As the Arrow-verse continues rocketing toward the upcoming Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover event, so much more is being revealed about what’s to come. When The Monitor (LaMonica Garrett) was first introduced in last year’s Elseworlds crossover, he made it clear that the upcoming crisis was no laughing matter.
Now, with the lives of the Green Arrow (Stephen Amell) and The Flash (Grant Gustin) on the line–not to mention the entire multiverse–the latest episode of Arrow, titled “Welcome to Hong Kong,” revealed that somebody very close to Team Arrow has been working with the Monitor all along. It was previously revealed that Lyla Michaels (Audrey Marie Anderson), who’s married to Diggle (David Ramsey) and the head of the government agency ARGUS, would take on the mantle of Harbinger in the crossover. Harbinger, in the comics, was an orphan that the Monitor rescued and raised to do his bidding.
What we didn’t know is who this version of Lyla was or what Earth she came from. In “Welcome to Hong Kong,” though, it was revealed that the Lyla working with the Monitor is the Earth-1 version fans have been watching for years. Some changes have been made to the character’s background, though.
While Lyla hasn’t been revealed to be an orphan rescued by the Monitor at this point, she did give some insight into her troubling past. “When I was in Afghanistan, my unit got sent out on patrol on a day I pulled base duty,” she explained to Laurel (Katie Cassidy Rodgers). “There was an IED in the road. None of them made it back. I used to lie in bed at night asking myself, ‘Why them? Why not me?’ And I made every deal I could think of with any god I thought listened.”
When asked if any of the deal she made worked, she looked haunted. “Not exactly,” she offered. Clearly, the Monitor is one of those gods she made a deal with.
Lyla’s tour of duty in Afghanistan happened before Arrow began. It’s there that she met Diggle, meaning she’s potentially been under the thumb of the Monitor for as long as she’s known her husband.
What else has she done at the Monitor’s request? What is she willing to do? These are questions that will hopefully be answered as we get closer to the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover.
Arrow airs Tuesdays on The CW.
