ARROW: David Ramsey and Andrew Kreisberg Tease ‘Trust But Verify’

ARROW fans will get to learn a bit more about Diggle in tonight’s brand new episode, “Trust But Verify,” when Dig’s old military buddy, Ted Gaynor (played by FARSCAPE’s Ben Browder), pops back into his life.

“You find out a lot about Diggle,” David Ramsey (Diggle) teased to reporters on set late last year. “We know Diggle has a big military background, and Ted Gaynor is one of his partners back during his military days. Diggle has to make some decisions because Ted proves to be a little more than Diggle thought. [Tonight’s hour] is a big episode for me because there’s some loyalties that perhaps aren’t as loyal we thought…We were very tight in the military. Brothers, in fact, in many ways. And those loyalties come into question in a big way.”

Causing complications? Gaynor is on Arrow’s list of people to take down.

“He did [follow the same path], but he may have veered to some other paths,” Ramsey allowed. “That comes into question in a big way. Not so much from me, but the Arrow has some questions for Ted Gaynor. So I have to, in many ways, have to gauge who’s right and where my loyalties stand. Am I loyal to Ted or am I loyal to Oliver?”

That very question will lead to some tense times between Oliver and Diggle.

“There’s some harsh language,” ARROW executive producer Andrew Kreisberg laughed when we spoke last week. “What’s so great about the show — and one of the things we had envisioned for the show that wasn’t really present in the pilot — was this great relationship between Oliver and Diggle and all the kinds of things we thought we could do. And now that we’re finally there, we’re so gratified that not only can we have these great scenes between Oliver and Dig as partners, as friends, as fellow soldiers, as two men who have been through a war and changed by war, but changed in different ways. Watching them come at each other, it’s better and more thrilling than we had even hoped for early on. And when you have David Ramsey and Stephen Amell (Oliver/Arrow) yelling at each other, ready to come to blows — I watched a lot of those scenes on the set, and it’s thrilling to watch. When it comes together in the episode, I think fans are going to be really excited. What separates the show from just being an action-adventure show is we do get to have these brief conversations about the nature of justice and the nature of loyalty and the nature of friendship. I think that’s what the fans and we as writers have been waiting to get to; we’ve spent half the season laying the foundation, now we can really play.”

Kreisberg noted that while this specific incident doesn’t push Oliver to drastically overhaul the list, it does change things a bit.

“I think the nature of the list and what it means and what it means to Oliver will constantly be evolving,” he said. “We’ve always said in someways the list is kind of selfish: it’s Oliver having a very narrow view of justice and very quantifiable for him. So the arc of his journey of his character over this season and over the series is the realization that justice is about more than crossing names off a list. And I think that’s the perspective that Diggle brings to the partnership. The same way with episode six, what happened with the Royal Flush Gang was one small step forward in the evolution of Oliver’s view of the list and we do get another one.”

–

ARROW airs Wednesdays at 8 PM on The CW.

Related:

ARROW Casts Alex Kingston
Kelly Hu Teases Her CASTLE Guest Spot, Her Return to ARROW, and Why She Wants to Be Stana Katic When She Grows Up
ARROW: ‘Vertigo’ Photo Preview — Seth Gabel Guest Stars!

Follow @GiveMeMyRemote and @marisaroffman on Twitter for the latest TV news. Connect with other TV fans on GIVE ME MY REMOTE’s official Facebook page.

And to be the first to see our exclusive videos by subscribing to our YouTube channel at youtube.com/givememyremotetv