ARROW: The Thea Thing

The inclusion of Thea Queen was the one thing that worried me most about “Arrow.” The troubled teen sister reeked of the CW’s typical interference in the creative direction of a show. It’s a misguided attempt to inject youth into an otherwise adult cast, fearing that their key demographic – teen girls – won’t tune in if there are no teen girls in the cast to watch.

Fortunately, it worked out for “Arrow.” Thea Queen has never been the typical, rebellious girl-on-the-brink-of-womanhood, an archetype repeated far too often on CW shows (ahem, Jenny Humphrey). Instead, she’s proven herself to be a key part of Oliver Queen’s support system and an interesting character in her own right.

Yet one of my biggest grievances with the second season of the CW’s superhero hit is the seeming demotion of Thea from Oliver’s sister to Roy’s girlfriend, stripping her of the potential for a storyline separate from her love life. The recent revelation that she is really the daughter of the villainous Malcolm Merlyn is certainly a step in the right direction but I can’t help but feel that there is more that can be done to develop Thea Queen.

For starters, while Willa Holland and Colton Haynes have crackling chemistry, it would probably be best for Thea and Roy to spend some time apart. Allow them grow outside of their relationship. Let Roy learn to control his rage issues while Thea creates an identity of her own, separate from her birth father’s infamy and the Queen family’s reputation. Clearly that is the path Thea was headed down when she took over as the manager of Verdant but the new job has only reduced Thea’s role in the show from supporting character to occasional guest star, appearing when Roy or the Queens need her there.

Perhaps a bold move would be to have Thea inadvertently become caught up in a Big Bad’s agenda – and, to be even bolder, don’t have her merely be the damsel in distress (prime example being Slade abducting her a couple of episodes ago). Have Thea fall for the villain’s schemes, even so much as becoming a supporter. I’m not suggesting Thea go bad but merely be misguided.

A possible villain: Poison Ivy. Yes, FOX’s upcoming “Gotham” series probably already has her on lock but can’t you see the story already? Dr. Pamela Isley takes up residence at Starling University, where Thea enrolls in order to find a calling separate from her family. She stands out to the environmentalist in her desire to clean up the city that her biological parents both conspired to destroy and Isley quickly takes Thea under her wing, filling her with idealistic and radical notions about how Thea can save the city. It wouldn’t be a leap for her to fall into Isley’s group of environmental activists - who are really eco-terrorists in artificial-sheep’s clothing that will inevitably end up on the Arrow’s radar. The question that arises: how can the Arrow stop Poison Ivy without bringing down his own sister, too? Imagine the family drama that’d ensue.

This, of course, leads directly to a key question about Thea’s development: should she discover that her brother is the hooded vigilante? My answer: what good would it do? Honestly, Thea discovering her brother’s nightly activities would do nothing for the plot, not at this point in the series where Thea really offers very little except the nightclub, Roy, and a distaste for secrets and lies. Compare this to Laurel, who has returned to the District Attorney’s office and can now provide intel and assistance from the inside as she undoubtedly moves towards assuming the Black Canary title. Even Moira, should she win the mayoral election and eventually discover that her son is the vigilante, would be presented with a fascinating conflict of interest. How can she appease the Starling elite and police that despise the Arrow while protecting her son?

There is no benefit to Thea learning the truth about Oliver. Certainly it would lead to Thea coming down with Lana Lang Syndrome and having a breakdown over her brother’s indiscretions and how she thought they had a close relationship but now she sees that he doesn’t trust her. It’s basically the meltdown everyone expected Laurel to have. The most Thea can do with the knowledge of Oliver’s secret – given that Thea has yet to come into her own like Laurel, Roy, and the others have – is maintain Team Arrow’s front, Verdant, but she’s doing that anyway. Unless Thea undergoes a serious transformation, there’s no valid reason to bring her into the loop until that information could have a direct, positive impact on her character development and, right now, it wouldn’t.

It should be noted that I wholeheartedly believe Willa Holland is one of the most talented young actresses on television. She has brought such life to a character that could otherwise have been a cliché and she continues to make the most of every scene she’s given. While I don’t agree with Thea’s reaction at the end of “The Man Under the Hood,” Holland makes it believable, palpable. Quite frankly, it’s because of her immense talent that I want so much more for her to do than bossing around waiters and kissing Roy (same goes for Katie Cassidy and Laurel). I only hope that the “Arrow” writers have a long arc for her up their sleeves, ready to be played in the third season, before it gets to the point where the best thing for the series is to remove Thea from it.