‘Arrow’ Season 4 Spoilers: Teaser Photos Show How The Island Story Connects, Prompts Theories On The Grave Scene

As everyone who watches the CW’s “Arrow” will know, each season is marked with another installment of the flashback storyline chronicling the adventures of Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) when he was stranded on an island for five years. Season 4 has been no exception, and now it seems viewers will finally learn how the story connects to the present day ahead of the highly anticipated grave scene reveal.

As CinemaBlend notes, with the exception of episode 5, “Haunted,” which saw the NBC character John Constantine (Matt Ryan) join the cast, the Season 4 island storyline hasn’t really connected with the events happening in 2016. However, that all looks like it will change in episode 18 thanks to hints found in newly released photos for the episode.

Last week’s “Arrow” focused on two things besides its main story of stopping Brie Larvan (Emily Kinney). The first was the villain Damien Darhk (Neal McDonough) and his plans to escape Iron Heights Prison. The second was the flashback storyline that saw Oliver battle Baron Reiter (Jimmy Akingbola). The villain had recently used the hero to gain access to a secret totem hidden on the island of Lian Yu. He quickly revealed that, with the totem’s power and the life force of people he’s killed, he gains magical powers.

Oliver manages to get the item away from Reiter and hides it in the tunnels under the island. If Reiter can both get his hands on it and get back to the soldiers and forced laborers above, he’ll be too powerful for anyone to stop. In a new promotional photo for the upcoming episode, titled “Eleven-Fifty-Nine,” [SPOILER ALERT] it looks like Reiter uncovers the totem’s hiding place.

In another photo, Darhk can be seen apparently escaping from the high-security prison, which the episode’s official plot synopsis teased Malcolm Merlyn (John Barrowman) would help him with. What’s most striking about this shot is the small item in the corner of the frame that looks an awful lot like Reiter’s totem.

So, what does this mean for the remainder of “Arrow” Season 4? Pending any kind of elaborate April Fools’ prank, it seems that Darhk’s plan to exterminate the filth of Star City may result in him regaining his magical abilities and using the body count to become more powerful than ever.

With the island storyline finally connecting to the main plot, as well as the recently released teaser clip promising the death of a main character, it’s possible that episode 18 may finally give fans a clue as to who is in the now infamous grave shown at the beginning of Season 4.

For those unfamiliar, Oliver is seen mourning the loss of an unknown friend at a graveyard on the day of his or her funeral. He tells a visiting Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) of “The Flash” that he’s going to kill the man responsible. Later, he joins Felicity in a car who agrees that the mystery man needs to be stopped. After episode 15 saw Team Arrow not only stop Darhk, but strip him of his magical powers by destroying a different totem, all signs pointed to Merlyn as the man responsible for the death. While that still may be true, it seems that Darhk is going to make a very powerful play for renewed relevance in the villain game in next week’s highly anticipated episode.

Who do you think is responsible for the upcoming character death? Comment below or tweet your thoughts on the subject to @TylerMcCarthy.