'Arrow' Season 4 Spoilers: Theories On Who Will Die When The Show Returns In 2016

Now that the CW Network's “Arrow” is on break for the holidays, fans can take a moment to reflect on the eventful first half of Season 4. While the stakes have never been higher for Team Arrow, fans everywhere can only talk about the mysterious character death teased during the midseason premiere.

For those that need a reminder, the first episode of the new season ended in a flash-forward in which Oliver (Stephen Amell), was joined at a fresh grave by his Central City ally Barry Allen (Grant Gustin). Although they never reveal who actually died, the death sounds like it was a murder that will drive the hero over the edge after he declares that he’ll kill the person responsible.

While the information is purposefully vague, after the midseason finale of “Arrow,” fans have a much better idea about some of the show’s key players that could be responsible for the upcoming moment. While fans wait for all of their burning questions about the “Arrow” death to be answered when the show returns on Jan. 20, 2016, it’s time to talk about some of the more prominent theories regarding who will fill the now infamous grave. Be warned, there’s spoilers ahead:

Felicity

After the shocking events of the midseason finale, the life of Felicity Smoak (Emily Bett Rickards) was left in peril. Oliver had just proposed to the love of his life and they were driving away from a campaign event when their limo was attacked by H.I.V.E. troops sent by the principal bad guy of Season 4, Damien Darhk (Neal McDonough). Thanks to some stunning heroics, Oliver got them to safety, but when he checked on Felicity, she wasn’t moving.

As fans wait to see what will come of that storyline, many believe that the midseason return will reveal that Oliver’s fiancé won’t survive the attack. However, as previously reported, if Felicity were to meet her end from the Christmas time attack, the timeline for the grave scene would be very skewed. As ComicBook notes, the grave clip took place 6 months from the Season 4 premiere. From then to the midseason finale, only 3 months have gone by. So, unless they wait an inappropriately long time to bury her, she’s probably safe for now.

Captain Lance

Oliver is clearly pretty broken up about whoever is in the grave. While his relationship with Captain Quentin Lance (Paul Blackthorne) has been nothing but tumultuous in the past, they made tremendous strides in their relationship this season. Not only is Captain Lance back to being a reluctant member of Team Arrow, but when Oliver found out that he started working for Darhk in his absence between seasons, they explored their father and son dynamic, raising the emotional stakes of their relationship. In addition, Lance has started dating Felicity’s mother, Donna Smoak (Charlotte Ross) this season, which is always a recipe for disaster.

“One has to be philosophical about these things if you’re an actor on a TV show and you see various characters dying each year,” Blackthorne told TV Line about the possibility of dying this season. “You have to think, ‘What if it’s going to be mine this year? If it’s going to be mine this year, it’s going to be mine this year.'”

Diggle

John Diggle (David Ramsey) was the first member of Team Arrow and is the closest thing Oliver has ever had to a brother. This season, however, Diggle had some family drama of his own as he finally tracked down his actual brother, Andy (Eugene Byrd), only to find out he wasn’t the man he remembers. Andy was working for Darhk before Team Arrow captured him. Now that he’s confessed to being a war criminal, there’s not much in the way of redemption for the younger Diggle. However, getting John to see that about his brother could be difficult, which could lead to a betrayal that could send The Green arrow to “kill” Andy Diggle. After all, he’s loyal to Darhk, who Oliver is going to have to deal with sooner or later anyway. Perhaps the Diggle storyline will be a way to raise the stakes before the final showdown? However, the actor behind the character doesn’t seem to think John is in the grave for one very astute reason:

“I would think that Diggle would have more in terms of the military ceremony,” he says of his former U.S. soldier character (via Entertainment Weekly). “There would be flags in place. You would think that, but maybe the flag was out of frame, so it could be Diggle.”

Baby and/or Baby Mama

In this Season’s action-packed crossover with “The Flash,” it was discovered that Oliver’s former girlfriend from his days as a billionaire playboy, Samantha Clayton (Anna Hopkins), had been raising his estranged son for almost nine years. Previously, his mother had paid her a significant sum of money (which she never collected) to keep the baby a secret from Oliver so that he could continue to live his life. Now that Oliver is wise to the big secret, it’s possible that his enemies will find out about Samantha and her son and go looking for them to punish The Green Arrow. While killing a child would be a little too dark for the CW series, it’s still a possibility. The more likely candidate is Samantha, which would put Oliver in charge of being a superhero vigilante as well as father in Season 5.

Unfortunately, there’s still an entire half a season of “Arrow” to go before fans will likely find out who is occupying the grave. Until then, they’ll just have to wait on baited breath for the return of the show in the New Year.