‘Arrow’ finale reaction: Colin Donnell on [spoiler], Tommy’s season 2 impact
Let us start this off with an incredibly massive warning: The following contains spoilers from the “Arrow” season 1 finale. If you continue on beyond this point and you haven’t watched it then be prepared to be spoiled.
So … did you see that ending coming? Even before the series started airing, we were sitting down in a Fan Expo panel in Toronto when the cast informed the audience that there would be departures between the series and the DC Comic series on which the show is based. Why? While it’s important to keep the incredible spirit of Oliver Queen alive, you don’t want to just tell stories that comic readers already know.
With that, we had something almost no one predicted, given his future in the comics: Tommy Merlyn died on the finale Wednesday, as confirmed by the actor Colin Donnell. Speaking to Zap2It in a new interview, the actor explained how he first learned the shocking news that he was not going to live on past this final episode:
“I found out toward the end of February,” Donnell tells us. “[Executive producers] Marc Guggenheim and Andrew Kreisberg came up. They were really cool about it, they came up to Vancouver and they asked me to come into the office to have a meeting. I was like ‘I wonder what they want to talk about? I’m sure they just want to talk about what’s going to happen in Season 2!’
“As we sat down, they just said ‘Hey, man,’ and I looked at them, and I was like, ‘Oh, man! You’re killing me off, aren’t you?!’ It was a bit of a shock, of course it was a shock, because I had one idea of how things might go, but ultimately, once they explained it to me, I totally understand. That’s the way stories have to go sometimes.”
The death of Tommy will not go in vain, as there are a number of interesting stories to tell now that he is gone. Oliver will use this story as motivation to keep fighting, whereas Laurel will revere a man in death who previously broke her heart. He was a guy who really just wanted love, even from his father … despite Malcolm (who may or may not be dead) being an awful human being.
We still have more to say about this episode, but stay tuned for that. If you want to read more now, though, this is what the review here is for.
Photo: The CW