I really don't think they intend to turn this Laurel anymore into the actual Black Canary. That ship has sailed with how they've handled the c

Arrow producers promised that they’d put their own twist on Nyssa al Ghul, and boy, did they deliver. (Spoilers ahead if you haven’t seen the latest episode of Arrow!)

In the episode that aired Wednesday night, which saw Sarah (Caity Lotz) return to Starling City to check on spiraling Laurel (Katie Cassidy), not only did we get to see the first TV version of Ra’s al Ghul’s daughter, but the show revealed that in their world, Sarah and Nyssa (Katrina Law) were in a romantic relationship. And as the producers revealed in a Q&A with reporters, it was a secret they worked very hard to protect.

“Really, for spoilers, because the [casting] sides always make it out to the Internet, we made up fake sides for Nyssa because we didn’t want to spoil the fact [that she had been in a relationship with Sarah],” producer Marc Guggenheim revealed. In fact, they renamed the character and in the fake script sides, stuck the character opposite Oliver Queen. “So we narrowed it down to Katrina and this other actress, and we brought them both back for chemistry reads with Caity Lotz and said, ‘Oh, by the way, she’s gay. And oh, by the way, it’s Nyssa al Ghul.’”

The decision to make the character gay, however, was mostly a result of the writers’ efforts to illuminate Sarah’s backstory, said EP Andrew Kreisberg. “It was really more about Sarah than anything else,” he said. “And, by the way, we thought of this at the beginning of the season. If you watch 2.05, there’s a reference to ‘the beloved and you think that’s going to keep you safe.’ And we talked about, ‘Well, does Ra’s al Ghul have a son?’ Then we were like, ‘Could it be Talia?’ Then we felt like Talia had just been done in the [Dark Knight] movies. And one of our writers had actually brought up the idea of Nyssa. And it just felt like something new and different.”

Additionally, said Kreisberg, they loved the other functions such a twist would serve — like “the idea that Sarah found herself in this terrible world and found this one person who treated her with love and kindness,” and the effect it would have on her other interpersonal relationships. “For [Det.] Lance — this hardened, tough cop who’s probably not the most progressive guy — that he was like, ‘I’m just glad you had somebody who loved you and took care of you in those nightmare years,’ those moments felt like they would be special and play for us.”

Guggenheim added, though, that throughout the process, they avoided labeling Sarah’s sexuality — especially considering that at the end of the episode, she sleeps with Oliver. “We actually specifically avoid using the term bisexual. We didn’t want to label her at all. [We wanted to] let her be her own person,” he said. “If the audience wants to label, fine. But we wanted to not make it like it’s that specific, because it is a very specific relationship to Sarah and Nyssa. And maybe Sarah has had other female relationships, but we’ll get to that in due course when it’s right, if it’s right. But we wanted to not just do something to shock.”

The pair also revealed a heap of information about what’s coming up next for Oliver and Co. Below are the best scoops: