Arrow's Oliver Queen is in his fifth year of adventures as the Emerald Archer of Star City, and he's currently wearing his fifth version of his Arrow suit. He's gone through all kinds of updates that have (mostly) added to the armor of his battle duds, and his Season 5 suit is presumably the most protective yet. As it happens, however, Arrow star Stephen Amell was recently dressed in a flimsier version of his Arrow suit from years past, and he shared a photo with fans on Twitter:
Oliver started out in his crusade to clean up the streets in green leather and greasepaint in Season 1, then added a mask thanks to Barry Allen in Season 2. Season 3 saw an upgrade thanks to Cisco Ramon, and Season 4 changed the hood and lost the sleeves. His Season 5 suit most closely resembles those of the earlier years, but the greasepaint in Stephen Amell's Twitter pic is a clear giveaway that this Oliver is not a current Oliver.
Now that Oliver has moved on to his final year of flashbacks and is learning some of his most lethal moves with the Bratva, it's possible that Stephen Amell was wearing his old suit for the sake of some Arrow action in Russia. The green leather was never stated as coming from somewhere in Season 1 Starling; only Yao Fei's hood had special meaning to Oliver.
Oliver could have brought the hood with him when he left Lian Yu for Russia. None of the Season 5 flashbacks so far have shown the hood, but they also haven't shown the magical hair growth potion that Oliver has evidently been drinking since the end of the Season 4 flashbacks. He could have brought the hood with him and then gotten the leather for his time in Russia.
Admittedly, It's also possible that the old suit shows up in the milestone 100th episode that seems to be featuring an awful lot of characters from seasons past. If Moira and Robert and Deathstroke are back, Season 1 Oliver could be back in his former vigilante suit. That said, it's worth noting that the pocket of arrows on his right leg looks pretty different from the one he wore in Season 1. One might say that this pocket of arrows looks more like something thrown together by somebody in the Russian mob than by somebody with access to the Queen family billions. Besides, if the pic is of a Bratva-era Oliver, Stephen Amell's reference to "The Sound of Silence" makes a lot of sense. Oliver is in his darkest place yet in the flashbacks.
Of course, another possibility is just that Oliver heard about Flashpoint and decided to teach Barry a lesson about messing with the timeline by wearing his old suit. I'm personally a big fan of the sleek original suit with the canvas hood, but Barry was rightfully disdainful of the greasepaint eye coverage when he turned up in Season 2. A blast from the past could shock his system, and it would actually amount to an Oliver Queen version of a hilarious prank.
Tune in to Arrow on Wednesday nights at 8 p.m. ET to see what happens to put Oliver back in an earlier version of his suit as the Emerald Archer.
