Arrow Season 4 Spoilers

"One of the things we're really excited about in the first half of the season is, how does Oliver win [Diggle] back?" executive producer Wendy Mericle shares. "When they meet again at the top of Season 4, it is frosty. It is not good. In the past, Oliver would have been very defensive and maybe written Dig off or really defended his position. What's interesting now is that he's in a different place. He's happy with Felicity. He's more willing to say, 'Maybe I made some mistakes.' Their reconciliation, how they get there, is going to be a bumpy ride. It's not going to be fully resolved."

"She's no longer just the IT girl or Vice President under Palmer," Mericle previews. "She's the full-blown CEO, and it's an opportunity to really see that character grow up and be challenged in ways we haven't seen before."

The connection between his brother Andy's death and H.I.V.E. "is going to be a huge piece of Dig's story and will really take up most of his emotional arc for the season," Mericle reveals. "He wants answers. He's up against some pretty bad guys. But he's going to get them."

Having "fully arrived as Black Canary" when the new season opens, Laurel will be focused on her work (at night and during the day), and not so much her personal life. Mericle tells us there's no plan to introduce a love interest for the unlucky-in-love gal. "I think there's some virtue in having a female character on the show who's not necessarily involved with a man," the EP explains. "She has a lot of business to deal with in terms of her sister [Sara] and also finding a new relationship with Oliver now that Felicity is in the picture.... It's more [about] her finding her place on the team."

Ollie's sis has a new love interest, and the show fully intends to tap into his portrayer Parker Young's skills as a comedic performer on Suburgatory and Enlisted. "It's still going to be dark and gritty, but he's one of those places [where] we're bringing [humor] in," Mericle says, adding that Thea "is going to have the challenge that Oliver had in the first season of, she's now a superhero and she wants to have a normal life. She's got this guy. How does she balance both of those things?"

Captain Lance is still "very opposed" to the costumed crimefighters, Mericle says. "He still traces back every bad thing in Starling City to Oliver's arrival and the arrival of the masks." However, given Damien Darhk's arrival and "how dire the straits are for the city, he's going to start to see them as a necessary evil, something that he doesn't love or embrace but recognizes might be the only answer to saving his home."

He may be the new leader of the League of Assassins, but Malcolm won't be saying goodbye to his old life entirely: He'll "get back into the hood for Episode 3," executive producer Marc Guggenheim previews.

Diggle's other half will "have a new place of employment," Mericle teases. "There are going to be things that happen that motivate her to maybe not return to A.R.G.U.S., but certainly to take up the mantle and come back into the fight." As for her relationship with her hubby, Mericle confirms it is "so solid. Oliver and Felicity might go through some ups and downs this season, but Lyla and Dig, they've seen it all."

The original Canary will get a second (third?) chance at life thanks to Constantine (guest star Matt Ryan). "He is somebody who has the ability to go into that other world and more or less find her," Mericle describes. But which character has the crazy idea to bring back someone who's been dead for over a year?! "You probably don't have to work too hard to do the math on who's closest to her, who loves her the most and who would be the most invested in having her [return]," the EP replies. "Obviously, her family is first and foremost in that. What's going to be interesting about it is that even when she comes back," sis Laurel and dad Lance "will have very different reactions to [her] presence."

Unlike the show's previous Big Bads, this foe will not be "hiding in the shadows," Guggenheim says. "He truly enjoys being evil, he enjoys the power that he wields." As for Damien Darhk's physical prowess, the EP notes, "He can definitely kick your ass, but he can do it in a different way than" Malcolm, Slade or Ra's al Ghul.