ARROW Season 1 Finale: Marc Guggenheim on the (Accidentally) Provocative Finale Title, Epic Confrontations, and More

ARROW has rarely pulled any punches in its first season, but even with that knowledge, seeing that the first season finale was titled “Sacrifice” was more than a bit chilling — a reaction that wasn’t exactly intended.

“I didn’t realize — and I don’t think [fellow ARROW executive producers] Andrew [Kreisberg] or Greg [Berlanti] did either — what a provocative name for an episode that would be,” ARROW executive producer Marc Guggenheim admitted. “The truth is we wanted to pick a name for the title that reflected the theme of the episode. And the theme of the episode is sacrifice. In fact, we were joking in the editing room the other day that if you take a shot every time the word sacrifice or its derivative is spoken in the finale, you will be drunk by the time Act One ends; [episode] 23 comes with its own brand new ARROW drinking game!”

In all seriousness, some crazy things are about to go down.

“You’ll see that pretty much every character makes a sacrifice or is prepared to make a sacrifice,” Guggenheim teased. “It’s really the theme that runs throughout ever scene in the episode, even the flashbacks. That really was what our intention was; we actually weren’t trying to set up some firestorm. But since we announced that title, it’s got everyone talking. Which I suppose is good, but that really wasn’t our intention: it was to hit the theme of the episode in our final title of the year.”

Unfortunately for Oliver, he starts off the hour in quite the difficult position.

“For Oliver, the sacrifice that he has to make is that he knows there’s no way he can face Malcolm again and survive,” Guggenheim noted. “So, it’s basically, what is Oliver willing to sacrifice, up to and including his own life to stop Malcolm and save the city?”

But even derailing Malcolm has its own complications: stopping Malcolm would further complicate things between Oliver and his estranged best friend/Malcolm’s son, Tommy.

“Tommy and Oliver have a pretty epic confrontation in 23, dealing directly with Laurel and [Tommy]’s father and pretty much everything we’ve been building up to for the season,” Guggenheim teased. “Certainly in this final run of episodes. Tommy and his father will have no secrets by the time the finale concludes. With Tommy, every card is turned over. An Tommy is going to have to choose sides.”

Hmm.

And as a final tease, when I asked Guggenheim about Detective Lance getting back on the Hood’s trail, he offered this up: “[Detective] Lance makes a huge sacrifice in this episode.”

Uh oh…can we have the finale now, please?

ARROW’s season finale airs tonight at 8 PM on The CW

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