Throughout the course of six seasons, Arrow has played host to some pretty crazy cliffhangers. And though we could debate for hours which among them were the best, you have to admit that what we witnessed back in May has to be near the top of the list.
Long story short, Oliver Queen publicly admitted that he’s the Green Arrow after turning himself over to authorities. Granted, Smallville‘s iteration of the character also revealed his secret identity, but the ramifications that followed didn’t have the high stakes of what we’ll soon witness.
With Ollie now in Supermax lockup, it’s impossible to ignore the elephant in the room, that being the certainty of him running into some truly bad dudes. In fact, new showrunner Beth Schwartz confirmed as much when speaking with TV Guide for their latest Comic-Con Special:
“‘Prison isn’t great for Oliver Queen. It’s not going well,’ says Schwartz, teasing that ‘we’ll see some of the people that he’s put in prison’ over the past six seasons.'”
Right now, the identities of the Emerald Archer’s new neighbors remain unknown, but we can likely rule out anyone who’s been a big bad or is dead. That list may be long, sure, but you may be able to figure out one or two returning foes if you think hard enough.
Of course, the producers could’ve shipped our hero off to Iron Heights, but according to Schwartz, they “wanted to up the stakes and see a new prison that was filled with a little more dangerous type of people.” Thus, we’ll soon become better acquainted with Slabside Maximum Security Prison, which almost sounds like a great place to score some barbecued ribs.
Arrow returns for its seventh season on Monday, October 15 on The CW.
