Arrowverse Continues Diggle’s Arrow Finale Mystery: What’s It Setting Up?

Warning: The following contains SPOILERS for Batwoman season 2, episode 16, “Rebirth.”

A new Arrowverse storyline centered around John Diggle began with a cameo appearance on Batwoman, hinting at new developments since Diggle’s last appearance in the series finale of Arrow. Fans speculated that Diggle had been tapped to become a Green Lantern, confirming the existence of the peace-keeping alien organization in the Arrowverse. Diggle’s cameo teased a new complication in his life, however, which may indicate something else entirely.

The Batwoman episode “Rebirth” found most of Gotham City’s heroes attempting to remake their lives in one fashion or another. In the case of Luke Fox, who just barely survived being shot by corrupt Crows Security Agent Russell Tavaroff, the urge to move on led to his crashing a private club for police and security personnel by posing as a GCPD officer and humiliating Tavaroff (who was out on bail pending his trial) by besting him in a high-stakes poker game. Unsurprisingly, Tavaroff took this loss with his usual lack of grace and sought to finish Fox off and get his money back. Thankfully, Luke was saved by John Diggle, who had been part of the same game and sensed that there was some kind of conflict between Fox and Tavaroff that promised to end badly.

The two talked afterward and Diggle gave Fox some advice on coping with the violent death of a father and how to channel your anger over injustice into something positive; two things he knew something about from personal experience and from working with Oliver Queen for many years. Diggle revealed little of his life since the Arrow series finale, but Fox did notice that Diggle seemed pained during their conversation. Diggle admitted that he was experiencing some fogginess and dizziness, which he attributed to being “side effects” of a lifetime of anger. When Fox offered to pull some strings to get Diggle a check-up with the world-renowned neurology department at Gotham General Hospital, Diggle thanked him but said he already had an appointment scheduled for the next morning.

The revelation that John Diggle has developed some kind of neurological condition since the finale of Arrow is not surprising, given he had a history of such problems. Arrow season 5 saw Diggle acquire a degenerative nerve injury which left him unable to hold or aim a weapon. Only an experimental and illegal drug manufactured by the drug lord Ricardo “The Dragon” Diaz kept Diggle in the fight to save Star City. While Diggle was later given a bio-chip created by Curtis Holt that treated his condition, it’s possible that his symptoms are tied to his earlier injuries or are a delayed side-effect of Holt’s chip.

Another possible explanation may lie in the final episode of Arrow and the strange glowing green object Diggle discovered in a meteor. While fans theorized it was a Green Lantern Ring, the fact that Diggle’s journey began in Batwoman is a clue. The show’s second season opened with a storyline involving a human suffering from Kryptonite poisoning, and this could be a hint that Diggle has suffered a similar fate. This could also explain how Diggle eventually winds up in Smallville, where Superman and Lois‘ storyline is currently centered around a mine full of rare Kryptonite that can give humans the powers of Superman. The possibility that Diggle uncovered another form of Kryptonite is an interesting one to consider. However, more information will need to be gleaned from upcoming episodes, as Diggle travels the Arrowverse.

About The Author

Matt Morrison
(1836 Articles Published)

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Matt Morrison has been writing about comics since before the word
“blogging” was coined. He got his start writing for the
legendary DC Comics digital fanzine Fanzing,
before receiving his own column, The Mount. Since then he has gone on
to write for over a dozen websites, including 411
Mania, Comics
Nexus and The Cult of Nobody. He holds both an MS in Information
Science from the University of North Texas and a BFA from the
University of Texas at Arlington. Known as a font of comic book
history trivia, he has delivered lectures on the history of American
Comic Books, Japanese Manga, Doctor Who, and Cosplay at over a dozen conventions
and served as an Expert In-Residence for a course on Graphic Novels
for Librarians at the University of North Texas. In addition to his
work for Screen Rant, Matt is currently the Editor In Chief of
Kabooooom.com and writes reviews for No
Flying, No Tights – a graphic literature and anime review site
aimed at teachers and librarians. He also maintains a personal blog –
My Geeky Geeky Ways –
which hosts his extensive episode guide for the television series
making up The Arrowverse as well as his
comedic Let’s Play videos. What little spare time he has is
devoted towards acting, role-playing, movie-riffing and sarcasm. You
can follow his adventures on Twitter, @GeekyGeekyWays.

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