'Arrow' Season 7 Spoilers: How Emiko's Mission Could Lead to the Big Bad

Arrow officially introduces Emiko Queen and her revenge mission in the Season 7 winter premiere, and some of the beats from “My Name Is Emiko Queen” feel very familiar to those the series hit with Oliver in Season 1. If the similarities continue, it’s likely that her search for her mother’s killer leads to the Big Bad of the season.

Spoilers for Arrow Season 7 Episode 10 below.

In the midseason premiere, Emiko is shot while out as the new Green Arrow and turns to Rene for help. He not only patches her up but also joins her on her mission to take down the man who killed her mother a year ago. However, when Emiko finds William Glenmorgan, he insists he didn’t kill her mother and was out of the country at the time. Emiko confirms his alibi.

So much about the episode that tells us Emiko’s origin story is reminiscent of Oliver in Season 1, but what does that mean for Season 7? It’s possible that by revisiting Season 1 we can predict where Emiko’s new plotline is headed.

Just like Oliver was crossing off names from his father’s list, Emiko, too, is working off a list in a small notebook.

Just like Oliver used a voiceover when he was alone suiting up and in his lair, Emiko uses one as well.

Just like Oliver, Emiko starts off working alone but gains partners. In Season 1, Oliver worked alone until Diggle and Felicity joined his cause. Now, Rene signs on as Emiko’s partner and they even get Curtis to provide technical support when they go after Glenmorgan.

Emiko even turns to Rene for help after she’s shot while hooded up, just like Oliver went to Felicity after his mother shot him when he was the Hood in Season 1.

Learning about Emiko also forces Oliver to repeat his own past: he’s been redeeming his father and family name for years, but now he must do that again, in Emiko’s eyes, because Robert Queen abandoned Emiko and her mother.

To right his father’s wrong, he’ll become part of Emiko’s mission, as it appears in the promo for Season 7 Episode 11 “Past Sins” (above). It would therefore make sense that Emiko’s mission will lead to this season’s Big Bad since it would connect Oliver to him or her, as has to be the case.

The list led Oliver to Malcolm Merlyn and the Undertaking in Season 1.

Emiko is looking for her mother’s killer, someone who apparently framed Glenmorgan by using a type of bullet that would be traced back to him. That suggests someone with resources — and that’s where one of the other dangling plot threads of the season comes into play.

At ARGUS, Diggle and Lyla are currently trying to track down terrorist financier Dante, who paid Diaz’s debt to the Longbow Hunters. Diggle proposes a deal to Diaz in the midseason premiere: give them Dante, and he goes free. Diggle then enlists Diaz to be the first member of the new Suicide Squad, the Ghost Initiative.

Presumably, Dante is a big enough threat that Diggle feels he has no choice but to risk Diaz being free (even with a bomb in his head) and going after and trying to kill Oliver, Felicity, and William again. That would make sense if Dante and his organization end up being the Big Bad of Season 7.

In the comics, Dante is the leader of the Ninth Circle, an international criminal organization made up of corrupt executives. That kind of organization would have the resources necessary to plant a trail that would lead Emiko to Glenmorgan. If they do end up being the Big Bad, it could bring everyone back together since Team Arrow has been separate thus far this season.

This common goal, of taking down the Big Bad, whether or not it’s the Ninth Circle, could also help bring Oliver and Emiko together. Right now, Emiko hates her brother and the Queen name because their father left her and her mother to fend for themselves. If Oliver helps her with her mission for revenge, that could change.

Arrow Season 7 airs Mondays at 8 p.m. on The CW.

Related video: Oliver Suits up Without the Mask in Arrow Season 7 Episode 8 Trailer