Is Michael Emerson done with Arrow after Cayden James shocker?

Is Michael Emerson leaving Arrow? We know that the series wouldn’t keep the Personal of Interest star for ever, but signs now suggest that his time may be done.

On Thursday night’s new episode of the CW series — the last before the show went on hiatus until March — it was revealed that it was seeming Ricardo Diaz who had orchestrated much of everything to this point, orchestrating a plot that eventually led to Cayden’s desperate attacks on the Green Arrow. Oh, and it also looks as though Diaz may have murdered a captured Cayden while he was at it.

Having Diaz ultimately be the Big Bad of this season would make some sense, given that this is the sort of character who wouldn’t have any problem pulling strings for a while and letting other people be in the forefront of the action. He’s also more of a physical adversary than Cayden, which allows Arrow to be able to dive back into some of the fight sequences that are the show’s bread and butter.

We’re going to have plenty of time in which to discuss Diaz in the months to come, so for the time being let’s stop in for a moment and put some of the focus on Cayden James. There was a ton of excitement going into this season about this character and about Michael Emerson in the role. Emerson’s one of the best actors out there who was exceptional on both Lost and Person of Interest. It was a thrill to have him on the show. Yet, we think the one thing that hurt him above all else was that the writers really struggled to establish Cayden as a fully-realized villain beyond just a man enraged over what happened to his son. We never quite got a grasp on what they were going for with him — Emerson did his best with the material but we don’t think that the entire Cayden storyline really worked. One of the big problems there is just that Arrow, like many other shows, really struggles to perfect its presentation of hacking. It’s mostly akin to just watching people type really fast while other people comment on how they can’t understand techno-babble.

Related – When is Arrow returning to The CW?

Do you think we’re now moving on past Cayden James on Arrow, and do you think that Michael Emerson is done with the show for good? Share below! Also, be sure to like CarterMatt on Facebook to get some other updates all about the series. (Photo: The CW.)