stabbed through the stomach and fell from a fairly considerable height (not to mention spending quite some time exposed in what appeared to be subzero temperatures), it definitely seems as if he was resurrected instead of simply being saved. Could that be what Kreisberg is referring to? Producer Marc Guggenheim wasn't willing to say much, but did have this to add about how big the storyline may end up being. "The best ideas in the life of the show have always come when it's Greg [Berlanti], Andrew and I in a room together, and we're throwing out crazy shit to each other, and we stop and go "wait a minute, that's crazy — but it does this, this, this and this," and suddenly you see all the dominoes start to fall. That's when we get really excited. It's not just about the idea — it's about the 50 ideas it leads to."