Arrow's Stephen Amell Teases an Imperfect Olicity Reunion

Arrow essentially just gave us its own version of Die Hard with Oliver's (Stephen Amell) high stakes game of cat and mouse against Diaz inside Slabside prison, but all's well that ends well, right?

The episode saw some of the most epic (and brutal) fight scenes to date, and for a minute there, we weren't sure if Oliver was ever going to make it out of that building alive. After one final, intense showdown, however, Oliver locked Diaz away and walked out of Slabside a free man -- right into Felicity's (Emily Bett Rickards) waiting arms. Cue swooning!

Just because we've left Oliver's Slabside arc behind though, don't expect the ramifications of his time there to disappear. According to Stephen Amell, Oliver will be dealing with the fallout of his stint in prison for a long time to come.

"I know they wanted Oliver back in the world, and he is and in a new and exciting way," Amell told reporters on a set visit in Vancouver. "Concurrently, it felt like we were treating my experience at Slabside like I spent a night in county jail. In actuality, even for Oliver, it was a pretty horrific experience. So I did want a change in him. I wanted a change in him in the way that he interacts with people, with the public, and even so far as his wardrobe."

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Amell says we should expect to see a slightly more WASPy look for Oliver moving forward, since he suggested Oliver dress a bit more like he used to for "Sunday brunch at the Queen mansion."

"In the first episode that I'm out, we had him going to a gala, and I was in sort of like the same suit that I would wear as the mayor. I didn't like that. So we pushed that in a different direction," Amell said. "Part of the fun of this year is I've pitched a bunch of stuff, and not the opening scene of Episode 8, but the first time that you see Oliver, we came up with a really interesting way I think of showing what prison life did to him without really bashing people over the head with it."

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Oliver won't just have to deal with the implications of prison life on his personality though. He'll also pretty quickly be faced with what his absence in Felicity's life has done not only to her as a person, but to their relationship as a whole. Amell said the drama unfolds in "really fantastic" scenes in Episode 8.

"Obviously we see each other for the first time at the end of [Episode] 7, but then pretty quickly, I learn that a lot of the stuff that Diaz was saying about Felicity is true, and I thought the way that we worked it out - and we do work it out pretty quickly -- we come to an understanding that nothing's ever going to be perfect...or normal about our relationship, and I think that the sooner that the two of them accept that, the sooner that they can move on with their lives."

Oliver can't exactly sit on a high horse when it comes to being consumed with a dark, vengeful mission for justice, so it will be interesting to see how he reacts to the realization that Felicity has crossed some moral lines in her quest to bring Diaz down. Considering Emily Bett Rickards recently told TV Guide that we'll be seeing a "fracture" in the Olicity dynamic thanks to Oliver's stint in prison, it sounds like these two will have some issues to work through in the coming episodes. Meh, perfection is overrated anyway, bring on the Olicity angst!

Arrow airs Mondays at 8/7c on The CW.

(Full Disclosure: TV Guide is owned by CBS, one of The CW's parent companies.)

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