Though Executive Producer Guggenheim says the timing was coincidental, he wrote Arrow Season 5 episode 13 during the week of President Donald Trump’s election. Titled, “Spectre of the Gun,” the team voiced differing opinions on gun violence after a brutal attack on City Hall, inspired by the Star City’s failure to pass gun restriction laws.
"This was totally not by design, completely accidental, but I wrote the first half of the script before November 8, and the second half of the script after November 8. Just that week I was writing the script,” Guggenheim told ComicBook.com.
In the episode, Curtis is the proponent for strong gun restriction laws, while Renee feels guns save lives. Oliver sympathizes with both sides, noting that while he doesn’t use a gun, he always resorts to violence to solve problems.
Though Guggenheim is a self-described “unapologetic progressive” he didn’t let that restrict the episode’s discourse. “...The thing that I’ve noticed is that not talking about issues serves a conservative agenda, not a liberal agenda."
However, if he chose a side, it’d be with Curtis. “I think the country is where it is right now because we stopped talking to each other,” he adds.
Oliver handled this situation much differently than we're used to seeing. He decides this isn’t a problem for the Green Arrow, so he attacks as Mayor, inviting each politician involved in previous gun legislation into his office until they can come to a conclusion. Though he ends up leaving early to talk down a man about to kill innocent people at hospital, he later asks Renee, whose views are more conservative, to help him write a new gun restriction law for Star City.
"I think, as you watch the episode -- I write chronologically and linearly -- and I think you can see that, in the second half, it's about guns and gun violence, but it's also about the state of discourse in our country."
Arrow airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on The CW.
