After Greg Berlanti appeared at the Television Critics Assoc. summer press tour to tout the new NBC drama The Mysteries of Laura, TVLine reached out to the uber-producer to solve the mysteries of Arrow Season 3.

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Echoing that which series lead Stephen Amell shared with TVLine at the may Upfronts, the Arrow EP said that the next Big Bad will “feel different” from Season 2’s Slade Wilson aka Deathstroke. That said, the incoming adversary “has some personal elements of connectivity to Oliver, which we’ll learn about” — in part via flashbacks, Berlanti allowed. “Hopefully, fans of the DC Universe will be really pleased by who it is.”

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Speaking of the show’s flashback device, Berlanti said that Season 3 will “not just flash back from Oliver’s perspective.” As the hit drama has done on rare occasion with the likes of Laurel and Diggle, “There’s some backstory stuff that’s going to come out for some of the other characters.”

One provocative Season 3 plot point that will very much take place in the here and now, meanwhile, involves Oliver, a certain blonde beauty and the popping of a question.

As revealed in the official logline for Season 3, “with Arrow now a hero,” crime down in Starling City and while “basking in his success,” “Oliver believes he can finally have a private life and asks Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) out on a date.”

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Berlanti told TVLine that rather than standing alone as a brief blurb within a larger logline, there’s a “better context” for the proposition in question. But yes, it is happening.

“They’re real characters to us, and they had that conversation on the beach, and they had that conversation in the house to help capture Slade,” Berlanti reminds. “So the question you have to ask is: Does Oliver have real, genuine emotions for her? And how aware is he of that? And how aware does he make her of that? That is an active part of the season this year.”

Want more scoop on Arrow, or for any other show? Email insideline@tvline.com and your question may be answered via Matt’s Inside Line.