Arrow: Who is in the grave?

Samantha Clayton

Who?? Oh right, that’s the girl that Oliver once had a fling with, only for it to be revealed in Season 2 that Moira Queen paid her off to keep quiet about the fact that she was pregnant with his child. Mother knows best, right?

Samantha has suddenly returned out of nowhere, having casually bumped into Oliver at a coffee shop in Central City. It’s there that Oliver meets her nine-year old son, who he quickly realizes must be his. Of course he needed Barry to run a DNA test to confirm, but Oliver’s instincts told him from the start that young William was the son he never knew he had.

Was this plot line a brief tangent from our story that will be forgotten about as quickly as Samantha’s introduction was two seasons ago, or does she have a greater role to play? She has thus far forbidden Oliver from revealing to William that he is his father, but he may be forced to break that promise if anything were to happen to Samantha. There’s little sense in even introducing these characters unless Oliver is bound to reveal the truth at some point in order to form a stronger bond with his son. That’s more likely to happen if the boy’s mother is out of the way, which may even lead to Oliver gaining custody of the lad.

Since most of Team Arrow is still in the dark about Samantha it makes sense why Oliver was alone after the funeral. Barry is one of the only ones that knows Oliver has a son, so his late arrival is warranted, while Felicity was clearly less than pleased to find out about this secret, leaving no surprise as to why she’s not there.

Would Oliver be this emotional over a girl he barely knew? Perhaps if her death was a direct result of her connection to him, which would leave him feeling guilty about the death of an innocent bystander. William would naturally be traumatized by the loss of his mother, so seeing his son in pain is bound to have a devastating effect on Oliver as well.

The downside of this outcome is that the audience hasn’t had a chance to get to know Samantha, which makes her death feel a bit hollow. However, the payoff could be worth it if it leads to fueling a plot revolving around Oliver bonding with his long lost son.

Oliver lost his own father when they were lost at sea together, which is what led to his being stranded on Lian Yu. Five years later he returned home to reconnect with his family, but his father wasn’t there to join them. Perhaps Season 5 will be about Oliver connecting with his son five years after his return from the island.