'Arrow' season 5 spoilers: New Black Canary arrives; co-showrunner teases Felicity's dark journey

Team Arrow learns more about the new female vigilante on the upcoming episode of "Arrow" season 5.

Wednesday's winter premiere left off with a brief glimpse of a new character in Hub City. As expected, Laurel Lance's (Katie Cassidy) return was just too good to be true. It turned out that she was actually Earth-2 Laurel who broke out of her containment cell. Oliver (Stephen Amell) told Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) that they need to find a new Black Canary to join the team, and it looks like they have found her. At the end of the hour, Tina Boland (Juliana Harkavy) was introduced as an SCPD detective/vigilante who has a powerful scream.

Speaking with TV Line, co-showrunner Wendy Mericle said they're looking forward to exploring more of the new character's story. She teased that Tina "brings a very different energy, a different vibe to the show." The female vigilante also "has a lot of emotional connection with Oliver" in the sense that she's also gone through a lot of hardships. Her tragic backstory allows her to connect with Oliver like no one else can.

Aside from Tina's arrival, the back half of season 5 will also see Felicity's (Emily Bett Rickards) new journey. The death of her boyfriend, Detective Malone (Tyler Ritter), because of Prometheus, will make her understand what Oliver had been through back in season 1.

"We always are looking for ways to give her more story and more autonomy, and this is a way to do it," Mericle told E! News. "She's trying to have an outside life in some ways in season five, independent of the team, and we're going to end her, I think, in a very interesting place, and detective Malone's death is really the kickoff of that journey for the back half of the season for her," the showrunner went on to say.

Although Felicity won't blame Team Arrow for the unfortunate incident, Mericle hinted that Oliver and the rest of the team will face some consequences that "no one is going to expect."

The fifth season of "Arrow" airs every Wednesday night at 8 p.m. ET on The CW.