‘Arrow’ season 2 spoilers: ‘Blast Radius’ brings big change for Colton Haynes, Katie Cassidy

If you thought that the stories of Roy Harper and Laurel Lance were pretty cut-and-dry on “Arrow” season 2 so far, then you better get ready for a pretty dramatic change coming up. This excellent season so far is only looking to take things up another notch when it returns on January 15.

The synopsis for the show’s return (entitled “Blast Radius”) below more or less proves that we are going to see Roy Harper develop some sort of abilities in the wake of being injected with the serum, which makes him the first person fighting with the good guys to have any sort of special ability. (Slade Wilson is hardly fighting for that team at all.) Also, Laurel may be in need of some valuable help from the Arrow now in an effort to prove a connection to Brother Blood.

Also, we would be remiss to not mention that “Firefly” alum Sean Maher makes his first appearance in the episode as Shrapnel, one of the new villains rooted in DC Comics lore:

“Oliver must tackle a new threat to the city when bombs start to go off in Starling City. Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) discovers the person setting them off is Mark Sheffner (guest star Sean Maher), a man who goes by the nickname Shrapnel. Arrow discovers Shrapnel’s next target is Sebastian Blood’s (guest star Kevin Alejandro) “Unity Rally” and tries to talk the alderman out of hosting it, but he refuses. Arrow sets off to stop the bombing, but Shrapnel tricks him and traps him in a bomb-laced antique store where he is unable to move without setting off the device. While Felicity helps Oliver, Diggle (David Ramsey) races to the plaza to find the bomb before it goes off. Meanwhile, Roy (Colton Haynes) continues to hide his new strength from Thea (Willa Holland) but, after she witnesses his super strength in action at the rally, she demands answers. Laurel’s (Katie Cassidy) suspicions about Sebastian grow stronger once she learns that he grew up with Cyrus Gold, the man who killed Lance’s (Paul Blackthorne) partner. After Donner (guest Star Dylan Bruce) refuses to help her investigate, she turns to Arrow (Stephen Amell) for help.”

While we are very nervous about what will come next with Roy (mostly because characters with superpowers have doomed many of our favorite shows), we’re excited about the rest of this. Plus, “Arrow” has earned a lot of good faith after delivering so many great knockout punches (or bullseyes?) over the course of the season so far.