‘Arrow’ season 4 spoilers: Where the flashbacks will take us

For any of you out there wondering what “Arrow” is planning to do when it comes to some of their flashback sequences in season 4, we may finally have some sort of answer for you. The bad news? These sequences are still going to be there. At this point, we’re not sure that they are really that much of an asset to the show. Sure, we enjoyed some moments here and there with Maseo, Tatsu, and Oliver Queen last season, but it feels like many of these could have taken place over the course of about a third of the time. The more time we spend back in the past, the less inevitably we’re getting in the present.

Well, the flashbacks are not going away most likely until we get the end of Oliver’s “five years in hell,” so hopefully this latest bit of news is going to help to make the story better. Actor Jimmy Akingbola has been cast in an important season 4 role as Baron Reiter (Baron Blitzkrieg in the comics), a character heading the Shadowspire criminal organization. He may try to recruit Oliver in Hong Kong, where he is still stationed at the moment.

Whatever happens with Oliver here, it will only continue to hone his abilities to a certain extent. Given that every season the flashbacks do seem to have a connection to the present, what we wonder at the moment is this: Will there be a connection between Shadowspire and HIVE, or will Baron ever show up in the present?

We’ll probably get some answers early on, as “Arrow” season 4 premieres October 7 and there are few episodes that don’t have some sort of flashback in them.

Update: The showrunner is saying that this character may not be Blitzkrieg, after all.

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