'Arrow' Season 4 Spoilers: Crossover With 'The Flash' May Reveal Who Dies

Season 4 of the CW’s “Arrow” kicked off on a bit of a low note, with the reveal that someone close to the archery-themed superhero will die by the season’s end. While the identity of the deceased was kept a secret thanks to some clever shot framework, the recent crossover event with “The Flash” may have given some major clues as to who ends up in the ground.

One of the biggest plot points on “The Flash” and “Arrow” crossover event had to do with the return of Oliver Queen’s (Stephen Amell) ex-girlfriend Samantha Clayton (Anna Hopkins). Previously on the series, it was revealed that Oliver got Clayton pregnant before he became the Green Arrow. Without him knowing, his mother paid her a large sum of money to lie and say she lost the baby. Now that Oliver knows the truth, he’s desperate to be a part of nine-year-old William’s life. As TV Line notes, this has led many to believe that the mother and son may be prime candidates to fill the aforementioned grave. As the outlet previously reported, if the unknown casualty of the season is Clayton, it would force Oliver and his girlfriend Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) to take over caring for the boy. This would mean the next season of “Arrow” would see Queen try to navigate being both a superhero and a dad.

The alternative, although grim, would be for William to end up dead. Clayton made a good point that it’s very dangerous for someone to get caught up in Oliver Queen’s orbit and said that’s the main reason she never told him he had a son -- No, really, she never cashed his mom’s check. If William were to somehow be killed, likely by Season 4’s principal baddie Damien Darhk (Neal McDonough), it would force Oliver to re-evaluate his decision to be a vigilante. While killing a small child isn’t necessarily in keeping with the style of “Arrow,” the fact that the boy’s name is William may be a clue that the writers aren’t planning to keep him around too long.

As comic book fans will know, Oliver Queen does have a son that ends up taking the moniker of the Green Arrow once his old man gives it up. However, that character’s name is Connor Hawke, and the fact that the name wasn’t used in the TV show is no accident. Speaking to Entertainment Tonight, executive producer Andrew Kreisberg revealed that they didn’t want to take away the potential to see Hawke in the future by making him an ineffectual 9-year-old.

“When we came up with the whole idea of it, part of it was we didn’t want to be tied in necessarily to a character like Connor not being able to be part of the show if we made him so young,” he said. “To give us the leeway to still have Connor Hawke be part of the universe – that was the biggest reason we made that decision.”

Essentially, not only do the writer’s plans make William expendable, but also a hindrance for a potential future plotline with Hawke. Still, despite mounting evidence from the crossover, MoviePilot makes a strong case for the casualty to be Felicity instead. After all, fans have been turning on the character for a while. In addition, her comic book counterpart doesn’t end up with Green Arrow, which means fans of the source material by and large want her gone.

Who do you think will be in the grave when Season 4 of “Arrow” wraps up? Comment below or tweet your theories to @TylerMcCarthy.