SPOILERS FOR SEASON 3: If you haven’t watched any of season three please don’t read this.
I am throughly enjoying watching Arrow Season 3 again because with every new episode that comes out it makes pieces of other episodes even clearer.
I have never trusted Amanda Waller, she has always been slightly off to me, maybe because she is pure evil. After re-watching 3x8, a thought came to my mind. She made a curious statement to Oliver in Hong Kong that got me thinking.
“I think you not only have the stomach for this work, you have the talent.”
Why is she so concerned with this playboy billionaire when she has numerous agents at her disposal? We know Oliver was stranded on an island with an ARGUS prison, Waller admitted to watching him on the island after the failed bombing and now she is helping him practice his “conviction” in interrogation?
Instantly in my head popped a hidden agenda (maybe from all those years watching Alias, taught me to never trust a character). What if Waller wanted Oliver to develop these skills for a specific reason? Did she know of the notebook his father gave her? Did she know of the undertaking and Oliver’s drive to stop it? Did she know he would become the Arrow? She knew about the hood obviously from her time watching him on the island so she must have thought he might use it. I highly doubt she quit watching him AFTER he somehow returned to the island.
Even further, if she was grooming him to become this vigilante and protect his city, to harden in the face of danger, did she have an even deeper endgame?
Is it just a coincidence that he was stationed in Hong Kong with two Japanese residents, one an agent obviously living in China, but whose wife is an accomplished swordswoman? Is it a coincidence that said agent suddenly reappears as a member of the notorious League of Assassins? Is it a coincidence that the other person stranded on the island with Oliver, Sara Lance, somehow became a member of said League? What about Malcolm’s connection as well? That’s a lot of people connected with a supposed myth, all from the same city.
Sara’s addition to the League and unfortunate death brought the attention of Nyssa and Ra’s to Starling City and Oliver and lead to the battle which lead to the offer, so many apparent random connections.
Now I know Waller was downing that plane from the island and Malcolm had a part to play in Ra’s attacking the city for a bloodoath but why? Why did Waller choose that island for the attack? They’ve said multiple times on the show there were a ton of islands in that area, how did it just happen to be the one Oliver was stranded on. Why did Malcolm bring Thea back to Starling to kill Sara? I know she was investigating his return but that was a extreme reaction in my mind.
So if Waller took the time to spy on a stranded billionaire playboy thought dead by the world, trained him in interrogation/torture, placed him with an agent whose wife knows her way around a katana, and said agent mysteriously joins the League, returns said playboy to the island (I’m assuming), allowed him to return home and take up his mission in the city (she could have easily stopped him at any time), and allowed for him to develop his skills as an archer/fighter/killer/reformed killer/strategist, what is her end game?
I think either Amanda Waller is working for Ra’s, has a vendetta against him, or wants Oliver to be the next Ra’s for some reason.
Food for thought at 1:10 in the morning, marcguggenheim, any thoughts?
What is Amanda Waller’s endgame?
