When you stop and think about it, Thea Queen (Willa Holland) on The CW’s Arrow has quite the distant relationships with the men in her life. She lost her father at a young age, and she thought she lost her older brother then, too. He returned home but kept her at more than an arm’s length, creating some tension and lots of secrets between them. She rebelled against this– as any young woman would– made some bad choices and fell for a bad boy. Roy Harper (Colton Haynes) may be trying to prove his life worthy of saving and clean up Starling City now, but in doing so, he is putting himself and Thea by association in harm’s way and keeping secrets from her, too. She fell for a guy who is damaged in many of the same ways her brother is, and now that she has come so far and matured so much in the five months since the earthquake, it may be time for her to clean up both her professional and personal life.

“Thea Queen, I’d like to think, is better off than most at the beginning of the [second] season…Thea’s actually kind of got herself a bit put together now. She’s running the club at Verdant; she’s managing the bar and actually not drinking behind the counter; she’s actually taking care of things on the other side, which is good for her; and it seems like she’s actually got her head screwed on a little bit tighter than before,” Holland said when LA TV Insider Examiner sat down with her on set.

“Thea is kind of used to isolation, I think. Growing up inside the mansion, I think you could go weeks without seeing somebody else inside that house, I mean maybe a servant or somebody inside the house, but I don’t know that they thought they were close enough to Thea that they could really talk to her. She’s used to solitude and being away from her family, not that it’s her favorite thing at all. But I think this time when she goes through it, she’s had a lot of lessons under her belt that she learned from the previous [year] and the five years that she went through losing her father and her brother. I think the last five months was really about growth for her– figuring out her identity.”

And while Holland shared that she personally thinks Thea and Roy are “really tight,” like “yin and yang,” and “perfect for each other,” Thea herself has found out who she is and what she stands for– and is willing to put up with– independently of Roy. If he isn’t willing to meet her there, then she is independent enough to strike out on her own. At least for a short while.

“There’s definitely some roller coaster rides with her and Roy’s relationship in the first few episodes, that’s for sure,” Holland said.

“It’s definitely not her favorite thing in the world because she doesn’t like the love of her life throwing himself in danger. She genuinely does care about him and doesn’t want to see him get hurt and doesn’t think that he has the capability to do what he thinks that he can…I think she might slowly start following along with him and understanding the reasoning behind what he’s doing rather than judging him for it.”

Oliver’s secrecy has been the biggest thing that has torn at the brother/sister bond, and despite Thea being used to it, she does not enjoy it. But now that Oliver has returned from the island again, Holland shared that he and Thea have more of a jokey relationship. Though he sees how much she has grown up in the last few months without him, and he looks at her less like his bratty kid sister, that doesn’t mean he’s rushing to let her into his underground world. Emotionally or literally. In fact, having his lair underneath his club could be a liability, so Oliver has to come up with an excuse not only for how he manages to materialize there so quickly but also why Thea should never start poking around down there. Holland wouldn’t say how that comes about, only that it does so very early on this second season.

“She’s trying to get down there, and he just has something– a really quick, easy answer that really just solves any question of ever wanting to go downstairs ever again. She’s just like ‘No thank you; I don’t need to go down there!'” Holland laughed.

We guess it must be something about rats… but you can find out when you watch Arrow on The CW on Wednesday nights at 8 p.m.

(source)