Oliver Queen's flashbacks to his five years of hell and his battle against Prometheus came to an end with the Season 5 finale, but that doesn't mean his life will be any easier in Season 6. He and what's left of Team Arrow will be facing a brand new kind of villainy, and William is in the mix. Now, we know of one more way that Oliver's life will be difficult in the new season. Sydelle Noel of GLOW fame will play a character who will pose some big problems for the good guys of Star City.
Sydelle Noel will play an FBI agent by the name of Samanda Watson, who is on the scene in Season 6 to investigate Mayor Oliver Queen's ties to the Green Arrow. Whether this is because somebody finally realized that Oliver and the Green Arrow look a lot alike or because somebody has started connecting the many dots about Oliver's secret identity is not yet known, but Variety reports that Samanda is "intelligent and poised" with no tolerance for nonsense. She won't rest her case until she has uncovered the secrets of the Green Arrow.
While Samanda won't be the first character to attempt to figure out everything there is to know about the Green Arrow, she will be one of the few who has actively tried to figure out how Oliver is connected to him. The cops back in Season 3 had to be told be told that Oliver was the Arrow, and they stopped investigating him once Roy took the fall (and faked his death) for him. Journalist Susan Williams in Season 5 figured out a great deal about Oliver as well, although she ultimately decided not to report any of his big secrets. As a federal investigator with no personal reason to give Oliver the benefit of the doubt, Samanda could pose a great threat to Oliver's operation as the Green Arrow in the new season.
Depending on how far Samanda gets, it's possible that Season 6 will finally see Oliver exposed as the Green Arrow, either due to her revealing the truth or him deciding to go ahead and unmask himself, a la Tony Stark in Iron Man. While an unmasked Oliver trying to operate as the Green Arrow would take the story in some fresh new directions, there are some problems. First of all, the Green Arrow has killed a lot of people, and vigilante justice is technically a crime. Oliver should logically end up behind bars if his identity as the Green Arrow is exposed, although the Star City legal system has never been overwhelmingly logical.
Second of all, a lot of people would be in danger if Oliver was to become known as the Green Arrow. Admittedly, Team Arrow has signed on for the danger and are willing to risk their lives, but the same can't be said about William or Samantha (assuming she survived Lian Yu). Then there's the fact that even Star City's government might not be so backwards that a vigilante can also be the mayor. Thea ended up running Star City at times because Oliver was too busy as the Green Arrow, and Oliver has told a lot of very large and very public lies. If Samanda's investigations do result in Oliver being outed as the Green Arrow, Arrow will need to craft the story carefully to make it work.
We'll have to wait and see. Arrow will return to The CW on a new night this fall. Check out our fall TV premiere schedule for all the dates you'll need to plan your TV viewing in the coming months.
