For the most part, Arrow has managed to keep continuity in order as the flashbacks interact with present day, though word of Lexa Doig’s Talia al Ghul appearing in Oliver’s Russian past raised a few questions. Thankfully, producers promise that Talia’s appearance won’t throw too many wrenches in the works, and might just give us a Nyssa-Talia meeting one day.

The recent synopsis for February 1 episode “Second Chances” suggested that Stargate: SG-1 star Doig would first appear as Talia al Ghul in Oliver’s Russian flashbacks, raising the question of why Oliver was unaware of either Ra’s al Ghul or the League of Assassins until Season 2. The same could be asked of why Oliver never mentioned to Ra’s or Nyssa that he’d met another member of their family, for which executive producer Marc Guggenheim tells Entertainment Weekly:

We’ll also be dealing very directly with the fairly obvious question, which is: Wait a second, when Oliver met Ra’s al Ghul, why didn’t he say, ‘Hey, wait a minute, I think I met your daughter back in Russia!’ We have a very specific answer for that.

As to whether Season 5 will get around to a family reunion, Guggenheim specified that they had no plans to feature both Doig’s Talia and Katrina Law’s Nyssa al Ghul in the same episode just yet, though “They’re close enough and different enough that I would love, at some point, to do a story with Nyssa and Talia.”

In the meantime, so reads the synopsis for “Second Chances”:

TALIA AL GHUL TAKES OLIVER UNDER HER WING — In his quest to take down Kovar, Oliver (Stephen Amell) gets help from a surprising source – Talia al Ghul (guest star Lexa Doig). However, when she reveals what she wants from him in exchange, Oliver isn’t sure he can accept her help. Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) attempts to hack the NSA to help free Diggle (David Ramsey) but when her online efforts are flagged, she faces off against an unknown adversary. Meanwhile, Curtis (Echo Kellum) tells the team about a female vigilante, Tina Boland (guest star Juliana Harkavay), he uncovered online who has been wreaking havoc all over the country.

Arrow Season 5 will resume next Wednesday with “Who Are You?”, so check out the latest trailers below, and stay tuned for more on Talia’s arrival.