ARROW: Marc Guggenheim and Jessica De Gouw Preview The Huntress’ Return

Tonight’s episode of ARROW features the return of a familiar face: Helena Bertinelli, AKA the Huntress!

“Obviously we love Jessica [De Gouw (Helena/The Huntress)], and we love the character of Helena Bertinelli,” Marc Guggenheim told reporters. “And we had been talking throughout the year about bringing the Huntress back in a variety of different scenarios.”

As for what made now the right time for the Huntress to reppear, Guggenheim pointed out that what the regular characters were going through — specifically Laurel’s attempt to rebuild her life — made the stories mesh well together.

“As always, we start off with ‘What’s a good episode?'” Guggenheim continued. “We don’t think about timing, we don’t think about logistics — lord knows we don’t think about logistics — we just think about what would be good. And episode 17, as it happened, was an episode where we realized this is the [one where] Laurel gets her groove back. We knew we wanted Laurel to return to the D.A.’s office, and we knew we wanted Laurel by the end of the episode to be in a good emotional place. We wanted to emotionally and professionally reestablish her. And in thinking about bringing her back to the D.A.’s office, you naturally start thinking about, ‘Okay, which case is she going to prosecute?’ And we talked about a variety of different scenarios, and of course for us, [the thought is], ‘What is a case that could affect a character we care about?’ And that led [ARROW co-creator] Andrew [Kreisberg] to pitch the idea of ‘What if Frank Bertinelli is being prosecuted and the Huntress comes back to town?’…and we went back and forth, and we involved the writers in the process…and that’s how it evolved…[Helena’s] last episode was 1×17, and this is 2×17, she’s been off for a year: what has Helena been doing in that year? What mental state is she in? What emotional state? And we definitely went into this [with the intention] of wrapping up the whole Helena and her father storyline.”

Since it has been a year, what has Helena been up to since ARROW viewers last saw her?

“It’s been a year, she’s been all over the world, chasing her dad to no avail,” De Gouw teased. “And she comes back to Starling where it all began, so she has to deal with not only encountering her father again, but also encountering Oliver, Laurel, and this town that she was, at one point, thriving in…She’s let go of a lot. She’s let go of these complications and she’s got a very focused aim.”

But whether she’s finally successful in her attempt to get revenge on her father is something you’ll have to tune in to tonight’s episode of ARROW to find out…

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ARROW airs Wednesdays at 8 PM on The CW.

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