ARROW: Paul Blackthorne Teases the Blast From Lance’s Past and Teaming Up With the Arrow

ARROW’s Lance has had a turbulent relationship with the Arrow, but the two will have to work together in tonight’s brand new episode when a criminal from Lance’s past returns…and kidnaps Laurel.

To get a tease of what’s to come, I spoke with ARROW star Paul Blackthorne (Lance) about his character’s mindset this season, the new Arrow/Lance partnership, what Lance thinks of the Canary, and more…

It’s a big hour for Lance tonight. What can you tease about what’s in store for him?
Paul Blackthorne: Lance is in a situation where he has to ask an old adversary to help him out of a very personal situation. So, a little bit of humble pie here and there. What we end up seeing is the ODD COUPLE, really: Officer Lance and the Arrow, working together, side-by-side, in rather different ways, trying to achieve the same objective. It’s an interesting dynamic, the two of them trying to do that.

As he starts this unlikely partnership, is he aware of how close Arrow just came to getting caught? Viewers were left off with quite the cliffhanger in the last episode, as Oliver was surrounded by a ton of people, seemingly about to get unmasked, but knowing Oliver, he probably found a last-minute way out of it…
PB: I’m sure he heard about that through the grapevine! That all comes from the fact that Katie Cassidy’s character, Laurel, my [on-screen] daughter is now the one that’s trying to catch him, and our roles have reversed. I’m now all buddy-buddy with the Arrow, and she’s the one trying to catch him; a reverse of last year’s situation. Kudos to the writers for turning that conflict around. It’s interesting. You know, he’s sitting there, seeing his daughter do what he tried to do last year, and he’s trying to work with [the Arrow], and he needs to work with him, because he’s the guy that gets results in the city, but try to not upset his daughter too much at the same time. Again, the writers [have given us] good conflict. It’s good stuff.

Will that Laurel/Lance conflict be playing out a lot in the upcoming episodes?
PB: Well, they always have something, you know what I mean? There’s so much happening with that family and the world of Starling City. And we really have some lovely family developments coming up as well, which puts Lance through complete hell, to be honest, with what he has to deal with.

But yeah, the continuing Lance family dynamic, as painful as it is at times to watch as they try to work their problems out, there’s some great stuff coming up. Particularly some great stuff coming up in a few episodes time. So I’m looking forward to that.

Looking to tonight’s episode, are there any flashbacks to the original time Lance took this guy down?
PB: I don’t believe there are flashbacks. There are flashbacks [to something else] in another episode. In this episode, this guy is from my past, from Lance’s past, has found himself back on the streets of Starling City and Lance is the only man to take him down, but because he’s been demoted, he’s unable to do that, they won’t let him work on the case. So he’s like, in terms of justice, there’s only one thing to do, I’m going to get the guy who can get results. But I don’t think there are any flashbacks.

And how is he reacting to Laurel being kidnapped?
PB: [Joking] Oh, just another Laurel kidnapping episode!

The reality is, when you have your daughter kidnapped, especially when she’s kidnapped by the person you’re trying to capture yourself. So obviously, you feel it even more, and feel responsible for why it happened. But the guy manages to get her, and we have to do what we can do to get her out. So…watch the show!

Fair! With the Canary starting to make her presence more known, is Lance interacting with her in what you’ve shot?
PB: No, he’s aware that on the streets of Starling City, this character is floating around, all dressed up. In a couple episodes’ time, their worlds collide in a very interesting fashion. That’s episode five, I believe — that’s where those worlds come together, which I’m looking forward to.

Before he meets the Canary, is he looking at her presence as a good thing? Or does he view this as a side effect of having vigilantes like the Arrow out there?
PB: In Lance’s world, it was always a trying situation with the Starling City, and the corruption and politics and all of the nonsense that has popped up over the years. But since the vigilante fellow popped up on the scene over a year ago, suddenly we have people in strange outfits, and fighting in mysterious, exotic ways, and all sorts of strange things going on. And to him, it’s just, “What is going on in my city? People keep popping up and causing mayhem.” So, to him, it’s just like, there’s another, and now we have a woman dressed in black leather running around, kicking the backside of Starling City criminals.

Last year, he would have thought this can’t be happening, but he’s in a different place this year, because obviously, from the vigilante’s point of view, he’s seeing the bad guy gets results. Not that he’s going to be instantly sympathetic to anyone running around taking out criminals, because he doesn’t know who they are — the way that he now knows who the vigilante is — but [there is the thought of] who is running this city? Not the police department. It helps reconcile in his mind how he can work with the vigilante the way he does. So that’s why he does it: he gets results.

Is there anything else you’re really excited for viewers to see for Lance in what’s coming up?
PB: The continuation of the Lance/Arrow relationship, which is so interesting. As an actor, to play, in terms of coming to terms of who he is — I’ve been demoted to an officer, I’m back on the street, [Lance] doesn’t know what he’s got left to lose these days. So him reconciling his relationship with himself, with the Arrow, with Starling City in terms of the results that can be achieved, justice-wise…there’s a new place he’s found himself in, which has been very interesting to play, because he’s just a guy who’s been a cop, a by-the-book, hard-working detective for all his working life. And now he’s coming at it from a much different place, and he’s surprised himself more than anybody how comfortable he is with that if it achieves results and justice. It’s a dark, strange place to find himself in…and there’s more of that to come in the upcoming episodes. The continuation of the ODD COUPLE relationship between Lance and the Arrow.

ARROW airs Wednesdays at 8 PM on The CW.

Related:

ARROW: Susanna Thompson and Willa Holland Tease What’s to Come

ARROW: ‘Crucible’ Photos — Arrow Meets the Black Canary! Plus, Andrew Kreisberg Teases Her Arc
ARROW: Stephen Amell on the ‘Meaner’ Season 2 Fights, Oliver as a CEO, ‘Identity,’ and More

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