Arrow Conversations: Could Oliver Be Part of His Own Downfall In “Deathstroke”? 

When you’re the Big Bad, collateral damage knows no bounds. So while Slade is in Starling City to watch Oliver suffer, he has no trouble making everyone else suffer in the process. But what if you’re the hero? What does that same collateral damage do to you?

Piece by piece, Slade is dismantling Oliver’s inner circle by revealing secrets to drive a wedge between them and Ollie (watch out Sarah, me thinks you’re next!). His family, his friends and his businesses (both legit and non) are fair game. Thanks to a turncoat Isabel (which we can’t exactly call a surprise considering her oppositional nature from day 1), Queen Consolidated is no longer run by a Queen. And as a result of Thea’s quest for honesty, she now knows Malcolm Merlyn is her father and somehow holds Ollie responsible for not having told her. But are these fractures totally Slade’s fault or were they an inevitable Jenga-tower of secrets, bound to topple sooner to later, and Slade just knew which block to choose?

We’ve watched Oliver pull further and further away from his mother as he learns her secrets, so how can he blame those around him if they chose to do the same? Sure, he’s lying in order to protect them, but that’s exactly what Moira thought she was doing when she hid the truth about Malcolm, Thea and The Queen’s Gambit.

Moira: I’ve told you that these lies were to keep our family safe, to keep us all together, but that was the biggest lie of all. And I told it to you, to Thea, to myself. Because I was too weak to face any kind of truth.
Oliver: What’s happening now isn’t your fault.
Moira: From the moment your children are born, you worry what the world might do to them. But you never stop to think what you might do to them. That we could be our own worst enemy.

So like Moira, is Oliver bringing this chaos upon himself? Obviously, I can’t say it’s entirely his fault when there’s a clearly unstable Mirakuru monster running around the city, but even with the best of intentions, it’s hard to completely disregard the fact that Oliver set up the trap and that Slade only had to pull the string. Oliver has kept his identity hidden from Laurel (who will no doubt hit the fan when she realizes all the implications) and his family. He has also kept Thea’s true parentage from her, something that will inevitably fracture their relationship and send Thea in to further despair.

Yet despite all Ollie’s secret keeping, I still can’t say I totally agree with Roy and his “Oliver is the problem” agenda (let’s be honest, its hard to imagine Roy coming up with a better plan), but apparently something in Roy’s rant rings true to Oliver.

Oliver: Roy was right, at every turn I made the wrong decision. With him, with the company, with Thea. I was so focused on what Slade might do to me that it never even occurred to me what I could do to myself. I am my own worst enemy.

While it was hard to watch Oliver come to the realization that trying to protect those he love may have something to do with this impending avalanche, I was extremely glad that he chose not to wallow in self pity (as he has done in the past) and immediately stood up straight and vowed to fight back. That being said, I’m not exactly sure how this will play out differently in the rest of the season since Ollie will always want to protect those he loves. But one thing I do know, if Slade has his way, the number of people “in the know” is going to rise as Oliver’s world continues to crumble.

Be sure to watch Arrow Wednesdays at 8/7c on The CW.