First Nyssa lost her lover, Sara, and now her Daddy (the powerful Ra’s al Ghul) is kicking her when she’s down. Can’t a girl catch a break?
On Arrow, the answer is no but Nyssa has a lot of big decisions to make since her father has told her she won’t be heir to his powerful throne. And while Nyssa is still nursing a broken heart from Sara’s death and working to get her revenge, she’s also arrived at a place in her life she never thought she’d be—alone.
AfterEllen was present at an early peek at last night’s episode at the CW offices earlier and Law was present to talk about Nyssa’s journey thus far and what we’ll see moving forward.
As we saw in the episode, even though Sara (Caity Lotz) is dead, Nyssa’s relationship with her is still a point of contention between her and her father (Matt Nable), even standing in the way of Nyssa being the heir apparent when her father steps down. So when Oliver Queen is offered the spot, it’s definitely going to throw our favorite lesbian League of Assassin for a loop.
“I think Nyssa’s journey, going forward, is going to be really interesting just because she was so dead set on who she was, what she was going to be, how she had laid out her future for herself, then everything’s been thrown up in the air,” Law explained.
Of course, part of that future was taking over for her father so what’s a girl to do when things don’t look anything like you thought they would? “She’s no longer heir to the demon, she no longer has her lover, who I’m sure she was thinking about keeping around forever,” Law shared. “She’s, essentially, at this point in the story lost everything and I think for the first time in her life she is vulnerable and she feels weak, and she feels useless and doesn’t know where she stands or who she is at the moment.”
While we’re used to seeing Nyssa in a state of control, Law teased that it looks like her character is going to be shaken at her core. “I think it’s very jarring for her because she’s never had to go through that ever in any capacity in her life before. I think you’re going to see Nyssa trying to figure out who she is and what she stands for now.”
Could Nyssa end up leaving the League of Assassin and working, perhaps, with Team Arrow? In last night’s episode, she and Sara’s sister, Laurel (Katie Cassidy), shared a nice moment so maybe Nyssa could start seeing the enemies as allies? One thing’s for sure, Law is loving the ladies she’s working worth, particularly one. “Personally I love working with Katie Cassidy,” Law gushed. “She’s my favorite actress to work with on set, she’s so prepared and professional and when she shows up she shows up to set and she’s ready to play. The communication between the two of us is wonderful.”
The characters of Nyssa and Laurel, she said, are also on a similar path, which may come to a surprise to Nyssa. “I think the two of them may have more in common than [she] had originally thought,” Law said. “I think the Laurel character had lived a semi-smooth life of just going through things and also growing up and that life was good and all of sudden she lost her sister and now she’s lost her father [Lance now knows that Sara is dead and is angry at Laurel for not telling him sooner. ] Now she’s trying to become something that she’s not necessarily good at, which is the Black Canary, but she will be.”
Like Laurel, Law said, Nyssa is also going to do some soul searching since she’s lost everything. Part of that journey, Law teased, is “trying to figure out how to become a softer human being with compassion and sympathy, and all of these things that she didn’t have to think about before. Making choices on her own without her father or the League’s guidance.” Another thing Law said that Nyssa and Laurel have in common besides losing Sara? “They’re both having daddy issues right now.”
However, with Nyssa going through all this, one thing she’s not going to forget about is the love of her life, Sara, who we can always see again in flashbacks. Law is very aware how important keeping their relationship alive in some form is for the show’s viewers. “I think any flashbacks to the Sara Lance character are always important for the Nyssa character because it’s one of the reasons why fans like Nyssa, is the relationship to The Canary and the love story, and how loyal she is to Sara Lance.”
While their relationship isn’t on a romantic trajectory, it’s Sara that will link Nyssa and Laurel, keeping her spirit alive. “I think one of the few people that Nyssa is able to relate, on a primal level, to that is Laurel just because it’s a sister relationship, it’s the female bond, it’s all these different things that you just won’t get through a man. I think [Laurel is] one of the few characters that, actually, fundamentally understands Nyssa.”
Will Nyssa be getting a new love anytime soon? There’s no indication of that in the near future but Law is going to be around for a while so you never know. In the meantime, executive producer Marc Guggenheim, who was also present at the post-screening Q&A, teased that the question about Nyssa and Sara’s relationship being part of the reason for losing the heir spot definitely comes up again. “I think there’s a scene in [episode] 16 between Nyssa and Ra’s that definitely addresses that…from Nyssa’s perspective it has everything to do with Sara, from Ra’s perspective maybe, maybe not.”
Arrow airs Wednesdays at 8pm on the CW.
